As I promised, here is the release for the Mac users to upgrade their Buffalo Linkstation to a Plex server capable device. Another great feature of the Buffalo Linkstation is that it works as a Time Machine. It makes it a very cheap alternative to Apple’s Time Capsule and Apple’s device can’t even be used as a Plex Media Server. Talk about multipurpose.
Many thanks to TeknoBlast for his help in testing the firmware. He found that your browser caches some parts of the Buffalo admin website and you have to clear your browser cache after the upgrade to see the improvements. This is true also if you use the Mac firmware. Clear your browser cache after upgrade.
One thing to note about the Mac upgrader: the Mac upgrader checks the version of the firmware before and after the upgrade. Since the custom firmware has the same version as the original, you will get an alert that the upgrade might have failed. Do not worry, the update succeeded because it’s the same version, the updater cannot tell the difference. Here’s a picture on what you get, don’t worry about it:
The firmware can be downloaded from the bottom of the project page.
I have a Buffalo Linkstation Pro Quad 4-bay, and I was curious if you software would allow me to install Plex media server on this device. I apologize if it is apparent on your site but I wanted to see if that was possible. Also, if possible how “risky” would you say this update is to the media stored on the server? What I am getting out is how likely, if at all, is this update would damage the array or any data stored on the array? And lastly, if there was an issue is it possible to just reinstall the original software from Buffalo back on the server without disrupting the files and array. Again apologize is this are “noob” questions. Thanks in advance!
Hi Tim,
Those are great questions, thanks for asking. First of all congratulations to your Pro Quad, I think it’s a beast. 🙂
I made a comparison of the firmwares of the two devices (Pro Duo and Pro Quad) and they use the exact same firmware. You download the exact same file from Buffalo and there are multiple references in the firmware to other devices that it’s compatible with. On the first bootup the firmware even tries to figure out which Linkstation it is on and configure itself to that. I did everything in my power to keep that compatibility so I have great hopes for the Orca firmware working on your device.
Going through the modifications in my head, here are the things that you might want to look out for:
– The Plex package checks if your device has DLNA capabilities. If you have DLNA server under Extensions -> MediaServer (which you should have), then Plex will be configured.
– The Plex settings directory is placed on your hard drive. If for some reason your Plex settings don’t stick (PlexPass, server settings, libraries) then your RAID configuration is so different to the ones I expected that it can’t cope with it. If that’s the case, please say so and I’ll fix it in the next release.
– Please check if you can turn on/off APM for all four of your hard drives under System -> Storage. I never had the chance to test it with four drives.
– All testing with the Pro Duo showed that upgrading to the Orca firmware didn’t lose files on the device. The worst that could happen is that the extra functions don’t work. (Plex and APM.)
– Don’t forget to clear your cache of your browser after the upgrade so the new items show up on your Buffalo Linkstation admin site.
As I mentioned I never had the chance to test my firmware on a Pro Quad so until I can get my hands on one you’re my only hope of testing. 🙂 I would be excited to hear it works.
Right now there is no rollback capability in the original Buffalo firmware, it will stand down if it sees you have the same version. (Orca has the same version number as the original one.) You have a few options:
1. You have the original firmware, you open up LSUpdater.ini and change “VersionCheck” to 0. This will allow the original firmware to be reinstalled.
2. You wait until I create a rollback package. This was in the queue until I saw Buffalo releasing version 1.69 of their firmware.
3. You “roll forward” and install the original 1.69 firmware from Buffalo.
Because of the new firmware that was released yesterday I will work on implementing my changes to the new one and I will also create a rollback package for the new firmware. If you want to wait until I release that, you can do that, I will double-check all my code so it stays compatible with the Pro Quad.
– GaryT
Gary,
Thanks for the all the good information. I am planning to test this but want to ensure my back ups are complete. Even though I am running and have been running in raid 5 I still back up the drive to a separate drive. In the future I am planning on getting the synology ds415+ as an additional NAS as I am kinda of a freak about making sure my data is properly backed up and stored. I have a ton of stuff on it probably about 3tb+. Lots of history and work and don’t want to lose it.
Anyway, I have a couple other questions if you don’t mind:
1.) I haven’t used Plex in awhile as I have been watching my movies through WD TV Lives with either fileshare or DLNA. However, when I did use Plex back in the day I liked the interface as it brought in meta information and so on. I just wanted to confirm with Plex on a NAS does this do the same thing bringing in the meta information and as a result will it look nice an populated on the Xbox One now that they released the client version?
2.) I have been reading and I only have a limited knowledge of transcoding. In your opinion, do you think having Plex server running on the Linkstation pro quad will have enough processing power to do the transcoding on the server resulting in me being able to use the Plex server on multiple devices? I would us this on the following devices and wanted to see if Plex will be the best choice.
– Xbox One
– iPad
– Iphone
-WD TV Live
Sorry for all the questions but learning my way through this right now.
Thanks for all the advice and help!
Hi Tim,
Did you upgrade in the end? I’m eager to hear if it worked on your Pro Quad.
Regards,
– GaryT
Gary,
Not yet, I want to but just trying to get comfortable with it because I have everything working right now and would hate to see issues pop up without being able to restore back to the original firmware. Just have a lot of data on the drives and don’t want to lose it. Sorry for hesitating.
Hi Tim,
No worries, better safe than sorry. You also reminded me that I never released the rollback package although I have it ready. I’ll do that together with the newest Plex release, I’m really expecting to finish that soon. I’d be really upset if you had lost data because of this firmware so let’s take extra care with it.
Which version of the firmware do you currently run on the Pro Quad? Did you upgrade to 1.69 from Buffalo? Do you have a modded firmware or the factory default?
Regards,
– GaryT
Gary,
I am running the newest firmware 1.69 and I am only using factory firmware.
Hi Tim,
I’ve posted a blog entry that covers the possible risks when upgrading to a custom firmware. Here it is. Please consider the points in their, it might help you with your decision to upgrade or not.
Regards,
– GaryT
Hi Tim,
I understand your need for proper backups, I feel the same. I’ve had way too many weird data losses in my life. 🙂 I’m also doing online backups nowadays but I have this security fetish so I use a provider that encrypts your data locally first and then uploads it to the cloud. They could still steal my key through their client if they really wanted to but it’s better than nothing.
To answer your questions:
1. Yes, Plex does it’s best to get you cover art, summary for a movie or contents of the current episode of a TV series. I don’t always get subtitles automatically, although that might just be the weird movies I’m watching.
2. If the Pro Quad is the same hardware as the Pro Duo but with four hard drives, then transcoding will not be possible. (I think this is the case.) The playable content will be restricted by the device you play on. Consider it like this: the NAS is making the file available for copy and your device will have to decode the movie.
Because of this I think you might be able to play multiple videos from your NAS as long as your network bandwidth allows copying those two files simultaneously. The processor of the NAS might be a bottleneck, I’ll try to test this with my device.
Your clients are not so bad though, they will be able to play a lot of formats:
Xbox One is able to play DivX AVI, MP4, MOV, WMV, MP2 (the DVD format) and MKV support is coming this year. Look at here for a complete list: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/system/media-player-faq
The iPhone will only be able to play Apple compatible formats, I’ve only succeeded with MP4. (MP4 is the container, the video codec is H.264 and the audio needs to be AAC.)
The WD TV Live is an awesome device, I wanted to have one badly before my Samsung TV and if I remember correctly it virtually plays everything.
As I said it will mostly boil down to how big movie files do you want to copy down from your NAS to your devices in parallel.
Keep asking away. 🙂 The plex.tv forum also has some good information on what’s compatible, you will find more details on the iPhone compatibility there: https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/123695-buffalo-linkstation-pro-duo-with-plex-media-server/
Regards,
– GaryT