I’m currently running my Plex server on my PC and streaming via the xbox app, but I’ve gotten a bit sick of having to run up and down the stairs to turn the pc off and on.
What I would really like is to have a simple, low-spec server that I can put by the tv and attach by hdmi. Media will be on an attached usb drive.
I’ve been watching and waiting for months to get an nvidia shield tv, but there have been no uk stocks for MONTHS. It’s a pity, as it would have been perfect for me, both in spec and price bracket. NAS is just too expensive, and I’d really not have to spend the sort of money needed for a mac mini. I’d just stick the usb drive directly into the xbox, but I really don’t want to just have a list of files.
Given my - very simple - needs, can anyone suggest any other server technologies that would do the job?
Why are you turning the PC on and off? Afraid it will run out of gas?
I’ve got one PC that has been on since 2004 and was only turned off briefly, recently, when I shoved a few more hard drives in it (and a new power supply that blew up after 12 years of faithful service - that piece of junk… LOL) and this new PC arrived last year to replace that other one as the server and the gaming rig. When I unboxed this one I plugged it in, turned it on and it’s not been turned off since. I do reboot them occasionally, but they even remain on and ‘in service’ during the scheduled 60 day maintenance cycles to remove dust-bunny blockages so they’ll remain cool and always on.
Save the money you want to spend on a crappy machine that can’t do anything a Plex server is supposed to do - and by a couple of cans of compressed air instead (for Bunny Removal).
I’m planning a new tv in the near future, and will be making sure it has the Plex app. Part of what I’m trying to put together is a really stupidly simple system for my technophobe husband to be able to use
I’m planning a new tv in the near future, and will be making sure it has the Plex app. Part of what I’m trying to put together is a really stupidly simple system for my technophobe husband to be able to use
Glad to help. I just posted similar advice over on another thread where ‘experts’ proposed the OP spend $1000 on a NAS or server to accomplish the same thing!
I did some testing with my system which consists of PMS running on a 4TB Seagate Personal Cloud & the client on my 60" HD TV is either a Roku 3 or an Amazon Fire TV 4K. I tested running four simultaneous 1080p streams to the Roku 3 (wired) & wirelessly to my MacBook Pro & iPhone 6s Plus & iPhone 5s. Performance was perfect. Some of my media is my own Blu-ray or DVD rips but much has been downloaded & is a mixture of .mov ,mp4, mkv etc mostly h.264. I haven’t found anything that cannot be played apart from ISOs of DVDs.
The Seagate NAS cost me just £109.99 but is on special at the moment so if you want one at that price you need to buy it now. It really isn’t necessary that you spend a lot of money on your Plex server & it’s much simpler & easier to have PMS running on a NAS & not be concerned with the expense or hassle of running a full blown OS on a PC. Just make sure that the client is decent & that the media is in the right format.
I really wouldn’t recommend relying on a TV to run the Plex app. The TV manufacturers have a woeful history of poor support for apps on smart TVs & performance is worse than an external box. It’s much better to have a decent client like a Roku 3 or Amazon Fire TV 4K as this will get updated & supported properly both by the manufacturers & Plex. It’s better & cheaper to get a dumb TV & a smart client.
As an aside, Im also thinking about just buying digital media in the future.
The obvious option is iTunes, rather than what I’ve currently accidentally built up which is a movie here and there from different providers. So two more questions, which I suspect you’ll know the answer to:
if iTunes is also installed on the Seagate and I set up the iTunes channel on Plex, will I be able to play these iTunes movies via Plex?
If not, is there another legal system for doing so? I really just can’t be bothered any more ripping stuff like series from DVD
Aargh! It’s so very irritating that for those of us actually trying to do it legally that the DRM is set up in such a way that you end up with a fractured system.
I confess that cost aside I do resent that Apple isn’t content to make money out of you buying media from them, they also force you to buy their hardware to do it.
Problem #1 is perception/understanding: you’re not “buying” digital formats of media. You’re leasing them for only as long as the media gods decide to allow you to continue watching them, and only on the specific players they’ve blessed. If VUDU goes poof, all that money someone spent there is wasted and they no longer have any movies.
If you want control, you need to actually buy physical media and rip it.
I have to confess that I am bewildered by digital media. It’s beyond me why the studios are allowing this fragmentation - to me there should be an industry standard drm and the resellers are the enforcers (for which they get a cut). You have the license for the movie or whatever it happens to be and you would be fully entitled to shift it round enforcers so your entire collection is with one enforcer. It’s currently like you have bought a DVD and the only player you are allowed to play it on is the one in your living room. You can’t watch it using the bedroom one, and if your current player breaks then you have to put the DVD in the bin.
Same with books. I had started moving over to Ebooks purely because we have a house full of books and nowhere to put them. Sadly the publishers have decided to rip us off. Older books are massively more expensive in electronic form. I can’t lend them to hubby or mum. Total rip off. Plus, even with the small collection I’ve built it’s clear that even Amazon has no idea how book collectors think about their collections! So now I just use my library’s digital books. Sometimes I don’t get to read stuff I’d like to, but wth
Ebook sales have been dropping (blows raspberry at publishers), and until the film industry gets its act in gear and actually offers the LEGAL facilities that people want imo they are never going to beat piracy and increase their sales. It’ll be interesting to see what happens post Brexit when we’re not simply waiting on the standardised EU law - I believe it was the music industry rather than the film industry that got the digital copy law overturned - but the current situation is not sustainable.
At the end of the day I have personally given thousands to the film and music industry by buying legal media. Is it too much to ask to be able to have a simple mechanism to watch it without having to rummage for hours to find it?
@NINiki said:
Ebook sales have been dropping (blows raspberry at publishers)
Kindle sales are down too. I think that it’s because after the initial enthusiasm that people find that while it’s really cool to have this portable device to read all these squillions of titles that actually it’s much nicer & more practical to read a real book with paper pages.
@sremick said:
Problem #1 is perception/understanding: you’re not “buying” digital formats of media. You’re leasing them for only as long as the media gods decide to allow you to continue watching them, and only on the specific players they’ve blessed. If VUDU goes poof, all that money someone spent there is wasted and they no longer have any movies.
If you want control, you need to actually buy physical media and rip it.
Great to hear someone mentioning this, it’s something that few people are aware of. Small addendum; buying ‘physical media’ that contains something digital (like games and other software) is -usually- still an end-user license for using software X on platform Y.
