Okay, so, I’ve been messing around with these two NAS devices, the DS920 and the DS923, mostly to see how they handle transcoding. You know, getting videos to play smoothly on different devices. It’s been a bit of a journey, so I figured I’d share what I’ve found.
First off, I grabbed both of these boxes from my storage. I mean, the DS920 has been my go-to for a while, but I was curious about the newer DS923. I unpacked them, set them up side by side, it kinda looked like a techy showdown was about to happen.
Getting Started
I started by loading up both NAS with some test videos. You know the drill – a mix of formats, resolutions, the whole shebang. Then I hooked them up to my network, made sure everything was talking to each other properly. It wasn’t too bad, pretty standard setup process, really.
With the DS920, things were pretty familiar. I’ve used it for transcoding before, so I jumped right into Plex, my media server software of choice. I configured a few libraries, pointed them to my test videos, and let Plex do its thing, analyzing the files and getting them ready for streaming.
The DS923 Adventure
Now, the DS923 was a bit different. No built-in Intel Quick Sync here, just an AMD Ryzen. I installed Plex, same as on the DS920, but I was kinda flying blind. I wasn’t sure how well it would handle transcoding without that Intel hardware acceleration I was used to. I fired up some 4K content, just to see what would happen.
- First Test: Surprisingly, it played! Kinda. There was some buffering, some stuttering, definitely not as smooth as the DS920.
- Lowering the Resolution: I dropped the quality down to 1080p, and things got better. Still not perfect, but watchable.
- Experimenting More: I played around with different file types, different codecs. Some worked better than others, it was a bit of a mixed bag.
Comparing the Two
Honestly, the DS920 handled transcoding like a champ, especially with that Intel chip. The DS923, it struggled a bit with the heavier stuff. I mean, it’s not terrible, but if you’re serious about transcoding, especially high-resolution stuff, you’ll probably notice the difference. After finishing the test, I shut down both devices and cleaned up my desk
So, there you have it. My little experiment with these two NAS. It’s not super scientific, but hopefully, it gives you an idea of what to expect. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, or you can also share your experience with us. I will be happy to hear!