TerraMaster Forum

Hi there.

I bought myself a NAS F4-210. I have 2 x Seagate IronWolf 4TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – CMR 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 5900 RPM 64MB as a RAID that comes to 4TB total. The first thing I did after configuring was install Plex and stored my TV shows on the drive. Plex scanned my library, I enabled streaming of no more than 8Mbps, 1920x1080. Just to test the waters.

Imagine my surprise when the CPU ramps up to 100% just trying to watch a show. Also, double whammy when I read "This version of Plex does not support hardware transcoding, only software video transcoding up to 720p, or some of 1080p." So now I'm stuck with a library of 1080p shows on a NAS that ramps up the CPU to 100% along with the temperature.

The main purpose of the NAS was to be a Plex server. Now I'm stuck with a NAS that can't play streaming media. The page on amazon.ca for this device touted "Fully supports Emby and Plex, bringing your videos, music, and photos together into one place.
Leveraging the rock-solid multimedia management capabilities of Emby or Plex allows you to turn your F4-210 into a feature-rich entertainment center." Yes, support for 4K was not checked off, but nothing about 1080p.

Running off of fibre 300dl/300ul, so the speeds should be there for streaming.

Any workaround for this?

Thanks.

What's the current TOS version?
For F4-210 model, playing 1080p video via Plex will possibly occupy 100% CPU.

Current TOS version is 4.1.32-2008031214.

I'll be returning this unit via Amazon. The page for this product was misleading. It only showed that it can't play 4K video. Nothing about not being able to play most 1080p versions, either. And barely 720p videos. If you don't mind the stuttering, stopping and blurring. Saying what it can't transcode isn't the same. Nowhere on that page does it state 720p only.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RYR ... UTF8&psc=1

I'm positive it could do other things just fine. But as a new NAS user looking for something compatible for their plex needs, this left a surprisingly bitter taste in my mouth. Especially for the price.

If I were looking for a NAS that plays streaming media at 480p, on one device, this would have been it.

In my experience (most of my experience being watching every YouTube video I could find about Terra-Master), the ARM based models tend to be very CPU heavy when using Plex. The dual-core Intel Celeron units (F5-221/F2-221) do not seem to have an issue with 1080p. I don't have any issue with my F5-221 when using Plex. (I can only vouch for 1080p as I don't have any 4K video) Even though the Celeron is a Dual-Core (vs. the ARM's Quad core), it seems the Celeron packs more power per-core. I know this doesn't help your issue with the F4-210, but in case you were looking for a viable replacement.

Thanks.

just throwing my thoughts in on this

i have downloaded https://www.videvo.net/video/raindrops- ... tion/3313/ as a test 1080p video

put it on my F2-210 and played it through a DLNA client on my ipad via the plex server on the nas drive, my CPU spikes to a max of 10% on the nas drive while playing it

this 4k test file https://www.videvo.net/video/4k-ocean-w ... -sun/4229/
makes my CPU spike to 12% but then drops to 6% while playing

Well, I'm glad you managed to return the computer... And thanks for describing your issue in detail, I was looking at that exact model and now know I shouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
But let's look forwards now: what would be a good NAS base to watch 1080p media without stuttering and overheating? I don't care much about 4K, I've worked too much in front of a computer and my eyes don't allow that resolution anymore

If you’re still looking at Terra-Master, I’d recommend the Fx-221 series. The Celeron dual-core is more than capable, and as far as I’ve read it’ll do hardware decode if you have a Plex pass. I have the F5-221 and love it.