Is Plex the only way to go these days?


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23 minutes ago, Squid said:

Plex sucks.   If you're only doing local streaming use Kodi

So I'm actually having the opposite opinion to that.. .  I used to _only_ use Kodi.  For years.  Sideloaded it on my FireTV sticks and used it from my PC media before ever having even used Unraid (which then turned into using LibreElec VM).  And in some sense I still prefer the UI of Kodi compared to Plex, especially when it comes to figuring out watched vs unwatched content, the Kodi UI is just simpler.

 

But I've evolved.  And have gotten used to the Plex UI.  That was _my_ primary factor in my own Kodi vs Plex debate.

 

At this point, I don't really miss Kodi.  It should be noted that I never used Kodi for any streaming plugins, so that could be a huge factor in someone's opinion also.  I only used it to stream my local media, and in that sense Plex is perfectly fine.

 

Never really used Emby to any degree, so can't comment on that.  Or any other media servers to be honest.  Between Kodi and Plex all your bases should be covered.  Basically, pick your ecosystem.  It's the great Windows vs Mac vs Linux debate, but for media streaming.

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Thank you very much for your succestions.

 

But the bottom line is that this thing has been corporealized?

 

That Kodi does look nice and the things I would want are:

 

Customizing the cover art

Review of the movie

A trailer of the movie

Opening the movie in VLC or some other 3rd party player.

Being able to have it on the unRAID server as an UI option

 

What would be the best option for these?

 

 

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1 hour ago, CaptainSpalding said:

Thank you very much for your succestions.

 

But the bottom line is that this thing has been corporealized?

 

That Kodi does look nice and the things I would want are:

 

Customizing the cover art

Review of the movie

A trailer of the movie

Opening the movie in VLC or some other 3rd party player.

Being able to have it on the unRAID server as an UI option

 

What would be the best option for these?

 

 

Certainly give Emby a go.  Meets the above although I'd say check up on VLC and that it works for you.

 

Ceertainly Emby > Plex (for me).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was an XBMC user back in the day. 
 

then Sky UK released NowTV boxes for £10 a piece. (A Roku box with remote) you could side load something called Plex on it to stream with it. so I put it on it. Software that could manage my media and mean XBMC on each device didn’t have to scan/scrape all my media???
 

I played films on it and it buffered constantly. G620T CPU couldn’t keep up. Maybe XBMC was meant to be? 
 

CPU usage on “server” was 100%. So I bought and i3 CPU of eBay and suddenly, everything played perfect and “transcoding” was possible. 
 

then I moved house. Got gigabit internet (2014) and 20-30 users on NowTV boxes streaming. 
 

bought a PlexPass when they were half what they are now. 
 

moved house again and now use AppleTV boxes for clients. 
 

then 3 weeks ago did the biggest change. Installed unraid. 
 

Plex, GPU transcoding using Ram, SSD for metadata and Unraid as the host OS?

 

Couldn’t be a better combination in my opinion. 
 

Kodi, as lovely as it looks. Centralised media management is a must. 

Edited by Jammy B
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/3/2020 at 12:31 PM, Cpt. Chaz said:

for streaming and sharing to multiple users running multiple client devices (remote and local), plex is hard to beat imo. i found emby clunky and much less refined than plex. might consider jellyfin someday if they ever put an app out for roku and appletv. ymmv

Roku app is there

Edited by icedragonslair
wrong info, now corrected
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  • 3 weeks later...

I use both Kodi (Main Home Theater Screen) and Plex (In Home/Remote Steaming). I do all scraping with Kodi via .NFO files and then I use the Plex Web Tools plugin with the XBMCNFOMovie/TV apps that allow you to ingest Kodi NFO files into Plex (Plex still refuses to use native .NFO files for ridiculous reasons...)

 

Now I just point Plex to my media folders and everything JUST WORKS using the custom XBMC NFO scrapers. I could care less if the Plex database gets corrupted or I need to reinstall the whole thing (I don't even back it up). Since the metadata is stored locally with the media itself, it is the end all be all in my opinion. No more needing to keep 2 sources in sync with Metadata. Obviously the workflow here has a specific order (don't update PLEX until your KODI NFO is out there), but once you learn it, you can't beat it. I also LOVE KODI's custom skins/UI, so I use that with custom player (MPC-BE with MADVR) and it is GLORIOUS in 4K HDR on my OLED.

 

They both serve their purposes, but for 4K content, Plex is just not there with HDR > SDR tone mapping yet. And even if it was, I still prefer my beautiful and fully custom KODI UI.

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3 hours ago, falconexe said:

I use both Kodi (Main Home Theater Screen) and Plex (In Home/Remote Steaming). I do all scraping with Kodi via .NFO files and then I use the Plex Web Tools plugin with the XBMCNFOMovie/TV apps that allow you to ingest Kodi NFO files into Plex (Plex still refuses to use native .NFO files for ridiculous reasons...)

 

Now I just point Plex to my media folders and everything JUST WORKS using the custom XBMC NFO scrapers. I could care less if the Plex database gets corrupted or I need to reinstall the whole thing (I don't even back it up). Since the metadata is stored locally with the media itself, it is the end all be all in my opinion. No more needing to keep 2 sources in sync with Metadata. Obviously the workflow here has a specific order (don't update PLEX until your KODI NFO is out there), but once you learn it, you can't beat it. I also LOVE KODI's custom skins/UI, so I use that with custom player (MPC-BE with MADVR) and it is GLORIOUS in 4K HDR on my OLED.

 

They both serve their purposes, but for 4K content, Plex is just not there with HDR > SDR tone mapping yet. And even if it was, I still prefer my beautiful and fully custom KODI UI.

 

 

Here are links explaining/directing you to this Kodi NFO > Plex solution should anyone find it useful. Please let me know if you have questions or need any help setting it up. Happy to help.

 

 

Plex WebTools (Unsupported App Store): https://forums.plex.tv/t/rel-webtools-unsupported-appstore/206843

 

621635238_ScreenShot2020-10-05at12_46_13.thumb.png.37270eef638af7a020ca97d14fff22bc.png

 

 

NFO Movie Scraper :https://github.com/gboudreau/XBMCnfoMoviesImporter.bundle

 

1878273673_ScreenShot2020-10-05at12_47_13.thumb.png.a32046a73065ad8ba094fe0e5ae577e7.png

 

NFO TV Scraper: https://github.com/gboudreau/XBMCnfoTVImporter.bundle

 

2009615240_ScreenShot2020-10-05at12_47_28.thumb.png.359c93b44a92d5e7058405ef09768bfb.png

 

 

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