Setting up PLEX server

[mechman]

One thing I've noticed with the Shield, and I may have to spin this off in a different thread, is that it seems to me to actually look better than the AppleTV visually. We were watching Yellowstone last night on the ATV and for some reason it was suffering bandwidth issues so i switched to the Shield, which was not suffering from those issues. And we all thought that the video looked much better on the Shield. I'll have to research this further and spin this off.

As for my Plex server, it's working great! I know have 260 or so of my library up on it and looking at the movie shelf today, that's probably half the way through. Not sure if I'll rip every DVD or not as some of them aren't worthy of the effort.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I'm at that "are these DVDs really worth ripping" stage, too. I have a lot of concert DVDs that have never been released on anything else, but they've also not been removed from my shelf to be watched very recently, either.

When I set up my server, I moved my ethernet switch from my theater rack to the server closet, which means now I only have a single ethernet cable into my theater. I had to make everything wi-fi except for the Plex client, until I get another switch for the theater rack. I have not noticed any image improvement with the Shield, however, I did end up signing into Netflix on the Shield, too, during our re-watch of Stranger Things seasons 1 and 2, because I think the AppleTV was throttling the image quality due to bandwidth on the wifi. I don't think I was getting the full UHD resolution of Season 2 via Wifi, and it looks great on the Shield.

I hadn't noticed any difference with the Plex content. The Shield also suffers a bit from not always telling the projector to switch back to SDR after watching HDR content. But being able to switch the Shield system output to 4K 23.98 has REALLY sped up the switching with my JVC projector. Now it only goes dark for about a second and a half when switching between HDR and SDR. It would take 7 or 8 seconds to switch both HDR/SDR and frame rate at the same time. So that's nice.

 

[mechman]

What’s the status of your OTA setup? Still using the HD Homerun with Plex Live TV? Any hidden costs there?

I’m getting ready to take the next step!

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Using the HomeRun DUO with Plex DVR software. No hidden costs.

It's been pretty solid. I have the antenna coming in and it splits, one to the TV, and one to the HomeRun. Homerun has to be connected to the network via ethernet. Really easy setup. Plex DVR has been good. Their automatic commercial removal from recordings has worked really well, too.

 

[mechman]

I've been doing some fiddling with Plex lately - fixing titles and what not. I'm also in the process of getting rid of my Netgear NAS in favor of something more robust. Somehow, in the midst of all of this transitioning, my complete ripped movie collection disappeared. To say I'm unhappy would be an understatement! The worst part of it is that I only had about 20 or so titles backed up elsewhere.

If you're wondering where I am for the next month or so, I'll be re-ripping all of my media...

 

[GFOviedo]

I’ve built an UnRaid server many years ago that is still running strong. I’ve got about 1000 movies and a few TV shows. I can stream throughout the house via HTPC and mobile devices in and out of network. A few family members have access to my server as well. Works well.
I’m switching from AT&T U-Verse 100 Mbps internet to Xfinity 1000 Mbps download and 40 Mbps upload next month. Can’t wait to test that out. I’m rearranging my whole home network as well.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm assuming you guys have read the news from Plex... they are phasing out the Plex Media Player (the HTPC solution) in favor of a desktop app for Mac and PC. They're doing this because of the massive rise in popularity for streaming devices/services. The new app will not include any sort of "TV mode" which means that Plex will no longer support an HTPC setup where a computer is connected to a TV or home theater.

No plans for Linux version of the app. It won't be listed in the Microsoft store.

 

[mechman]

That's a big bummer for PlexTV. I haven't used it much but it seemed pretty promising with the commercial removal and what not.

I'm not sure how it will affect my main use for Plex though - watching my backed up movies. I actually use Infuse on my ATVs because I think it does a better job then Plex does. As long as Infuse can see the Plex library, I think it should be fine.

 

[GFOviedo]

I don’t really care if PLEX No longer support the Plex Media Media Player as long as I can access my movies and tv shows in and out of network.

 

[Todd Anderson]

You guys are the experts... it sounds to me like they are nixing support for server to video system. No?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding?

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

There will still be the possibility of a setup like what I’m running: a server and an app on a streaming box.

I would NEVER utilize a computer as an actual playback device regardless, so this doesn’t affect me at all.

 

[GFOviedo]

There will still be the possibility of a setup like what I’m running: a server and an app on a streaming box.

I would NEVER utilize a computer as an actual playback device regardless, so this doesn’t affect me at all.

Doesn’t affect me either!

 

[mechman]

I swear I saw somewhere that they were shuttering the TV/DVR side of things but I can’t find that now. Hopefully I was mistaken because I just started using it and I kinda like it.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I swear I saw somewhere that they were shuttering the TV/DVR side of things but I can’t find that now. Hopefully I was mistaken because I just started using it and I kinda like it.

I’ve not seen anything to that effect. I, too, have come to enjoy the DVR (not live tv, though, the guide still needs work for navigation).

 

[phillihp23]

Read through the discussion. I’m considering turning an old pc into a server for plex.

What do you al think:

Would be the following
Asus M4A79 Deluxe AMD AM3 motherboard
AMD Phenom II x6 1100T AM3 processor
GeForce graphics card
1 primary HDD
3 8TB HDD drives in raid 5
LINUX Ubuntu OS
Plex Media Server

I’m not familiar with Ubuntu or Plex so the whole thing would be one big experiment

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Read through the discussion. I’m considering turning an old pc into a server for plex.

What do you al think:

Would be the following
Asus M4A79 Deluxe AMD AM3 motherboard
AMD Phenom II x6 1100T AM3 processor
GeForce graphics card
1 primary HDD
3 8TB HDD drives in raid 5
LINUX Ubuntu OS
Plex Media Server

I’m not familiar with Ubuntu or Plex so the whole thing would be one big experiment

For just acting as a server, that should be just fine. I've downsized mine into a stock M1 Mac mini since getting my Kaleidescape without any issues as a DVR or media server.

The biggest thing is the drive throughput and the NIC. Make sure to hardwire with CAT6 or better. Feeding the data doesn't require much processing power at all.