Hi,
Forward: I’ve recently moved my home media setup exclusively to the Plex ecosystem, coming from a mixture of Kodi + MySQL backup setup + Plex Media Server hosting a duplicate copy solely for my mobile iOS devices + some fudges to crudely link the two. For what it’s worth, opinions so far: very happy with my new setup, including my primary player which is Plex Media Player running on a Mac Mini, seems to have come a long way since I last looked at the setup (back then the client was basically an older Kodi or rather XBMC as it was then, therefore was a step back rather than forward), I’ve also now discovered PlexMediaConnect which allows me to also run Kodi in my primary viewing room as a backup - already this has come in handy to identify a problem being of a single media file and not my new setup (and importantly allowing me to complete watching said movie that randomly started buffering two thirds of the way through!).
Previously I had two Raspberry Pi clients, an original and a RP2, one in a room that gets used occasionally and the other in a room that, well, I can’t remember the last time the TV was used, but feels right to have access to my media from there for completeness!!
I’m going to reuse the RP2 with the Plex Media Player embedded image:
- Q1 Presumably this boots up appliance-like straight into Plex (per my previous LibreElec and before that OpenElec setup)?
I then need to replace the original RP, I was thinking either a RP3 / Roku TV / Fire TV - not least as I’ve never tried these devices before, as well as the fact the latter two come with a physical remote control:
- Q2 My three ‘wants’ are a physical ethernet port (ruling out the stick variants?), DirectPlay abilities (don’t want to be transcoding within the home if possible), and a Plex appliance-like experience - ideally it would boot either straight into Plex or with minimal button presses (and be left that way) - suppose I might look at the other built in features/apps however would think Plex itself meets 99% of my needs, especially in these rooms. Finally, they’ll be plugged into a non-‘smart’ TV, 1080p, and with no external sound receiver setup (potentially could consider adding a soundbar in the near future) RECOMMENDATIONS please??
(many thanks in advance)
Q1: yes, you also have the alternative of running rasplex, which is a fork of the old Plex home Theatre client put ontop Libreelec, summarized briefly and probably not 100 % correct 
Both boot directly into a Plex client and pretty much do nothing else, but they do it well 
so not that many possibilities as with Libreelec.
Second alternative: Libreelec with Plex for Kodi app, but this requires Plex pass.
Q2: RPi3 is a perfect streaming client for Plex, I was using it with Rasplex with zero hassle and solely DirectPlay, the latter depends a bit on your media, but the Pi pretty much plays everything directly.
If you have more questions, put them forward.
Thanks for the concise and informative response @Coxeroni
Pretty much as I thought then, with just one thing crossing my mind: so is the RPi3 app/player experience sufficiently ahead of the Roku/Fire offerings so as to disregard the convenience factor of the latter two coming with physical remotes?
I’ve being living without physical remotes in two rooms for years: works fine in one room, though less so in another room (purely passed on viewer habits!).
Again, thanks.
You mention remotes and I for me they are a VERY big part of my viewing pleasure.
So talking remotes I use the most in this order
Shield (living and bed) I have a pro and 16gb.
Roku (bed)
AppleTV4 (living)
Xbox one (living)
The fire remote is very good as I have one and use with my Shield
As for remotes, I have a Harmony touch that works with my Shield, Roku and Xbox One. No need for any of the other ones. Obviously if you use voice controls then that wont work.
@Coxeroni said:
Second alternative: Libreelec with Plex for Kodi app, but this requires Plex pass.
As good as this is on paper, it’s not (yet) a complete “appliance like” experience since when you exit Plex for Kodi you are back to Kodi and you have to shutdown from that. Unless you use a shutdown button from your remote without exiting Plex for Kodi
Update: I’ve thrown the Plex embedded image on an old RPi2 = works a treat, exactly what I was looking for.
Also, my remotes is only really relevant as I’m using these cheap players for rooms with old(er) TV equipment - I guess more up to date stuff you’d just use the pass-thru CEC control from the TV. Of course, for my main viewing room (and ironically with modern AV equipment that does support CEC) I use a Harmony Ultimate - hands down my favourite part of the whole AV setup, once programmed makes everything so much more accessible for everyone.
@simonw500 said:
Update: I’ve thrown the Plex embedded image on an old RPi2 = works a treat, exactly what I was looking for.
Also, my remotes is only really relevant as I’m using these cheap players for rooms with old(er) TV equipment - I guess more up to date stuff you’d just use the pass-thru CEC control from the TV. Of course, for my main viewing room (and ironically with modern AV equipment that does support CEC) I use a Harmony Ultimate - hands down my favourite part of the whole AV setup, once programmed makes everything so much more accessible for everyone.
Simon,
Any secrets on your Harmony setup?
I have the ultimate and have devices like shield, xbox, cable box, ATV4, PC and Activities like Turn on Shield goto hdmi 1 etc etc
I have cut down a few remotes but the experience is not like I had hoped!!
@simonw500 said:
Thanks for the concise and informative response @Coxeroni 
Pretty much as I thought then, with just one thing crossing my mind: so is the RPi3 app/player experience sufficiently ahead of the Roku/Fire offerings so as to disregard the convenience factor of the latter two coming with physical remotes?
I’ve being living without physical remotes in two rooms for years: works fine in one room, though less so in another room (purely passed on viewer habits!).
Again, thanks.
For the Pi you can get something like the MCE Remote receiver or a Flirc, I use the latter with my Harmony Hub/Companion and it works great.
