I am setting up a new Jellyfin server, and I am looking at using a NAS to host it through Docker. However, I don’t want to make the mistake of forgetting about the power needed for live transcoding (MKV 480p -> MP4 (I haven’t set up a good conversion method yet)). Are any of the following NAS options okay for standalone Jellyfin? If not, are there any cheap (CAD$200/USD$150 max) NUCs/computers/servers that are good for live transcoding?
- Asustor Drivestor 4 AS1104T
- Asustor Drivestor 4 Pro AS3304T
- Asustor Drivestor 4 Pro Gen2 AS3304T v2
- Synology DS423
live transcoding (MKV 480p -> MP4
Both MKV and MP4 are just container formats. The container contains an video stream and some audio and subtitle streams which are each encoded using a specific codec.
Converting from one container format to the other is very cheap, it’s the conversion between video codecs that requires a lot of resources. So converting from MKV to MP4 is pretty cheap if you keep the video stream as is.
Personally, I have never bothered with live transcoding. My videos are all encoded as H.262 or H.264 and stored in either an MKV or MP4 container. Direct Play works just fine. Without live transcoding, a >10 years old Intel Celeron is more than enough to run a jellyfin server.
I’m hosting on a Synology, but not transcoding.
It’s likely more affordable to host a second jellyfin server on a desktop that is used for transcoding vs getting a NAS with the hardware.
As also mentioned you may not need to transcode unless you want to down mix to reduce bandwidth when not home. For those cases I would recommend you use handbrake and have multiple versions of the content at different resolutions/codecs as needed. Yeah it’s work.
The majority of issue I have when running locally is audio codec compatibility. So I use ffmpeg to reencode and remux my mkvs with the new audio stream. (Typically eAC3)
Just want to tag on for OP: I also make sure I never have to transcode video, but don’t really care about audio transcoding. My 923+ deals with it easily anyways. I’d expect the NAS’es listed to manage the same.
Just stick to H264 or H265 (if your player supports it) and I’d wager you’d be fine. Also, stay away from DV if your TV doesn’t support it. I watched too many purple/green intros before realizing I’m a dummy and that Samsung is poop.
Nice tip on ffmpeg though! I’ll look into that! Thanks
