Best HDMI stick plex client?

[JeffMD]

Despite having a fully capable plex server, I still get hit by some of the short comings of using chromecast as my plex player. What is the best HDMI stick sized form factor for a plex server? I don't have any big bitrate requirements but I get tripped up when the encode profile is to high and other things that trip up devices that use a strictly hardware h264 decoder.

Currently I am looking at a RasPi B with rasplex. A little more work than most others but if that is what it takes.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Plex should transcode when necessary, and it sounds like it isn't doing that for the Chromecast. Oh, I guess Plex and Chromecast does have it's issues.

I like my Roku Streaming Stick, and have only had issues when I've turned off transcoding, but it may not do all that you want. What else do you intend to use besides Plex? FWIW, my Plex Media Server runs on a lowly FX-4100.

 

[Binky]

Player or server? You kinda said both. Rasplex is a client. The native server runs on Linux. You also asked for HDMI sized, but then mentioned the Rpi2.

Plex client/player on Linux is doable, but Android is just so much easier. Or a roku.

 

[JeffMD]

Anony, the android plex client + chrome has a major issue in that it won't transcode to higher bitrates than the source material. In one of my anime series, it is causing an h264 video to be transcoded into a lower 480p resolution because it is not higher then 2mbps. This is regardless of the server capabilities. The problem does not surface if I play from the android or ios client directly.

Binky, client. My server is fine, I retrofitted my q6600 into a silent box.

I consider raspi small enough to be considered a hdmi stick as it isn't much bigger then other hdmi sticks + hdmi extension like the chrome2. Not looking for any set top or mini PCs.

 

[Kartajan]

The problem does not surface if I play from the android or ios client directly.
Not looking for any set top or mini PCs.

based on the quoted portion above, FireTV Stick. I don't care much for Amazon's HW, but there you go...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

based on the quoted portion above, FireTV Stick. I don't care much for Amazon's HW, but there you go...

+1. I have one and it works great w/ Plex.

 

[JeffMD]

So I picked up the stick today as it did seem to fit the bill. Saddly it took the better part of the evening to figure out the default experimental player was giving me constant stuttering, even on the lowest bitrates. Once I toggled it off, everything ran smoothly. I have no idea why, in no post does turning this player off fix things. -_- Need to dig up some info on why this happened. In the end it seems to work beautifully.

 

[Aikouka]

Did you go with the Fire Stick?

 

[JeffMD]

Yep. Sorry if I was unclear, I was saying that after installing the fire stick It was giving me a huge stuttering issue that took my a coupe hours to diagnose. It turned out that for what ever reason, the experimental player (which is always defaulted to on) was the problem. When I turned it off, video on the firestick was smooth for what I've watched so far.

Also fwiw, I kind of prefer having the plex menus on screen rather than using my phone as the remote, which is odd to me. I'm lucky though that my plex purchase was on amazon, otherwise I would have needed to buy it a third time. ^^

One big con though, no volume control. Unfortunately I am using a 2.1 speaker set run off my TV's optical out, and the tv does not support volume control on that either, so my only volume control is a wired remote at the tv.

 

[Kartajan]

, so my only volume control is a wired remote at the tv.

WIRED remote??

I am hoping you meant IR remote....

 

[AnonymouseUser]

One big con though, no volume control. Unfortunately I am using a 2.1 speaker set run off my TV's optical out, and the tv does not support volume control on that either, so my only volume control is a wired remote at the tv.

I haven't done this myself, but I do know that Kodi can be installed on the Fire TV stick, and it has a "poor man's" volume control for the Fire TV. Even if that doesn't work for sound, you will at least have Kodi installed on the Fire TV Stick!

Edit: Forgot to add, with Kodi installed, you can view Plex with the PleXBMC addon.

 

[JeffMD]

WIRED remote??

I am hoping you meant IR remote....

Nope, it is a pair of PC 2.1 speakers... fairly inexpensive 2.1 logitechs that sound a ton better then the built in speakers. Only a wired remote. :/

 

[Homerboy]

Honestly, I use Plex to ChromeCast without any issues at all.