RasPlex Thread

[Hamish McPanji]

I have 2 Raspberry Pi's for close to a year now, and have played with them as media players extensively using N00Bs, Xbian, Raspbmc and OpenElec.

However, i was never really 100% satisfied with any of the OS for a proper end user, and don't see the Pi as a suitable all in one Media Player because of its 512Mb RAM and USB power related issues. I have a HP miniserver with Plex and XBMC and an LG smart TV, so using DLNA i could play most of the content on my server remotely on my TV anyway, so no point of these Raspberry Pi's anymore.....right?

Problem : My LG Smart TV is region locked to EMEA region, and so the streaming apps on it are very limited/crap. So no BBC iplayer, ITV, 4OD, no US channels.

Solution: Use a Raspberry Pi as a streaming only device attached to my TV

Option 1 : XBMC based installation with addons for the different channels. Tried this, but the problem was, that the addons seemed to cause problems with each other, so after installing a new addon, some of the existing ones would stop working, or as more addons were added, the Pi seemed to get slower and slower. Each addon has its own settings, which makes it a shlep when trying to change resolutions when the internet is a bit slow. My wife absolutely hated it, and threatened to throw away my Pi's.

Option 2 : XBMC with Plex client. Installed the PlexBMC client on my XBMC, and linked it with my Plex Server. Worked well, but the UI wasn't just right for my purposes, again the Wife was not happy. Have kept this option as a backup

Option 3 : RasPlex - found a beta client called Rasplex, which is based on OpenElec, but was geared solely to be a Plex Client. Installed it this weekend, and its been running sweet! I am streaming from my Plex server, it's relatively fast to browse, has all my media with thumbnails and the like, has automatic updates, and has all the channels that have been installed on my Plex server. The streams are controlled on my server and so the Pi is doing all it needs to.....play the media, and not focused on anything else. The clarity of the streams is much better than i have had on the other systems

 

[Hamish McPanji]

RasPlex Description

Rasplex describes itself as "The Plex Home Theater port for the Raspberry Pi mini computer"

It is basically a Plex client, and is useful for those whose TV's and Media Servers are not in same room, and so HDMI connectivity is not a good option. Also useful if you have multiple TV's even for the ones that dont have HDMI. So you will need a Plex server running somewhere, as it is not useful as a standalone player


More info here: http://www.rasplex.com/index.html

RasPlex Installation

Can be installed with a simple downloadable app on Windows, OSX or Linux. You will need a card reader of sorts, as the installed will dump files on your Raspberry Pi SD Card. Please note that, you will lose all data on that card, and i recommend formatting the Card as FAT32 and doing a checkdisk before starting the process. The installation process will re-partition the SD Card, and is relatively painless.

http://www.rasplex.com/get-started/rasplex-installers.html

There is a manual installation process, which can be found here: http://www.rasplex.com/get-started/download-rasplex.html . But, i would reccommend the automatic installation

RasPlex Setup

Was very simple to set up, as long as you have a way to control it once it boots up the first time. I used HDMI-CEC....so my normal TV remote was used. Enter your Plex account details (free signup). I have not purchased from them, so am still on a free account. Plexpass is recommended but not required.

I added the ip address of my Plex server, and it started caching. Depending on the size of your media library, this can take some time, so i suggest you let it complete this. During the initial caching process, the system can run a bit slow

Setup Basics : http://www.rasplex.com/documentation/rasplex-setup-basics.html
FAQ: http://www.rasplex.com/documentation/faq.html

Rasplex Additional Help

Guides : https://github.com/RasPlex/RasPlex/wiki/Guides
Forums on Plex : https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/forum/126-rasplex/

 

[rorz0r]

Cost breakdown of your build? Interested in how it compares to a roku running plex as I only ever use plex on the roku.

 

[Nerfherder]

Thanks for this !

I just paid for a chrome cast though :/

My PI is also just sitting there.

So what are you using as a controller ? Does it support a phone plex app ?

 

[envo]

I'd suggest MediaBrowser3. I think they have a Linux build out. Works much better than Plex IMO and I use it via my Roku device as well to access my library. Roku for other streaming stuff.

I also bought a "smart TV" (samsung LED 3D) thinking that I could now seamlessly connect online and stream and be happy. Not so.

Cost in getting a Roku is priceless. (and ordering via Amazon I had it within 3 days)

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Cost breakdown of your build? Interested in how it compares to a roku running plex as I only ever use plex on the roku.

Eish....will have to work that out later, I have everything lying about at home.

Basically :

Raspberry pi B
2A Power supply
8gb SD card
Tenda wireless USB stick
Wireless keyboard /mouse ( if no cec)
HDMI cable / RCA + audio cable


The difference between this and a roku is the pi OS is basically Linux, and can be used for home automation and loads of other stuff....so Pi is basically a hobbyist device which can be used as a media player

If I want to do something else with the pi, I just put in a different sd card

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Thanks for this !

I just paid for a chrome cast though :/

My PI is also just sitting there.

So what are you using as a controller ? Does it support a phone plex app ?

Yes it does support phone app, but there is a way also to control it using a web browser, or wireless keyb/mouse . In this case, am using my LG TV remote ( http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=CEC) since its connected via hdmi. It works perfectly, as I use the same lg remote for my chromecast, TV , home theatre system and Raspberry Pi

 

[Doodler]

So but what was the problem with xbmc on it? I get that it's choppy in menus but it plays 1080p just fine. It's even faster with gotham.

Do really wanna tell me that rasplex is faster then xbmc(openelec) even though it's based on openelec? If so might try it.

Isn't this just maybe a subjective preference to plex rather then xbmc?

Another thing does this direct play streams or does it need transcoding? I'm assuming the former.

Good to see someone post about this been wondering about it for a while.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

So but what was the problem with xbmc on it? I get that it's choppy in menus but it plays 1080p just fine. It's even faster with gotham.

No problem as such, but was looking for something that would access my Plex server. The idea was to get something simple, and that I can't mess around with it too much is an advantage.

Do really wanna tell me that rasplex is faster then xbmc(openelec) even though it's based on openelec? If so might try it.

Its faster than rasbmc in a lot of regards,but menus can be a bit delayed. It is slower than openelec. But these were with a lot of plugins

It worked out of the box for me, so was a cinch to setup

Isn't this just maybe a subjective preference to plex rather then xbmc?

It is, that is why the thread is called RasPlex. But am still running xbmc elsewhere,but like the stability of the BBC iPlayer and other channels in Plex. The transcoding features in Plex have also saved me lots of issues

Another thing does this direct play streams or does it need transcoding? I'm assuming the former.

A lot of formats are directplay (h264,mpeg4) , But other have to be transcoded, eg if you haven't bought mpeg2 license for your pi.

Good to see someone post about this been wondering about it for a while.

There is also an xbmc plex add on called PleXBMC, but was not as straightforward for my simple purpose

 

[Doodler]

So I tried this last night and it really aint bad, especially if you let plex run from usb. All in all it's quite a cheap solution for plex and with hdmi cec it's even cheaper as theres no need for a remote.

 

[IVTEC]

So I tried this last night and it really aint bad, especially if you let plex run from usb. All in all it's quite a cheap solution for plex and with hdmi cec it's even cheaper as theres no need for a remote.

Anything special to make it boot from USB ? What size USB stick did you use ?

 

[IVTEC]

Double post *