Media Server (PLEX) Installation ? Huh


bombz

Recommended Posts

Anyone know how to manually add channels to PLEX for UnRaid

 

I have the bundle files, netflix / hulu / citytv / crackle / cc and would like to add them to my plex server. Suprising PLEX doesn't have them there already.

I don't personally use channels at all but to my knowledge channel support is fairly limited when running PMS on unRAID (or any Linux distro). This post from Plex Forums backs up this statement. I have no idea which channel uses which frameworks. Perhaps you could ask this in the Plex forum's unRAID section?

Link to comment

Thanks yes, I was reading that. Perhaps that day in the future will exist, I don't really use netflix much, mostly my NAS but it would be nice to have everything right in one interface. Seems like netflix has its issues with Windows/Apple PMS anyways too.

Link to comment

Hm interesting idea, So channels like Netflix and Hulu will be there on the Windows / Mac installs. I noticed I installed channels like ABC / NBC etc from PMS (unraid) when I go to access them, it tells me the channel can not be run on windows, I didn't know if it was because it was running on my UnRaid box or what.

 

I'd love to get netflix chan in plex just to make it a one stop interface.

 

I saw this

 

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/77294-how-do-i-get-netflix-on-the-plex-app/

 

Also saw this comment,

 

Misc compared to MediaPortal:

 

1) Netflix plugin/channel for both PLEX and MediaPortal are far from ideal. Developer support is limited, the PLEX UnRaid version of Netflix doesn't work due to the need for Silverlight (although maybe when Netflix move to HTML5 we'll have a solution!). The developer of the MediaPortal Netflix plugin has abandoned development.

Link to comment

I have my PLEX /Library and /Temp on disk 11. It would seem even when I manually tell my server to spin down all disks, they do. However approx 3 - 5 minutes later disk11 is spun back up. There is no one accessing plex or my server shares at all. I was just testing it for self knowledge if the disk stays spinning with this new addition of PMS. I don't want that disk to be spinning, so I am thinking the solution may be to add and SSD into the array to avoid wear and tear ?

 

Is there a way to have the PLEX Library and Temp on another USB Flash drive? Or can that not be mounted ?

 

Let me know thoughts, or suggestions. Thank you.

Link to comment

Hm, I dunno, did I miss something in regards? Going to look into that now I guess on how to do that. I have a share setup for PLEX on one of my disks, but I don't see anything to adjust it to cache only :-/

 

Been looking around to try to find out what this 'cache only' share it to setup, I have seen talk about it, but I have nothing in my share settings in unraid that allows me to make a cache only share

 

Even when I stop plex media server, and spin down all drives, withing a few min, that same drive is spun up again , hm

Link to comment

Unless you have a cache drive installed you will not see the option. If you have the space to install a drive for cache, and drives laying around like you said, it would be a wise investment to install one. Plex makes a lot of writes when transcoding which is additional wear on your parity and data drives.

 

A second flash drive wouldn't be a good option for the same reason, all of the small writes to the flash drive could greatly shorten its lifespan. Not to mention depending on the size of your library the plex directories can get quite large.

Link to comment

Alright so how big of a cache drive do you suggest. I am going to be away for 3 weeks, so I won't be able to install something until November. Would a 120GB SSD work alright for cache and plex ?

 

As well all the plex stuff on my disk11 (about 5GB worth of metadata etc) could I just move that to my new 'cache only' share, once I install a cache disk ? Or am I probably going to have to rebuild my plex database ?

Link to comment

Alright so how big of a cache drive do you suggest. I am going to be away for 3 weeks, so I won't be able to install something until November. Would a 120GB SSD work alright for cache and plex ?

That should be more than plenty for Plex. For the write cache you should think about your normal way of working. By default mover is run once a day so cache disk should hold your daily writes. You can schedule the mover to run as often as you want. I don't personally use cache disk for write caching since I'm getting 50MBps write speeds without it and that's sufficient for me. I'm using a 64GB SSD to hold all my apps (Plex, mySQL etc.).

 

As well all the plex stuff on my disk11 (about 5GB worth of metadata etc) could I just move that to my new 'cache only' share, once I install a cache disk ? Or am I probably going to have to rebuild my plex database ?

There is a Plex wiki article on moving the database to a new machine. I have not personally used this procedure but I would expect it to work. Perhaps someone with experience could comment on this (or ask on the Plex forums).

 

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...

OK I am going to pick up a small SSD drive for Plex, I think I will probably move my path to the new SSD (cache) drive for plex and just rebuild my library, I feel if I move the 6gb of metadata to my new path something might go funky. Perhaps someone can shed some light on this?

Link to comment

So I add the cache disk, format it via GUI, and parity check as well. It becomes part of the array or does it stay outside of the array ?

 

Copy over my PLEX folder from disk11 to cache, and point plex to cache, and should be good to go ? (going to try that anyways)

 

Do I need to use any add-ons now that I have a cache drive, I like to keep things simple, is mover part of UnRAID and using the cache drive functionally or do you need to add it as a specific add-on

 

Link to comment

- Stop Plex

 

- Add cache disk, it'll get formatted as needed.  No need to run parity, it has no impact. 

 

- Set any shares you want to use the cache to ... use the cache (in each share's setup page)

 

- Set the mover to run (in the Share config page under Utilities),

 

- Reboot because iirc there is still an issue with shares not starting to use the cache without a reboot (once cache format is complete).  If other's know better they can speak up, but it won't hurt anything anyway.

 

- Create a new share called <whatever you want> and be sure to set it to only use the cache.

 

- Copy (not move, just to be safe) your PLEX folder from disk11 to that new share.  For simplicity you might want to name the share "plex" and then only copy the contents of your disk11 plex folder.  That way you don't end up with a path like /mnt/cache/plex/plex/library  That would annoy me!!!  Or name it "apps" and then go ahead and copy "disk11/plex into that so you end up with /mnt/cache/apps/plex/library.  You're call, just think ahead so you know what you're getting into.

 

-Configure Plex to point to the new location on the cache drive, enable it, and validate everything is good via Plexweb.  If something is amiss, Stop, Think, and Post to the Forums

 

No add-ons needed.  Mover is part of UnRaid, you just need to tell it how often and when to run.  Unless you think you will be writing more to your cache than the size of the cache (that is poor planning) then once a day at night when sleeping, is usually best.

Link to comment

Nice awesome, yah well maybe I should set this drive up as an APPS DRIVE and not cache, most plex posts always had their lib and temp pointed to cache. I could always change it to an apps drive, and toss a bigger disk in for cache, because yes I have done large file xfers in the past, baby steps :-)

 

awesome response, I am just copying PLEX as we speak.... then going to reboot and test.

Link to comment

Thank you for all the help regarding this topic, the community here is absolutely helpful with questions and concerns. I think I got most of everything running smooth now. Now I am just trying to understand how to force episodes into the show name.

 

For Example, I have a show here, with 8 episodes, yet only one is showing up in PLEX, not a huge deal just another learning curve :)

Link to comment

Now I am just trying to understand how to force episodes into the show name.

 

For Example, I have a show here, with 8 episodes, yet only one is showing up in PLEX, not a huge deal just another learning curve :)

The basic rules are:

1. Follow the naming convention in the official Media Naming and Organization Guide

2. Check the meta data source for correct series naming. The default source is theTVDB.com

 

Personally I use Filebot for renaming my TV series since it directly supports theTVDB.

Link to comment

Yah I use 'TheRenamer' seems to work fine. It is a rare show '24CH' All about montreal canadians. Just seems odd it added one show but not all of them. And I have tried to rename them 2 different times as well directly point the folder into my 'TV SHOW' section in PLEX. Not a huge deal, I can always manually browse to the files via explorer and watch that way :-)

Link to comment

Yah I use 'TheRenamer' seems to work fine. It is a rare show '24CH' All about montreal canadians. Just seems odd it added one show but not all of them. And I have tried to rename them 2 different times as well directly point the folder into my 'TV SHOW' section in PLEX. Not a huge deal, I can always manually browse to the files via explorer and watch that way :-)

TheRenamer is also an excellent choice. There are shows which cause problems for Plex, most of the time it has something to do with some disagreement within the meta data community how the episode numbering or specials should be handled. It should be quite straight forward, if it is in theTVDB and you use the standard S01E01 format it should match nicely.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.