I’m bolting from my TiVo Bolt! I’m tired of their buggy apps and their new ads forced at the beginning of each recorded show. So now that Plex hopefully has their Live OTA working well(?), I have an HDHomeRun Quatro 4 on the way, which I’ll be connecting to my existing Plex media server on my Mac.
We have an Amazon Fire (the little box, not the cube, stick, or television). It works fine for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and normal Plex usage, but I’m thinking it may be time to upgrade to a new streaming device, especially since we’ve lost the little remote, and controlling it with our phones is a pain.
Here’s what I’m looking for:
A best-in-class Plex app that works well with DVR, Live, and archived content
Available Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Sling apps
An RF remote with a HARDWARE skip and rewind buttons that work with said Plex app. This is critical to family acceptance, since the TiVo Bolt remote does this part beautifully. (I probably won’t use the Commercial Skip feature, seems a bit wonky still from what I’m seeing on this forum, but I still hate watching ads.)
NO home screens filled with “suggestions” from random bit-player streaming services I don’t want to use. Just give me a simple screen with my apps.
Nice to have:
Kid lockout
Voice remote
Customizable screen saver
Available YouTube Kids app (as well as the normal YouTube app)
AirPlay support (via app or integrated)
API for UDP or HTTP-based remote control
Here’s stuff I don’t care either way about:
Gaming
Other streaming services
4K video (still rockin’ 1080 here)
Built-in storage or Plex Media Server (already have that on my network)
Does anyone have a recommendation? There are a TON of choices now, and it’s difficult to get a sense for which ones have the best native interface, apps, and remote.
Advice from the engineering team would be great as well… you all know what it takes to make your app work well on these devices, and which ones are more problematic than others…
If the Gen 1 Amazon FireTV box (like mine) was fine - the Amazon Fire Stick 4K probably will be too. The Plex app on it is world class suck, but you won’t know that until you use a Roku Ultra.
4K Fire Stick - $40
Roku Ultra - $65 to $100 at Amazon and the low end of that estimate can be had when you get a Refurb Unit (I have 4 of 'em in the Plexiverse).
Neither very expensive - The Roku UNO Plex App is the flagship - and what every other Plex app wishes they were.
Note:
If you go for the stick - get one of these:
It doesn’t matter which, but get one 3 feet long. It’ll give you room to adjust.
The idea is when your stick is jammed up an inch from the back of your TV - that is very likely a WiFi Dead spot and the $5 is money well spent when you’re standing there with your teeth in your mouth…lol
How old is that Mac, each Live TV (not to be confused with the New Live TV which comes from the internet) stream is more demanding than regular movie playback. Not quite as bad as 4K to a 1080p device but easily twice the normal load per stream.
It’s a 2018 Mac Mini. For now, I’m not planning to do any transcoding, just recording the TS as-is. If it gets too bogged down, I’ll get a mini PC with Ubuntu just for Plex.
Dumb question – I’m looking at the Roku Ultra’s remote now on Amazon, and I see the Instant Reply button… which button is for the 30-second skip in the Plex app?
Roku Inc removed the 30 forward 10 back skip - MUCH to the dismay of their user base, but they were not deterred in the slightest… they did it anyway. Soon after they removed the Community from the website. No more problems with unhappy users now.
Skip Intro is also off by about 10 seconds if you’re in Direct Play.
Still - those shortcomings haven’t made me use something else - 'cause nothing else compares.
Instant Replay is a sub-title thing - not sure what you’re looking at.
As I have said before on these boards I have a Shield TV, an old original Fire TV, a Fire 4K stick and several Rokus (both Roku 3s and Ultras) and they all work pretty well. Even the Fire devices that were pretty abysmal at first have been improved dramatically by Amazon and have become pretty usable. But with all that my goto devices in almost all cases are my Rokus.
The only caveat for Roku is that there are a very few very old files in my library the just do not play correctly on my Rokus as there are spots that actually cause the the playing app (Plex or Emby) to crash out to the main Roku screen while those spots are just glitches on my Fire TVs or my Shield and after they pass the bad spot they play fine.
In spite of that the “Android” style interfaces are just clumsy and I find them “uncomfortable” to use regularly.
I use my Rokus, by choice, 99% of the time and I am very happy with them.
I had a few Fire Sticks in the past and got rid of them in favor of the Roku after I tried it. I’ve just recently gotten rid of two lower tier Roku devices and replaced them with Ultra, for a total of 5 Roku Ultra devices in my house.
No wonder I’m fat. I need to go on more walks and listen to Plexamp…
Yikes! Is there at least a command code I can program into a universal remote for these functions? Or some other way to access them through the Roku’s REST API?
Yes - users were highly pissed when it happened and trust me when I say we made ourselves very clear.
The only skip there is - is 3 clicks/3 VPTs per 30 seconds forward and 1 click/VPT back. - it’s close, but that’s as close as you get.
Roku’s mind was made up before they ever announced the change and there was simply no amount of ‘discussion’ or ‘rage’ that was going to change it. It happened, we hated it - and have learned to deal with it - while hating it.
How the hell is this even Roku’s decision? Isn’t the Plex app an app running on the Roku device, in which case it’s Plex’s decision how the stream is controlled?
Guess I’m a little confused as to who is responsible for the code of the app…
This definitely puts the Roku off my list. Not being able to quickly skip ads without using fast-forward is a non-starter for me.
I watch several Family Guy episodes every day and every time that piano spins for the opening theme song - I miss that 30 second skip.
In fact, I miss it so much - I usually fire up the Fire Stick for my Daily FG fix… that’s how much I miss it being gone and how much I hate that it is gone.
We’ve been round the horn on this over the last few years and I trust @ljunkie when he says he’s done all he can do. There’s not much to do. If Plex/Roku can work out the accuracy of Skip Intro - or even make it more accurate to skip those 3 VPTs - they’ll get you right up to within 8 or 9 seconds - just like Skip Intro does.
You’re either left at the altar with your pants down - about 8 seconds short - or you skip ahead 4 VPTs and miss the first joke.
I knew I was going to get that 4K Fire Stick to replace my box - long before I got that 4K fire stick to replace my box…lol
That’s crazy, Man…
As annoying as it is - there’s no way in HELL I’d let that stand between me and Plex’s finest App. Every other app they have is crap in comparison - and the update we just got a few days ago puts the app even farther out in front of EVERYTHING else.
I use MCEBuddy to cut those ads out.
Plex’s Comskip works the same way.
You’ll get used to it - or, at least, tolerate it - once you’ve laid eyes on the best Plex app you’ll EVER see.
Life is all about compromise… this is one of them.
The Plex server creates thumbnails for roughly every 10 seconds of video
The left/right buttons on the Roku remote immediately jump between these positions (i.e., it’s not a remote combination move, and there’s no significant delay)
Thus, 3 clicks right is, within some margin of error, around 30 seconds
If the above is true, I could probably make that work by just using a universal remote with a 3-click macro?
I’m further guessing that paused live TV or play-from-start on the DVR for a show that’s still recording won’t necessarily have these thumbnails generated yet?
If you enable thumbnails on recorded content, once the scan is complete, the left-right arrows on Roku make it really easy to see approximately when the commercials end. I use that concept all the time when recording TV shows via NextPVR that are on a network share for the PMS to see.
My spouse hates dealing with commercials in Plex, and thumbnails on recording was a game-changer.
AFAIK this also works fine with Android (Fire TV/Shield), but the Roku is our “daily driver”.
Correct - in fact when the spinner is loading up the episode I can hit the 4 clicks foward before it finishes loading - then boom - I’ve missed a bit of the first joke - but… there you go.
Thumb Gen is so fast now, it’s done before you can go to check if it’s done. They’ll be there - trust me.
A 10-ish second skip is still better than watching ads again. I haven’t watched ads (or fast-forwarded through them) since I got my first ReplayTV back in 1999 .
This is almost literally what I would have wrote. My content is a combination of h264, h265 (8 and 10-bit), MPEG2, and a little bit of old-school Xvid and the like.
The Rokus are our daily-use devices: Roku Ultra with ethernet, or Roku Streaming Stick on wifi. Both current models that are listed as 4K (which support H265).
Biggest Roku complaints: I’ve disabled DTS and EAC3 due to various bugs, so PMS has to transcode them to AC3. But for the rooms in question, that’s fine. Also, Xvid has to be transcoded by PMS. But that’s rare.
The Shield is used in the nicer setup with the audio receiver and surround system, since it can decode DTS-HD MA, Dolby Atmos, etc, which the Roku cannot (it will transcode it to AC3).
Biggest Shield complaints: That dang remote. I stole one of the Fire TV remotes to use with the Shield.
Both device types use HDMI-CEC to power on the whole system, adjust audio, etc. One power button turns everything on or off.
The FireTV sticks are the emergency backups if a device fails. They’re fine, they just didn’t bring anything special to the party.
What is wrong with just pressing the right arrow a couple of times to get where you want and then pressing play? It seems much easier than switching devices.
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