Carlo 4330 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Hello everyone. I currently run 2 Plex servers. Here's a bit about my current setup: 4350 Movies, 8300 TV Episodes, 12K+ Music Albums, 700 Music Videos, 850 NFL Games, 700 Learning Videos I have 4 computers dedicated to my media collection. Currently 2 run Plex, 1 runs WMC with HDHomeRunPrimes for recording and one is a general purpose computer used for processing files, etc. I have roughly 40TB of content. My Plex servers are shared with about 25 family and friends. During prime time I often have 6 or so streaming sessions going on. I myself use web, Samsung TV Clients, xBox One, Roku and Android Clients. I've installed MB3 and really like it so far. I do have a few questions I hope you guys don't mind me asking: 1. Is there a download button or a way for a person using the server to download a file (not sync) instead of viewing it? 2. Is it possible to search specific libraries and not everything? It's really annoying getting a ton of "music" results when I'm searching for a movie 3. Any plans or active dev going on for the xBox One? I've been using this more and more with Plex and even though it's still in early dev I really like using the xBox One for media. I've got MB3 "casting" to xBox One via DLNA but that of course only works on the same subnet and not externally. My son who lives with his mother half the time has an xBox One and wouldn't be able to easily use it this way. 4. I notice that MB3 likes to use WEBM instead of MP4 to many browsers. All my content is in Mp4 format that should direct play (95% of the time) but with MB3 it's getting transcoded. Is there a setting anywhere that I've missed to set MP4 as the default INSTEAD of WEBM? Some of my biggest complaints/concerns at the moment with Plex is lack of "administration" at the server level. For example, since I stream to multiple clients I want to control what they can and can't do instead of them choosing. For example (posted as questions): 5. Can I limit direct vs transcoding of the client? I don't want to stress my CPU(s) because a "friend" doesn't have enough bandwidth to play 1080p 12mbit files. I'd like to be able to block them from having the ability to change resolution or adjust bitates on VIDEO since everything I have is already h.264 encoded. I'd rather them be forced to upgrade their Internet connection then to force me to upgrade to faster CPUs or more boxes/servers. I feel if I'm sharing my resources with them, then at least they can pony up the funds to have adequate bandwidth. 6. Can I limit the number of streams a person can use at one time? I don't want them sharing their account with others without them loosing the ability to use my server. I will often see 3 different shows/movies playing from one account in Plex. I'll have more questions for sure to ask but just wanted to ask these for starters. Thanks so much, Carlo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37112 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Welcome. No download yet, but it's a planned feature. We like administrative features, those have been asked for and are planned. A search overhaul is also planned for the short term, so that could end up being possible. In the upcoming release, webm will be eliminated from firefox but will still be active with chrome (desktop only). Do you have examples of files that you think should be direct playing? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 Glad to hear it. Here is one quick example of a file transcoded that doesn't need to be: Server Version 3.0.5513.39888 samsung SM-N915V (Galaxy Note Edge) 2.1.38 ts 10.6Mbps Video: libx264 Audio: libx264 43fps Log shows: C:\Users\cayars\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\ffmpeg\20150110\ffmpeg.exe -fflags +genpts -i file:"\\PLEX\F\Movies\B\Baby On Board (2009)\Baby On Board (2009).mp4" -map_metadata -1 -threads 0 -map 0:0 -map 0:2 -map -0:s -codec:v:0 libx264 -preset superfast -crf 23 -maxrate 10503439 -bufsize 21006878 -vsync vfr -level 40 -force_key_frames expr:gte(t,n_forced*6) -vf "scale=trunc(min(iw\,1920)/2)*2:trunc(min((iw/dar)\,1080)/2)*2" -copyts -flags -global_header -codec:a:0 aac -strict experimental -ac 2 -ab 128000 -af "adelay=1,aresample=async=1,volume=2" -hls_time 6 -start_number 0 -hls_list_size 0 -y "C:\Users\cayars\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\transcoding-temp\6bf98b5797fcc0e66ad80c102c5c3e32.m3u8" Same movie played through plex app will direct stream. Bitrates are set to max in both apps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37112 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 this was for the web client? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 No sorry, that was in the android app. I've been testing so many things I "got confused". I just tried 5 or 6 Mp4 through Chrome and they all direct played as I'd expect. Not sure what I was looking at before. However in chrome I'm seeing mp4 and not webm but could have sworn I saw webm the other day. Has this just changed in a dev build or am I more crazy than I thought? Carlo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37112 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 the newer dev builds do improve direct streaming for chrome, yes, but when transcoding is required it will be webm. i am going to add downloading to the upcoming release because that has been long requested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 (edited) Appreciate that for the download. I did notice you can just right click the video and save it which you can't do in Plex. But back to the first question. (Hope I'm not annoying yet!) When the need to transcode why webm instead of mp4? Can this be changed via profile or anything on the individual server? Once I get "satisfied" with my setup I want to work on GPU encoding/transcoding with ffmpeg and MB3 libs calling it. But pretty much all GPU encoding is off the table if you aren't doing mp4. I'm of course being "selfish" but this is something that would help me personally. I stream to about 20-25 friends and family and it's growing. It's nothing for me to have 6 to 10 streams in the evening going at the same time. All of my machines were mining machines in a past life and are stacked with ATI and nVideo GPUs. Also have a couple other Intel QuickSync enabled machines. This is an area that MB3 could really shine over Plex. I'm sure I'm in the minority on the "need" for this at present, but with SYNC coming on board shortly the CPU will be getting bogged down more than normal and this will slowly become a bigger issue. So obviously getting more and more clients using mp4/h.264 that can make use of hardware based encoding will help. Carlo PS How about question #3 in the op post? Ohh, and another question I failed to ask. I play a little trick with Plex. I usually encode two versions of files. I'll do a high bitrate 1080p for my own use and anyone who can direct stream. I also encode the same file as 720p/3mb for those on Rokus with WIFI or who have limited bandwidth. Plex is smart enough to use the higher res file when it can direct stream and will then fall back to using the 720p file if possible instead of transcoding for that client. Will MB3 do anything like this? How does it handle multiple res/bitrate files for the same movie? I haven't gotten this far in my testing to figure it out yet. Been playing with all the "new" features. Edited February 5, 2015 by cayars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37112 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 it is only chrome desktop using webm and not chrome mobile. we will have h264-based transcoding for it later but for now it's webm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 Luke thank you so much for your quick responses. So appreciated you don't know! Carlo PS Question #3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14929 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 We definitely plan to have an XBOne app but MS doesn't make it easy. It may take Windows 10 and the platform unification for it to happen for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 The old "backdoor method" Solid strategy non-the-less and what I kind of figured. Appreciate you time and answers, Carlo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Noticed in the latest dev release you slipped in Download and in user setting the abillity to grant access to media downloading for each user. THANKS AND THAT WAS FAST! Carlo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianW 1053 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Noticed in the latest dev release you slipped in Download and in user setting the abillity to grant access to media downloading for each user. THANKS AND THAT WAS FAST! The dev team have been on a roll recently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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