Yes it is. Plex is great if you want to watch stuff in your library when you're out and about as the back end and and various apps available make it a transparent process. If you want to share your library with friends and family then it's also a straight forward process. You'll need a subscription of some sort but your viewers only need an app.
Is Plex still a thing?
- Thread starter edgedemon
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Soldato
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Personally if I were going away, I'd probably just put videos on the HD on a 2.5" drive or something like that, rather than keeping nas on and opening up network.
Bit like saying someone should walk to work rather than use a car for the 10 mile journey. Kodi/LMS is not really comparable to Plex.
Soldato
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LMS is better. I found Plex too bloaty, scanning slow and hoggy. App way too clicky to get to what I wanted
Kodi I just navigate by folder, I do like the idea of video database however video files are spread over different HD's and NAS share so works better via folder.
You don't need to open up your network for remote playback with Plex, there are many options without replying on direct access.
I was in Australia over Christmas, I can't plug a 2.5" HDD into the Apple TV I had access to. I did however sign in with my Plex account and had freedom of choice to watch any media I have. All without any ports being opened.
Okay then. Whatever you say boss. You just reminded me why I considered putting you on ignore years ago from your constant drivel in the hifi/home cinema thread.
Soldato
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Plex took over a day to scan my music. So yeah it wasn't great.
App cumbersome as well.
I don't like the idea of closed in system either.
You know Plex is more than just music, right? It’s primarily a video playback and organising tool with additional functions if you’re a Plex Pass subscriber. Music is a nice to have. I’ve never found the app cumbersome for my use case.
Currently you’re showing a lack of understanding about networking and Plex itself, you’re comparing it to a single app designed exclusively for music, and you’re saying Plex = bad. There’s no other context, no specs of the server, no library size, no details about where it’s stored and how it’s accessed. Just a waste of text really.
Currently you’re showing a lack of understanding about networking and Plex itself, you’re comparing it to a single app designed exclusively for music, and you’re saying Plex = bad. There’s no other context, no specs of the server, no library size, no details about where it’s stored and how it’s accessed. Just a waste of text really.
Soldato
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If you know how to set things up properly you don't get these issues. Never used it for music but it's key that certain settings are setup properly, with networks, ports and settings in plex itself and your router.
With 1235 Movies and 323 TV Shows mines like butter but only runs on a i5 NUC with 16GB RAM. ALSO it's very important to disable all the plex crap they force on you.
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Nothing is free, business doesn't work like that. It was either covered by subsidy or advertising. I think the term is "loss leader". It's a marketing tactic.
Anyway, I've personally got no issue paying £4.99 for a great product. Others may have a different perspective and that's to be respected.
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I'm doing a full rescan of LMS now see how long it takes, about 350,000 tracks, probably take around 3 hours max. I'm installing plex server on the NAS now to see how it is again.
Last time I used Plex it was still scanning a day later. can't recall if it download album covers (LMS does that for missing albums)
LMS + Material skin + LMS app works great. Controls each of the streamers in the rooms in single app /player drop down.
I've tried various other DNLS servers- Asset, Minimserever- not great.
Yes I know Plex is for videos and music. For music I prefer LMS, I could navigate music without the greater number of phone screen taps.
For movies/HD Plexs scanned those, but how I watch is I prefer browsing by shared drive/folder ie USB\TV Series, and \Nas\Movies and \Nas\TV series just works better that way.
Don't use transcoding, port forwarding
There are plenty of free alternatives to Plex. The free business model just doesn't work for the Plex investors. And they will move the goal posts when the 4.99 doesn't work for them either.
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Soldato
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Kodi/Coreleac is free, LMS server is free, LMS app is free. Also can add your own plugins (free)
Open source as well.
Just selected one artist branch to scan for now.
How do I choose specific audio streamers to be outputted in Plex Amp app? in LMS I can select from my four different streamers. I've enabled DNLA server in plex server
The cast symbol only finds the phone
Also I need Album Artists branch
Those are the most important features of server/app...if I can't do those- it's useless.
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What are you running LMS on?
Soldato
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pi5 4GB. Music is on NAS, wired gigabit between pi, switch, and nas.
Plex on quad core Realtek NAS. I'll see how long it takes to do full scan of all my music. So far can't do
"The cast symbol only finds the phone- not showing my Wiim or Squeezeboxes
Also I need Album Artists branch, as that is a lot neater"
Also, I use release type tag to seperate albums, singles, EP, Live etc into seperate branches. A lot neater. Does Plex support this?
LMS also downloads missing album art (as well as use embedded, and uses folder.jpg file in that directory, lyrics, and artist info & picture. Can Plex do this?
Yes.
I can think of many reasons why people would want it. Equally I can think of many reasons why people would choose not to.
I'd wager your NAS CPU is weaker than the Pi, or something else is suboptimal. I just added 15k tracks to Plex in 16 minutes. Quick bit of maths shows it would add 350k tracks in 6 hours.
Can't comment on how Plex handles music beyond getting the folder.jpg and showing artwork. I don't know if it does lyrics, I don't really use it for that.
Soldato
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Plex and music is on the same device though, so it's going through 1 gigabit lan cable.
It's almost done the music scan.
