So after discovering plex and trying the PCH client (doesn't work well), I have decided to use plex!
Here is what I need:
1. All my movies are 1080p x264 mkv container with occasional 720p
2. Some are 3D SBS and I need that Pi to send the signal to my TV to automatically switch to 3D mode (Currently the PCH does this).
3. I would like a wall view of the movies and shows as opposed to a linear view. Is this possible with rasplex? I have over 400 movies and it is quite annoying to browse them in a linear fashion.
4. I would like to be able to use a tablet in the future to browse movies/shows and selecting them to play on the TV that way...
What do you guys think? Will all these things be met by rasplex? Should I order the pi?
So after discovering plex and trying the PCH client (doesn't work well), I have decided to use plex!
Here is what I need:
1. All my movies are 1080p x264 mkv container with occasional 720p
2. Some are 3D SBS and I need that Pi to send the signal to my TV to automatically switch to 3D mode (Currently the PCH does this).
3. I would like a wall view of the movies and shows as opposed to a linear view. Is this possible with rasplex? I have over 400 movies and it is quite annoying to browse them in a linear fashion.
4. I would like to be able to use a tablet in the future to browse movies/shows and selecting them to play on the TV that way...
What do you guys think? Will all these things be met by rasplex? Should I order the pi?
Hi,
I'm new to plex and rasplex but hopefully can answer some of your questions:
1- 1080p works fine in my case, make sure your PC can take the load of transcoding that kind of file
2 - no idea about 3D, it makes me dizzy so I try to avoid it :)
3 - you can do this but you will need to change rasplex skin, I installed and currently use refocus whcich runs way faster than the rasplex default and allows for mosaic views of the films, I used the instructions and links from here http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/63770-rasplex-skins/
4 - any "playto" kind of app will work to send movies/music from plex to your rasplex device, I currently use Mediahouse which is free and works fine
So after discovering plex and trying the PCH client (doesn't work well), I have decided to use plex!
Here is what I need:
1. All my movies are 1080p x264 mkv container with occasional 720p
2. Some are 3D SBS and I need that Pi to send the signal to my TV to automatically switch to 3D mode (Currently the PCH does this).
3. I would like a wall view of the movies and shows as opposed to a linear view. Is this possible with rasplex? I have over 400 movies and it is quite annoying to browse them in a linear fashion.
4. I would like to be able to use a tablet in the future to browse movies/shows and selecting them to play on the TV that way...
What do you guys think? Will all these things be met by rasplex? Should I order the pi?
Let's address these issues one by one.
1. My experience has been that the pi will try to display 1080 signals, but that it doesn't really have enough processing power. It does much better on 720p.
2. I can play 3D SBS, but it does not automatically switch. The signal in the HDMI connector doesn't seem to be present.
3. There is sort of a wall view when you scroll into a source, but I don't think it's exactly what you mean.
4. What you desire here isn't really clear to me. If you mean that you want to select movies on one device, to be shown on another, if this capability is present, it isn't clear to me.
I would suggest you download the Plex Media server, and Client, and install them on a full size computer. You would soon see if the capabilities you desire are present. The pi is just a couple of generations back in terms of processor power. I view the Raspberry Pi as more of a device for secondary displays, like in our bedroom. I don't feel it may be up to adequately driving the big screen, 3D system, that we use in the family room.
This parallels my experience running Plex on a Windows machine. The 3D files play, but the TV, which auto switches when tuned to one of the Directv 3D channels, does not know it is a 3D file. I can manually switch it, and it works. There may be a reason for this, noted later on.
I have found that I have some problems with video stuttering after a few minutes. I suspect this is due to using a dual core processor, and running the Plex server and the Plex display program on the same computer at the same time. I think I'm just overloading the processor.
Or I could try to blame it on Windows ;)
Longer term, I think I'm going to try to implement one machine as the server, doing nothing else, and another doing the display. That second machine may be Rasplex, assuming I don't find too many limitations there. Right now, I view Rasplex as something I'm exploring, to see where the limits are.
I do have my doubts about Rasplex having enough processor power to complete with a newer Windows/Linux/Mac machine. I see the Windows version as a way of finding out where the upper limits of Rasplex are likely to be.
The point about perhaps requiring changes to the server as well as the display program sounds valid. The server would need to tell the display program that a 3D file is being transferred, and the display program would need to set the flag, and transfer it via the HDMI cable.
But this brings up another issue. How does the server know the file is in 3D? I can't speak for others. but I'm not doing anything special to the 3D files to contain this information. They're just 1080 files that happen to contain side-by-side images. Those images could have been anything.
But this brings up another issue. How does the server know the file is in 3D? I can't speak for others. but I'm not doing anything special to the 3D files to contain this information. They're just 1080 files that happen to contain side-by-side images. Those images could have been anything.
Ideas?
There is actually a flag in the mkv container, which can be used to identify 3d content.
alternative you could tell plex by some naming-schema (movieX-3d-sbs.mkv)
Stereo-3D video mode:
0: mono
1: side by side (left eye is first)
2: top-bottom (right eye is first)
3: top-bottom (left eye is first)
4: checkboard (right is first)
5: checkboard (left is first)
6: row interleaved (right is first)
7: row interleaved (left is first)
8: column interleaved (right is first)
9: column interleaved (left is first)
10: anaglyph (cyan/red)
11: side by side (right eye is first)
12: anaglyph (green/magenta)
13: both eyes laced in one Block (left eye is first)
14: both eyes laced in one Block (right eye is first)
of course the creator of the file needs to set the flag correctly (or you can do it yourself using mkvtoolnix)
