+1 for this feature
+1 Been wanting this for a long time. I have a few friends I share with and the search across servers feature is nice, but having an “All Servers” Server or something similar would be nice just for browsing purposes
I think this feature would be good when plex cloud goes fully live, being able to browse multiple library’s across 2 servers in my planned setup would be ideal, I currently keep 2 versions of my full blu-ray rips, 1 version in my “Movies” folder with all content no more than 4mbps aac/ac3 mp4’s, this way no device will cause a transcode to occur, then I have a “Blu-rays” folder for full blu-ray mkv’s that only one user “myself” has access to on a separate user which is logged into my pmp machine, connected to my surround sound in the lounge. My intention is to move my “Movies” and TV Shows folders to plex cloud, and then run a second nas based server just for my blu-rays.
The benefits are complete Wife acceptance factor, all TV shows and lower bitrate movies stream over my broadband to fire stick, chromecast and iOS devices, as long as the broadband is working it will just work.
And I can still get my blu-ray fix using my htpc, direct playing content from a low powered nas, reducing electrical costs.
My ultimate goal is to have to do as little tinkering to plex as possible, and for it to just work for every user in my household.
@richarddc79 said:
I think this feature would be good when plex cloud goes fully live, being able to browse multiple library’s across 2 servers in my planned setup would be ideal, I currently keep 2 versions of my full blu-ray rips, 1 version in my “Movies” folder with all content no more than 4mbps aac/ac3 mp4’s, this way no device will cause a transcode to occur, then I have a “Blu-rays” folder for full blu-ray mkv’s that only one user “myself” has access to on a separate user which is logged into my pmp machine, connected to my surround sound in the lounge. My intention is to move my “Movies” and TV Shows folders to plex cloud, and then run a second nas based server just for my blu-rays.
Are you ripping the 2 versions yourself, or are you using the Plex Optimize Media feature to rip the lower bitrate versions?
If you are doing this yourself, you are over-complicating the process considerably. And what you want to do can easily be done without requiring more than one server, too… (Or cloud for that matter.)
You have the “main” library" which has the full rips in it. This would go to a folder like /Media/Movies. A second library would be created going to folder /Media/Optimized. When you make the first library you point it to both the /Media Movies folder (I’ll explain it, but trust me, you want both there.) and the second library gets pointed only to the /Media/Optimized folder.
Now comes the tricky part. You make an Optimized Media Job in the main library, to fit the bitrate limits you feel it needs to have for the others in the family. BUT when it asks what folder to put it in, you point this to the /Media/Optimized folder. You want this job to be for all media, so turn off the checkmark on “Limit to x items.”
As the system makes the new versions, it puts it into both the Main library and the other library automatically. The last part of this is to share out only the Optimized Library with your family. They only see the OM versions created for them, but you get to see both the OM versions and the full rips in your library. (Each item in the main library gets a blue “2” in the poster.) If you have Original set in the playing client it will never play the OM version on the device, but only the high bitrate version.
Conversely, your users will not see the high bitrate, so they only play the lower bitrates you have made for them.
Since you are already doubling up on your storage with your current process, this basically does the same thing you have already done, but does it automatically. Drop in a new movie in the main library and the system makes an OM, puts it into both libraries and your family can watch it. No need for Cloud, grouping multiple servers, nothing… Just the basic PMS installed on one device.
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And to be able to do all this on your low powered nas, you could use something like this (https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/178320/plex-remote-transcoder-a-distributed-transcoding-backend-for-plex) to offload the actual optimisation transcoding onto another more powerful platform.
Otherwise you’ll need to do all this on some other platform and then migrate your plex instance from the powerful platform capable of doing this optimisation transcoding onto your low powered nas.
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@MikeG6.5 said:
@richarddc79 said:
I think this feature would be good when plex cloud goes fully live, being able to browse multiple library’s across 2 servers in my planned setup would be ideal, I currently keep 2 versions of my full blu-ray rips, 1 version in my “Movies” folder with all content no more than 4mbps aac/ac3 mp4’s, this way no device will cause a transcode to occur, then I have a “Blu-rays” folder for full blu-ray mkv’s that only one user “myself” has access to on a separate user which is logged into my pmp machine, connected to my surround sound in the lounge. My intention is to move my “Movies” and TV Shows folders to plex cloud, and then run a second nas based server just for my blu-rays.Are you ripping the 2 versions yourself, or are you using the Plex Optimize Media feature to rip the lower bitrate versions?
If you are doing this yourself, you are over-complicating the process considerably. And what you want to do can easily be done without requiring more than one server, too… (Or cloud for that matter.)
You have the “main” library" which has the full rips in it. This would go to a folder like /Media/Movies. A second library would be created going to folder /Media/Optimized. When you make the first library you point it to both the /Media Movies folder (I’ll explain it, but trust me, you want both there.) and the second library gets pointed only to the /Media/Optimized folder.
Now comes the tricky part. You make an Optimized Media Job in the main library, to fit the bitrate limits you feel it needs to have for the others in the family. BUT when it asks what folder to put it in, you point this to the /Media/Optimized folder. You want this job to be for all media, so turn off the checkmark on “Limit to x items.”
As the system makes the new versions, it puts it into both the Main library and the other library automatically. The last part of this is to share out only the Optimized Library with your family. They only see the OM versions created for them, but you get to see both the OM versions and the full rips in your library. (Each item in the main library gets a blue “2” in the poster.) If you have Original set in the playing client it will never play the OM version on the device, but only the high bitrate version.
Conversely, your users will not see the high bitrate, so they only play the lower bitrates you have made for them.
Since you are already doubling up on your storage with your current process, this basically does the same thing you have already done, but does it automatically. Drop in a new movie in the main library and the system makes an OM, puts it into both libraries and your family can watch it. No need for Cloud, grouping multiple servers, nothing… Just the basic PMS installed on one device.
I have done all that you suggested, however I ended up reverting back to the way I have it setup, as I am migrating things around as I move from multiple single volumes on windows 10 to a raid setup on my new NAS, I also do not optimise using Plex, I just use handbrake and have a near perfect solution for profile setup for giving me an mp4 aac ac3 file, and leave that running overnight when I have ripped a new Blu-ray.
What I want is for my main server for everyday use to be Plex cloud, streaming to my fire stick and Chromecast in the house as well as iOS and android devices.
And then a second in home Plex server that has my Blu-rays on, however it would be good if I could group the Plex servers together depending on the user account, so that if I was using my HTPC which would have access to my blu-rays, to then be able to watch something that was on my Plex cloud server, without having to change to another server.
a feature like this would be great. I left Emby looking for a feature like this. Hopefully it will come sooner than later. +1
+1 for this feature
This sounds like an excellent and necessary feature for those with large libraries. Mine is dynamic and I loathe the thought of having to move things around between servers to wind up with one path or folder.
I did not see this anywhere, but is there a request to hardware for transcoding? It does not take much power (CPU) to process the Server so a low-cost option could be implemented. Transcoding etc… well therein lies the power rub (read…Bill)
+1
Is there an ETA for this?
I have been saying this go l since the first public release of Plex years ago.
+1 on this. My cousin and I share servers and when I want to watch a movie he has, I have to switch the server. If I could just have a Movies library that contained both his and mine, it would be so much more convenient.
One more +1 in the list. My brother and I both share our servers with each other, and it would be superb. If a movie exists in both locations, I would want to say it should prioritize my library over his when I watch something, especially when I’m on my home network. Although, I suppose if I’m traveling and watching on an app or web away from home, his might actually have better performance. So maybe that needs a little more thought.
At the very least, it would be nice to have a unified search across both servers, so when I’m buying a new DVD, I can easily check both our collections to see if we already have it, or easily jump to the item in his library when i’m looking to play it.
That would be a nice feature.
For example 2 Servers act as one and to different the Servers from each other just put a banner over the cover. like amazon did it.
So if i am browsing the library the remote server has a banner on each movie and serie.
basically it needs like a portal , it’s only GUI base …
Nothing yet on this?
+1 Please make this happen
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+1 This is a needed feature. At least start with implementing it for users with multiple servers. I have two servers, one on a fiber connection that I share with my family, and another at home in my basement. My home connection has enough upstream to allow for one or two streams so I still access it outside my house. It would be nice to view all of my movies and TV in one central location.
+1 for this. I would like to be able to have the people I invite to see media from both of the servers that I have configured. Any eta? is it at least WIP?
I run 4 Plex Servers remotely, each with plenty of processing power and bandwidth. My music collection is very large. Unfortunately, the Artist discographies are spread throughout the servers, so I have to search through 4 servers to find the Album I want to listen to. The ability to search all 4 simultaneously is a much-needed feature request. (Along with gapless playback and an overhauled playlist creation tool.) Thanks!
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