Building a dedicated plex client for cabin with cellular ($) internet

[CabinStreamer]

I built a plex server on an intel NUC, and it works great. I took it to a small fishing cabin with no broadband, so I have to use cellular data, and I bought an Amazon fire stick and it works well.

So I bought a Plex lifetime account.

However - because I have to pay for internet by the MB - the Amazon fire stick has the potential to use up all my data if someone who is unaware starts streaming.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to build a plex client, that has a remote, that will only allow guests at the cabin (or the kids who get ahold of the remote) from obliterating what data that is available.

I’ve seen references to Plex OS, PMP, etc. These sound perfect. From what I can tell, the plex client has to have Internet access in order to use the plex server I put there. I’ve disabled all libraries except what my server provides to prevent viewers from streaming content from the Internet as best I could.

I’m seeking a way to have a stick, or small device, that is a dedicated plex player and has a usable remote.

I was thinking of finding a stick PC (Like an intel compute stick or w5), setting it up with the plex client - but I’m not sure what do about a remote?

Has anyone rolled their own player device?

Can I take something like a Roku stick, erase it, and put something on it that makes it a “dumb” plex client? (Dumb, as in, if the user of the remote presses netflix, it doesn’t do anything) - that sort of thing?

The kids would, if they could, turn on a youtube mincraft stream and leave it playing in the background if they could! We want them “offline” and “disconnected”.

Any suggestions / recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

The perfect solution would be the amazon fire stick, running plex when it’s powered on. I haven’t a clue how to achieve that.

[Insomnic_1]

You can make an “offline Plex” setup and it doesn’t need internet except for the initial setup (there are a few other topics mostly related to folks using campers so you might dig around for those too).

There are a few different ways to set that up depending on what you’re comfortable with and how you want to manage it - dedicated PC, NAS, NUC (miniPC), router controls, etc - but the Nvidia Shield Pro is the usual “Plex server\client” dedicated set top box recommended and it comes with a remote. You attach a USB drive for storage and off you go.

You can setup wifi in the cabin and still stream to Plex clients on Roku or Firestick from the Nvidia Shield with some settings adjustments on the server side (there’s a way to not need internet access but if you lock down internet access on the devices - parental locks for example - you can leave internet up for the Plex account check-in). That might push it a bit at which point you might prefer something more robust like a dedicated Plex Server (either miniPC (NUC or similar), or NAS or spare computer) and then use Firestick\Roku for clients at the TV side… like I said, up to your comfort and investment of time\money\energy.

In most cases for offline Plex it’d still be good to get it all setup and working with a viable internet access initially but once setup it isn’t required.

Controlling the internet access functions might be a bit beyond this forum though there are plenty of folks here that can likely help but the options and answers will vary (parental controls on Roku\Firestick can lock down access but router configurations would be more reliable yet now that’s more infrastructure to manage, etc) but essentially you should’t have a problem with the arrangement you want to setup.

[CabinStreamer]

Wow! Thanks for the awesome info. I can do the internet restrictions, firewall configurations, etc.

I’m brand new to Plex and had no idea about using it “offline”. I will dig for those details.

Since this is just a small cabin, there’s no surround or anything fancy. It’s just a TV for watching a movie when you can’t go outside.

I did find references to use a PI & FLIRC IR Receiver. Then I found the SofaBaton remotes - and thought if I could put the embedded OS on a PI, program the sofabaton, that might be a solution.

I tried using the plex client on firestick, then blocking the firestick from accessing the Internet. When I did that, the plex client wouldn’t launch, unfortunately. Apparently I need to block the firestick, but allow calls to plex from the firestick. That might work exactly as needed. Looks like I’m going to need a better router than a stock netgear… likely something DDWRT based or something.

From a usability experience, watching the firestick struggle to launch while all the ads time out sucks.

Now I’ve seen the HTPC plex client - which looks REALLY promising.

Funny - all I want to do is watch movies at night. I setup the server on the NUC because I might add another TV in the loft eventually - and while the NUC isn’t beefy, I’ve been able to watch from two clients at the same time.

Thank you again for the information - this is very helpfull!

[Insomnic_1]

You’re welcome!

You might find it easier to skip Plex entirely. Most smart TVs and some not-so-smart TVs (and I know Roku for sure) can playback files from a local drive plugged directly in to the device as long as the files are in a compatible format. Depending on the device and formats you can still get poster art and some details too. Roku for example can playback a pretty good variety of formats and will show posters embedded in MP4s or with appropriately named .jpg files.

For reference, here’s Samsung’s playback details: Samsung TV: How do I Play Media Files in USB Devices? | Samsung Hong Kong
and here’s Roku’s details for their Roku Media Player channel: Roku

So you could skip some of the fancy stuff that way and just make sure your files are compatible and you’ll be good to go for that setup as well as easier Plex playback.

Edit: Here’s an article I usually link to for using Plex offline for some of those settings I mentioned - should have included it originally: https://www.howtogeek.com/303282/how-to-use-plex-media-server-without-internet-access/