Use FreeNAS with Apple TV 3

[baglio]

Your graphics card has nothing to do with transcoding. You need to go read up on what transcoding is. Transcoding in Plex is strictly CPU bound. It is more loading than just watching the video.

I'm aware that the transcoding is a CPU matter...
I'm just saying that it seems there's no reason for transcoding if my HTPC can handle this kind of file.
BTW I'm planning to use XBMC

Now, if I'm wrong about what I wrote up here, I think I have not understood which specification determines which Machines need or not transcoding.
Based on what criteria I can be sure that a devices is able to play an mp4 file so the transcoding isn't need?

It's seems strange to me that a 1.8 Ghz Intel Atom PC can't handle HD files through DLNA whereas it's been proved that a Raspberry Pi (800Mhz Broadcom CPU) can...

 

[cyberjock]

DLNA does zero transcoding. If your device can't play the codec/file type then the file doesn't play. Plex/XBMC solves that issue.

 

[JaimieV]

It's seems strange to me that a 1.8 Ghz Intel Atom PC can't handle HD files through DLNA whereas it's been proved that a Raspberry Pi (800Mhz Broadcom CPU) can...

This is because the RPi includes a hardware h.264 decoder, whereas an Atom CPU doesn't. You'd need an appropriate GPU and your playback software to support using it.

You'd need something with equivalent processing power to a Core2Duo 1.8GHz to decode 1080p reliably through CPU alone, by my experiments. Which were with Mac Minis, to bring us back to that again! CoreDuo 1.8GHz wasn't fast enough.

I'm currently using an "early 2009" Mac Mini (Macmini3,1) as my media box - C2D 2GHz, 4gig, OSX, and it has no problem recording two DTV streams while playing HD (and acting as a VM host besides). The 2008 1.8GHz struggled to play 1080p.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...i-core-2-duo-2.0-early-2009-nvidia-specs.html

 

[baglio]

This is because the RPi includes a hardware h.264 decoder, whereas an Atom CPU doesn't. You'd need an appropriate GPU and your playback software to support using it.

You'd need something with equivalent processing power to a Core2Duo 1.8GHz to decode 1080p reliably through CPU alone, by my experiments. Which were with Mac Minis, to bring us back to that again! CoreDuo 1.8GHz wasn't fast enough.

I'm currently using an "early 2009" Mac Mini (Macmini3,1) as my media box - C2D 2GHz, 4gig, OSX, and it has no problem recording two DTV streams while playing HD (and acting as a VM host besides). The 2008 1.8GHz struggled to play 1080p.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...i-core-2-duo-2.0-early-2009-nvidia-specs.html

Well... Since I keep don't understand if in my case the transcode is needed, I'll try to explain my situation like this:

Let's say that I' m going to stream an H264@2500Kbps file.

FreeNAS (((((( SMB )))))) Zotac ATOM with ION 2 ------ HDMI ------ Samsung SmartTV

Is transcoding needed in this scenario?

 

[cyberjock]

Each device may or may not need to be transcoded. It is device dependent as well as connection dependent. You will need to read up on what transcoding is and what file you are trying to play on your TV.

There really is no way you can say "in situation x do I need transcoding". You need to understand all of the fundamentals of your network connection, device, and video file format/codec to answer that question. And since each video file could be different you have to answer that question for each and every file. This is why DLNA falls on its face. It supports certain file types and certain codecs, but not all codecs and all files.

I will tell you that I always have to transcode when using my Android for Plex. Other than that, I have no other advice I can give. Sorry.

 

[JaimieV]

Like noobsauce80 says.

Whether your plex needs to transcode depends on the original source movie file and what the "play" machine understands. In this case, your Plex is reading the movie over SMB from the NAS, right? So there's no transcoding, Plex is just playing a file it understands, and feeding it as HDMI data to the TV.

Transcoding usually happens when you have an intelligent media server at the NAS end; the mediaserver transcodes eg a .wmv file to h.264 on the fly and sends it via some streaming protocol like DLNA or iTunes Media Sharing, so that a dumb player device like a DLink settop box or an AppleTV with very restricted codec supported can play it. Or if you had Plex set up to stream to the TV via Ethernet, not HDMI - then Plex would (sometimes) have to transcode to whatever the Samsung TV supports, other times would just stream the data without transcoding if it's already ok.

But you're connected by HDMI, so no transcoding is happening at the Plex. But whether your Atom can display the movie at HD depends on how much physical decoding power it has - both CPU and GPU - as 1080p movies take a lot of power to decode (not transcode!) and display. Lots of pixels per second, lots of math decoding them from the h.264 stream. Hardware support for h.264 decoding (like the rPi has, and many other devices now) makes this a breeze with a slow CPU; if you don't have hardware support to help out then it takes most of a 2GHz Core2Duo to play a 1080p h.264 file.

Does that help?

 

[DocGee]

Going back to your original question, "I'm wondering if there's some special plugin which allows me to stream my movies and TV shows form NAS to my new device."

This can be done entirely within the Apple ecosystem, no jailbreak:

1. You need to run the content from within iTunes using Home Networking. This means you need a computer on the network that has iTunes running and has Home Networking enabled in the app.
2. As long as your content is playable on iTunes (MP4's, MP3's and such), it does not care where the content resides, so it's fine on your NAS as long as the iTunes computer has access to the NAS.
3. You'll have to "Add content to Library" in iTunes, navigating to the NAS. CRITICAL STEP FIRST: Go to iTunes menu ==> Preferences ==> Advanced and be sure to UNcheck "Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library." As you add content to your NAS, you'll have to update the iTunes library by repeating this step in order for the Apple TV to see the media.

Not terribly elegant and still requires a computer in the middle just to arbitrate what is and is not in the iTunes library, but it basically does what you asked for.

 

[jgreco]

Right, except I suggested that early on, and he didn't want another computer on.