Best of both worlds finally

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Best of both worlds finally - Plex on kodi

davidcole

6037 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#205889 1-Dec-2016 08:05

https://www.plex.tv/apps/computer/kodi/

Official support by Plex on Kodi, rather than the hit and miss PlexBMC add on. Means you can have the functionality and flexibility of kodi and all it's add ons, and then the centralised media functions offered by plex.

Should be good.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680473 1-Dec-2016 08:16

but does it replace the kodi library, or is it an extra step to get into plex? the beauty of kodi (esp krypton) is the quickness to it, being able to directly go to your latest movies/tv shows from the home screen.

ive switched back to plex on android tv for most of my tvs, the profiles stuff is great for multiple users and the interface is prettier. the player has advantages over kodi (chapters display on android tv, next episode after current ends (like netflix)), but also disadvantages, way slower to skip ahead, kodis sequential skips makes this far easier.

BigMal

996 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1680496 1-Dec-2016 08:56

This is great. I currently run Openelec and PMS on a NUC. The current frustration is I have to manually install and update PMS. I hope Plex for Kodi has all the media server functionality.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1680497 1-Dec-2016 08:57

I've been using PlexKodiConnect for a while now and it works really well, it basically syncs your Plex library directly to the Kodi database and keeps everything in sync (adding new videos, marking stuff as played). It has the advantage that all the videos are then native to Kodi so you're not limited by skin support etc, I can have direct menu links in the main menu to Kids TV etc and you can set the videos to play directly from the source, you don't have to go through the Plex server. I was an Emby user for a couple of years before switching to Plex about 3 months ago and PKC is a fork of Emby's plugin that does the same thing.

http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/210023/plexkodiconnect-let-kodi-talk-to-your-plex/p1

davidcole

6037 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680501 1-Dec-2016 09:06

reven:

but does it replace the kodi library, or is it an extra step to get into plex? the beauty of kodi (esp krypton) is the quickness to it, being able to directly go to your latest movies/tv shows from the home screen.

ive switched back to plex on android tv for most of my tvs, the profiles stuff is great for multiple users and the interface is prettier. the player has advantages over kodi (chapters display on android tv, next episode after current ends (like netflix)), but also disadvantages, way slower to skip ahead, kodis sequential skips makes this far easier.

It is an extra step, so it's an add on, rather than an overhaul of the kodi internal library.

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680503 1-Dec-2016 09:08

davidcole:

reven:

but does it replace the kodi library, or is it an extra step to get into plex? the beauty of kodi (esp krypton) is the quickness to it, being able to directly go to your latest movies/tv shows from the home screen.

ive switched back to plex on android tv for most of my tvs, the profiles stuff is great for multiple users and the interface is prettier. the player has advantages over kodi (chapters display on android tv, next episode after current ends (like netflix)), but also disadvantages, way slower to skip ahead, kodis sequential skips makes this far easier.

It is an extra step, so it's an add on, rather than an overhaul of the kodi internal library.

yeah kinda annoying, hope they make a skin for it which shows all the plex library on the home screen and handles user switching easily.

davidcole

6037 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680505 1-Dec-2016 09:09

reven:

davidcole:

reven:

but does it replace the kodi library, or is it an extra step to get into plex? the beauty of kodi (esp krypton) is the quickness to it, being able to directly go to your latest movies/tv shows from the home screen.

ive switched back to plex on android tv for most of my tvs, the profiles stuff is great for multiple users and the interface is prettier. the player has advantages over kodi (chapters display on android tv, next episode after current ends (like netflix)), but also disadvantages, way slower to skip ahead, kodis sequential skips makes this far easier.

It is an extra step, so it's an add on, rather than an overhaul of the kodi internal library.

yeah kinda annoying, hope they make a skin for it which shows all the plex library on the home screen and handles user switching easily.

Actually I'd almost prefer that kodiconnect thing to update the library. As long an playcounts etc were 2 way sync'd up.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1680506 1-Dec-2016 09:11

davidcole:

Actually I'd almost prefer that kodiconnect thing to update the library. As long an playcounts etc were 2 way sync'd up.

They are, as well as playback position and you can flick content to it like normal. Kodi users also show up as normal in the "Now Playing" status and in the playback history in PlexPy etc.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680508 1-Dec-2016 09:12

problem with kodi connect is it modifies the database, and thus not an officially supported addon and have to wait for updates (although they tend to be quick).

I still prefer plex for a multi user environment, being able to create child accounts which limit the ratings they can view is pretty awesome.

I often switch back and forth between kodi and plex. i love both, for different reasons. kodi's player is definitely better, but the interface on Plex (well on some clients, android tv is my favourite one) is better.

davidcole

6037 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680515 1-Dec-2016 09:18

reven:

problem with kodi connect is it modifies the database, and thus not an officially supported addon and have to wait for updates (although they tend to be quick).

I still prefer plex for a multi user environment, being able to create child accounts which limit the ratings they can view is pretty awesome.

I often switch back and forth between kodi and plex. i love both, for different reasons. kodi's player is definitely better, but the interface on Plex (well on some clients, android tv is my favourite one) is better.

I'm still pretty much all in on plex. I'll only use kodi for some plugins....but I'm finding with chromecast and apple tv airplay that my use of plugins is dropping. Oh will also use kodi for accessing nextpvr, since my plex channel has died, but if sub gets airplay/chromecast in the ios app, I doubt I'd do that as well.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1680516 1-Dec-2016 09:19

reven:

problem with kodi connect is it modifies the database, and thus not an officially supported addon and have to wait for updates (although they tend to be quick).

I still prefer plex for a multi user environment, being able to create child accounts which limit the ratings they can view is pretty awesome.

I often switch back and forth between kodi and plex. i love both, for different reasons. kodi's player is definitely better, but the interface on Plex (well on some clients, android tv is my favourite one) is better.

Yep, the Kodi people aren't happy with the PKC and Emby plugins because they modify the database directly, however going through Kodi's API was way too slow but apparently there's work being done on it to make the API faster which will then make these plugins compliant. I haven't found any problems with waiting for updates but I only tend to run release versions of Kodi (I'm not running Krypton but apparently it works).

What I've done is is split up the libraries for Kids/Adult TV and each library is filterable in Kodi so that I can limit the kids to their TV & movies in Kodi. I love the flexibility of Kodi and the range of skins, the user switching on the Plex apps is definitely faster and easier in Plex though. I've been playing with multiple users in Kodi but it seems to be crashing for some reason at the moment but so far I haven't found the kids going in to the adult tv area (I'd see if they did through PlexPy).

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680571 1-Dec-2016 10:06

yeah kodi needs a proper server library type setup. its been discussed but nothing really has happened. when retroplayer gets into the trunk of kodi i might use kodi again.

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1680824 1-Dec-2016 19:01

I personally run Kodi with the database running on a separate MySQL server. Does all the same as Plex in terms of a "central library" and is dead easy to set up. server is running anyway as it's a NAS so chucking MySQL on it was no stress, set up a DB and link up Kodi.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1680826 1-Dec-2016 19:11

chevrolux:

I personally run Kodi with the database running on a separate MySQL server. Does all the same as Plex in terms of a "central library" and is dead easy to set up. server is running anyway as it's a NAS so chucking MySQL on it was no stress, set up a DB and link up Kodi.

I was running that for a while but the advantage of Kodi/Emby is that you get built in transcoding, a very polished web playback and offline sync support (useful for phones & tablets). It would be great if Kodi would move to a proper server/client model, even MediaPortal seem to be going this way.

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1680842 1-Dec-2016 20:14

meesham:

chevrolux:

I personally run Kodi with the database running on a separate MySQL server. Does all the same as Plex in terms of a "central library" and is dead easy to set up. server is running anyway as it's a NAS so chucking MySQL on it was no stress, set up a DB and link up Kodi.

I was running that for a while but the advantage of Kodi/Emby is that you get built in transcoding, a very polished web playback and offline sync support (useful for phones & tablets). It would be great if Kodi would move to a proper server/client model, even MediaPortal seem to be going this way.

Ahhh right. The offline stuff sounds quite good, must look in to it. I often stream remotely when I'm away for work and that would be a great benefit to deal with hotel wifi if I could let it download for a bit.

I have to admit, every now and again the library will drop out of one of the Kodi instances (all running on Pi's). A quick reboot fixes it but it doesnt get a high WAF - seems to always happen when I'm away too haha.

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1680898 1-Dec-2016 21:00

chevrolux:

I personally run Kodi with the database running on a separate MySQL server. Does all the same as Plex in terms of a "central library" and is dead easy to set up. server is running anyway as it's a NAS so chucking MySQL on it was no stress, set up a DB and link up Kodi.

I have a kodi vm running on my unRAID that updates my shared mysql database. This works well, but plex is easier to edit metadata using the browser, has the "Users" ability (this is the biggest selling point for myself).