Ok, gang. I recently bought a cabin, I dont have internet connectivity at the cabin so I cant connect to my home plex server to stream which really sucks. So I am looking for a under 500 dollar server setup that would allow 2 to 3 streams of 720p at the same time. I will be running ethernet to the 3 rooms with a small gig switch but I am looking for recommendations for the actual plex server hardware. I was hoping I didnt have to put a pc in because I didnt want anything with a fan unless it was extremely quiet. I was also hoping the plex server would use a usb 3.0 drive so I can easily drive sync my library from home and just bring the usb drive to the cabin and plug it into the plex server. I know I might be asking alot for a little money but thoughts are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
There are some ways to do this. First off, you do NOT want to use Plex Home or Managed Users for the remote server. That’s pretty major, as it would require logging in to plex.tv for the server to verify the Pass account. Also, extras like trailers and stuff wont work. Basically anything Pass related isn’t going to work without an internet connection…
All of your clients need to be set up first, with a remember login set for each. Remember, none of them can be managed users, so be aware… So the one client I can best recommend is the Roku stick. Easy to transport, and you drop them, the power and cabling into a bag, and take it with you.
For a server, probably any laptop would work, or you could also use a lower end NAS as long as the media is already optimized for Direct Play for the Rokus you could use. This isn’t hard to do, either, as you can use the same external drive on your main PMS, use the OM feature to put the movies or shows you want to use on it with OM, unplug the drive and when you plug it into your cabin PMS, point the libraries to the drive folders on it.
Downloading metadata might be a pain, but you could use something like Media Center Master to get local metadata in the optimized folders for each movie or show, and use local assets on the cabins PMS settings. This should give you a synopsis of the show, actors, posters, etc.
Something like this is what I envision doing for camping trips out in the boonies… It’s a way to get something to watch when it’s raining too bad to go out of camp.
I’m sure there are other ways to do this, but I know this works pretty well… Tested it on another small NAS I have. Instead of external drives plugged in, I make the OM on the main NAS point to a folder on the second, and when the OM is made the second automatically finds the show, and grabs the metadata from the internet. Then I power off the second NAS, and carry that with me. Everything Direct Plays, and everyone gets their shows… The main PMS on the main NAS shows a media unavailable until I bring the second NAS home to the network.
Now if I could just update watched status on the main to reflect what the second has had watched, I would be happy as a lark.
You are going to do something a bit different, but not really all that different. Something like this should work really well for you.
You could do what i intend to do, which is to setup a raspberry pi 3 plex server and get a wd pi drive (340gb I think) to connect to it for the media storage, then setup media optimization on your main plex server and set it so that the optimised files are placed in a different folder to the original file. Then it is simply a case of copying the files/folders across to the pi drive when you have the “pi server” at home and it will grab all the meta data etc, before taking back to the cabin, just make sure that you optimize your media, so that you they will direct play on your devices, you could also do this with a cheap mini laptop, which is how i have tested the solution, however I want my solution to run off usb power so it can be used on roadtrips.
@MikeG6.5 said:
There are some ways to do this. First off, you do NOT want to use Plex Home or Managed Users for the remote server. That’s pretty major, as it would require logging in to plex.tv for the server to verify the Pass account. Also, extras like trailers and stuff wont work. Basically anything Pass related isn’t going to work without an internet connection…All of your clients need to be set up first, with a remember login set for each. Remember, none of them can be managed users, so be aware… So the one client I can best recommend is the Roku stick. Easy to transport, and you drop them, the power and cabling into a bag, and take it with you.
For a server, probably any laptop would work, or you could also use a lower end NAS as long as the media is already optimized for Direct Play for the Rokus you could use. This isn’t hard to do, either, as you can use the same external drive on your main PMS, use the OM feature to put the movies or shows you want to use on it with OM, unplug the drive and when you plug it into your cabin PMS, point the libraries to the drive folders on it.
Downloading metadata might be a pain, but you could use something like Media Center Master to get local metadata in the optimized folders for each movie or show, and use local assets on the cabins PMS settings. This should give you a synopsis of the show, actors, posters, etc.
Something like this is what I envision doing for camping trips out in the boonies… It’s a way to get something to watch when it’s raining too bad to go out of camp.
I’m sure there are other ways to do this, but I know this works pretty well… Tested it on another small NAS I have. Instead of external drives plugged in, I make the OM on the main NAS point to a folder on the second, and when the OM is made the second automatically finds the show, and grabs the metadata from the internet. Then I power off the second NAS, and carry that with me. Everything Direct Plays, and everyone gets their shows… The main PMS on the main NAS shows a media unavailable until I bring the second NAS home to the network.
Now if I could just update watched status on the main to reflect what the second has had watched, I would be happy as a lark.
You are going to do something a bit different, but not really all that different. Something like this should work really well for you.
I thought rokus required Internet access?
If they don’t then you could just sync stuff to your phone /tablet and enable “advertise as server”
Rokus require internet to run updates/install channels…but they work “LAN only” for any channels you have on your Roku that are LAN oriented (such as Plex, or the Roku Media Player that lets you stick a thumbdrive full of MP4s into the roku)
The Roku was terrible. 90 percent of the movies didnt load and the ones that did didnt have sound. I think what I am going to do is just use a western digital WD box, Sync, my usb drive vefore I go and then just plug it into the Wd box. I know the wd box plays all formats I have.
If you hare having sound or other issues with the Roku, that’s likely because you don’t have the right codec in the file. What video and audio codecs did you use for the encode? You can find out what codecs are used by hitting the ellipsis (The three dots) on a media item and looking at Info. It tells you what video and audio codecs are used inside the file. Look at one that failed and see what it has.
I know for a fact that Roku can play H264 with AAC stereo perfectly. I do it all the time. And if you are going to go through the steps to make sure you have the media set up for the cabin, you are going to want to make sure you have the video and audio in the right codecs to play them correctly.
You have a Plex Pass, so take a look at @cayars conversion scripts. It makes the most Direct Playable format of video and audio codecs Plex can use, for the most clients Plex supports. (H264, with AAC stereo and AAC or DTS 5.1 for a second audio. The file is set up the best way possible for Direct Play on the most devices Plex supports, period.) If you download your files from torrents or newsgroups you definitely want to run this script to make sure everything is standardized. Otherwise you could have almost as many file formats and codecs as you have files and nothing will play well on most devices.
There are a ton of people on these forums that use Rokus all the time besides myself, and those that replied to this, so I think it’s worth checking this before you buy a WD NAS that can barely do more than store your files for this task. There is one on here that used a Roku for his projector to do large screen outdoor theater for a long wile. (Not sure if he’s still on or not.) He would hold weekend movie nights in his backyard for himself, and the neighbors. Not far off from what you want to do.
Rokus work fine when connecting to a plex server but trying to play media from a usb drive directly to a roku is very hit or miss. Avi’s wont play at all. Its really not worth the time to try to use a roku without a plex server.
