How to Set Up Plex on Roku and Rip Blu-ray Discs

[admin]

We don't talk about HTPCs very often, and that's because the tend to be a pain to set up and maintain. Running Plex on Roku offers an easier and cheaper way to get your own HTPC like setup without actually having to use an actual HTPC.

Do you use any sort of media server? do you have experience with Plex?

Read on/watch the video and let us know what you think.

 

[fantaxp7]

Good article.

You guys should check out media browser as well.

 

[almostgem]

Good article and how to

Enjoyed that. I use AnyDVD-HD and CloneDVD, then Boxee box to stream from my NAS. A little more expensive, but didn't know about plex when I purchased the two boxee's. Boxee is nice too because it reads the virtual DVD's in their native format. AnyDVD creates Video and Audio TS directories and saves the dvd's / bluRays files in their original format. Boxee also has a ton of internet content, and plays music from ripped (purchased) CD's on the NAS.

 

[Lulimet]

I like to use Plex in my tablets, but not in my HTPC. Too many things with Plex that piss me off for HTPC use. Like the need to map the NAS as a network drive in Windows, or not being able to read from a NTFS external drive in Linux because you need to give Plex special permissions in Linux to read from a NTFS formatted hard drive. Things like this tick me off.

 

[rramacha]

Naming convention for Blu Ray Music Concert

Hello All

I am trying to test plex and not sure how to name Blu Ray Concerts I have to show up in Plex with all meta data. I appreciate any help you all can provide.

Cheers

Raj

 

[172pilot]

I'm wondering - With Plex, I've seen conflicting answers.. Does it now allow me to play from .ISO files, or the ripped (decoded) A/V files, or do I need to convert to some .mp4 or something?? The reason I ask is that I want to have the whole menu structure and functionality primarily so that I can turn captions (subtitles) on and off as needed..

Same question for the person who recommended the boxee.. I've heard good things, but never tried one..

Thanks!
Steve

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

Good article.

You guys should check out media browser as well.

Thank for the tip. Looking at it for the first time, it looks a lot like Plex (which is a good thing). Is there anything you've found that really sets it ahead of Plex?

My favorite Plex features are:
Mobile access to my entire media collection, and from any web browser
Share features (sharing media with my parents)
Lossless Audio and full-quality video through the Plex Theater applicaiton

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

Enjoyed that. I use AnyDVD-HD and CloneDVD, then Boxee box to stream from my NAS. A little more expensive, but didn't know about plex when I purchased the two boxee's. Boxee is nice too because it reads the virtual DVD's in their native format. AnyDVD creates Video and Audio TS directories and saves the dvd's / bluRays files in their original format. Boxee also has a ton of internet content, and plays music from ripped (purchased) CD's on the NAS.

I tried the Boxee PC app when it came out. Is it still being developed/supported?

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

I like to use Plex in my tablets, but not in my HTPC. Too many things with Plex that piss me off for HTPC use. Like the need to map the NAS as a network drive in Windows, or not being able to read from a NTFS external drive in Linux because you need to give Plex special permissions in Linux to read from a NTFS formatted hard drive. Things like this tick me off.

I haven't played with linux too much, but I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations. What do you use for a media server/player?

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

Hello All

I am trying to test plex and not sure how to name Blu Ray Concerts I have to show up in Plex with all meta data. I appreciate any help you all can provide.

Cheers

Raj

They should be added in the movie library, but even then, may not show up with metadata automatically. You can manually add data, including images, in the Plex web interface. Not ideal, I know.

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

I'm wondering - With Plex, I've seen conflicting answers.. Does it now allow me to play from .ISO files, or the ripped (decoded) A/V files, or do I need to convert to some .mp4 or something?? The reason I ask is that I want to have the whole menu structure and functionality primarily so that I can turn captions (subtitles) on and off as needed..

Same question for the person who recommended the boxee.. I've heard good things, but never tried one..

Thanks!
Steve

An older version of Plex used to offer DVD iso playback, the new version does not. That's probably where you are seeing some conflicting info. It's something that gets requested a lot, but from what I've seen posted by the developers, it won't be comming back. It seems to present a lot of problems with the mobile/web-streaming features.

Personally, I'd love to have the option of Blu--ray ISO playback, but mobile-web playback is more important given that I can still use makeMKV to get the Blu-ray feature in original quality (and I rarely watch Blu-ray extras, so I might as well take the space savings).

 

[Lulimet]

I tried the Boxee PC app when it came out. Is it still being developed/supported?

Boxee stopped support for the app long time ago Same thing for their Boxee box. They abandoned their product after only one and half years of releasing it.

 

[Lulimet]

What do you use for a media server/player?

Plex media server on a Windows 7 PC. Plex app on an Android tablet, Google Chromecast, and Amazon Fire TV.

 

[ihopnavajo]

If you want ISO playback, you can utilize this same set-up for the server side, and still have Plex for your streaming desires, but for the menu functionality you can either get a KDLinks media player (I think they run about $100 for just the player) or, if you have an HTPC, you can get DVDFab's media player. However, you'll soon figure out, as I did, that the extra size a full ISO takes up is not really worth the price of menu functionality (a 35GB disc can easily have just a 20GB movie file and space is money). Besides, if all you want to do is toggle between sound formats and subtitles, Plex, and any other media player, is fully capable of doing that. Now, if it's special features you want, menu functionality is pretty vital. Until someone gets a database out there with all the title information for each disc or a pretty damn awesome Java script analyzer (to match menu buttons to the particular video title), it's a damn pain to figure out and organize special feature titles.

 

[itschris]

I switched from PLEX to XBMC on my HTPC running OpenElec that sits in my a/v cabinet and hooked up to my system. I love PLEX for music and I still use it for that via my iPad and AppleTV. I airplay from my iPad to my AppleTv and it works great and give me, and more importantly, my wife, an easy and slick way to access our music from any room in the house.

For movies, maybe things have changed, but I could never get PLEX to do quite what I want. If I'm buying Blu-Rays, I want the hi-def audio codecs. As far as I know, PLEX doesn't do that... or does it do it now?

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

I switched from PLEX to XBMC on my HTPC running OpenElec that sits in my a/v cabinet and hooked up to my system. I love PLEX for music and I still use it for that via my iPad and AppleTV. I airplay from my iPad to my AppleTv and it works great and give me, and more importantly, my wife, an easy and slick way to access our music from any room in the house.

For movies, maybe things have changed, but I could never get PLEX to do quite what I want. If I'm buying Blu-Rays, I want the hi-def audio codecs. As far as I know, PLEX doesn't do that... or does it do it now?

Yes, exactly. At least on PC, the latest version of Plex Home Theater will send lossless audio (HD audio codecs) to a compatible AVR via HDMI. No loss in quality.

 

[fantaxp7]

Thank for the tip. Looking at it for the first time, it looks a lot like Plex (which is a good thing). Is there anything you've found that really sets it ahead of Plex?

My favorite Plex features are:
Mobile access to my entire media collection, and from any web browser
Share features (sharing media with my parents)
Lossless Audio and full-quality video through the Plex Theater applicaiton

Mediabrowser has been around for awhile, and what I like best is the server-client setup which is similar to Plex. They have plenty of mobile access across android and ios platforms as well as web browser clients and actual HTPC clients. I think it is a sort of best of both worlds scenario as far as feature between XBMC and Plex. You get the mobility and server setup like Plex and a strong home theater client like XBMC is. I can do all lossless audio and also get picky with video decoders if I want. Or keep it simple and use built in windows decoders. Lots of options and still very easy to use.

They even now have a plugin for XBMC user's to take advantage of using their server end.

Mediabrowser's mobile client and server is working to integrating some of the extra features that Plex has like downloading to device and sharing. The core features though currently stack up well to Plex.

 

[fantaxp7]

I switched from PLEX to XBMC on my HTPC running OpenElec that sits in my a/v cabinet and hooked up to my system. I love PLEX for music and I still use it for that via my iPad and AppleTV. I airplay from my iPad to my AppleTv and it works great and give me, and more importantly, my wife, an easy and slick way to access our music from any room in the house.

For movies, maybe things have changed, but I could never get PLEX to do quite what I want. If I'm buying Blu-Rays, I want the hi-def audio codecs. As far as I know, PLEX doesn't do that... or does it do it now?

I've been meaning to try out OpenElec again, haven't tried it in years.

There is a mediabrowser plugin for XBMC called XBMB3C that will allow it to connect to the mediabrowser server. Haven't tested with OpenElec but I'd imagine it would work out fine.

 

[172pilot]

An older version of Plex used to offer DVD iso playback, the new version does not. That's probably where you are seeing some conflicting info. It's something that gets requested a lot, but from what I've seen posted by the developers, it won't be comming back. It seems to present a lot of problems with the mobile/web-streaming features.

Personally, I'd love to have the option of Blu--ray ISO playback, but mobile-web playback is more important given that I can still use makeMKV to get the Blu-ray feature in original quality (and I rarely watch Blu-ray extras, so I might as well take the space savings).

Thanks for the answer.. I bet that's it - So many people posted that it worked, then people would reply saying "no it doesn't".. Your answer explains that away..

SO.. I really don't care about the extras, but with the MKV file (I've never used that) do I have the ability to turn on and off captions? I haven't seen anything that will let me turn on and off captions - I can either create a video file with open captions (always rendered, as part of the video) or with no captions, but I want the ability to select them, just as you can with a DVD movie or broadcast TV.. Any ideas??

Thanks!!

-Steve

 

[emma24xia]

Great article, it helps a lot. But have you guys notice MakeMKV cano only save Blu-ray to MKV format? What if I would like to save Blu-ray to MKV? Can MakeMKV do that?