PLEX vs XBMC

(2012-05-21 19:13)rflores2323 Wrote:  

(2012-05-21 00:15)vinistois Wrote:  XBMC needs a server/client setup, it is painfully obvious.

so true.

Or at least a fully working PleXBMC plugin!

I don't know why this would be controversial, its a legit question and Google does not answer everything.

XBMC in combination with Windows Media Center to do the DVR work is what I have been experimenting with. What I don't like about XBMC is the half-baked-ness that happens, especially with add-ons. Some add-ons are not easy to work with or even worst decide not to work when they did previously. On top of all that mysteriously working (ESPN3) or not working (You Tube). This gives me PAUSE. I am in favor of continuing to use XBMC for all my other media and streaming needs as it fills them (when they work) and don't say paste your log files, please I did that and was told Samba share doesn't work with Advance Launcher, why I have no idea no explanation given, guess nobody running Advance Launcher and has their game files located on a server...

I recently rebuild my HTPC and while I tried to sort out PlayReady issues with Windows, I decided to do a new install instead. Before that however, I downloaded a nightly build of XBMC after reading the June blog post about updates and improvements. Fine, download it, installed it and..... You Tube got a login error (never happen before) and ESPN3 when back to its Script Error creating ways.

This is the halfbaked nature of XBMC that bugs me. There are many thing for Windows that are also developed for free that don't have these issues, you can install the same program over over and over again and it will work the way its suppose too.

All the more reason to look at your options.... I haven't even mentioned how it won't get data from TVDB even if the entry is on that database...

So I was looking for opinions on Plex and I welcome this open discussion.

(2012-06-21 04:30)djfourmoney Wrote:  please I did that and was told Samba share doesn't work with Advance Launcher, why I have no idea no explanation given, guess nobody running Advance Launcher and has their game files located on a server...

You just have to mount your server as a network drive if you want to access games hosted on it from Advanced Launcher. Advanced launcher do not have support of samba paths because most of the emulators do not support samba paths. So... no really interest.

Nightly builds are full of bugs and experimental features. This is the same for any software. We provide nightly builds to the public to help find bugs. This isn't even beta-level yet. No one should be surprised that some things don't work yet in a pre-release build. If you want stable then use the stable releases.

You know who else uses XBMC stable builds? Plex does. Their desktop clients are built on top of XBMC. So... Yeah....

(2012-06-21 04:46)Angelscry Wrote:  

(2012-06-21 04:30)djfourmoney Wrote:  please I did that and was told Samba share doesn't work with Advance Launcher, why I have no idea no explanation given, guess nobody running Advance Launcher and has their game files located on a server...

You just have to mount your server as a network drive if you want to access games hosted on it from Advanced Launcher. Advanced launcher do not have support of samba paths because most of the emulators do not support samba paths. So... no really interest.

I know you have to map a drive, just saying. No such problems with Game EX or Game Browser for Media Browser. Then again Game EX has a You Tube App but that's about all I could find.

So I'll be sticking with XBMC until something else comes along for streaming, archive tv/movies and launching emulated games. I may put all the games locally and move some of the other larger video files to the server. I could put the old drive from my previous motherboard since the new one doesn't have IDE and put in the server (320GB) and put all the games on that though its no where near even 32GB at the moment.

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(2012-06-21 06:16)Ned Scott Wrote:  Nightly builds are full of bugs and experimental features. This is the same for any software. We provide nightly builds to the public to help find bugs. This isn't even beta-level yet. No one should be surprised that some things don't work yet in a pre-release build. If you want stable then use the stable releases.

You know who else uses XBMC stable builds? Plex does. Their desktop clients are built on top of XBMC. So... Yeah....

I know I was just checking it out, but as I said, You Tube worked on the stable build but ESPN3 didn't. Then all of a sudden it did work... I rebuilt the HTPC that image is on my server and for Windows related reasons I can't use it and the new motherboard and have DRM work property so I have gone with a fresh install... I will load all that back onto the HTPC when I hear back from ASRock (2nd board, first DOA), this one has NIC issues.

I came across this thread as I will be adding a second HTPC on my basement and wanted to share the libraries.

I was wondering, what is wrong about putting the library on a shared folder and then moving the library into MySQL so it can be shared from different XBMC installations, wouldn't this do exactly the same thing the Plex server side does (minus the transcoding of course)? I was about to implement this but now I am wondering why people is asking for a XBMC server install when all you need is a computer with MySQL (in any platform)...

Am I missing something?

I use xbmc in a multi machine setup with MySQL and find it works great.
All clients point at the MySQL DB for library items (I just run a copy of xbmc minimized on the server and it auto updates the library as needed).
The thumbnails are just mounted via network share to the clients and have a symbolic link setup.

It all works great, and since dirty regions etc were introduced, running xbmc on the server isn't such a big deal.

(2012-08-30 17:30)Lumute Wrote:  I came across this thread as I will be adding a second HTPC on my basement and wanted to share the libraries.

I was wondering, what is wrong about putting the library on a shared folder and then moving the library into MySQL so it can be shared from different XBMC installations, wouldn't this do exactly the same thing the Plex server side does (minus the transcoding of course)? I was about to implement this but now I am wondering why people is asking for a XBMC server install when all you need is a computer with MySQL (in any platform)...

Am I missing something?

Functionally, there's not a lot of difference between the two scenarios. The big thing is that Plex Media Server (PMS) automates this process. With XBMC, at least for the time being, you need to install MySQL on whatever you're using to store the library and set everything up yourself. For a lot of people, that's a showstopper right there.

Plex has its uses. The ability to set up a library and stream it across the Internet with MyPlex is nice. I have XBMC running on 4 different clients ranging from an ATV1, an original XBox, an HTPC, my work laptop (via thumbdrive), and my Samsung tablet. I've installed PMS on my NAS just so I can play around with it, and I have a MyPlex account so I can stream from a friend's library with the PlexBMC plugin.

I would not trade the granularity of control that XBMC offers over Plex for anything. I find that using the PMS' web interface very kludgy and it doesn't do nearly half the stuff that I want it to after becoming used to working with XBMC.

I bought myself a ReadyNAS (Although offerings from Synology, QNAP, etc.will work just as well). It Runs the MySQL server XBMC uses, it has all the media on it, Sabnzbd+, Sickbeard, CouchPotato, HeadPhones. The whole setup is automatic. Serving both the main HTPC in the living room, and the Laptop in the bedroom.

I did try Plex, as there is an add-on for the ReadyNAS, but found the server too slow scanning the library, and the UI much too basic for my needs. I only installed it for remote access, but since "Movies on the Move" isn't something I need very much, got rid. Subsonic is installed on it, as Music is a must. But Plex was a (resource hungry) dissappointment for me personally.

Plex = automated and prepolished (just install, create a myplex account if you want to stream over the net and you're done)
XBMC = unautomated and unpolished, but gives you every customization option imaginable in order to do both yourself and the way you want.

With that, Plex has its uses. I talked my mom into forgoing tv service and just getting highspeed internet. With her having a myplex account and me a plex server, I am able to share what I want to with her so she has access to movies, tv shows, and the internet.

Personally I never got much into XBMC. I originally looked at it. But I didn't want to deal with newsserver downloads, and that seems to be what everyone here is doing with it and the direction all the plugins go.