Plex Discussion Thread - Page 14

Okay, just a little space for overhead and indexing but yeah it isn't actually moving the file it is just re-indexing it's location. I am going to give this a whirl this weekend.

Quick update to elaborate on my latest bit of testing. I just posted this in the "Plex or XBMC" thread, also in this forum, but since some of you have been interested in the WMC PVR back-end idea, I wanted to post it here as well...

I've been doing some testing over the last day or so and am kind of liking the idea of this total approach:
- Windows Media Center (WMC), WTV-MetaRenamer, Plex Media Server (PMS), and the Ceton My Media Center server component, all running on a central computer. This computer would also be a client running XBMC Eden (with the PleXBMC plug-in), and you could use (if you want to) the WMC front-end for a more robust/true live TV / Electronic Program Guide (EPG) surfing / series management UI.
- Low-power, but fully capable, client computers (e.g., my Acer Revo 1600) running XBMC Eden w/PleXBMC plug-in.
- Smartphone/tablet running Ceton's My Media Center app for EPG / series management. In my case, I've been testing this out on my iPhone 5, but they also offer Android and Windows Phone versions.
- Smartphone/tablet running Plex client app for on-the-go playback of your content (but not Live TV due to the "bug" detailed below).

Some added details...PleXBMC is a plug-in for XBMC which allows XBMC to tie directly into your PMS metadata. Apparently (I haven't tried/confirmed this yet), this also allows you to tie into Plex's transcoding functionality, so you could use even lower-powered client devices (e.g., a jailbroken AppleTV 2).

The reason for using XBMC Eden (v11.0, vs the latest XBMC Frodo v12.0) is because, thanks to a tip from someone in the Plex forums, I've discovered that XBMC Eden will let me play WMC .wtv TV recordings that are *still in progress* without interruption. Whereas, w/XBMC Frodo, if I've set up a show to record 5 minutes ago, when I go to play it in XBMC, the time/status bar will indicate a total runtime of 5 minutes and it won't keep it accurate while playing (even though WMC is still recording the show continuously), so when I hit the end of that 5 minutes, XBMC will stop playing it, and I'd need to select it and start playing it again (at which point, the time/status bar will indicate a total runtime of 10 minutes - so I'd hit this annoyance again). Note: this "bug" also impacts the current Plex client apps.

I'm very, very excited about the prospects of this total solution, but I have run into one major issue, which is that there seems to be some sort of conflict with running XBMC Eden on my central computer while WMC and the Ceton My Media Center server component run in the background. I'm hoping to get to to the bottom of this. This would be a non-issue if you wanted to set up a headless WMC/PMS server, but it seems like a waste to not have that central computer serve double-duty as both a server and client. Once I [hopefully] resolve this and fine-tune things further, I may start up a new thread in the near future to provide all of the necessary details/links for getting this working. IMO, it would offer a very workable solution for setting up a multi-room WMC setup with low-power HTPCs and ATVs acting as WMC "extenders".

Does anyone here use xbmc frodo with plexbmc?

I just started playing around with xbmc on my MacBook Pro today, and it is neat. One slight disappointment is the integration of plexbmc, but maybe I'm not doing it right.

As far as I can tell, xbmc scrapes my library (or uses embedded data) and uses that info to populate the "movies" section. There is also a "videos" section where I originally located my movies, and it seemed like the movies section didn't appear until some movies were identified. So far so good, works pretty well.

But, I would like to use my plex ms info for my media, so I installed the plexbmc repository....no real problems setting it up. However, I can't figure out how to make that info the default. I'm using the stock confluence skin, and to get to plexbmc data I need to make several clicks every time (can't recall exactly, but "videos", then "add ins", the plexbmc, then media type, etc. if I recall correctly). I'd like to have it live as the "high-level" default undeserved Movies. I tried the skin that came with the plexbmc repository (it looked like Apple TV) and while it let me switch to plex info quickly, it requires switching out of xbmc to a similar style skin for plex (so why not just use plex in this case??).

Maybe it is because frodo is new and the skins aren't all updated, but is it (or was it ever) possible to use a standard xbmc skin like confluence or aeon to keep all the xbmc goodies, but just have it default its media info to that obtained from Plexbmc?

Thanks!

I, too, have been playing with XBMC w/PleXBMC since yesterday, and I must confess that I'm thinking of switching over to it for my two HTPCs. I am using the Quartz skin (I believe I downloaded the one that was linked to in the original post of the PleXBMC thread in the XBMC forums). It mimics the look of the 1st version of the UI of the 2nd gen Apple TV (before Apple switched to the tiled app/icon UI). One thing I'm not crazy about is that it gives you a choice of a Plex-focused look (with Plex Movie / TV categories, and Plex channels right on the home page) or an XBMC-focused look, but while I'd like the Plex categories on my home page, I'd prefer easier access to XBMC plug-ins vs Plex channels, because I haven't had much success even getting any of the Plex channels to work for me lately, and the XBMC plug-ins seem to have more active developer support (plus there are more XBMC plug-ins vs Plex channels). So I may actually end up using the XBMC-centric view my default and just dealing with the annoyance of having to click a couple extra times to Videos > Plug-Ins > PleXBMC. We'll see.

On another note...I wanted to post a warning about my previous advice with WTV-Renamer. I got an error this morning from WMC telling me that I was running out of disk space for my recordings. This got me to thinking that my moved TV shows are *not* being automatically deleted by WMC. I'm not 100% sure about it, but it probably makes sense. Now, another possible option (which may or may not work regarding getting automatic-deletes to work) is what I was doing before, which is to actually have my Archived directory be a sub-directory under the standard C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\ directory. Again, I'm not positive if even *that* works, but I don't remember getting any WMC warnings about running out of disk space when I was using that configuration for a few weeks. The reason I decided to move it *outside* of that directory is because I wanted to experiment with having Plex view the "Recorded TV" folder as a "Home Movies" category (for near-instantaneous viewing of in-progress recordings, and then have a separate Plex folder pointing at "Recorded TV Archive" and defined as a "TV show" category where it would pick up the TV shows that had been moved/renamed by WTV-MetaRenamer.

Of course, if you don't mind taking away WMC's ability to auto-delete, you can always delete shows manually, which I believe you can do via the Ceton My Media Center app and I believe also via the Plex client apps (a feature you have to enable).

srauly,

Yes...I agree with your take on the Plex integration. I am really impressed withXBMC, and want to to get it to just use my plex media info as the default. I'd rather not jump out of xbmc (as is the case with the current Quartz skin), but per lockdown571 the other skins probably haven't been updated yet to accommodate plexbmc info.

I find that the multiple clicks to dig down to plexbmc isn't something i'm interested in...takes the fun/cool factor away.

I quite like the confluence skin, and the amount of add-ins for xbmc is dizzyingly awesome. I'm considering xbmc for my htpc, but would love to keep plex as my media server (and for transcoding for ios devices, remote access, etc.). I think that should be coming with updated skins.

Thank you for the tip. I was indeed able to add an XBMC Plug-In to the home page this way. In my experiment I added it to the Channels category. The process was a bit confusing, but I eventually figured it out. skro, take a quick look at this article for some additional details. If you need assistance getting this working within the Quartz skin, PM me. lockdown571, as the creator of this thread, do you consider further discussion of XBMC w/PleXBMC to be on-topic or would you prefer I start a new thread for these sorts of discussions?

Update: In my last post I mentioned setting up a favorite for an add-on (FWIW, it was the Amazon Instant plug-in). I set it up as a favorite, and then went into the Quartz skin, customized the home page, and added that Favorite to my Plug-Ins menu (which, when you're in "go Plex" mode is renamed as "Channels"). Sure enough, in "go Plex" mode, the Amazon plug-in showed up under "Channels". Cool. So then I thought: Can I take the opposite approach? Can I stick with the "go XBMC" mode and add my Plex TV Shows and Movies folders to the home page? YES! Here's how to do it with the Quartz skin:

1) Create a favorite for your Plex Movies and Plex TV Shows folders. You do this by going into a TV Shows or Movies section under the XBMC home page, selecting add-ons, and then selecting PleXBMC. From there, you should see all of your Plex folders, but note that they will be prefixed with your Plex Media Server's name/alias, followed by a colon. Right mouse click over the folder name and a pop-up window will let you add it as a favorite.
2) Edit your favorites. In the default (Confluence) skin, you click on the star in the lower-left corner. In there, you may want to right mouse click over your Plex folder favorites and choose to rename them to strip off that Plex Media Server prefix.
3) Add these favorites to the home menu's Movies and TV Shows sections. Go to Settings > Appearance > Skin > Settings > Home menus customizer. From there you can add your Plex Movies and TV Shows folder favorites directly to the sections you want.

One exciting aspect of this is that this should theoretically work with any other current skin as well. Oddly enough, though, I found that the default Confluence skin didn't seem to let me add Favorites to my home page's Movies or TV Shows section. It *did* let me add a Plug-in, though, which is still quite workable. In that scenario, you could add PleXBMC to the Confluence skin's Videos section. So, you'd scroll right/left to "Videos", then you'll see the usual "Files" and "Add-ons" subcategories, but you'll also now see (below that) a PleXBMC icon. Every skin probably implements these sort of things a little bit differently. For my needs/desires, I'm really liking the Quartz skin, but will probably use it in the "go XBMC" mode using the "mods" described above.

Thanks srauly,

I set it up like you suggested (confluence), and it is certainly workable. The one downside is that the Plexbmc plugin defaults to the last view, regardless of the heading....so for example, if I was looking at my music via plexbmc (in the music section), then go to the movies section, the plexbmc add in would show me the music section of plexbmc there too, and I have to back out and enter movies.

Presumably, this is what deeper level plexbmc integration would offer in these skins....hopefully it won't be too long.

I'm in no hurry, just testing the waters as I wait for haswell to build my htpc.

Yeah, I see what you mean. I'm thinking, though, that you don't necessarily need a skin that is PleXBMC-friendly, per se, but simply one that allows you to add links to Favorites directly under the Videos home screen category. Not sure how many/which skins offer that (other than Quartz).

Hi all,

Sorry to thread jack. This is in regards to streaming to my Sony Media Player SMP-N200. I posted on the Plex forum but did not get any responses. I was successful installing the latest version of Plex Media Server on my Windows 8 PC. Playing mostly MKV files. Movies all play fine, but I do not have control of fast forward or rewind on the Sony Player. Only the 'play' and the 'pause' functions work. I guessed that this is a transcoding feature of Plex. How do I make it so that I can fast forward my movies. I was hoping that once transcoding is completed, the next time I play the same movies that Plex would not have to transcode again. Thanks.

lockdown571,

Thanks for the quick reply and explanations relative to on the fly trans-coding. I got the Sony second hand but perhaps I should get something like the WDTV SMP. Not really want to put together another htpc for the bedroom TV. Do you know which of the DLNA devices that works best with Plex. A bit off topic but should I be using some other media server which work with the Sony better? If I don't use DLNA, will these other devices work on a windows network such as NFS or Samba. Sorry to throw these terms around as I am very new to this stuff. Best regards.

Here's a step-by-step setup for anyone looking to use plex. I highly recommend it!

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/14/setting-up-a-plex-environment/

Good link!

I tried out Plex on my Desktop last week and ran into a few hiccups that maybe someone where can help out on.

First the setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM and AMD 6850 2GB video card
I have the Shark007 codecs installed
Media is stored on my WHS2011.
Most of the media is in intact format (IE straight rip from the disc). Most are regular DVD's, but have a fair amount of Blu-Rays as well.
My TV shows are generally mkv or mp4

I installed Plex Media Server on my desktop. Install was easy and my libraries loaded up pretty quick, though it did seem to have some issues picking up the folder icons in all my media.

I went to the web interface on this desktop and tried out some media. Most of the TV shows played no problem, but I got an error (I think it was a 404 error actually) when I tried to play a couple movies. I know one was a Blu-Ray rip (I didn't really expect it to play, but was curious if it would just play the main title or what) and one was an MKV from a Blu-Ray that was the full Blu-Ray bitrate (IE no down converting, so it was like 24GB). One may have been an intact DVD rip, but I'm not sure. Each processed for a while (maybe 90 seconds) before coming up with an error.

So is something wrong with my setup, or is Plex just not compatable with media in those formats? I searched on the Plex site to find out what would and would not work but didn't find any general listing.

I think your CPU is not adequate for transcoding using plex.

I am getting an error stating for playback of my wtv files on my android phone. I was not getting this until just yesterday afternoon. I have restarted the server and also checked the mapping to the location of RecordedTV in the Media Manager but still get this problem.

I also installed the android update and the update for Plex on my PC to no avail.

Anyone?

Using the latest PMS and Android app here. Just tested it with a wtv recording, no problem on my end

Edit: last week I didn't have any audio Wednesday. I didn't have a lot of free time anyway, and when I checked later everything was working fine. I would like to give you a more scientific answer, but Plex has multiple avenues for failing to deliver a video through remote 3g/4g/wifi so a little inconsistency should be expected
Edited by Dark_Slayer - 2/15/13 at 12:23pm

Folder format. Im actually going to move all my blurays to mkv, but I really didn't want to do all the DVD s as well

Just curious here...why did you put Plex Server on the desktop?
You may have better luck installing Plex Server...on your server..install Plex Media Center, on your desktop and ancillary devices.

For me, I have no server and only use the plex app on my phone. I use MB and MPC-HC for playback on everywhere in my house, except the echo in the kitchen.

I did it mainly as a test. I try to keep my server as clean as possible. If I decided to use plex, I figured I might upgrade my server, virtualize the WHS and then make a vm just for plex

My server is fairly modest, HP Proliant N40L, the CPU is not an i5 or similar, but it will stream and transcode just fine, to one desktop, two laptops, (running PMC) and a Samsung LED. As well as my wife's Kindle HD, and My daughter's Galaxy SII

Anyone try it yet ? (I am installing it now)

I use it all the time on the go on my phone. It doesn't work well on a commuter train when the signal strength and/or tower is constantly changing but when you have decent signal it works real well. I don't use it for local playback as I have an HTPC to do that.