Your updater plugin worked perfectly. Now running PMS 0.9.7.3.317--d4217ec.

Noissues with library.

 

Benni-chan excellent job on the plug-in works great! Thank you so much for creating it 

since i'm lazy, i've written a little plugin, which will install the latest plex media server without the need to manually download the new file... (as mentioned earlier)

plex pass preview releases are also supported (if you have the correct username and password, which you only have, if you are a paying plex pass customer)

 

you can find the plugin here: https://github.com/Benni-chan/unraid_plugins

or direct download link: https://raw.github.com/Benni-chan/unraid_plugins/master/plexupdater.plg

 

so far this has only been tested on my server. but i have tested it quite a lot.

 

Nice plugin. My only suggestion is that if the latest version available matches the installed version, the upgrade button should be disabled imo.

 

Also...my library had been updating fine the whole time. For some reason, the web clients would just "lose" connection to PMS. So I am trying to figure that out.

 

Lastly...is there a guide anywhere that states how you should set up stream qualities based on the device you are streaming to? (especially with regards to wi-fi).

since i'm lazy, i've written a little plugin, which will install the latest plex media server without the need to manually download the new file... (as mentioned earlier)

plex pass preview releases are also supported (if you have the correct username and password, which you only have, if you are a paying plex pass customer)

 

you can find the plugin here: https://github.com/Benni-chan/unraid_plugins

or direct download link: https://raw.github.com/Benni-chan/unraid_plugins/master/plexupdater.plg

 

so far this has only been tested on my server. but i have tested it quite a lot.

Thanks Benni-chan!  Just a couple of questions about the link.  Why is there two files, both a plg and a png?  Also, when I click on the file (expecting to download it), it shows me the file contents.  I had to right click and SAVE AS, which saved it as a html file.  I then renamed it to have the .plg ext.  I just put it on my flash drive and I'm rebooting now...can't wait to see it.

 

Thanks!

Nice plugin. My only suggestion is that if the latest version available matches the installed version, the upgrade button should be disabled imo.

 

that's already included (there is a reinstall button in that case). But there is a typo in the current stable release (0.7.3), which causes the version string to have one extra "-" . that's why my plugin thinks, there is a new version online...

the latest pre-release works fine. if this typo happens more often, i'll update the version check.

 

Lastly...is there a guide anywhere that states how you should set up stream qualities based on the device you are streaming to? (especially with regards to wi-fi).

 

check the plex forum (forums.plexapp.com). it all depends on your network speed and processing power on the server for transcoding.

 

Thanks Benni-chan!  Just a couple of questions about the link.  Why is there two files, both a plg and a png?  Also, when I click on the file (expecting to download it), it shows me the file contents.  I had to right click and SAVE AS, which saved it as a html file.  I then renamed it to have the .plg ext.  I just put it on my flash drive and I'm rebooting now...can't wait to see it.

 

Thanks!

 

the png file is for the unraid webgui. it will be automatically loaded when the plugin is installed.

you only need to load the .plg file. use this link: https://raw.github.com/Benni-chan/unraid_plugins/master/plexupdater.plg

right-click on it and select save as...

 

you probably downloaded a wrong file, which will not work. (since it was called .html, there will probably be some html-tags in it... you need the raw file (see my link above))

Ok, so far so good on this. Got a quick question that I couldn't find searching this thread (probably because I can't find the right buzz word).

 

How would I go about installing plugins (for example tidygenres.plexapp), or is this not possible with the unRAID version of plex?

 

Typically you just double click that file on the PC/MAC to install them.

there is no way (i know of), to install .plexapp plugins...

BUT once you got the .bundle (by first installing it on the mac/pc and copy it from there, or searching a bit on the net) you can install this on unraid.

 

for the tidy genres plugin you can find a zip with the .bundle in this thred: http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/22035-tidy-genres/

 

copy that .bundle to YOUR_PLEX_DATA_DIR/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/ and restart the media server (could work without restart, not sure about that)

updater not working here, just sits on "Installing latest version of Plex Media Server..." and there's no visual log of whats going on for me to give a error report

depending on your internetconnection, it can take a while. it downloads about 50MB and the plex-downloadserver is not the fastest...

check your /boot/extra folder. there should be the new file. if you type "ls -la /boot/extra" on telnet you can check, if the file gets bigger over time...

there is no way (i know of), to install .plexapp plugins...

BUT once you got the .bundle (by first installing it on the mac/pc and copy it from there, or searching a bit on the net) you can install this on unraid.

 

for the tidy genres plugin you can find a zip with the .bundle in this thred: http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/22035-tidy-genres/

 

copy that .bundle to YOUR_PLEX_DATA_DIR/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/ and restart the media server (could work without restart, not sure about that)

 

Thanks, I will take a look when I can tonight. This actually opens me up to a better question, wondering your insight.

 

I posted yesterday with my specs on my unRAID box:

    MoBo: ASRock 880GM-LE FX AM3+ AMD

    CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz

    RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL

 

which I was told should be fine by you (thanks). However, my next question is this:

 

Is using the above better or worse than just running Plex from my main PC (i7, 16GB ram etc) pointing to my unRAID shares? My main pc is on 24/7 anyways, but I am wondering if there would be any network bottlenecks (gigabit with cat6 throughout house). So I guess what is better for overall performance, transcoding on the actual NAS or just running plex on my main PC and pointing to the NAS for files.

 

My use case:

90% time, single user pushing from iPad to aTV3

5% time, 2 users pushing from ipad/iphone to 2 different aTV3's

5% time, streaming to ipad/iphone

the main downside of using pms on your main pc would be, that scans for new file would take longer.

i don't think the network would be much of a bottleneck while playing the files.

 

i really like to have the plex server on my unraid (even if my imac is running 24/7, too). it's kind of a set and forget box, which will work, even if my main machine is rendering some animations for work and there is no horsepower left for transcoding.

 

i'd say, that your unraid server should be strong enough to support your usecases. but the guys over in the plexapp forums can answer that a lot better.

why not test it. install pms on unraid, add one or two movies, and start a stream to your ipad. check, how much cpu it takes. play around with the quality settings.

hah yup, it was my internet, for some reason it was downloading at 5k per second

 

thanks for the heads up on that TidyGenres thing tho, anything else you'd recommend or use ?

the main downside of using pms on your main pc would be, that scans for new file would take longer.

i don't think the network would be much of a bottleneck while playing the files.

 

i really like to have the plex server on my unraid (even if my imac is running 24/7, too). it's kind of a set and forget box, which will work, even if my main machine is rendering some animations for work and there is no horsepower left for transcoding.

 

i'd say, that your unraid server should be strong enough to support your usecases. but the guys over in the plexapp forums can answer that a lot better.

why not test it. install pms on unraid, add one or two movies, and start a stream to your ipad. check, how much cpu it takes. play around with the quality settings.

 

Testing? hmmf isn't that what forums are for? haha. I shall test it out tonight. I have my entire library added to it, last night I tested out a file (about 7GB) that my BoxeeBox hated and it was playing it better but not perfect, although it could have been because Plex was still trying to add all my movies, tv shows, music and photos (about 5TB of data) at the same time. Tonight should be a "clean test" as my libraries are done and only sickbeard and couchpotato will update it now.

hah yup, it was my internet, for some reason it was downloading at 5k per second

 

thanks for the heads up on that TidyGenres thing tho, anything else you'd recommend or use ?

 

actually although i've been using plex for quite some time now, i didn't install any other plugins as far as i can remember...

i also didn't know of TidyGenres, but it looks really useful (i'm currently rescanning my whole library to clean up the genres).

Thanks Benni-chan!  Just a couple of questions about the link.  Why is there two files, both a plg and a png?  Also, when I click on the file (expecting to download it), it shows me the file contents.  I had to right click and SAVE AS, which saved it as a html file.  I then renamed it to have the .plg ext.  I just put it on my flash drive and I'm rebooting now...can't wait to see it.

 

Thanks!

 

the png file is for the unraid webgui. it will be automatically loaded when the plugin is installed.

you only need to load the .plg file. use this link: https://raw.github.com/Benni-chan/unraid_plugins/master/plexupdater.plg

right-click on it and select save as...

 

you probably downloaded a wrong file, which will not work. (since it was called .html, there will probably be some html-tags in it... you need the raw file (see my link above))

 

Ok, used that link, SAVE AS and it saved it as a TXT file.  I renamed it to plg, and it shows a file size of 8186 bytes.  It's now much smaller, so you were correct in the htlm attempt was bad, that one was over 60000 bytes. 

 

A zip file is best going forward.

 

I am new to the whole Plex thing. I have read all the guides but still am struggling to understand when situations require the use of transcoding, direct streaming, direct play, etc, etc...

 

I built a new rig using unraid. It's fast and stable all on a gigabit network.

 

Using the following:

 

Mobo: MSI 880GMS-E41 FX

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640

RAM: 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws

PSU: Corsair CX430

 

I rip all my movies 1-for-1. No compression at all. DVD rips and downloaded material play fine. My HD rips are the main problem. Some of them, the video won't play, others, the audio won't play or I get errors.

 

I stream via wi-fi to my android tablet/phone and iphone. What would be the settings I need to set the wi-fi devices to work with HD content? (HD content wont work on the wifi devices atm)

 

So, what is the best video/audio format to use with Plex Media Server and Plex Media Clients?

 

Does someone know of a guide that I might have missed that explains all this?

 

Help?

It really depends on the client.  For iOS, Roku, ATV2, the ideal encode would be H.264 with AAC/AC3 audio in an mp4 container, since that hardware supports H.264 decoding natively.  This would result in a direct play situation.  If you're using an MKV container with the H.264 codec, for example, it would direct stream.  But, again, it depends on the client you're playing to.  Nearly all of my media is in the MKV format, so I experience a lot of direct streaming locally, which has very little impact on my processor.

 

I have no idea what format your media is in, but if it's not H.264 (no encoding, right?), you're probably transcoding all of your HD media--not the most efficient method.  I would imagine that even the beefiest processor would have a hard time with that.

 

http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/PlexNine_PMS_Overview#Streaming_Support

 

You may want to take a read at this to see how PMS is handling your transcode:

 

http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/PlexNine_AdvancedInfo#Understanding_a_Transcode_Session

 

Is anyone able to change the order of metadata agents within PMS?  Every time I try to change them my settings are never saved.

 

Preferences -> Agents -> Movies (Freebase)

 

The default order is:

Local Media

Freebase

Wikipedia

MoviePosterDB

TheMovieDB

 

 

I would like to change it to this:

Local Media

MoviePosterDB

TheMovieDB

Freebase

 

 

 

Error log is shows this but I have no idea how to translate it:

 

2012-12-01 08:12:34,809 (-53488490) :  CRITICAL (runtime:817) - Exception (most recent call last):

  File "/mnt/cache/apps/plex/library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/components/runtime.py", line 777, in handle_request

    result = f(**d)

TypeError: set_agent_configuration() takes exactly 4 arguments (3 given)

works with me without problems...

 

you could try to go delete the framework.bundle and restart plex (the most recent version of the bundle will be redownloaded)

rm -r /mnt/cache/apps/plex/library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle

works with me without problems...

 

you could try to go delete the framework.bundle and restart plex (the most recent version of the bundle will be redownloaded)

rm -r /mnt/cache/apps/plex/library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle

 

 

Tried this and still having the same problem.  Here is what the log is showing on a few attempts:

 

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG - Request: PUT /system/agents/com.plexapp.agents.imdb/config/1?X-Plex-Token=QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4&order=com.plexapp.agents.localmedia%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.movieposterdb%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.imdb%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.wikipedia%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.themoviedb&X-Plex-Token=QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4 [75.22.142.128:57023] (3 live)

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG -  * X-Plex-Token => QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG -  * order => com.plexapp.agents.localmedia,com.plexapp.agents.movieposterdb,com.plexapp.agents.imdb,com.plexapp.agents.wikipedia,com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG -  * X-Plex-Token => QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG - We found auth token (QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4), enabling token-based authentication.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG - Came in with the master token, authorization succeeded.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG - [com.plexapp.system] Sending command over HTTP (PUT): /system/agents/com.plexapp.agents.imdb/config/1

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] WARN - Ignoring a zero-length content length header.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG - HTTP requesting to: http://127.0.0.1:55226/system/agents/com.plexapp.agents.imdb/config/1

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:10 [0xa8377b70] DEBUG - [com.plexapp.system] HTTP reply status 500, with 510 bytes of content.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG - Request: PUT /system/agents/com.plexapp.agents.imdb/config/1?X-Plex-Token=QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4&order=com.plexapp.agents.localmedia%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.movieposterdb%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.themoviedb%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.imdb%2Ccom.plexapp.agents.wikipedia&X-Plex-Token=QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4 [75.22.142.128:57024] (3 live)

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG -  * X-Plex-Token => QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG -  * order => com.plexapp.agents.localmedia,com.plexapp.agents.movieposterdb,com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb,com.plexapp.agents.imdb,com.plexapp.agents.wikipedia

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG -  * X-Plex-Token => QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG - We found auth token (QqRFNFgxyZHEkwr86Bx4), enabling token-based authentication.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG - Came in with the master token, authorization succeeded.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG - [com.plexapp.system] Sending command over HTTP (PUT): /system/agents/com.plexapp.agents.imdb/config/1

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] WARN - Ignoring a zero-length content length header.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG - HTTP requesting to: http://127.0.0.1:55226/system/agents/com.plexapp.agents.imdb/config/1

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:12 [0xaaf45b70] DEBUG - [com.plexapp.system] HTTP reply status 500, with 510 bytes of content.

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:16 [0xaea5eb70] DEBUG - NetworkServiceBrowser: PLAYER arrived: 192.168.1.3

Dec 01, 2012 14:34:16 [0xaea5eb70] ERROR - Couldn't create group: Bad state

 

you should post an the plexapp forums about this... the guys (and devs) over there can probably help out better...

http://forums.plexapp.com

hah yup, it was my internet, for some reason it was downloading at 5k per second

 

thanks for the heads up on that TidyGenres thing tho, anything else you'd recommend or use ?

 

actually although i've been using plex for quite some time now, i didn't install any other plugins as far as i can remember...

i also didn't know of TidyGenres, but it looks really useful (i'm currently rescanning my whole library to clean up the genres).

 

if this is installed correctly, where would the update button be?  I'm thinking mine didn't work.

you are talking about the plexupdater? or the tidygenres plugin mentioned in the quote?

sorry, I meant the Plexupdate plugin

 

if it's installed, you should see "PMS Update" in the settings section of the unRaid WebGui. (http://tower/Settings/plexupdater)

 

remember, to install a plugin, you need to put the .plg file inside /boot/config/plugins and restart the server (or run installplg /boot/config/plugins/NAMEOFTHEPLUGIN.plg)

also make sure, you downloaded the plg file correctly. rightclick the link i posted -> save as...