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+--- Thread: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) (/showthread.php?tid=214626)
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Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - mikebw - 03-15-2018
I have been toying with the idea of ripping all my legally owned movies to allow for network playback to my devices, primarily the ATV4, so I had already used MakeMKV to get a few DVDs on a new 4TB external USB drive. With the passing of Stephen Hawking yesterday I thought it was time to watch The Theory of Everything, which I had ripped just earlier this week. Great movie by the way, some of the shots seemed a little low-budget but that was clearly the intent.
For anyone not familiar with Plex, it's an easy way to access media on any computer in your network on another device. I downloaded and installed the server app to the MBP which I have the media HD attached to, then downloaded the client app on the ATV4. Got it up and running in just a couple minutes.
Only issue was the Plex server was trying to index everything on the MBP as well, which bogged down the transcoder feeding the movie to the ATV4. Once I cancelled those other processes it worked fine. I suppose transcoding the .mkv files to an mp4 format might help, but I'd rather not reduce the quality any more than necessary for now.
I can now see great value in ripping the rest of my movies (not a huge amount, maybe 100?) versus having to pull the case down and load it up in the Blu-Ray player, waiting for menus etc... Nobody got time for that! Will need to test a blu-ray rip to see how well that performs next.
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - DavidS - 03-15-2018
I've used Plex for several years now. It mostly works great and when it doesn't, it's usually the fault of my hardware.
Last year, I finally upgraded to Plex Pass. As a result, I can now watch movies in my library anywhere that I have an internet connection. I also have a HDHomeRun Connect with an antenna, so I can watch live, network TV through Plex on any device.
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - Microman - 03-15-2018
I use Plex from MacBook Pro to Tivo Bolt, to play the iTunes Music Playlists.
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - davemchine - 03-15-2018
Like DavidS I access my iTunes library using plex from anywhere I have internet access. This is very very handy. I have created id's for my children so they can watch or download media to their devices. Much better than iTunes which requires an IOS device be linked to a single iTunes library and cannot download from outside my network. My mother accesses my library using her id and an AppleTV at her house. I could not say too many good things about plex, it is excellent. Even at home I use the Plex app most of the time to access my library as it works much better than Apple's interface.
There are only two downsides for me. 1) It cannot read iTunes playlists reliably and 2) It doesn't manage media it just indexes it. So I still use iTunes to manage my media.
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - mikebw - 03-15-2018
davemchine wrote:
Like DavidS I access my iTunes library using plex from anywhere I have internet access. This is very very handy. I have created id's for my children so they can watch or download media to their devices. Much better than iTunes which requires an IOS device be linked to a single iTunes library and cannot download from outside my network. My mother accesses my library using her id and an AppleTV at her house. I could not say too many good things about plex, it is excellent. Even at home I use the Plex app most of the time to access my library as it works much better than Apple's interface.
There are only two downsides for me. 1) It cannot read iTunes playlists reliably and 2) It doesn't manage media it just indexes it. So I still use iTunes to manage my media.
Thanks for the tips. I am just starting to build a video collection so I think I can handle managing those assets manually, for now, but I also have a ton of music that is already in iTunes so that will stay.
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - davemchine - 03-15-2018
Plex is a little different than iTunes as it wants you to create a "library" for each media type. So you might have several libraries such as Movies, TV Shows, Family Movies, Instructional Video's, Music etc. So from plex you can create a "music" library and point it at the iTunes Music folder. It will automatically update on whatever schedule you setup. So as you add music to iTunes Plex will also be updated. It is very handy as I can add an album at home and my wife can immediately play it work without going thru a sync process or downloading the music manually, it just works in Plex. I hope I explained that clearly. :-)
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - Will Collier - 03-15-2018
davemchine wrote:
Like DavidS I access my iTunes library using plex from anywhere I have internet access. This is very very handy. I have created id's for my children so they can watch or download media to their devices. Much better than iTunes which requires an IOS device be linked to a single iTunes library and cannot download from outside my network. My mother accesses my library using her id and an AppleTV at her house. I could not say too many good things about plex, it is excellent. Even at home I use the Plex app most of the time to access my library as it works much better than Apple's interface.
There are only two downsides for me. 1) It cannot read iTunes playlists reliably and 2) It doesn't manage media it just indexes it. So I still use iTunes to manage my media.
This is the biggest problem with Plex IYAM (and I've been trying it out since the very early days): Plex insists that you let it index your media the way the Plex devs think media ought to be indexed, and reflects their ideas about what kind of media is kosher (meaning no support for full DVD folders, for instance). The resulting mishmash of files has been a deal killer for me all along, which is a shame. The core Plex playback engine is wonderful technology.
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - Golfer - 03-15-2018
I also recently added Plex to our system, PlexPass so my daughter can view stuff while she is off at college. Works well with our iOS devices and my son's gaming console but doesn't work well with our Vizio smart TV's which is a real bummer. Still working on it though.
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - ka jowct - 03-16-2018
Do you have to use a particular naming scheme with the ripped files?
Re: Used Plex for the first time last night (it's easy!) - mikebw - 03-16-2018
ka jowct wrote:
Do you have to use a particular naming scheme with the ripped files?
From what I can tell, no, but they strongly suggest that you start with separate folders for Movies, Music, and Photos (or anything else). Within that you can create subfolders and name your files whatever you want.