Plex, Serviio, XBMC, Need Something That Just Works

[BeeBoop]

I need help with something that just works. Each one of these software has bugs that makes the viewing experience suck.

My Setup
I7
16 gigs of ram
GTX 770
512gb SSD
4gb HDD

My PC is connected to the television (Samsung HU8550) by powerline adaptors.

Plex
Does not pick up all of my movies. I heard of the renaming bug but it doesn't seem to work when I changed the title of Captian Amercia Winter Solider to the one listed on IMBD.

Serviio
Picks up all of my movies but some of them will buffer during random scenes. The buffering can be pretty bad as it can happen many times during certain movies.

XBMC
This is the only one is better than the first two but there is some buffering. I've only tried it out for a few days, so I can't say how bad the buffering is with this one but it's there.


What are my alternatives?
Basically, what I am trying to do is play movies from my room to the living room television. Is it possible to setup a HTPC directly connected to my television and put that HTPC on my network to get movies from my room to the living room? What would the easiest way to go about doing this?

 

[Raincity]

I never had any luck with wireless or power line adapters for HD video. A wired 1G connection is the only thing that has worked for me.

 

[tential]

Most likely it's your powerline adapters causing the Issue.
Plex can transcode a big file into a smaller one to avoid buffering (I believe anyway as thats how Tversity worked).

I had buffering issues before I upgraded to a new Powerline adapter. As RainCity said, the best is still a wired connection. Test your bandwidth over powerline.

 

[BeeBoop]

What power line adaptor model are you using? How would I go about testing the bandwidth from my PC to the television? There is a third PC on the network but I don't use it with the television.

I did test my bandwidth and the numbers came out real good. Am I looking at the right numbers? Brb, getting them

Edit:
I just ran a software called "Lan Speed Test". I got a writing(upload) speed of .8704 Gbps and Reading (Download) speed of 1.1821 Gbps. I ran this test with my Television off. I'm guessing it doesn't if my television is on or off.

 

[tential]

Something makes me question the validity of that test as there is no powerline adapter on the market that hits those speeds or even 1/2 of those speeds currently.
I'm using the PLA5405 though.

 

[poofyhairguy]

XBMC
This is the only one is better than the first two but there is some buffering. I've only tried it out for a few days, so I can't say how bad the buffering is with this one but it's there.

That is something that can be tweaked. Increase your cache:

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache

You know that is my vote, nothing is better than Kodi.

Edit: It should be doable. Heck nowadays three of my primary viewing areas are connected by freaking 802.11N.

 

[BeeBoop]

Something makes me question the validity of that test as there is no powerline adapter on the market that hits those speeds or even 1/2 of those speeds currently.
I'm using the PLA5405 though.

I think you are correct. I'll try and find another software that requires two computers to test the network.

Link to your powerline adaptor below. Damn, it's expensive. lol
http://www.amazon.com/Homeplug-Gigab...ywords=pla5405

 

[tential]

I think you are correct. I'll try and find another software that requires two computers to test the network.

Link to your powerline adaptor below. Damn, it's expensive. lol
http://www.amazon.com/Homeplug-Gigab...ywords=pla5405

This is not a link to my powerline adapter that's a link to the PLA5206.
Mine is sadly more expensive and might still be exclusively sold through newegg here in the US still.
Mine's the PLA5405.

 

[BeeBoop]

http://www.imagebam.com/image/468811381617138

Okay, I think I found a better software to figure out my network speed. I had to setup the software on both computers. Picture above are my results. I'm guessing "Total" is my actual speed. It says 4546KBps on average. Too slow to run a network for movies? I'm guessing it is.

 

[tential]

Should be enough but you may be getting dips in network speed. I found that I'd be fine for awhile, then get a dip where I get 0, then it'd work again.

It was a broken switch though (That I'm still using).

 

[BeeBoop]

Thanks. I didn't think it was my network because the buffering always happens in the same spot when I rewind or fast forward. The spot does however change when I uninstall and reinstall new media server software.

 

[WelshBloke]

Plex
Does not pick up all of my movies. I heard of the renaming bug but it doesn't seem to work when I changed the title of Captian Amercia Winter Solider to the one listed on IMBD.

Plex is really fussy about file structure and naming (if you want metadata)

Use filebot to name your files.

http://www.filebot.net/

How are your media files arranged?

 

[Binky]

You could try a paid of Moca adapters if you have cable lines between the two locations. Be sure to get the proper type - one type is specifically for use with satellite TV, and the other type is for use with cable TV (in the U.S.). I use a pair of actiontec 2500 adapters for media and they work ok.

 

[BeeBoop]

Plex is really fussy about file structure and naming (if you want metadata)

Use filebot to name your files.

http://www.filebot.net/

How are your media files arranged?

Thanks. I'll try it later today.

 

[Aikouka]

If you follow the scene naming conventions, you shouldn't run into any issues. Movies are normally named...

Title.Year.Resolution.SourceType.VideoCodec-Group

So, Captain America: The Winter Soldier would be...

Captain.America.The.Winter.Soldier.2014.720p.BluRay.x264-Me

The only issue that I have with Plex is that TheTVDB scraper just doesn't work half the time. I've looked in the logs, and for some reason, it just doesn't clear out folders properly before updating them, which causes the scraper to have an error and fail. If I manually delete the offending folder, it will work fine; however, it's tedious. I wrote a piece of software to do it for me, but it requires me to kill PMS to relinquish control over the log files. :\ Anyway! I solved the problem by using the AbsTVDB scraper. For some reason, it works fine. It was developed because the original scraper is only designed to handle TV shows with up to 100 episodes per season, which doesn't work if you're doing long-term anime.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The only issue that I have with Plex is that TheTVDB scraper just doesn't work half the time.

Yeah it is too bad Plex doesn't support nfo files. The developers are pretty clear they won't do it in the future too. There is a plugin, but from what I hear it is hit or miss.

 

[tential]

Aikouka, I follow those naming conventions and Plex STILL has issues picking up my whole library. No idea why. XBMC does it perfectly, Plex? Nope.

And I've run everything through filebot too to ensure it is named right, and I manually check each one before accepting (took forever...)

 

[SolMiester]

I have never had any issues with the Plex scapper, however it doesnt run automatically when changes are made to the folders. Does on other builds I have done, but ai guess i must have broken mine.
I have had to manually select the right metadata for some files, but thats lack of detail on the file.

 

[Childs]

I haven't had any problems with Plex. I do rename all the movies using FileBot so everything is consistent, but thats about it. Every so often the metadata tag for the name in the file will be something different than the file name so the title doesn't show up where it should be listed, but changing it isn't a problem.

And if I don't see a movie show up right away after updating the library, I touch the files (touch <file>) and then it gets added when the library is updated. I have 400 movies in my library, and it'll be at around 500 when I'm finally done ripping my discs. So far Plex has been fine.

 

[bradly1101]

I'm not sure if this will fix your problem but I've been using Windows Media Center for all my video, music, photos and CATV since it came out with XP. It's robust but lean, easy to use but advanced.

 

[BeeBoop]

I'm not sure if this will fix your problem but I've been using Windows Media Center for all my video, music, photos and CATV since it came out with XP. It's robust but lean, easy to use but advanced.

WMC doesn't play MKV through DLNA. It'll play MKV on my PC but that's it. Thanks though.

 

[Childs]

WMC doesn't play MKV through DLNA. It'll play MKV on my PC but that's it. Thanks though.

It should if you install something like libAV (LAV). I still have a WMC machine that I view stuff on from time to time so guests don't accidentally see certain content, and I have no problems. I'm not using DNLA though, just smb sharing from my NAS. I'm not sure why it would me any different.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I need help with something that just works. Each one of these software has bugs that makes the viewing experience suck.

My Setup
I7
16 gigs of ram
GTX 770
512gb SSD
4gb HDD

My PC is connected to the television (Samsung HU8550) by powerline adaptors.

Plex
Does not pick up all of my movies. I heard of the renaming bug but it doesn't seem to work when I changed the title of Captian Amercia Winter Solider to the one listed on IMBD.

I've never had Plex not pick up a movie as long as it was in a supported format. Now, I've had Plex pick up and name a movie INCORRECTLY -- for those, I either change the name and try to match their naming standard (which generally works) OR, if I want to name it differently and still have the proper metadata show up, I can manually change the name once the metadata is loaded and then lock the name.

FWIW, I just copied a movie to my Plex server, named it "Captain America Winter Soldier," and Plex picked it up with no problems.

What are my alternatives?
Basically, what I am trying to do is play movies from my room to the living room television. Is it possible to setup a HTPC directly connected to my television and put that HTPC on my network to get movies from my room to the living room? What would the easiest way to go about doing this?

Plex + a Roku 3 attached to the TV.

 

[TheSandman21]

I never had any luck with wireless or power line adapters for HD video. A wired 1G connection is the only thing that has worked for me.

This. Absolutely this. I work with a competitor in the field (who starts with P and ends with N) and we only see trouble with playback over powerline adapters. You can do wireless in some cases, but we don't recommend it.

I tried Plex, but gave up pretty quickly. I think it labeling some NBA playoff basketball game as some softcore porn show was the main issue if I remember right.

 

[poofyhairguy]

You can do wireless in some cases, but we don't recommend it.

5GHZ wireless will absolutely work for streaming HD video. I do it all the time with bit rates that are insane.

Wired is always best but if the Powerline doesn't work 5GHz N can.