AC88U - USB 3.0 HDD or Dedicated Plex Server for Streaming?

[systematic]

Hi Guys,

I am a virgin to the AC88U and wondered what your thoughts are on the best way to stream to a device on the LAN and accessing a stream when on the go.

I figured the easiest way was to load up a USB 3 drive and bang it into the router and then use AIDisk to access it. The alternative was to build a dedicated Plex Server. What do you think? Would be grateful to hear some pros/cons.

 

[WET]

I have a RT-AC68U. I do use the embedded minidlna server and it works perfectly for me but be aware it has limitations. The embedded minidlna will not perform any transcoding. It will only present the item you are streaming to the client you wish to watch it on. If the client does not handle what you are streaming/presenting to it, it will not play.

Going with a NAS that has a CPU with enough power to perform transcoding & Plex (which does transcoding) will then allow you to stream anything to any client because the NAS w/ Plex will look at what is being streamed as well as what the client can display and if needed change the format of what is being streamed to something acceptable to the client.

It is a matter of what you wish to be able to do versus the money wish to spend.

 

[systematic]

I don't have a NAS but I have a beefy PC with some serious horsepower and good HDD space. I guess I could have that as a Plex server and dump stuff on it

 

[WET]

That should work. The stress point will be the router with that configuration because you will be streaming to & from the router.

A NAS is connected to the router via either one or two Ethernet connections and with the embedded minidlna the media is on a HDD hanging of router via the USB port, therefore, there is only streaming to the client.

Please also note that your computer will also have to be always on to allow the various clients to access / stream the media.