Any advice for a 4k home media server on 3 4k tv?

Self-Hosted & Services Plex
1

Hi everyone,
I am trying to setup a home media server at my parents home as a christmas gift.
It should be able to share 4K movies on their local network, centralize and secure all their works as well as letting them access those files when not at home.
Here’s my "DIY NAS’ server build :

- Hardware :
1 laptop
i5-8300H 8 cores
gtx 1050 ti
a 3t 7200rpm external HDD
LAN connected to the router

- Software :
kodi
serviio (upnp)

- They have 3 4k Smart TVs :
the main one LAN connected to the router
2 others WIFI connected to a wifi repeater

- Files :
4K 12 to 80G movies

On my first test on the main TV the video playback happened to be quite choppy and I was just playing it on one screen.
So I want to go for a more powerfull build.

I was going for a DIY solution cause I like building things myself and I am in Africa, good quality tech stuff are pretty expensive and difficult to find.
Even if it has to cost me a thousand dollars, what would be the best setup I could build ?
What kind of NAS ?
Plex or Kodi ?
Upnp protocol ?

Thanks in advance.

1 Like
2

You need to look at Plex, Emby, or Jellyfin as “media servers”…that laptop should be able to handle it at least locally. Remotely you’ll have trouble pushing 4k unless your parents have some really fast internet upload speed.

My preference and probably most everyone on this forum would be Plex (with plexpass for hw transcoding)

This is a rabbit hole so be prepared to read because normally the first thing that happens is you’ll have choppy video and it’s going to be because of networking, router setups, server operating system, plex setup etc etc. Once you get it dialed in…it will work great. I could take that laptop and make it run like butter.

Naturally you’ll probably want to explore a for real NAS solution and there are plenty of guides here on that.