How to use Zimaboard as hardware transcoder for Plex with Synology NAS

Note: Zimaboard sponsored a tutorial on how to setup Plex with zimaboard connected to Synology

How to install Plex on zimaboard and mount it to a Synology for media

This tutorial assumes that you are able to ssh into a device and run basic terminal commands.

Step 1: SSH Into the Zimaboard

The default username and password for zimaboard should be casaos and the hostname is as well

ssh casaos@casaos.local

(then input casaos as the password)

Step 2: Install plex

Here we are just going to enter the debian distro commands from Plex’s how to

Step 3: Setup the drives to auto mount on boot from the synology

First create a user on DSM that has a random password and is setup with access to your media folder

Now execute the following commands to create the folder

sudo mkdir /mnt/plexmedia

Now we want to install a few SMB utilities, just in case

sudo apt install cifs-utils
sudo apt install cif-tools

Now we want to setup the drive to be mounted on boot by editing the /etc/fstab file

sudo nano /etc/fstab

and add the following line

//<NAS IP>/<folder name with your media> /mnt/plexmedia cifs username=<username on synology>, password=<password on synology>,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 0 0

Note: to close use control+x

Now mount the media to test it

sudo mount -a

if you see files within /mnt/plexmedia then you are good to go! give a reboot to test

Step 4: Add your media within Plex

Now just go into Plex and add the appropriate media folder. This should now also work after a reboot with no problems!

Step 5: go ahead and change the casaos passwords!

@Will - Intriguing. Will the PLEX app be hosted on the Zimaboard, instead of Synology, with the Synology as the data repository?

Thanks for the tutorial although it was not super clear how this sits between the NAS and a TV. Looks like a cool device, but concerning to add Chinese hardware to your network, this could be a deal breaker for me.

Currently I use the Plex app on an Amazon Fire stick, does this install the same way as a NAS directly by scanning DLNA servers of the network and the Zima board is simply plugged to a switch? Are there other devices that can do transcoding and use a NAS for storage?