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

HomeLab
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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!

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

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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?