Home Network Advice Needed

I use PLEX mainly because I have a Roku. Everything is connected wirelessly (PC and Roku to router) and normally things work fine. Some movies start buffering after about 40 minutes, and recently one movie buffered every 5 minutes (these are all 9 - 12 GB movie files). After looking around a bit, I set Plex on the Roku to transcode everything (meaning the PC does all the work). Since then no issues.

Plex Media Server on the PC is really nice for managing everything, I just don't like watching stuff directly on PMS on the PC, every now and again playback will just stop and I have to resume again, which doesn't make sense to me. So if I have to watch something on PC i will also usually use VLC. I don't know if the Plex media player will handle playback better on the PC?

Regarding Kodi, I tried to install Kodi on my Android phone (don't want to pay for the Plex app here as well) and couldn't get it to see my Plex server on the same network. From what I read back then everybody that did it had a Plex Account (or Pass, not sure) and you have to enter your Plex login details on your Kodi player so that it can connect to the server. I don't know if there is an easier way?
 
I don't have smart TV's in all my rooms that can utilise DLNA. So Streaming with the likes plex posed a problem for me. Basically after getting my first Pi and running XBMC, I was hooked. So now I have a netgear ReadyNas where I host my files. Two Pi 2's running OSMC (one in my Bar and one in my Bedroom) and a third Pi in my lounge running KODI. Now days I dont even bother downloading and storing, I just stream directly from the net with 1 Channel or Navi X.
 
ScottulusMaximus said:
Ok so since Takealot has now screwed up my evenings entertainment of router setup guess I'll follow advice, I shall be doing this:

HDD connected to PC via USB3
Plex server on PC
PleXBMC on Droid(not paying)

Any hints?
Click to expand...

Nope nope nope, don't like plex AT ALL... I'll keep my setup exactly how it is, works for my needs.
 
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Necropolis said:
I tried streaming to mine from a plex server and the experience wasn't great.

Playing content and browsing through the library was awesome - but if I paused anything I couldn't resume it and had to skip through whatever I was watching at 2x speed (which was the max I could use) - so I gave up and got a micro server and installed XBMC.

Another big drawback for me is that fact that the PS3 will only read FAT32 drives.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that FAT32 limitation is a PITA.

SD content is no problem though
 
AfricanTech said:
:D

ROFL

You sure that you don't just need to acclimatise?

I do hope you're basing that on the Player component? That sucks donkeys...
Click to expand...

Indeed, uninstalled the server before it had even finish scraping after 5min of using the player! Kodi just looks better and I only need the database/posters/metadata etc on the DroidTV...

I'm sure when I'm all grown up and need videos on tablets/laptops/tv's I'll need plex but right now it's a nuisance with no upside for me.
 
ScottulusMaximus said:
Indeed, uninstalled the server before it had even finish scraping after 5min of using the player! Kodi just looks better and I only need the database/posters/metadata etc on the DroidTV...

I'm sure when I'm all grown up and need videos on tablets/laptops/tv's I'll need plex but right now it's a nuisance with no upside for me.
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No, no, no, no, and no.

The Player is [insert rude descriptive word here]

The Server is great.

Edit: Of course, if Kodi works for you - :D

I can't remember why I never tried Kodi...
 
AfricanTech said:
No, no, no, no, and no.

The Player is [insert rude descriptive word here]

The Server is great.

Edit: Of course, if Kodi works for you - :D

I can't remember why I never tried Kodi...
Click to expand...

The thing is I've got no need whatsoever for the server, what would you use it for without the player? I sort manually anyway and the only place I'll see all the metadata stuff is on the DroidTV so I'll let Kodi arrange everything for me.
 
ScottulusMaximus said:
The thing is I've got no need whatsoever for the server, what would you use it for without the player? I sort manually anyway and the only place I'll see all the metadata stuff is on the DroidTV so I'll let Kodi arrange everything for me.
Click to expand...

Yep.

I use it for

1. The Mac player works pretty well (daughter)
2. Stream to PS3
3. Stream to Roku
 
So the router is arriving today and I may have gone a bit mad:

Converting my desktops 5.25" drive bays to a 4x3.5" HDD slots with fan, ordered 2x@2TB HDD's and will pull my external out of it's enclosure and going to set this up with Windows Storage Spaces in parity mode(basically RAID 5) and SATA II.

Basically I'm tired of failing HDD's losing all my stuff and slow network speeds, this was the most cost effective way for me to get a redundant and fast setup.

NAS's are too expensive for even a mid-range version and this setup will outperform most of them anyway.
 
Well it all went rather well actually, only issue now is copy the data onto the Storage Pool, 10 hours remaining!!!
 
Also been using Storage Spaces (in non-redundant mode though) and it works pretty well if you've already compromised on running Windows.

Will be going back to Linux shortly though.
 
I had to use Storage Spaces over RAID, bit complicated but I'm currently using 2x2TB(that I bought) and a 500GB to copy the data to the pool and then will disconnect the 500GB and add in the 2TB I took from my external drive(where the data is coming from)... Can't do that with RAID.
 
Is going well, streaming at 10Mb/s to the mg582 on 2.4ghz BUT only when my laptop is off. Sadly is an old one and only has a 2.4 receiver and for some reason when it's connected it sucks a lot of bandwidth(up to 100Mb/s), no idea why.

Phones loving the 5ghz ac though

EDIT: oh and the new router has dropped my attenuation from 56 to 48, debating whether to upgrade to a 6meg line
 
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