Roku and Plex

[tydas]

Hi All, just wanted to share my experience with a new set up i've been using Roku and Plex channel...also if anyone has any tips it would be appreciated..

I have my movies and TV shows on my WHS V1 (core 2 duo, 4mb ram) in mostly the MKV format...I've tried an actual HTPC but its not too family friendly (although I love the Mediabrowser interface)..also tried the WD Live TV which is great but I wanted a better interface, was also looking at the Apple TV with XBMC but the new Apple TV has not been jail broken and they want over $200 for the Apple TV 2G...

I picked up the ROKU and installed the Plex media server on my WHS...it did a fine job pulling in all the meta data...the interface on the ROKU/Plex is great...playing movies is working well although there is a 5 to 15 second delay when starting which seems dependent on the file size, also, some movies with TrueHD or DTS-MA seem to have issues where a loading screen comes up a lot..the other issue is the ROKU/Plex does not handle fast forward very well, it has to go back to the 'retrieving' screen with 5 to 15 second delay...

Also, on the TrueHD and DTS-MA, I can't get those movies to play that audio on my AVR..I'm fine with Dolby and DTS though...have also had some intermittent freezes and re-boots on the ROKU...

All in all I like it and will stick with Roku/ Plex...I really value the GUI over other stuff so I can live with some of the negatives..hoping to tweek further to get an even better experience...

Here is my set up...Onkyo NR709 & Polk Speakers, Panny 42inch plasma and Harmony one remote

 

[Arkitekt]

Not sure if it will make a difference for you, but Plex on Roku will directly stream .MP4 H264, so having it in MKV causes it to transcode to .MP4. This is most likely the cause as to why you cannot fast forward more than 5 to 15 seconds. Try using handbrake to convert one of your movies to .MP4 H264 and play that after it is done converting, it might fast forward without issue. Which Roku model do you have?

All in all, how is the GUI in your experience? Do you use Netflix on Roku?

 

[tydas]

Not sure if it will make a difference for you, but Plex on Roku will directly stream .MP4 H264, so having it in MKV causes it to transcode to .MP4. This is most likely the cause as to why you cannot fast forward more than 5 to 15 seconds. Try using handbrake to convert one of your movies to .MP4 H264 and play that after it is done converting, it might fast forward without issue. Which Roku model do you have?

All in all, how is the GUI in your experience? Do you use Netflix on Roku?

I'll give that a try...I've got the XS and I use an Ethernet connection...I like the GUI responsive and looks nice, although its not as cool as XBMC or MediaBrowser for viewing my personal library...Netflix on Roku works great also..

 

[Arkitekt]

Yeah, it is too bad that Roku doesn't have an XBMC channel, or that XBMC doesn't have a suitable media server solution.

For the GUI, how easy is it for kids to navigate? is it pretty straightforward? Also, have you tried streaming over WiFi?

 

[tydas]

My kids are 9, 11 and 15 and they all have had no issue navigating,..I did try streaming over wireless and it worked fine although I do have a bit of overkill in my house for wireless coverage and speed

 

[Sentrosi2121]

I love my Roku box.
The only issue I have with it is that it lacks the ability to watch the Big 4 channels on the Roku box. We are about half way through our little in-home trial of the Roku box only with the a cable signal coming directly from the wall.

But if I were to install Plex on an idle PC to pull in the shows, could I then stream the web shows from there?

 

[tydas]

I love my Roku box.
The only issue I have with it is that it lacks the ability to watch the Big 4 channels on the Roku box. We are about half way through our little in-home trial of the Roku box only with the a cable signal coming directly from the wall.

But if I were to install Plex on an idle PC to pull in the shows, could I then stream the web shows from there?

Yes, it should work as long as they are all on the same network...assuming your using a windows pc?

give it a shot, plex server side install is free and you just need XP SP3 or higher

 

[Sentrosi2121]

Nice. I'll have to try this out this weekend.

I've got a Win7PC that the family uses that doesn't do much except surf the internet. It's a Celeron E3300 w/ 2GB of RAM. I'm fairly certain that's enough CPU for my standard def TV, but if I upgrade to a HDTV, I'll probably need to bump it up to a better processor, right?

 

[tydas]

Nice. I'll have to try this out this weekend.

I've got a Win7PC that the family uses that doesn't do much except surf the internet. It's a Celeron E3300 w/ 2GB of RAM. I'm fairly certain that's enough CPU for my standard def TV, but if I upgrade to a HDTV, I'll probably need to bump it up to a better processor, right?

I'm not sure, my server is a core 2 duo with 4gb of ram and it handles hi def streaming from plex ok, some hiccups now and then...at the very least i would add another 2gb of memory to that pc since memory is so cheap...

Another nice thing about plex server is that it also shows up on my xbox as a video player...the movie playback has been a little janky on my xbox though and i'm not sure why

 

[Sentrosi2121]

Unfortunately it's maxed out in its RAM. But I'll give it a shot today and then assess after testing.

 

[master7045]

Thought I'd throw in my .02 as I'm starting to dabble w/ Plex. My setup is as follows: Plex Media Server (PMS) is on a core i3 550 w/ 8 GB RAM and the media is on a 2 TB HDD. PC is hardwired to a 1 GB switch. I have the Plex client on the same desktop, a MacBook Air (2011) (on wireless n), the transformer infinity (wireless n), xbox 360 (wired to same switch), and just tonight on my father in-law's Roku XS box (on his wireless G network).
With that out of the way, I can play movies just fine on the MacBook Air & the tablet, but for some reason, the Plex DNLA stream to the xbox is horrible. Lots of stopping and re-buffering of the stream. All of the video files I've tried have been MKV's of SD DVD movies, either right from the disk or from an ISO image. That was disappointing as I was hoping my server was beefy enough to handle the transcoding to the xbox. Tonight, the family was at the in-laws and I downloaded the plex channel on the Roku XS. All of the movies played very well. I'd say a 90% success rate. Every now and then there would be some pixilation on screen, but given the fact that I was streaming a 1080p MKV across the WAN/Internet, I was impressed.

Short version: Plex client running locally on PC/Laptop = great. Transcoding to Roku = very good. Transcoding to xbox = bad.

 

[assassin24]

Try to upgrade your Plex Server. I did last night as there was a new version out and it made playback even better as far as reliability is concerned.