My mother currently has a LG smart TV that has issues with Plex. So as an alternative I first thought that I could give her a Raspberry Pi 3 + OSMC remote. Since she already has an Amazon Prime account I thought why not get something like the Fire which we could add Plex.
My question is, if ALL she will be doing with this is only opening Plex, would the Fire TV Stick work without issues, or is it safer bet to go with the more robust FIre TV? Is the Plex app stable?
For the small difference in price I would go with the Amazon Fire TV 4K. It’s that much faster & has the option for a wired Ethernet connection.
If your mother has an Amazon Prime subscription then she probably won’t just be using Plex as she will probably want to watch the TV shows & Movies available on Amazon Prime plus there is loads of other content available e.g. here in the UK we have catch up TV services like BBC iPlayer for all the major channels.
First - Welcome to the Forum.
@ssa2207 said:
My question is, if ALL she will be doing with this is only opening Plex, would the Fire TV Stick work without issues, or is it safer bet to go with the more robust FIre TV? Is the Plex app stable?
You love your Mom, right?
…Get her something nice - Not a Stick.
…You’re obviously a good child - those smart TV apps are a nightmare. Good Idea to get out of those.
The AFTV box will blister through Amazon Content with all it’s bells and whistles in fine style.
…Show her how to reboot the box because when the Plex app locks up she’ll need something easier than getting up, power cycling the unit for the full reboot associated with that endeavor, but sometimes the AFTV Plex app will lock up not only itself, but the AFTV unit as well requiring that power cycle.
The AFTV team keeps promising they’re working hard, but not much ever seems to change, so make sure the AFTV is set to allow updates from unknown sources (uh, that would be Plex) so the app will update itself when there’s a new version, otherwise Mom is going to have to uninstall/reinstall to get that new version - then change those show-stopper Plex app settings that revert to their Defaults when that happens.
If you visit Mom on a regular basis you can handle that part for her. The important AFTV Plex app settings include, but are not limited to:
Max 264 Level - set to 4.1.
…AFTV’s default is Level 4.0. Unfortunately most of the media on Planet Earth is 4.1 and that will cause an immediate full blown transcode (from your server, I assume) - generally considered a bad thing if that material can arrive unmolested and be Direct Played (the best possible scenario for Mom and you).
…Direct Play - Auto
…Direct Stream - Enabled
…AC3/EAC3 Audio to match what her listening devices can support and what you’re Delivering to her. Some pre-fiddling of your ‘Mom-Content’ may be necessary, but you’ll find out about that soon enough. It’s not too hard to create Direct Play material for all the devices in your Plexiverse. There’s a Handbrake Guide in my signature - should you need it.
The Roku 3 and it’s Plex app are far and away the most stable of the Plex combos, but as I write this the most recent Roku update is causing spontaneous reboots of the Roku 3 at random intervals while using the Plex app. Roku is embroiled in trying to fix their newest disasters - every new Roku unit they wished worked as well as a Roku 3 - and apparently that action is causing an issue with what once was their most stable and trustworthy unit - The Roku 3. Let’s hope this is just a temporary thing - while they grasp at straws at Roku Inc. If the reboots can be tackled by the lead developer in the Roku Wing at Plex HQ I’m confident he’ll do whatever is necessary. If the issues originate at Roku Inc, he and we will be waiting for ‘the fix’ - but he’ll be over there nagging them to get to it. He’s good.
To add insult to injury - the Rokus are right out for Amazon Content due to the most recent Amazon App for Roku being the largest, most fly blown, pile of Bovine Excrement ever developed. They, like Plex, wanted to go for this ‘app parity’ thing - instead of developing a great app for the device it’s running on and leaving it at that, and like Plex have developed themselves into a corner and are now waiting for the development paint to dry so they can stop peeing in a bottle and ‘recycling’ said fluids to stay alive.
Epilogue:
To be fair - and for full disclosure - I love my AFTVs (Version 1s) (for Amazon Content). It’s about that time of year to start bingeing those Amazon Originals and New Seasons that appear, so I have not given the Plex app the real test drive yet this year. I’m only doing ‘drive-bys’. Things may have improved a bit, but you’d never know it by reading down through the AFTV forum. It still looks like a post apocalyptic war zone over there (the set for the latest Zombie Movie or TV Show), but it’s hard to say how much of that is ‘user error’, at this time. Probably a fair amount.
Nothing beats an AFTV (box) for Amazon Content. If Mom will be spending ‘most’ of her time in that content the AFTV (box) is the way to go. The Plex app works - with some fiddling, from time to time - but nothing Plex is completely bulletproof these days.
It’s no longer possible to buy the Amazon Fire TV V1 so any experiences with that box are irrelevant to new purchasers who will be buying the Amazon Fire TV 4K which works very nicely with the Plex app & doesn’t suffer lockups of the Plex app as described above.
@nigelpb said:
It’s no longer possible to buy the Amazon Fire TV V1 so any experiences with that box are irrelevant to new purchasers who will be buying the Amazon Fire TV 4K which works very nicely with the Plex app & doesn’t suffer lockups of the Plex app as described above.
You’ll have to fly that banner over the bodies of your fallen comrades here:
https://forums.plex.tv/categories/android-tvs
AFTV app development can be considered Glacial and something less than a perfect science.
Some users report no issues - others get an arrow to the head.
The lucky users sing the praises - the unlucky users post bug reports that don’t get noticed until they go beyond 10 pages.
I’ve heard there are plans to improve Plex/AFTV User relations. I love my AFTV and hope that happens, but it’s nothing I haven’t heard before. We’ll all find out what happens together. It’s not like we actually have anywhere else to go.
…AFTV’s default is Level 4.0. Unfortunately most of the media on Planet Earth is 4.1
Version 2 the latest AFTV is set 5.1 by Default.
And Plex App updates on its own. No Need to turn on updates from unknown sources.
I like my AFTV with spmc and “Kodi” Plex Addon.
@Cabel330 said:
…AFTV’s default is Level 4.0. Unfortunately most of the media on Planet Earth is 4.1
Version 2 the latest AFTV is set 5.1 by Default.
Comforting to know that.
And Plex App updates on its own. No Need to turn on updates from unknown sources.
Hasn’t happened here in over two years - unless I fling the doors wide open allowing every street bum to just walk in.
I like my AFTV with spmc and “Kodi” Plex Addon.
That’s nice, but probably a bit more than ‘Mom’ really wants to get into. Never know though. Mom may be a wizz at this stuff.
In the App Plex Kodi Addon you can set it to auto-start it with opening Kodi or SPMC. All she has to do then is to push once Kodi or spmc. thats all.
Is easy.
