Mini media pc

s0lar said:
Doesnt plex phone home with details on your media?
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Nope. It only uses an authentication layer and offers easy remote access.

Even if it did phone home, what would that matter? And what makes you think Kodi doesn’t do the same?
 
SauRoNZA said:
Nope. It only uses an authentication layer and offers easy remote access.

Even if it did phone home, what would that matter? And what makes you think Kodi doesn’t do the same?
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I have done a packet trace on Kodi as well as had a spin through the code including extensions. Nobody needs to know my extensive collection of "german art" films.

Begs the question what is there business model? I had a look at plex years ago, at that stage it was no where near XBMC.
 
s0lar said:
I have done a packet trace on Kodi as well as had a spin through the code including extensions. Nobody needs to know my extensive collection of "german art" films.

Begs the question what is there business model? I had a look at plex years ago, at that stage it was no where near XBMC.
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Plex offers a paid-for upgrade product called Plex Pass adding a number of features like multi-users and restrictions etc which is great as a family benefit.

What is Kodi’s business model doing it all for free? That’s usually far more worrying to me.

Plex has always been way ahead of XBMC/Kodi with its sever + client focus instead of the everything in one place that Kodi does.

Last I checked Kodi is still a nightmare to operate in a multiple client environment with a central database which Plex does by design right out of the gates.

But it does explain why people still want to put the entire server under their TV.
 
s0lar said:
I have done a packet trace on Kodi as well as had a spin through the code including extensions. Nobody needs to know my extensive collection of "german art" films.

Begs the question what is there business model? I had a look at plex years ago, at that stage it was no where near XBMC.
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I was a big Kodi fan previously (still sort of am) but switched to Plex when I got a home server (NUC running home assistant, Plex and adguard home). Samsung and Hisense TVs have a Plex app so it's super simple to view content from the Plex server on the TVs, laptop or tablet.
 
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SauRoNZA said:
What other codecs would you need though?

And wouldn’t you just pass through to your decide actually playing the audio to decode it?
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You're right, for the vast majority of content those codecs are enough, that's the only reason I mentioned fidelity chasers.

They *should* (in my opinion) be able to passthrough anything with a bitstream, but due to lacking IEC specifications, they can't, and instead the rest gets downmixed to 2.0 PCM + following Android 9, any other lossy codecs which carried 5.1 audio is also downmixed instead of being interpreted and sent as LPCM.

There are some < Android 8 Chinese boxes out there which ignore the licensing restrictions and the Nvidia Shield however.
 
Crumbl0x said:
You're right, for the vast majority of content those codecs are enough, that's the only reason I mentioned fidelity chasers.

They *should* (in my opinion) be able to passthrough anything with a bitstream, but due to lacking IEC specifications, they can't, and instead the rest gets downmixed to 2.0 PCM + following Android 9, any other lossy codecs which carried 5.1 audio is also downmixed instead of being interpreted and sent as LPCM.

There are some < Android 8 Chinese boxes out there which ignore the licensing restrictions and the Nvidia Shield however.
Click to expand...

And this is why I have an Apple TV and avoid all things Android.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Plex offers a paid-for upgrade product called Plex Pass adding a number of features like multi-users and restrictions etc which is great as a family benefit.
Click to expand...
Kodi does this for free, since the XBMC days.
SauRoNZA said:
What is Kodi’s business model doing it all for free? That’s usually far more worrying to me.
Click to expand...

Kodi is opensource. Plex has infrastructure to maintain where as Kodi is community supported and driven.

SauRoNZA said:
Plex has always been way ahead of XBMC/Kodi with its sever + client focus instead of the everything in one place that Kodi does.
Click to expand...
Kodi was backed on a SQL database in the XBMC days. I am guessing that limitation was due to your installation. I never ran Kodi as a store and a player but rather as a client server, its features multiple protocols.
SauRoNZA said:
But it does explain why people still want to put the entire server under their TV.
Click to expand...
Only place I use Kodi is in my office. That with a small inexpensive Android TV dongle. You are missing the client server design that most people implement. So pretty much most TVs as based on android these days, you would be out of luck on an old Tizen based system for example. As with my repurposed "old" Tizen TV in the office.
 
s0lar said:
Kodi does this for free, since the XBMC days.


Kodi is opensource. Plex has infrastructure to maintain where as Kodi is community supported and driven.


Kodi was backed on a SQL database in the XBMC days. I am guessing that limitation was due to your installation. I never ran Kodi as a store and a player but rather as a client server, its features multiple protocols.

Only place I use Kodi is in my office. That with a small inexpensive Android TV dongle. You are missing the client server design that most people implement. So pretty much most TVs as based on android these days, you would be out of luck on an old Tizen based system for example. As with my repurposed "old" Tizen TV in the office.
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You misunderstand.

I’m not “missing” the client/server design. I simply think it’s a very poor way to operate and have no interest in doing it.

And yeah Kodi has a built in SQL database but making multiple instances talk to the same one was always a massive chore historically.

It’s not a limitation of my installation, it’s a limitation of their design philosophy.

Not sure what the TV OS has to do with anything?
 
SauRoNZA said:
You misunderstand.

I’m not “missing” the client/server design. I simply think it’s a very poor way to operate and have no interest in doing it.
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Why?
SauRoNZA said:
And yeah Kodi has a built in SQL database but making multiple instances talk to the same one was always a massive chore historically.
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Again, why?
SauRoNZA said:
Not sure what the TV OS has to do with anything?
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You implied that in order to run Kodi you need a "server" under your TV..

I am not here to argue, but this is unfounded.
 
s0lar said:
Why?

Again, why?

You implied that in order to run Kodi you need a "server" under your TV..

I am not here to argue, but this is unfounded.
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Because of the nature (by default) of running Kodi as both the server and client in one package.

It was never designed to be a headless server with multiple clients tapping into it.

My Plex setup has multiple tv, laptops, tablets and phones connected to it all at the same time by multiple users both locally and remotely. Kodi doesn’t tick that box very well at all.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Because of the nature (by default) of running Kodi as both the server and client in one package.
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Where does this design in your view fall short?
SauRoNZA said:
It was never designed to be a headless server with multiple clients tapping into it.
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Where does this design in your view fall short?
SauRoNZA said:
My Plex setup has multiple tv, laptops, tablets and phones connected to it all at the same time by multiple users both locally and remotely. Kodi doesn’t tick that box very well at all.
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I have never used this feature so cannot comment. I generally watch series and movies at home.
 
s0lar said:
Where does this design in your view fall short?

Where does this design in your view fall short?

I have never used this feature so cannot comment. I generally watch series and movies at home.
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As I explained already it falls short because it leaves everything in one single location.

It’s not very flexible or savvy.

Doesn’t do transcoding for remote connections.

Everything is local and stuck in one place.
 
SauRoNZA said:
As I explained already it falls short because it leaves everything in one single location.
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What do you mean? A single location? I file, a DB a geographical area?
SauRoNZA said:
It’s not very flexible or savvy.
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What are these deficiencies? I can argue flexibility is Kodi's trump card..
SauRoNZA said:
Doesn’t do transcoding for remote connections.

Everything is local and stuck in one place.
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If you use case is that heavily reliant on watching TV away from home. Then yes I agree go with Plex, but this is no relfection on Kodi. I know it may be 5 minutes of effort but you can install the Plex addon, if you abolutely need to watch a series while inline at you local grocery store. https://github.com/croneter/PlexKodiConnect
 
s0lar said:
What do you mean? A single location? I file, a DB a geographical area?

What are these deficiencies? I can argue flexibility is Kodi's trump card..

If you use case is that heavily reliant on watching TV away from home. Then yes I agree go with Plex, but this is no relfection on Kodi. I know it may be 5 minutes of effort but you can install the Plex addon, if you abolutely need to watch a series while inline at you local grocery store. https://github.com/croneter/PlexKodiConnect
Click to expand...

Installing a layer on top just seems very silly instead of just installing Plex at the base layer and getting it over with.
 
all these options are great, and I am sure will definitely make other's lives easier.

for me, having a "box that does everything" under my TV is a much better solution - and I am certain this is the case for many people too. what that device is - android tv, shield, mini pic - and what software you use - plex server, kodi - is personal choice

  • We have 1 device/TV that we want to consume content on.
  • Would need to go to my office to be able to remote/vnc into the now remote server, instead of just "alt/tab" on the k400+ in front of my TV (do this ALL the time)

if you want to enable your home, the obviously a central media server is the way to go
 
_kabal_ said:
all these options are great, and I am sure will definitely make other's lives easier.

for me, having a "box that does everything" under my TV is a much better solution - and I am certain this is the case for many people too. what that device is - android tv, shield, mini pic - and what software you use - plex server, kodi - is personal choice

  • We have 1 device/TV that we want to consume content on.
  • Would need to go to my office to be able to remote/vnc into the now remote server, instead of just "alt/tab" on the k400+ in front of my TV (do this ALL the time)

if you want to enable your home, the obviously a central media server is the way to go
Click to expand...

So where does your storage live?
 
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