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media center software

C

Copenhagen69

Diamond Member
I just got my home server and now I need to load up my media center software. It has been probably 5-7 years since I have used a media center and it was the old XMBC software.

Now it is named Kodi and windows media center will not be as easy to setup for me since I am going to setup my whole house.

Here will be my setup ...
1 server - in the office
3 TVs needing access
I have access to a Roku, apple tv and chromecast
so I was hoping to use one of the above on each tv if possible

I here lots of good things with Kodi but it seems like a little tougher setup due to hardware constraints. This other one called Emby seems to be easier to setup with what I got, but is also newer and not sure how big the following for it is ...

any thoughts on these?
 
Plex

/thread



Ok let me elaborate:
Run plex on the server. The stream media to all TVs using chromecast and iOs/Android app.
 
Ditch the apple tv unless you have a lot of apple devices. I have 2 rokus, a 2 and a 3, and they are heads and shoulders better than the apple tv. Plex is now free on the roku also I believe, so load up plex, the rokus will find it, and I think it will work fine with chromecast as well, but not sure since I rarely use the chromecast.

I'm about ready to ditch Kodi and just go with plex all the way, but currently use both of them on my media center.
 
slag said:
Ditch the apple tv unless you have a lot of apple devices. I have 2 rokus, a 2 and a 3, and they are heads and shoulders better than the apple tv. Plex is now free on the roku also I believe, so load up plex, the rokus will find it, and I think it will work fine with chromecast as well, but not sure since I rarely use the chromecast.

I'm about ready to ditch Kodi and just go with plex all the way, but currently use both of them on my media center.
Click to expand...

They work great with the CC. I have it set up and running in my house on 4 TVs.
The added bonus of just using an iOS/android device for the "remote control" is since you have the client on your mobile device already, all your content is available for you to enjoy while way from home as well.
 
Emby is actually very similar to Plex in how it operates. You specify file locations, and it handles serving the media to the end device whether it's a direct stream or a transcode. I've been meaning to test Emby as I've already installed the server program, but I haven't gotten around to installing the client yet. One of the big tests for me is whether it can handle scraping anime as even Plex requires a good, third-party plugin for that to work right.

To note, at this point, I use Plex. Plex's model, which as noted, is the same as Emby, would meet your needs.
 
What is CC?

I will look into plex since it is free now.

Why are you tired of Kodi?

Never heard of this JRiver. I will look into it.
 
I like Kodi, I have a huge Kodi setup, but given the hardware you have I recommend Plex.

Kodi needs devices that it can run on, and those don't include an (unjailbroken) AppleTV, a Roku or a Chromecast. Plex will run on all three.

Kodi is at its best when you commit to Kodi. Like I have three systems (two Chromeboxes and a custom Mini ITX rig) just for Kodi. Why? Because then I get the best that can be had in this field (the best skins, HD audio bitstreaming always, great subtitle support, Live TV etc.) without compromising.

But if you just want to make what you have work pick a machine on your network to be your Plex server and have at it!
 
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how is Plex's metadata gathering? Will it go out and find all the info of a movie and all that? I see that some of the features you need to pay for monthly ... that is kind of annoying

XMBC used to do that with IMDB. Is it still like that now?
 
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Copenhagen69 said:
Oh ok interesting. Oh well as long as it pulls the correct and most current info I am good.
Click to expand...

I just redid my library last weekend (about 2000 movies, the TV shows all have nfo files) and it did it in a couple of hours. Used to take half a day to do that in the XBMC era. It is an area where they have made improvements recently for sure.
 
Copenhagen69 said:
Oh ok interesting. Oh well as long as it pulls the correct and most current info I am good.
Click to expand...

It works pretty well. As I mentioned earlier, the only thing that I have issues with is anime, and that's because I want a Japanese-based numbering rather than an American-based numbering. In the US, we tend to split long series into seasons, which does not always occur in Japan.

Anyway, the best thing to do is to follow a few simple "rules" to ensure things are scraped correctly. For example, whenever I rip a movie, I always follow the scene naming convention (e.g. Move.Title.Year.Resolution.Source.Codec-Group). Now, a lot of that really isn't very necessary, but I would say that the Movie Title and Year are important. In a few cases, there are no variations for a specific title, but in other cases, you will need the year to avoid conflicts. So, I just always include the year.

TV shows should be named in a certain way too. You need to make sure that the season and episode number are labeled properly (e.g. Show.Name.S01E01), or else the scraper can't identify where the episode belongs. The hardest part is probably dealing with specials, which are labeled under season 0 (S00E##). When I encounter a special, I normally have to go to TheTVDB to look up which episode it is.
 
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