XBMC vs Plex

[DJ...]

I managed to keep my music pretty organized over the years and XBMC pulls an insane amount of data for my music library.

Mine is separated into genres and no folders, as I use software DJ tools, so that is what works best for me. Going through folders and folders searching for a track is pathetic. So XBMC looks at the file name and tries to guess what it is. I even tried a renamer once but it incorrectly renamed half the files. I then tried MusicBrainz to use the audio fingerprint but that didn't help either as it kept saving info into the mp3 files from someone's personal german playlist as opposed to pulling in the actual info. So when I scrape with XBMC nowadays, half of the tracks pull in Bon Jovi's info, and the rest are either blank or fscked up.

I gave up...

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Mine is separated into genres and no folders, as I use software DJ tools, so that is what works best for me. Going through folders and folders searching for a track is pathetic. So XBMC looks at the file name and tries to guess what it is. I even tried a renamer once but it incorrectly renamed half the files. I then tried MusicBrainz to use the audio fingerprint but that didn't help either as it kept saving info into the mp3 files from someone's personal german playlist as opposed to pulling in the actual info. So when I scrape with XBMC nowadays, half of the tracks pull in Bon Jovi's info, and the rest are either blank or fscked up.

I gave up...

Ye, trying to reorganize a massive music library is a hopeless cause. My rules is that nothing goes in to the library without being named correctly.

 

[DJ...]

Ye, trying to reorganize a massive music library is a hopeless cause. My rules is that nothing goes in to the library without being named correctly.

You know what I'm waiting for? Eye and hand tracking for control of the XBMC. Currently skipping through video is great, but skipping through audio is a hassle, and I do it often. With video you can jump 30s hitting the right arrow and even further hitting the up arrow. Unfortunately when playing music, both of those skip to the next track and you have to rely on seeking to move forward. Very difficult to control with a remote. Always has been, always will be.

In Windows I seek with the playback bar, so have complete control. That would be fantastic to do with XBMC or Plex. With your hand. From the couch. That's the kind of thing that could even get a geek laid...

 

[MartyMarts]

Ye, trying to reorganize a massive music library is a hopeless cause. My rules is that nothing goes in to the library without being named correctly.

^ That x 100!

@DJ... Well I guess what works for you might not work for me (and vice versa) Much of a muchness in the end I guess.
Initially XBMC worked well for me - one box, one TV, couple hard drives, internet connection = all good. But as more devices crept into my home and I got tired of rehashing my little one's iPod with latest media she wanted due to space constraints (never bothered with the iTunes streaming thing) I thought there must be an easier way to do this. Stumbled upon Plex and now I have one Plex Media server, the Plex client loaded on the devices and it all works pretty well for me.

 

[DJ...]

^ That x 100!

@DJ... Well I guess what works for you might not work for me (and vice versa) Much of a muchness in the end I guess.
Initially XBMC worked well for me - one box, one TV, couple hard drives, internet connection = all good. But as more devices crept into my home and I got tired of rehashing my little one's iPod with latest media she wanted due to space constraints (never bothered with the iTunes streaming thing) I thought there must be an easier way to do this. Stumbled upon Plex and now I have one Plex Media server, the Plex client loaded on the devices and it all works pretty well for me.

What space constraints? No, I think you misunderstand. The central XBMC system hosts all the media and simply streams it to the other connected boxes (or it reads it from the network). There is no local storage of the files on the other machines at all. The only thing it stores on the other machines is a copy of the database for the metadata so that it's fast. Hardly a space issue.

You simply need to tell XBMC that your videos are on the network drive, and then install the autoupdate script. Or just set it to autoupdate every time XBMC starts, or simply manualy click the update library button. So for me the only difference is the watched indicators being synchronised. And I have the added benefit of frequent updates and better customisation that XBMC affords.

I've considered Plex for my setup but I just don't see the benefit...

 

[MartyMarts]

What space constraints?

8GB iPod touch. 100s of GBs of kids movies, SpongeBob etc. I know you can have everything in iTunes and the iPod 'streams' (?) from there over wifi but I never bothered trying it. Now she just opens the Plex app on her iPod and can watch whatever she wants (over wifi) without any media having to being stored on her iPod. Same applies to the tablets, smartphones and other PCs in the house.

No, I think you misunderstand. The central XBMC system hosts all the media and simply streams it to the other connected boxes (or it reads it from the network). There is no local storage of the files on the other machines at all. The only thing it stores on the other machines is a copy of the database for the metadata so that it's fast. Hardly a space issue.

You simply need to tell XBMC that your videos are on the network drive, and then install the autoupdate script. Or just set it to autoupdate every time XBMC starts, or simply manualy click the update library button. So for me the only difference is the watched indicators being synchronised. And I have the added benefit of frequent updates and better customisation that XBMC affords.

I did understand what you were saying... maybe I wasn't clear in what I said Basically your "central XBMC system" is used like a file share (or like network attached storage) and is not streaming the media to the others but simply the host. Each one has its own set of metadata though which is updated via the internet (yes?) as new media is added to the "central XBMC system" or on start-up of XBMC like you set up. With Plex this happens on the 'server side' i.e. you tell it where your media is (can also be on another PC on the network), it then pulls the metadata from the net and then the Plex clients just read off the Plex server. Well technically the Plex server streams the media to the clients and automatically changes the quality of the media stream in real-time to suit the device it's streaming to e.g. 'downscales' a massive 1080p .mkv so the little one can watch it seamlessly on her tiny iPod screen.

I've considered Plex for my setup but I just don't see the benefit...

Yes well, if it aint broke...

 

[DJ...]

8GB iPod touch. 100s of GBs of kids movies, SpongeBob etc. I know you can have everything in iTunes and the iPod 'streams' (?) from there over wifi but I never bothered trying it. Now she just opens the Plex app on her iPod and can watch whatever she wants (over wifi) without any media having to being stored on her iPod. Same applies to the tablets, smartphones and other PCs in the house.

My brain hurts. In addition to my actual XBMC setups, I've also got it installed on two tablets and two phones. Streams to them just fine as well. I mean, the phone reads from there. No storage issues at all. Storage doesn't come into play at all, so does the same job as Plex, just Plex streams it whereas XBMC reads it, if I've understood this correctly...

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

8GB iPod touch. 100s of GBs of kids movies, SpongeBob etc. I know you can have everything in iTunes and the iPod 'streams' (?) from there over wifi but I never bothered trying it. Now she just opens the Plex app on her iPod and can watch whatever she wants (over wifi) without any media having to being stored on her iPod. Same applies to the tablets, smartphones and other PCs in the house.

You could have just added smb shares and configured them in XBMC. The problem with this though is that you can't get a different quality stream from the original, so if you have a 30gig blu ray rip it may struggle over wifi playing to an iPod.

Yes well, if it aint broke...

Never a wiser sentiment.

 

[DJ...]

I don't have a single 1080p movie in my collection. I simply don't have a bluray ripper, nor the internet connection to download files that size. In fact I don't think I've ever witnessed the glory of a 1080p movie before. Even my 720p movies are few and far between for the same reasons.

#first world problems...

 

[rorz0r]

My brain hurts. In addition to my actual XBMC setups, I've also got it installed on two tablets and two phones. Streams to them just fine as well. I mean, the phone reads from there. No storage issues at all. Storage doesn't come into play at all, so does the same job as Plex, just Plex streams it whereas XBMC reads it, if I've understood this correctly...

You don't have enough media
On your mobile clients though are you adding things to the library as movies / tv shows or are you just using xbmc as a glorified files browser / media player?
If you add things to your library the fan art, metadata, thumbnails etc can add up quite quickly.

 

[DJ...]

You don't have enough media
On your mobile clients though are you adding things to the library as movies / tv shows or are you just using xbmc as a glorified files browser / media player?
If you add things to your library the fan art, metadata, thumbnails etc can add up quite quickly.

No I'm using it properly as a media browser and not a file browser. I've got 400 movies, 102 TV Shows so a few thousand episodes, and about 50,000 songs, so I guess that all adds up, you're right. I guess one can also use Bubble uPnp which is what I used before the android XBMC came out. Not sure how it fits on my mobile devices, but it does...

 

[MartyMarts]

My brain hurts. In addition to my actual XBMC setups, I've also got it installed on two tablets and two phones. Streams to them just fine as well. I mean, the phone reads from there. No storage issues at all. Storage doesn't come into play at all, so does the same job as Plex, just Plex streams it whereas XBMC reads it, if I've understood this correctly...

I guess we're on the same page then. Including the 'brain hurts' one

You could have just added smb shares and configured them in XBMC. The problem with this though is that you can't get a different quality stream from the original, so if you have a 30gig blu ray rip it may struggle over wifi playing to an iPod.

Like the iTunes streaming thing, I never tried this I usually just plonked stuff into iTunes and synced her iPod directly so the 8GB (well 6 point something GB free never went far). And yes, opening large movie rips over wifi was an exercise in frustration which lead me to Google which lead me to Plex

Never a wiser sentiment.

I don't have a single 1080p movie in my collection. I simply don't have a bluray ripper, nor the internet connection to download files that size. In fact I don't think I've ever witnessed the glory of a 1080p movie before. Even my 720p movies are few and far between for the same reasons.

#first world problems...

Aaah... Well I've got a couple of monster sized movies in my collection and as I said above trying to watch them 'directly' over wifi on a mobile device is basically impossible.

Yes ... #first world problems indeed

 

[DJ...]

I guess for large streams Plex would be ideal then. Is there a delay when you play these files? My networked machines play the files instantly with no buffering as if they're stored locally...

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I guess for large streams Plex would be ideal then. Is there a delay when you play these files? My networked machines play the files instantly with no buffering as if they're stored locally...

No, transcoding happens on the fly. You must just ensure the machine running the server can handle it (need at least dual core 3.0Ghz cpu).

EDIT: And another thing, files will only transcode if they have to. For instance it will just play directly from the network if the client app can read that specific format. So for a normal desktop Plex client it will play exactly like XBMC (seeing it is built on XBMC), only when other devices get in to the mix (like iOS devices) that don't support certain formats natively, will the media be transcoded.

 

[DJ...]

No, transcoding happens on the fly. You must just ensure the machine running the server can handle it (need at least dual core 3.0Ghz cpu).

Right, so my microserver is out of the question then, even with its 4gigs of ram and video card. Wait, is that the issue with the "no hardware transcoding" I was hearing about earlier?

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Right, so my microserver is out of the question then, even with its 4gigs of ram and video card. Wait, is that the issue with the "no hardware transcoding" I was hearing about earlier?

Yep, but I updated my previous post with some extra info. The MicroServer won't handle transcoding very well though and no you cannot use your GPU to aid transcoding, but modern CPUs won't have any issues.

 

[MartyMarts]

I guess for large streams Plex would be ideal then. Is there a delay when you play these files? My networked machines play the files instantly with no buffering as if they're stored locally...

Like DrJohnZoidberg said, if your Plex server's hardware can handle it there's no delay.
I occasionally lay in bed & watch HD stuff on my fairly useless (hardware wise) little android phone out of pure laziness and it works really well

 

[DJ...]

EDIT: And another thing, files will only transcode if they have to. For instance it will just play directly from the network if the client app can read that specific format. So for a normal desktop Plex client it will play exactly like XBMC (seeing it is built on XBMC), only when other devices get in to the mix (like iOS devices) that don't support certain formats natively, will the media be transcoded.

Or if the network connection can't handle the file size, in which case it will transcode it to something more reasonable?

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Or if the network connection can't handle the file size, in which case it will transcode it to something more reasonable?

You can force transcoding yes.

 

[DJ...]

Yep, but I updated my previous post with some extra info. The MicroServer won't handle transcoding very well though and no you cannot use your GPU to aid transcoding, but modern CPUs won't have any issues.

Meh, I'd have to buy a new server then. Not worth it - I'll stick to XBMC then.

But at last, it's only taken a year, but I finally understand the actual difference between XBMC and Plex. Thanks.