Hi guys,
I’ve been thinking of replacing my current plex client (a mac mini) for some time now, basically because of usability reasons and space (I will be moving to a different place and the computer and tv will be far from each other). So I am considering a raspberry pi, but I have some questions, hope you can help me.
How good is the streaming? I have a lot of 1080p stuff and high quality anime (FLAC audio), will I lose quality when moving from PHT to rasplex?
Is bitstreaming/decoding supported on rasplex? I have an onkyo receiver that supports both HD formats. This is one of the main reasons for the switch, PHT on mac lacks bitstreaming support.
How good is the codec support? I’ve used some other lightweight clients and the server has to transcode a lot, and the mac mini can be noisy when transcoding.
Any other limitations? subtitles, missing features, etc?
Codec support is the best around, plays h.264, avi, wma, vc1 and mpeg2, flac, m4a, MP3, lossless wma, etc, all Direct Play. Passthrough for DTS, DD, DD+, AAC5.1, DTS-HD bit streamed.
Careful with Anime though. They are often encoded with h.264 level 5 and Hi10 to save on filesize.
To my understanding the Pi’s hardware video decoder cannot handle this. Such a video must then be transcoded by the server.
Yes, definitely.
As long as it is not Hi10 and under level 5. We have several reports in this subforum from ppl who play BluRay remuxes (i.e. direct rips without further compression).
Raspberry Pi imo is actaully one of the best players i own, my PS4 . Chromecast are easy sure, but they always output at 60hz, the Rasbperry pi can switch to 24hz for better matching content . that’s a huge win in my book.
Just yesterday i remote streamed from my plex server a 13GB MKV 1080p 5.1 DTS file, i direct streamed it and it played flawlessly . audio was passed through, my amp showed DTS , my TV showed 24hz . Love this thing!
Bought one because @NedtheNerd was advocating it, in the PMP forum. Have not regretted. Flawless playback with RasPlex, and CEC is awesome (i didn’t even know it existed). It has already replaced my Mac Mini in the Living room, and made my Harmony remote obsolete, as I can just use the Sony remote for everything now. I’m going in to town today to buy two more for the kids - replacing Xbox One as Plex player in my sons room, and ATV3 with PlexConnect in my daughters room - mainly because of CEC. Just need to brush up on my terminal skills.
@cbjerg said:
Bought one because NedtheNerd was advocating it, in the PMP forum. Have not regretted. Flawless playback with RasPlex, and CEC is awesome (i didn’t even know it existed). It has already replaced my Mac Mini in the Living room, and made my Harmony remote obsolete, as I can just use the Sony remote for everything now. I’m going in to town today to buy two more for the kids - replacing Xbox One as Plex player in my sons room, and ATV3 with PlexConnect in my daughters room - mainly because of CEC. Just need to brush up on my terminal skills.
Great, post back if you hit any issues with CLI issues, preferably in the Plex Media Player forum, as this is, after all, the Rasplex forum! Unless of course you decide to go Rasplex, much better in my opinion.
@NedtheNerd I spent 1 day with PMP on the Pi, then tried RasPlex, and I’m not going back anytime soon. It’s just brilliant. I’ve bought an extra sd card with PMP on, just to test the releases.
HEVC H265 will not be supported on the PI, so if you have a lot of media encoded in that format prepare to transcode a lot. But HEVC support is only viable on a decent HTPC really until hardware acceleration for it becomes prominent. PI is still the best low powered solution.
