What’s the next step up from a raspberry pi

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We used to run digital signage at work on some of the midrange ones. An i5 5250U processor with 16 GB of RAM is a good midrange unit. Storage I always recommend the SSD and as big as you can afford but in most cases 256 GB.

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Best to keep watching eBay.

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I use a NUC, which runs Debian nicely. The only downside is most guides and instructions are for the Pi, and don't fit the NUC as written.

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Yes there are differences between Raspbian and Debian, but there are more choices such as Ubuntu also. Once you start down the path you need to choose wisely on which OS best fits your purpose.

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Raspbian even has an x86 version. https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/

It’s the exact same as what pi’s run, and assuming the program has both an x86 and armhf version (if you use apt it will automatically switch) guides usually work copy-and-paste if they use apt (and only first download line needs change for non-apt installation guides).

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Stay away from running plex on a Qnap NAS. The upgrade process and patching of the plex software is almost always behind in their App Store. If you download it from plex it’s a pain because it used to be a multi-step process.

I tried to run plex in their docker app but once again you need to understand docker to make it easily upgradable.

I tried plex in a VM within the qnap virtualization station and had transcoding issues.

I hear good things about synology and Unraid if you want to build a nas from scratch.

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I run Plex on a QNAP TS-451+ and Plex runs flawlessly, smooth video playback on all devices with fast transcoding.

The version in the QNAP APP store is not meant to be the latest Plex version, but for the initial install. I agree with you that upgrading Plex on QNAP usually once a month is a multistep process to download and login to QNAP to manually upgrade.

All in all, it has been a great video server.

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I know this is an oldish topic but another step up from the RPi is the oDroid.. It's a bit more expensive but great if you want a low power / high reliability small form-factor device.

https://www.hardkernel.com/

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I settled on the celeron nuc, only $100 and has quicksync for hardware transcoding Intel NUC Kit NUC6CAYH Product Specifications

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Eric, does my choice seem okay for $100? Should be atleast as fast as a pi?

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Yeah seems fine!

I was curious so searched for the comparison:

I think the Pi is Broadcom BCM2711(B0?)..