Plex - A complete media solution?

[psbfan9]

Is anyone using Plex?

Plex - A Complete Media Solution

From the website: Experience your media on a visually stunning, easy to use interface on your computer or Home Theater PC. Your media has never looked this good!

It looks interesting. I really like British tv shows and this seems to have the ability to stream BBC iplayer.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Plex is branch of XBMC. Originally dedicated to work specifically on Macs, but futher developed to more platforms.

I used another xbmc branch for a while - Boxee (PC) and frankly I was mostly happy, however there few things most PCs still don't do :

* Very low power consumption (during both operation and idle)
* Instant Power On/Off (usually pc's do ether a or b, but not both)
* easy and full remote control
* full silent design
* support for BDMV ISO and HD audio codecs

In the end I think my current Netgear NeoTV-550 does all that at hard to beat $100

Is it idea product - no, I personally not big fan of it's menu system and even adding more movie graphics and tags didn't improve things much...
For example one of things really bugging me - it does not separate TV shows from movies, but excellent codec support and stable and silent operation make up for most of it's flaws, I just do folder playback

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Plex is branch of XBMC. Originally dedicated to work specifically on Macs, but futher developed to more platforms.

I used another xbmc branch for a while - Boxee (PC) and frankly I was mostly happy, however there few things most PCs still don't do :

* Very low power consumption (during both operation and idle)
* Instant Power On/Off (usually pc's do ether a or b, but not both)
* easy and full remote control
* full silent design
* support for BDMV ISO and HD audio codecs

In the end I think my current Netgear NeoTV-550 does all that at hard to beat $100

Is it [STRIKE]idea[/STRIKE] ideal product - no, I personally not big fan of it's menu system and even adding more movie graphics and tags didn't improve things much...
For example one of things really bugging me - it does not separate TV shows from movies, but excellent codec support and stable and silent operation make up for most of it's flaws, I just do folder playback

They few other products with similar specs as Netgear - PCH C-200, Dune HD products and Boxee Box...
I'd almost consider the later is my ideal product, but it's noisy and tiny fan really takes away it's appeal from me unfortunately... I hope boxee box 2.0 will be silent and even more amazing

 

[psbfan9]

They few other products with similar specs as Netgear - PCH C-200, Dune HD products and Boxee Box...
I'd almost consider the later is my ideal product, but it's noisy and tiny fan really takes away it's appeal from me unfortunately... I hope boxee box 2.0 will be silent and even more amazing

I'm really liking my Apple Mac Mini. It does everything I want and more. Have you looked into these? Would this be an option for you?

Apple - Mac mini - Even more powerful. Even more affordable.

Adam suggested this company for ad ons....

Elgato - North America

I'm still researching their products to find the right one for my situation.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I'm really liking my Apple Mac Mini. It does everything I want and more. Have you looked into these? Would this be an option for you?

Apple - Mac mini - Even more powerful. Even more affordable.

Adam suggested this company for ad ons....

Elgato - North America

I'm still researching their products to find the right one for my situation.

Originally Mac Mini's were good solution, since they were powerful and flexible enough to run hd videos, but times have changed and cheap stand-alone player can do more that htpc can't

Mac Mini still can't bitstream hd audio, neither play blurays (ISOs) without purchasing additional software (Buy Mac Blu-ray Player registration code, get discount with each product!)

That said, $100 netgear beats $600 Mac mini in my book any day
Plus HD flac support files, but If you wanted - you could do more with real htpc like setup download server - not going to expand on this...

 

[audiofox]

I like my Minis as well-I have two (both are 2010 vintage), each dedicated to music and video playback, respectively. Each has a dedicated Drobo with 4-2GB WD drives connected via Firewire, so I am set for storage for awhile (usable space is 5.4TB, and both are less than 50% full). I'm still playing with the various playback options but have tried Amarra, Decibel, Audirvana and Fidelia for music playback (Decibel is my current favorite because it plays my multichannel audio files with fewer problems than the others). I have not explored the video playback options yet and plan to check out Plex-aside from iTunes, DVD Player and Quicktime, the video players available for the Mac are more limited in number than that for audio. I'm also considering staying with Snow Leopard since it supports Front Row (Lion does not unless you do a software kludge to make it work), so that is my next project.

 

[Frans]

Is anyone using Plex?

Plex - A Complete Media Solution

From the website: Experience your media on a visually stunning, easy to use interface on your computer or Home Theater PC. Your media has never looked this good!

It looks interesting. I really like British tv shows and this seems to have the ability to stream BBC iplayer.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
Barry

I started using Plex a couple of days ago and I love it. I can't really fault it so far, except perhaps my mac currently doesn't playback HD ISO files correctly. I love the add-ons, especially the Apple Trailers and YouTube. Some add-ons work better than others, though. So far I haven't managed to watch CNN live, for instance.

iTunes integration works like a charm (after I updated the media server to the latest version). The meta data works very well too, and is a really cool addition to the software.

The interface is rather slick looking and performs well enough for the job.

Because of my positive experiences with Plex, I'm now looking into assembling a dedicated machine for the job. If only I had some cash left to burn...

 

[enrique]

Has anyone compared plex to Mezzmo. I have mezzmo installed in my windows 7 desktop,but still cant figure it out how to really use it.Use ps3 with my setup.Music is stored in itunes. And if anyone knows i installed 2 digital copy dvd's into itunes in hopes i could stream them later.but no dice.

 

[Audioseduction]

For you true videophiles out there I personaly recommand JRMC 17 for best play back of both BR and DVD movies ripped on your hard drives. I also use JRMC 17 on my dedicated 2ch rig.

 

[t3steve]

I have a 2009 2.26Ghz Mac Mini running Plex as my home media server. I have a 3TB usb hard drive plugged into the back of it and a 1TB network drive with movies on them.

It works great it is completely silent and has very low power consumption.
I have my main tv hooked up directly to the Mini and am also streaming to a Xbox 360 hooked up to another tv.

It also will stream over the internet to my portable devices. I was just on vacation in Maui and we watched movies on the Ipad streamed from the Plex Mac Mini back home. If I had a Apple Tv or Roku box I could have plugged it into the tv in the condo and done the same.

 

[mpompey]

I tried running Plex Server on my ubuntu 11.04 box and it was a resource hog. I liked the concept of Plex but from a resource perspective it was too much strain. I took it off after a day. I'm currently running PS3 Media Server, but I'm not a big fan of that on the Linux side either.