I am setting up a new car entertainment system, and am considering using rasplex. I would like to have 3 screens connected via HDMI to individual rasplex units. Each unit will be connect via Ethernet to a mac mini running the plex server.
I would like to be able to setup the rasplex so when it starts up if it was in the middle of playing content when it was previously shutdown, it will resume playing where it left off. I have not checkout the source yet so not sure if this is supported already or something I can add in.
I would also like the ability to have some or all of the screens play the same content in sync. First idea is to use a 3 x 3 HDMI matrix switch and just share the same rasplex to multiple screens, but I would like a more elegant solution, any ideas on how one could sync the playback between multiple rasplex units?
The problem with Plex is that it's a client server architecture. Rasplex or PHT is just the client, but it doesn't handle the media database itself. Before planning on how you're going to connect everything, you should be looking at how you are going to set up the media server ? Is it going to be an on-board NAS or PC? or is the server staying at home and streaming over broadband?
I don't think that Plex is the best setup of this application. You might be better off with an onboard XBMC/Kodi with its own local data.
As for syncing between 3 Rasplex's, I don't think that's possible. Each unit has its own network stream to the server, with different latencies, so if 3 clients are streaming the same source, they will never be in sync. You would need an HDMI splitter and connect all 3 screens to the same source.
The problem with Plex is that it's a client server architecture. Rasplex or PHT is just the client, but it doesn't handle the media database itself. Before planning on how you're going to connect everything, you should be looking at how you are going to set up the media server ? Is it going to be an on-board NAS or PC? Conventional hard drives don't mix well with the bumps and vibrations of automotive applications, so you would need to use SSDs, which will increase the cost significantly. Or is the server staying at home and streaming over 3G/4G ?
I don't think that Plex is the best setup for this application. You might be better off with an onboard XBMC/Kodi with its own local data, running in a NUC type PC with an SSD drive.
As for syncing between 3 Rasplex's, I don't think that's possible. Each unit has its own network stream to the server, with different latencies, so if 3 clients are streaming the same source, they will never be in sync. You would need an HDMI splitter and connect all 3 screens to the same source.
I recently set up a Car media server running Plex Media Server on an old Windows laptop. Client playback is either via PHT running on the same laptop which drives the two screens built into my car (via composite input using a VGA-composite adapter) or via tablets/phones running Plex that connect to the server via wifi. I use a Wifi hotspot as my router - this also provides internet access although I don't plan to do heavy duty internet usage like streaming.
One of the big issues with using a non-laptop, even a Mac mini, is power management. WIth a laptop it is trivial to get it to shut down after a few minutes of inactivity. My laptop also has a feature called Wake on AC so that the laptop turns on when you apply power - which happens when the car is started as the 120V AC outlet in my car turns on/off with the car (so does the cig lighter if i wanted to power the PC that way). You can't quite duplicate this functionality with a normal UPS - and they are also way too big.
