Media Portal Replacement ?

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rb99

3422 posts

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#2021685 24-May-2018 11:02

At least Emby has a grid tv guide, don't know if Plex ever got round to that.

Am experimenting at the moment with Kodi on the FireTV (as mentioned) and I added the NextPVR plugin to Kodi and it works well. I also can do Kodi via Emby using a NextPVR plugin in Emby which also works but its slower. So you could do what you do but use Emby and spread it around the house more if you wanted (not sure how you'd do that just with Kodi and NextPVR).

I mostly use the OTA guide btw.

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rb99

reven

3743 posts

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#2021715 24-May-2018 11:40

Plex is my usual go to. If a device im running is struggling with playback, i tried kodi (well spmc, cos its usually android tv im on). subtitles i find plex can have difficulties with. thats when I use spmc.

for live tv... i never watch broadcast tv. netflix, youtube, plex.

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#2021718 24-May-2018 11:42

dklong:

I go through this loop every few years and, much like askelon's comments above, I keep coming back to MP1.x. If I didn't still record/watch some Freeview TV and it was just about watching downloads / streams then there would probably be more options but MP TV Server just works so well compared to anything else I have tried.

I dont need any TV/streaming/Freeveiw/tuner capability.
Just 2 stand alone boxes playing locally stored files

The only thing I do want is, option to resume watching from where I last left off & watched files to be marked as watched
I remember the issues I had setting up codecs & hardware acceleration on MP1 . I certainly dont want to go through that again.

Hardware acceleration would certainly be nice, Im sure MP isnt using the Vid cards acceleration capabilities. And
some vids certainly look better in VLC or MPC-HC .

robfish

683 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2021735 24-May-2018 11:53

PANiCnz: Is there an all in one OS for Emby like LibreELEC for Kodi?

You could install a minimal Debian (or other Linux Distro) and run it headless as an Emby server.

Rob

PANiCnz

989 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2021750 24-May-2018 12:07

1101:Just 2 stand alone boxes playing locally stored files

To maintain the ability to share play status, and stop and start videos across multiple clients Kodi needs to be setup with a central SQL database. Not overly complicated but an extra step. Both Plex and Emby use a client/server setup so I would assume do this natively.

Kodi was originally built as a standalone client.

dklong

167 posts

Master Geek

#2023862 28-May-2018 11:25

@1101

I also remember the early pain with getting codecs and hardware acceleration etc to work. Given that the Mediaportal client gets installed on any PC that comes into our house (wife says there are far too many!), I have to say that this seems to have got a lot easier over the years. Since the Core i processors started supporting H.264 natively and the recent ones even support H.265, I just seem to throw the MP client on and it just works. If you don't need the TV Server function then may be worth a go with MP 1.x when you get the replacement rig... as it definitely does the resume and mark watched function as you know. My 10c worth anyway.

Cheers

bobwinters

26 posts

Geek

#2026881 1-Jun-2018 13:05

I didn't realise people were actually using Mediaportal's TV Show/Movie feature. Please stay away from it, it's absolutely rubbish.

If you want stability and compatibility with more devices use Plex. If you are more of a power user, want Live TV but don't mind the odd crash, then use Emby. I would run either or in Windows because it's easier/less scary to setup. If you don't mind Linux, then you can use something like Libraelec, it's pretty easy to setup but it just takes a little time to get use to.

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Quinny

885 posts

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#2026908 1-Jun-2018 13:51

1101:

I dont need any TV/streaming/Freeveiw/tuner capability.
Just 2 stand alone boxes playing locally stored files

The only thing I do want is, option to resume watching from where I last left off & watched files to be marked as watched
I remember the issues I had setting up codecs & hardware acceleration on MP1 . I certainly dont want to go through that again.

Hardware acceleration would certainly be nice, Im sure MP isnt using the Vid cards acceleration capabilities. And
some vids certainly look better in VLC or MPC-HC .

Plex allows resume on any device. Ie watch on tv and stop, pickup on ipad or android phone. Never had issues. And yes can use to access media away from home in a nice pretty interface. I did the free trial and love it so happily pay the $50 I think it is a year. Kodi drove me bonkers. Serviio I use as well on my of my pc and NAS for those files Plex wont see and between both been very happy. All my tv have DLNA and newest chromecast. My setup is new media on pc, and then a QNAP with older tv and a newer Synology with movies.

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