We’re moving away from having OS-level filesystems inside Plex. The Media Server does not integrate any such code.
Thats a bummer. But anyways, could you please enlighten us on how to achieve library sharing across the internet? Im guessing the paths will be different on a remote computer and on a local one.
1: How will a remote computer access the library (userdata)?
2: How will the paths be translated to work over the internet?
plex media server communicates with plex via XML over HTTP, (including for plugin content in plex .8.x right now), so getting it over the internet is mostly just a matter of port forwarding, like you can do now on plex .8 to share your itunes/iphoto to a remote plex over the net. path optimization is some dark ass voodoo that i dont understand at all, but i have faith that Elan does.
Indeed, good sir, indeed. Although I am already a pretty happy camper with 8 so its all cherries at this point :)
I have a question about the decentralized setup of things. Say I will run Plex with the Mediaserver (MEdiamanger) on my Mac Pro, which in turn connects to a couple of NAS boxes. I will build my media library here, because that’s the machine I usually work on and that has a real monitor connected. Then I have a Mac Mini which is connected to my HDTV. Now I figure I can use Plex on the Mini and “plug into” the Plex Mediaserver on the Mac Pro.
Now my question is, how is content transfered over to the Mac Mini once I play a file there? Will the Mini access the same NAS that the Mac Pro does, or will the Mac Pro Plex instance stream the data over to the Mac Mini (HTTP?)?. If that’s the case, how about the performance of that. I imagine it would be much faster if the Mini would get files directly from the NAS (AFP or CIFS)?
Just curious. Planing ahead, you know 
even if file playing was going nas >> mac pro >> mini, i dont think that would be much slower, i’d think it would just be a simple redirect by the mac pro, its not like its transcoding or anything like that, maybe a tiny bit more latency starting the file, but i don’t think any significant slowdown, but i’m just guessing. and no, i dont know the answer to your question about what path the streaming would take.
although, just looking at the electricity usage cost of a mac pro vs a mac mini, i would think it would make more sense to have the main library live on the mini, just in terms which machine you wouldnt mind leaving running most/all of the time as a server for the plexes in your house. i dont think the media manager is something thats gonna have you reaching for a mouse/keyboard on a daily basis, its mostly just used for initial setup and for fixing incorrect matches, easy to pop in with screen sharing from the pro (or dig out your wireless mouse) on the occasions when you need to use it.
and the whole decentralized/centralized labels are kind of misleading, alexandria is really flexible, it can work both ways, what you’re describing is actually a centralized library setup (2 machines sharing the same central library).
Thanks Billy.
You are of course right about the power usage of the Ma Pro vs. the Mac Mini, but since my Mac Pro is already running 24*7 anyways, I figured I could just put it all up there. But that’s something I haven’t really decided yet. I just wanted to make sure my assumptions were right.
This is really exciting stuff. Now all we need is a Plex client for the iPad 
The path is all the server needs to store to have your mini access the nas directly so thats obviously how it works (locally). Im curious how the server does it over internet though as the path will be different on a remote computer than a local.
Wait a minute.... you are saying the "client" will not access the files through the Plex Server, but instead just receive information about the file's original path? That means the client will access the files directly?
The client has a few different methods of accessing the media. It chooses the best method available to it at the time. For example, if you were connected to a remote server and tried to play a video, and the volume that video is stored on was mounted on the local computer too, the client is smart enough to play the video from the mounted volume instead of streaming it from the remote PMS.
You guys rock. Unbelievable the details you thought about.
But if the volume is not mounted, the file is being streamed from the Mediaserver to the client? What protocol are you using for that?
Atch Tee Tee Pee.
Is that pure HTTP or did you really go the Apple way and implement HTTP Live Streaming? I can see this being very useful when uploads on home connections start hitting > 2Mbps
i have no idea what you mean by that. care to explain? what's wrong with "normal" http? billions upon billions of websites and services and networked software use plain old http every single day to feed you video streams (and all kinds of other stuff too). infact if you're using any plex plugins right now, chances are you're wathcing videos streaming over http, and if you're using plex's itunes integration right now, you are listening your music files served over http by plex media server.
HTTP Live Streaming is very cool and offers ways to dynamically switch bitrates, etc.
Plex gets media out of Alexandria via plain HTTP at the moment.
oh, ok, then that's something just used by html5 video and for iphone then? i've never seen it in the wild myself.
It's the dynamic switching of bitrates that is the cool thing especially if you were streaming your video over net. The client side and monitor for a slow down in data and drop quality if required. Think Slingbox type functionality when streaming. Would be pretty cool. And it's something I've been looking at recently for a commercial use.
What about the Plex Apps, will they also be share over the netwerk/internet?
That would be awesome, only since the actual data is not really within the Plex Media Server, I guess it’s different?
Oh, and keep up the great work
They actually already do, including Aperture and iTunes. The only ones that show up automatically inside Plex are the plug-ins running inside PMS on the local machine, with the exception being the iLife plug-ins, which show up automatically regardless of where they're running (on the local network).
