Plex Media Server Server

[paradisiac]

so i currently have my PMS running on a Llano A4-3300 with 8GB of ram using the OBV. i do however have my Intel i5 2500k, 24GB DDR3 RAM, GTX560 2GB, and Samsung 830 Series 120GB SSD that is currently doing nothing but gathering dust. am thinking i might sell the i5 machine and get a console or something, but then thought, would it make any difference using it as my PMS server?
also, what else do people use homeservers for, as if i did make the swap im sure with the added power the i5 would give i could do more things, just unsure what lol

EDIT : should mention i use my raspberry pi with plexbmc, 2 tablets running plex and my samsung tv using dlna to access the files. i have had no problems so far on the pi or the tablets, but the tv refuses to play some files so not sure if using the i5 and force transcoding would fix that.

 

[paradisiac]

The TV is refusing to play certain files as you are using DNLA. DNLA just plays the video as-is across the network. Full blown plex encodes the video on the fly based on the device connecting. You could try transcoding the video into a different wrapper that your TV may like. LG doesnt like MKV, however if you put the video and audio into a .TS wrapper it works fine (your samsung may be similar)

Each device has a plex profile which is uses when you click play

If your TV doesnt have the plex app on it, you need something like a roku or now tv box

i5 is good for video encoding

yeh i looked at the now tv box, but wasnt too sure on that as plex wasnt a supported app you needed to go into dev mode or something.

if i had the other devices, would i need the PMS to transcode or would it just do it device end?
i dont want to turn the i5 into a server if its just gunna be wasted and no better than the llano

 

[paradisiac]

I don't have too much experience with consoles and plex apart from my PS3. If you get a console and it uses DLNA you will have similar problems to that already experienced by your TV.

My advice is.. if your system is coping fine with transcoding sell the i5 system and get a roku box then pocket the difference.

B

so far i have had no issues streaming to 3 devices at one time, although i am unsure what is doing the transcoding the server or the clients. my only issue so far is video over the internet, but that can only be down to only have broadband and not fibre as i get no issues internally. ordered a now tv box as for £10 figured i couldnt really go to far wrong so will see how good that is. the only thing i can see is it only supports 720p (i assume it downscales my 1080p films) and whether it will cope with my half-sbs rips.

 

[paradisiac]

no not played with settings yet as i have just under a meg upload so didnt see the point.