Plex vs Front Row?

alter200

well, I bit the bullet and got me a mac mini
Have it setup now with external hard drive and connectd to 40" Samsung LCD with DVI-HDMI cable and audio outt o my speakers

So far, all looking good. And nice and small and silent too

I do have a naumber of DVDs I have ripped to VIEDO_TS folders that front row doesn't recognise. Have installed Plex which does pick them up but haven't used it enough to get a feel for it

What are other people using as their Media Centre software? Any thoughts on Plex via Front Row (should I post this in separate thread) ?

thanks,

Al

J-blk

alter200 wrote: »

What are other people using as their Media Centre software? Any thoughts on Plex via Front Row

I love Plex and I've been using it since the early releases (when it was still officially called OSXBMC) and it blows Front Row out of the water. The problem is that is has a ton of options and you can just about customize anything you can think of, which makes it the opposite of Front Row in some ways, which is as simple as you can get.

However, Plex is much better at handling any kind of file you throw at it - I use it largely with .mkv HD rips, which have problems playing over a wireless network connection (even 802.11n) smoothly in QuickTime (and by definition, Front Row) and even VLC. A great feature in Plex is that you can set up buffer amounts for local/network/Internet playback, to deal with things like that.

My favorite feature though would have to be the fact that Plex can easily add metadata to TV shows and movies.

Works great with the Apple remote too. I'd definitely recommend it over Front Row.

johnk123

I have been using plex for the last couple of days now and i have to say im seriously impressed. I had heard of it but only recently tried it on @J-blk recommendation in a seperate thread. Im still only getting to grips with the whole thing now and there is a lot of various customizing you can do to the options etc.

Overall its very well built and is definitely worth checking out in my opinion.

thecommander

Is there an older fork of it that can be used with PowerPC?

J-blk

thecommander wrote: »

Is there an older fork of it that can be used with PowerPC?

Don't think so, unfortunately. Even back when it was OSXBMC, it was still Leopard/Intel only.

alter200

thanks for the info guys

can it be configured to startup when pressing the apple remote button?

Or do you just start up like any regular app and then leave it running?

I noticed it picked up the artwork in my folders that I got when ripping on my PC. It seems that it can be configured to autonatically retreive artwork and metadata bsed on filename or folder name - anyone know how this works? Seems it's best to use a flat folder structure?

Also, where do I get Aeon skin from? Saw a demo of it and looked quite nice

thanks,

Al

alter200

J-blk wrote: »

However, Plex is much better at handling any kind of file you throw at it - I use it largely with .mkv HD rips, which have problems playing over a wireless network connection (even 802.11n) smoothly in QuickTime (and by definition, Front Row) and even VLC. A great feature in Plex is that you can set up buffer amounts for local/network/Internet playback, to deal with things like that.
.

you mention wireless connection - are you hosting files on one machine (also a mac) and playing on another? As well as my mac mini downstairs, I have a macbook (with another apple remote). I guess with front row/Plkex on my macbook, I could wirelessly access the media on the mac mini (on external drive) and play it thru front row/plex on my macbook and have a second media centre in my bedroom with same media?

Also, does Eye TV integrate with Plex? Any experiences with that combo?

thanks and sorry for all the questions - I'm all excited about my new Home Theatre setup

Al

J-blk

alter200 wrote: »

can it be configured to startup when pressing the apple remote button?

Yes it can be configured to effectively replace Front Row and start up when when "Menu" is pressed. I chose against this though because last time I did this (months ago though), it blocks the remote from working in the Finder/other apps. I have a Mini connected to a projector all the time as my HTPC and I have Plex configured to run at startup/login - so as soon as I start the Mini, Plex opens full screen and I can control everything with the remote. I have no keyboard/mouse connected to the Mini itself (since I can do all maintenance via Leopard's screen sharing from my MBP).

alter200 wrote: »

I noticed it picked up the artwork in my folders that I got when ripping on my PC. It seems that it can be configured to autonatically retreive artwork and metadata bsed on filename or folder name - anyone know how this works? Seems it's best to use a flat folder structure?

It uses the folder/file names to do lookups - I haven't imported any music into it, but it works this way:

http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Music#Library_Mode

I use it for TV Shows and Movies a lot and the lookup is done on a folder if the file is named correctly:

TV => Prison Break => Season 4 (Optional) => S4E10 - The Legend.mkv

Will result in accurate metadata lookups. All my shows follow this structure. Movies are a bit different - and you should always include the year in the movie folder/file name:

Movies => Iron Man (2008) => Iron Man (2008).mkv

Another cool thing with Plex is it will play movies split into multiple files as one seamless file. So let's say you have a "Movie (Part 1).avi" and "Movie (Part 2).avi", if you dump them into one folder and name them correctly, Plex will see and play it as a single movie:

Movies => Movie (2008) => Movie (1).avi
Movies => Movie (2008) => Movie (2).avi

...plays as one movie. You can disable this function if you want to, but that's the default behavior.

alter200 wrote: »

Also, where do I get Aeon skin from? Saw a demo of it and looked quite nice

http://www.aeonproject.com/

I used it awhile back and even though it is great for the "Movies" view, the "TV Show" view still leaves a lot to be desired.

And if you want to make Plex look like Front Row/Apple TV, there's the xTV skin:

http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24617

alter200 wrote: »

you mention wireless connection - are you hosting files on one machine (also a mac) and playing on another? As well as my mac mini downstairs, I have a macbook (with another apple remote). I guess with front row/Plkex on my macbook, I could wirelessly access the media on the mac mini (on external drive) and play it thru front row/plex on my macbook and have a second media centre in my bedroom with same media?

I'm actually using it with a Windows Home Server that stores all my media but the scenario you're mentioning will work fine. Plex has support for SMB (Windows shares) and AFP (standard on Mac OS X) - accessing data from a network location will work fine, I keep no media on my Mini. However, one big caveat: the Mini only has 802.11g - even with the buffering options in Plex, certain things (HD .mkv - possibly uncompressed DVD rips) will simply not play smoothly. If your router is close to the Mini, wire it up - that's what I do and it works great. Your MacBook should have 802.11n and assuming you have an 802.11n router, it won't be the bottleneck that the Mini can be.

alter200 wrote: »

Also, does Eye TV integrate with Plex? Any experiences with that combo?

As far I know, it doesn't but I haven't looked into it all TBH - there was a project that sort of integrated Eye TV into Front Row so there could very well be something for Plex - try searching their forums.

alter200 wrote: »

thanks and sorry for all the questions - I'm all excited about my new Home Theatre setup

No problem, I'm sure the more you use your Mini/Plex combo, the more you'll love it .

Talisman

alter200 wrote: »

Also, does Eye TV integrate with Plex? Any experiences with that combo?

They aren't integrated, but it's only a matter of time. CyTV is a streaming hack for EyeTV, it streams to a VLC client. Plex is built from the VLC source code and from what I've read one of the developers is working on a plugin for Plex. Hardware support will be completely depend on what the EyeTV SDK allows - see here.

one you get all the scrapers working, plex is amazing. i have 2 gigs of wallpapers downloaded for the movies, tv shows and music backgrounds alone.


i think the skin is called mediastream.. unbelievable setup.