Moving away from Plex....

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Shapenz

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#295235 15-Mar-2022 11:31

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum... or treading too close to the FUG... but wondering if anyone has made the move away from home server/plex setup?

I have been a long time Plex user - got a lifetime sub back when it was cheap - also purchased Unraid and quite bit of associated hardware etc to store my collection of Plex shows. For the most part we have been pretty happy bar a few updates that broke things. I use Sonarr etc to curate and manage my downloads so for the most part its worked well.

Recently I had a couple of shucked drives die or go bad so I've had to take my unraid server offline while I sort some new parts - to stop my family from killing me I subbed us to Neon for the month and I'm actually pretty impressed by their selection.

We've never really been that into Netflix (Had it a lot when staying in hotels etc) - I find they have the odd good show but most of it is not to our taste - but Neon seems to have a smaller but IMO better quality selection.

So I've been contemplating just paying the $16 a month for that vs continuing to muck around with Plex/Unraid - and if my calculations are correct I'm probably paying close to $1-2 a day running my sever / drives so it would actually work out a bit cheaper. (Unless my math is way off)

So yeah - anyone else made the move away from Plex?

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#2886420 15-Mar-2022 11:57

I know it doesn't take much to confuse me, but isn't Plex essentially for storing / playing your own stuff and Neon is video on demand ? Presumably you have media on Plex that would still need playing, so I'd just keep it and have both.

Personally I have Emby instead of Plex to play our own stuff, plus Netflix and Disney and Amazon Prime. TVNZ has some perfectly decent stuff as well.

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rb99

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#2886421 15-Mar-2022 12:04

We mostly stream with Netflix and Disney, though we get Prime free through 2degrees we rarely use it. I have a file share off my Windows PC that shares family videos and such, stored on a large internal spinning disk, backed up to another offsite large external spinning disk. Everything is consumed through a Mi Box S.

jonathan18

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#2886422 15-Mar-2022 12:14

rb99:

I know it doesn't take much to confuse me, but isn't Plex essentially for storing / playing your own stuff and Neon is video on demand ? Presumably you have media on Plex that would still need playing, so I'd just keep it and have both.

Personally I have Emby instead of Plex to play our own stuff, plus Netflix and Disney and Amazon Prime. TVNZ has some perfectly decent stuff as well.

My take on the OP was the reference to the FUG indicates the content played via Plex is sourced from 'alternative' means, if you catch the drift... Could be wrong, but that's how I interpreted it!

But, really, it totally depends on finding SVODs that match your family's taste; the problem, as often raised on GZ, is that the fractured market means one may need to subscribe to many SVODs to get all the content that you seek. However, if a single service such as Neon serves most of your needs that sounds ideal.

Personally, we find that despite having current subs to Disney Plus, Netflix, Apple TV and Prime (the last two as freebies), there are still key programmes we don't have direct access to... Adding or replacing some of those with Neon would fill many of those gaps, but that's a bridge I'm not willing to cross (given the lack of 4K and discrete sound, let alone HDR and Atmos).

SpartanVXL

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#2886436 15-Mar-2022 12:30

I got very confused as to why OP was ‘shucking’ drives till I realised I was thinking of ‘short stroking’ which is completely different.

As for the power cost, do your drive not spin down? Or are they not the efficient ones rated for NAS usage (I assume not as they are shucked).

The drives in our NAS’s are reds or purple WD’s from amazon, when idle they don’t take much power.

Shapenz

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#2886446 15-Mar-2022 12:43

One thing Plex definitely has going for it though is high WAF since everything is in one App - I can guarantee if we have a couple there will be only one that gets used... my wife likes things that just work - she's not really into hunting for media.

We mainly watch on iOS devices so not sure the missing features from Neon really affect us? We do have a 4k TV but that's mainly for Paw Patrol apparently.....

My drives are a mix of shucked Seagates which seem to be failing - and SAS enterprise HGST drives... I have them in a SAS connected enterprise DAS so its not really made for power efficiency. I could probably rebuilt them into one consumer case to save some power but then cabling / cooling becomes an issue when you have 10+ drives.

I'm basically trying to talk myself out of buying a bunch of new drives to replace the failing ones......

michaelmurfy

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#2886451 15-Mar-2022 12:56

How I see it - Plex is an application that simply streams local media to a client (Brower, smart TV, streaming box etc). It, itself is not illegal or against the FUG. Relax!

I use Plex myself for media and have tried alternatives also but Plex just works, has great apps, and like you say the WAF is great. But if your media is elsewhere there is no point running a Plex server. If you're having to run the Unraid server for other tasks then why not just keep Plex running? No harm here.

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blackjack17

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#2886452 15-Mar-2022 12:59

Shapenz:

One thing Plex definitely has going for it though is high WAF since everything is in one App - I can guarantee if we have a couple there will be only one that gets used... my wife likes things that just work - she's not really into hunting for media.

We mainly watch on iOS devices so not sure the missing features from Neon really affect us? We do have a 4k TV but that's mainly for Paw Patrol apparently.....

My drives are a mix of shucked Seagates which seem to be failing - and SAS enterprise HGST drives... I have them in a SAS connected enterprise DAS so its not really made for power efficiency. I could probably rebuilt them into one consumer case to save some power but then cabling / cooling becomes an issue when you have 10+ drives.

I'm basically trying to talk myself out of buying a bunch of new drives to replace the failing ones......

How much storage space are talking? and how much of this storage space is hoarded media that you will probably never watch (I just cleared up a couple of hundred gigs by deleting a bunch of stuff I have watched or will never watch, I don't need to keep all 20 odd seasons of the simpsons).

Get rid of the server replace with a 2 bay/4 bay NAS and stay with neon. Best of both worlds.

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darylblake

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#2886459 15-Mar-2022 13:15

If you have a lifetime pass then moving away doesn't really save you anything?

I understand not wanting to bother using it anymore.

I recently got a lifetime pass. :P

Shapenz

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#2886594 15-Mar-2022 15:23

michaelmurfy:

How I see it - Plex is an application that simply streams local media to a client (Brower, smart TV, streaming box etc). It, itself is not illegal or against the FUG. Relax!

I use Plex myself for media and have tried alternatives also but Plex just works, has great apps, and like you say the WAF is great. But if your media is elsewhere there is no point running a Plex server. If you're having to run the Unraid server for other tasks then why not just keep Plex running? No harm here.

My Unraid is just a SFF Dell with an Intel Quicksync processor for transcoding. I use it for a couple of VMs and docker mostly... I run Plex in a docker also... The drives are all connected to a external SAN that's running in JBOD... which is where most of the power consumption is so I suppose if I lost the SAS drives and replaced everything with SATA I could just use a Synology or similar and point Plex at a network share... not sure how that would affect performance though since it would then have two hops to the client?

reven

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#2886600 15-Mar-2022 15:32

Reasons I prefer Plex

Everything in one app
nice UX across devices
skip intros (Netflix has this not sure of any other streaming service)
zoom. this is a big one for me, i hate black bars. I have an app that makes sure my videos aren't encoded with black bars so plex can zoom in where needed automatically and make it fullscreen. You lose a bit on the sides, but its not important stuff. I rather have a bigger picture
Shuffle/random/playlists. I cannot sleep unless the tv is on to fall asleep to. So i have a comedy playlist i watch every night, stuff I've watched a million times before but i still laugh but don't need to pay attention so can fall asleep too.
Can share my library with family/friends.
my server is running anyway doing other stuff, so i call the power a write-off, and its just the upfront cost of the drives. which yes would pay for years of subscription services. but that's boring.

I found I lost interest in Netflix, i would "clock it" and have to wait for new DLC to add stuff I wanted to watch.

Shapenz

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#2887490 17-Mar-2022 09:13

Alright alright - you guys have convinced me to stay with Plex... the WAF is just too important I'm scared to stray too far.

Time to order some new drives I Guess

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shrub

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#2887522 17-Mar-2022 10:31

I went through the same thought process a while ago and ended up doubling down on unraid /sonarr/radarr/Tdarr/plex. Now I'm up to 12 drives and it's working so automatically that I just look at it weekly or if there is a new series out to add.

Biggest thing I did and was able to free up space was Transcode all media to x265 with tdarr. Took a month on a 1050ti to chew through 12,000 odd files but it saved 5.5tb of space.

reven

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#2887531 17-Mar-2022 10:58

shrub: I went through the same thought process a while ago and ended up doubling down on unraid /sonarr/radarr/Tdarr/plex. Now I'm up to 12 drives and it's working so automatically that I just look at it weekly or if there is a new series out to add.

Biggest thing I did and was able to free up space was Transcode all media to x265 with tdarr. Took a month on a 1050ti to chew through 12,000 odd files but it saved 5.5tb of space.

You should use FileFlows instead of tdarr its so much better, and its written by a kiwi...... :|

Quinny

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#2887533 17-Mar-2022 11:00

Plex on a Synology 916+ with 4x10tb WD Reds. Very rare have to transcode anything just works with no drama. Also pay for Netflix, Prime, Disney, Sky, and Curiosity Stream. Most effort I make is to sort stuff into folders and thats about once a week. Good thing about the Synology is it also backs up my pcs every night.

Lias

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#2889778 21-Mar-2022 23:20

Pay for <subscription of your choice> but also run Sonarr/Radarr/etc seems to be the way for many people (including myself). I think it's because people mostly want to do "the right thing" but the fragmentation of that market is bad and getting worse. Very few people can realistically pay for Sky/Neon + Disney + Amazon + Netflix + Apple + HBO + Paramount + whatever else.

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