Plex/xbmc

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Gilco2

1556 posts

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#143608 20-Apr-2014 21:47

hope okay in this forum as it could cover others; I have Plex Media Server latest on my WHS 2011 and works really well. On my Windows 8.1 htpc I have latest Plex Home Theatre software and works really well apart from 1 problem. I can select music and the album and track I want to listen to and go back to select another and all is well until approx the 4th (it does vary) pressing any button will dump you to the desktop. Videos/ TV Shows and photos no problem only with music.
I have Silverstone case with imon and latest software. Googling others suggest disabling exclusive mode. That made no difference so I then disabled the whole thing and used WMC Remote and IR receiver but still the same. Wondering if anyone has same problem. I prefer plex as easy to fix incorrect matches and can have on server and clients on htpc and laptop etc without updating library on each.

Other option is it possible to have XBMC on the server and on each client and only have to update library on the server and all show up on the clients. As it is it is a pain having to update library on each computer as takes over an hour.

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

davidcole

6034 posts

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#1028468 21-Apr-2014 08:47

there are methods of using xbmc with a centralised db. but for me olex is a better fit because of the transcoding ability.

so i guess its a matter of choosing what you prefer and making compromises.

Previously known as psycik

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Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#1028475 21-Apr-2014 09:04

havent heard of olex but will look into it. I havent looked into the windows 8 plex app as dont want to pay $7 and find it is no better. It all works well just the music one dumps to desktop no matter what key is pressed.
I have like xbmc but it doesnt correctly pick quite a few movies and I have to correct on each machine. Just thought having a media server on the whs2011 or even a appliance nas with all the metadaa etc there so dont have to spend hours on each machine. That is what I like with Plex.

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

davidcole

6034 posts

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#1028477 21-Apr-2014 09:07

Olex is plex.

driller2000

935 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#1028480 21-Apr-2014 09:31

Gilco2: havent heard of olex but will look into it. I havent looked into the windows 8 plex app as dont want to pay $7 and find it is no better. It all works well just the music one dumps to desktop no matter what key is pressed.
I have like xbmc but it doesnt correctly pick quite a few movies and I have to correct on each machine. Just thought having a media server on the whs2011 or even a appliance nas with all the metadaa etc there so dont have to spend hours on each machine. That is what I like with Plex.

re xbmc:

i have all of my media files on an unraid server/share

first task is to make sure the files/movies are named right and in its own folder

i then use ember media manager to get all the metadata and store this on the server within each movie folder

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=165012

then i let each instance of xbmc scan the nas/movie share

this approach is pretty much bulletproof in my exp

having 3 clients in the house does mean 3x separate library / db's - but i have "update library" as a shortcut within each xbmc install and i hit this now and again and let it do its thing in the background

re mysql:

i looked into a centralised db via mysql - and while there are some advantages - some of the disadvantages eg. slower loading etc have put me off going any further - but i understand that many people are very happy with mysql

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=85654

re plex:

looked into this too and while it has made my samsung tv a bit more versatile - it ain't as fast or as pretty as my 3 year old atom/ion xbmc machine which is located as part of the same set up

so for me it's xbmc all the way

Regs

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Snowflake

#1028741 21-Apr-2014 21:30

you could also look into http://mediabrowser3.com/ - I use it with MCE, and there are several clients available: web client, windows 8 and window phone clients, Samsung smart tv app, roku app, IOS app, android app.....

you have a central mediabrowser server and all the clients connect back to it. you can run it on your WHS, I run it on my Win7 MCE box (and use the mediabrowser client within MCE)

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#1028777 21-Apr-2014 21:58

I can have another look at mediabrowser 3. I had server and client on the one computer when first tried it. Cant remember what problem was but for some reason I didnt like it. Will install server on whs and client on htpc and go from there again

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

Regs

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Snowflake

#1028797 21-Apr-2014 22:18

mediabrowser3 is a complete re-write and a very active software project - if you take the dev builds there is a new one every couple of days :-)

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Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#1028805 21-Apr-2014 22:28

Thanks definitely having another look at mediabrowser3 then

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

Mattmannz

471 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1028953 22-Apr-2014 09:08

I am running a Linux server with MySQL on it for a centralised library for all my XBMC clients. It serves the movies and tv series up via samba shares.

I use Sickbeard and Couchpotato linked to Utorrent all running on the same Linux server to manage all my downloading so probably 90% of what I watch is automatically downloaded for me. Both SB and CP send library update requests to one of more XBMC clients if you want so even if you don't run a centralised DB it's easy to automate.

I prefer the centralised DB as it allows the watched status to be synced across all my machines. I can stop watching in the lounge and go to another room and pick up where I left off.

Latest version of XBMC has some good new features as well and is stable even though it's only in beta. I also run Pushover so that SB and CP send me notifications to my phone as to what is going on.

Only issue I have found with a centralised DB is that browsing the library can be a bit laggy at times over wifi. Some of my clients are wireless some are wired. All are NVidia ION based SFF devices.

Matt.

davidcole

6034 posts

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#1028956 22-Apr-2014 09:15

Also I'd recommend anyone using plex or xbmc, especially with centralised libraries - hook it up to trakt.tv. Means if you hose your library db (or install) it can re apply all your watched progress. Most of the trakt tv plugins can sync content from the trakt tv service back to your local library and set the watched status of content you've previously watched.