Hey folks,
I have some questions to answer, before I’m going to order the RaspberryPi and I’m that close to it… As an old Plex User I always had some issues with my small DS211j NAS. I only watch mkv files on it. They play flawless over my old iMac but sure I couldn’t get my files streamed directly on my iPad. With the little help of Subler, I remuxed files manually and then could watch them as wished on the small device.
But this extra step always bothered me! So is RasPlex my way to go? It seems like that!
I buy a RaspberryPi, put RasPlex on it - still having PMS running on the NAS and now can stream it to my iPad? And please imagine the following scenario: Everything works as expected, can I throw my video back to the RaspberryPi via AirPlay and see it on a device connected via HDMI?
With all those things working, we would have a perfect working multimedia center that just…works!
Sorry for the long post, but I can’t get many detailed information for my problems. I hope that anyone can help me! It would be awesome 
I buy a RaspberryPi, put RasPlex on it - still having PMS running on the NAS and now can stream it to my iPad?
No, having an additional Plex client in the mix will not make up for the fact your NAS cannot transcode media. You'll have much more luck just using RasPlex as the client - though your NAS will always be a limiting factor in the number of formats you'll be able to support.
Thank you for your quick reply!
No
Okay, now I understand that RasPlex is only a client, and can not act as a server. How can I get access to the RaspberryPi if it's running the client? With the RasPlex solution I could play the movies on my Synology NAS that is still working as the server to throw things over the HDMI port and sound via 3.5mm.
I get the feeling that running XBMC as a server (with iDevices as a remote) would be much more my way to go? Google says it plays mkv flawless, streaming to my iPad would still be an issue?
- RasPlex is just a client like any other Plex Home Theater (like on your Mac).
- It should be able to play mkv files (haven't tested this myself)
- Steaming to your iPad will not be possible without using a more powerful PMS which would be able to remix on-the-fly.
- I don't think XBMC is able to stream video to the iPad (and even if XBMC would be able to this, PlexHT would be able to do it too)
Thank you, too for your reply!
(Could anyone test RasPlex with mkv on an ARM Synology?)
Streaming is possible thanks to this tutorial (remux the files manually): http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/39265-my-solution-for-all-apple-devices/
With my remuxed 1080p files, it's no big deal to stream them on my iPad with the iOS Plex app. But how can I get it on a bigger screen as I wanted to do with Raspberry Pi and a via hdmi connected device?
(Could anyone test RasPlex with mkv on an ARM Synology?)
This has nothing to do with your PMS! (If you don't use transcoding).
Your NAS will just provide the "raw" file via the network. Thats what your Plex Media Server (PMS) on your NAS does.
Whether a file is supported or not, depends on the capabilities of the client. (For example: Your iPad won't support mkv, others will)
A more powerful PMS would be able to transcode the file on-the-file to allow clients without native playback support this way.
But how can I get it on a bigger screen as I wanted to do with Raspberry Pi and a via hdmi connected device?
You can use RasPlex for that. RasPlex will be able to play your mkv and mp4 files.
Thank you both very much! I summarize: with my current hardware I can’t easily get everything that I want. RasPlex can make my big screen happy and to view mkv files on the iPad, I remux them manually. Except XBMC, which I don’t like on my iMac, runs and has the power to get it working on my iPad. I have to read more about it and it could by worth a try…
You can just install a second PMS on your iMac too.
What iMac do you have? As a_wein said, you can likely get everything you want if you just use your NAS to store your files and use your iMac as your PMS machine. Assuming your iMac is fairly modern, of course.
I have a late 2007 24 inch model, that's of course not the issue as mentioned above. I am a very frequent and long time Plex user, but thank you for your help :)
Okey dokey.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
