February 17, 20179 yr My current setup is .. Content on unRAID (movies, tvshows) and a Win10 (client) running J.River Media Center. J.River Media Center is basically a yearly subscription to the tunes of aprox 19 US dollars (Win/ but Win + macOS if you're savvy enough). So, I know about Plex (Server) and Plex Client ?, but I still prefer JRiver on Windows because they hired nevcairel (aka Hendrik Lappkes) The last time I compared both, when Avatar just came out, Plex had a hard time with it, no issue whatsoever on JRiver. Has Plex client caught up ? Is it up to par now (Feb/Mar 2017) ?
February 17, 20179 yr Kodi or Plex or the Plex plugin for Kodi if you need both. I'm not sure of the benefit of J River, but I definitely remember hearing a lot about it 5-10 years ago when home theater software was much less mature.
February 18, 20179 yr Single player and you never play content remotely? Check out Kodi, or some variant, if you want light weight and only to use Kodi I like LibreELEC over Kodibuntu for it's appliance like installation/configuration. If you want to keep it on Windows, then it works fine. If you want to play content from outside your network, check out Plex or Emby, they use server/client methods and both have dedicated apps on many platforms. Both are free to try and have clients available on many platforms. I used Kodi back when it was XBMC 8 or 9 (now it's 17?)... I eventually migrated to a centralized MySQL setup as I didn't want to do the metadata management from my couch anymore, and added a second client, eventually a third one. I recently tried out both Emby and Plex, I liked Emby's metadata and movie set handling more than Plex. However, the majority of my friends use Plex so I ended up going with that. I used to take the files I wanted to watch with me on the road (I travel a lot) on a USB drive/microSD and still take some with me, but now mostly use Plex streaming or syncing to do the same task.
February 18, 20179 yr I used to use a couple of Dune Media Players with Zappiti. Then I switched back to HTPC with KODI. Now, I still use a HTPC for my living room + 5.1 surround sound + Plex Media Player. My master bedroom TV supports Plex. My kids tablets and cell phones can access Plex as well. My parents and mother-in-law have access to my server's movies / tv shows via Plex as well. So, Plex it is!
February 19, 20179 yr I'm using Emby as a backend and Kodi for the front end with the Emby for Kodi plugin. The front end is running on an nvidia shield and I use a harmony remote to control it all. I love it! It can play anything I can throw at it and it's wife approved (most important). I can also stream to my phone or to anywhere else I want. I can pause and resume on any tv in the house (multiple shields).
February 19, 20179 yr The last time I compared both, when Avatar just came out, Plex had a hard time with it, no issue whatsoever on JRiver. Has Plex client caught up ? Is it up to par now (Feb/Mar 2017) ? That's really strange, because my plex server uses a $150 cpu/mb bundle I picked up at Microcenter, and can easily handle 3-4 streams. Or is the Win 10 client you mentioned virtualized?
February 20, 20179 yr The last time I compared both, when Avatar just came out, Plex had a hard time with it, no issue whatsoever on JRiver. Has Plex client caught up ? Is it up to par now (Feb/Mar 2017) ? That's really strange, because my plex server uses a $150 cpu/mb bundle I picked up at Microcenter, and can easily handle 3-4 streams. Or is the Win 10 client you mentioned virtualized? I'd imagine it is to do with whether Plex is just streaming it or transcoding it on the fly. Plain streaming doesn't take much grunt.
February 20, 20179 yr I'd imagine it is to do with whether Plex is just streaming it or transcoding it on the fly. Plain streaming doesn't take much grunt. Sorry, should have been more clear - it can transcode 3-4 streams, as long as they're .264 not HEVC
February 21, 20179 yr If you want to play just from your LAN then KODI is my suggestion. It's been around a long time and has great support community. It's very easy to setup and configure and plays just about any media you can throw at it. I run on ASUS Chromeboxes via LibreElec for a nice appliance that my wife can use with ease. I also integrate my HDHomeRun and NextPVR for local OTA channels via my antenna. I use the MySQL database setup that allows me to configure my library from a single source and I can even play and resume from room to room. Plex will do the NextPVR and HDHomeRun but what it will not do is movie sets. I really don't want to wander all over my collection for the 26 individual Jame Bond movies - I like them all behind 1 thumbnail image. I use EMBY for remote but I have no idea if it will do the NextPVR thing. It also is limited in it's execution of movie sets - but will do it. Not as neatly as KODI and not as accurate (at least in my experience). Like vacations; different strokes for different folks. I used everything at one time or another. I started on Twonky and J. River and moved to networked media tanks and on and on. For me - KODI is the easiest and best user experience and fits my needs. YMMV
February 21, 20179 yr Personally on my Big Screen I use XBMC/Kodi and on all my wireless devices such as the iPads, iPhones and whatever else the kids get creative with I use Plex. I just point the Plex Server at my movie content and my Kodi box in the living room I point at the same share and it pulls all of the the content on each boot up. The only reason I haven't tried Plex in the living room is I'm running a really old Build of XBMC and decided I was to lazy to update it and it just works.
February 21, 20179 yr Author Thanks to all for the comments. I looked at Plex, but Plex Server doesn't support ISOs nor BDMV folders, of which I have many. I'll check Kodi next.
February 21, 20179 yr 16 minutes ago, jbrodriguez said: Thanks to all for the comments. I looked at Plex, but Plex Server doesn't support ISOs nor BDMV folders, of which I have many. I'll check Kodi next. If you dont need to retain menus you could just remux the ISO's.
February 21, 20179 yr 16 minutes ago, jbrodriguez said: Thanks to all for the comments. I looked at Plex, but Plex Server doesn't support ISOs nor BDMV folders, of which I have many. I'll check Kodi next. Install my makemkv container and start converting those ISO's and BDMV folders to mkv's
February 21, 20179 yr Author 4 minutes ago, mr-hexen said: If you dont need to retain menus you could just remux the ISO's. 3 minutes ago, saarg said: Install my makemkv container and start converting those ISO's and BDMV folders to mkv's I could do that, but I'd spend much more time than I'm willing to spare
February 21, 20179 yr 55 minutes ago, jbrodriguez said: Thanks to all for the comments. I looked at Plex, but Plex Server doesn't support ISOs nor BDMV folders, of which I have many. I'll check Kodi next. KODI will do ISOs. I have many and they play with no issues. The BDMV is a different issue. I may not be quite correct but I believe the menu system of the BLURAY is copyrighted. Therefore you will not be able to play the menu in just about any streaming software. The only way I knew of playing the BLURAY menu was to add "Total Media Player" to XBMC - but TMP is no longer... I don't do very many BLURAYs - but if I do I use BDRebulder. It's much the same as Handbrake but compresses down more.
February 22, 20179 yr Author 13 hours ago, skulker said: Therefore you will not be able to play the menu in just about any streaming software Thanks skulker, I really don't care too much about the menu, I just play the main feature.
February 22, 20179 yr 15 hours ago, jbrodriguez said: I could do that, but I'd spend much more time than I'm willing to spare I remember that I saw a container that automatically ripped the main feature, but don't remember who made it. It might also have support for converting all ISOs/BDMV in a folder. I'll see if I find it again. Found it. It's called ripper and you should find it in CA. It looks like it's only doing discs automatically, but you might be able to modify it Edited February 22, 20179 yr by saarg Found Ripper
February 22, 20179 yr I got fed up with things not working and decided to try Plex a couple of years back. They have made steady improvements and "it just works". I use vanilla Plex server + clients. Currently running the Lime Tech Plex Docker, but thinking I may jump over to the official Docker provided by Plex.
February 22, 20179 yr Author 2 hours ago, saarg said: Found it. It's called ripper and you should find it in CA. It looks like it's only doing discs automatically, but you might be able to modify it Thanks saarg ! I'll check it out
February 22, 20179 yr I've been running four Kodi clients off an unRAID MySQL / headless kodi for a while. Works perfectly. Now due to two of my small 5yo Pivos boxes not supporting Kodi Krypton, I'm diving into Emby with Kodi Plugins. I should know in a few weeks if that's as good or better. If not I'll be upgrading the two small appliances and going back to native kodiKodi
February 22, 20179 yr I am using Plex, with mobile clients and then the Kodi Plex plugin on my Nvidia shield. It is working great, and its easy enough to use that my wife can use it. I used to run plex and emby, but have been getting away from emby because their mobile apps are still lagging and not nearly as polished as the plex apps are.
February 22, 20179 yr On 21/02/2017 at 3:41 PM, skulker said: Plex will do the NextPVR and HDHomeRun but what it will not do is movie sets. I really don't want to wander all over my collection for the 26 individual Jame Bond movies - I like them all behind 1 thumbnail image. Plex can do collections https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201273953-Collections Agree Kodi is the best for in-home playing and Plex best for sharing/ syncing devices, particularly for transcoding. I use Kodi on my TVs via android/fire TV and use trakt.tv to keep progress synced to plex, which looks after our phones, tablets and remote needs. Edited February 22, 20179 yr by DZMM
February 22, 20179 yr 1 hour ago, DZMM said: Plex can do collections https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201273953-Collections Thanks DZMM - that's new since I last tried plex. But that looks like the collection is manually configured. KODI does it automatically.
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