Networking structure

Sharpy1

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Thinking this is a long question

Could I use my data storage for storing files (nas or file server)
and then get a more powerfull computer/server to do all my media transcoding for streaming to different devices eg tablets phones and computers the Computers need to be able to play the media in kodi entertainment centre
 
Not a Kodi user, but a Plex user. You should be able to Share your media from your NAS, and then map a network drive on your Kodi server and it will handle the streaming/transcoding.

Edit:

I considered doing what you're taking about, and I think it will work fine. But I chose not to because you will basically be streaming your media twice over the same wire. NAS --> Server, then Server --> Device. But on a gigabit lan, it's not a big deal. You'll probably have bandwidth to spare.

But personally, I went with having my media on the same device that streams it, in order to avoid both that and needing to have 2 boxes running all the time.
 
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That's the problem kodi haven't got a server part like plex it's got a client that transcodes on the native machine not server side it gets media stored via smb and nfs and various protocols stored in nas / file server and that's why I wanted a different machine to transcode it first after it leaves the Nas and before it gets to kodi or phones that just won't play a mkv if you yelled at them all day because they would have to transcode
 
Ah, Ok I didn't realize Kodi doesn't offer any sort of backend transcoding. Is it possible to set another DLNA media server as a source in Kodi? If so, I wonder if you could run something such as Universal Media Server, which will transcode on the fly, and then set that as your source. I don't know, maybe that's crazy talk.

Universal Media Server download | SourceForge.net

If you can't do that, would it be possible to just convert your media to a more universal format that wouldn't require transcoding?
 
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No they are planning on integrating a transcoding server sometime soon hopefully and kodi can access media shared via

1 Supported file sharing protocols
1.1 FTP
1.2 HTTP
1.3 NFS
1.4 RSS media source
1.5 Samba
1.6 SFTP
1.7 Slingbox
1.8 SMB
1.9 UPnP
1.10 WebDAV

---------- Post added at 01:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:24 PM ----------

And as for converting there's a lot to convert it's a lot of high quality mkv files I wouldent realy like to go through the entire process although if it came to that a suppose it gives the server something to do at night it normally just scans n backs up at night couldn't think of much else to do with it
 
Since MKV is just a container, if the codec is something pretty universal like H.264 you might be able to just remux the media into a more universal container such as MP4. Remuxing is much faster than actual transcoding and there is no quality loss that way. I recently setup a script that automates this exact process on my library. It's just a little bat file that uses ffmpeg to do it. If you were interested I could send it to you.

As far as running a transcoding server, I do know that the server I linked to (universal media server) is UPnP compliant, so maybe you can use it as a source in Kodi. Would hav to experiment to find out.
 
After a lot of testing I went with your recommendation not for streaming to kodi it does work but you can't add the files into your library it just shows you what you can play and let's you but it does work good for tablets and phones on a local network unsure if you can make it accessible on a different network
 
Ok, so probably Kodi can't pull the necessary metadata from the streaming server to load into it's library. I'm sure you have your reasons for going with kodi and that there are pros/cons of both, but I have been very impressed with plex. I guess one downside to it is you have to buy the apps for mobile devices. Other than that I have had great results with it.
 
And a huge downside to kodi is that they don't have a iOS app unless you have a jailbroken device I just love kodi as the front end main media centre I was pretty impressed when a tried plea server and yes there is a £4 charge for the iOS app but at least they have one your universal media server works great for the TV and iPad do you no anything about the little sticks you can use as a media receiver comparable with your universal media server eg chromecast with a remote or one of them kodi boxes of eBay for my kids entertainment
 
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Plex handles all of the transcoding on the backend and will get your media to play on nearly anything. It also manages it's own database for metadata, so you don't have to worry about having it included in your library. You can access and stream your library from anywhere, you just have to open a couple ports on your router and get a plex.tv account. And the interface looks great, too. I definitely would recommend it.

See my post in your other thread about the streaming sticks.
 
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