MBT vs Plex

February 28, 2014

They do... Not everyone does. Plus you can run into problems on other operating systems.

February 28, 2014

Someone may have to chime in, im not overly familiar with plex, but isnt this similar to the new server option for path substitution?

"Path substitutions are used for mapping a path on the server to a path that clients are able to access. By allowing clients direct access to media on the server they may be able to play them directly over the network and avoid using server resources to stream and transcode them."

I guess the question im curious about is how plex implements it. How user friendly is it? In mbt if this is the same thing, path substitution from when i tried it required you to manually input paths to all your media. From reading plex documentation it looks like its simply an option you can enable called direct play in the client.

I guess my question (unless i am misunderstanding all of this) is did mb3 do it this way because in plex application its all or nothing? So if you enable direct play and the odd file cant play it on that client, does it not work? Where as mb3 from my understanding will direct play with path substitution but will also transcode it if needed.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Ghostm

February 28, 2014

MBT can still direct play without path substitution. But is more than one form of direct play. It can direct play by streaming through MBS's http server. Note that streaming does not equal transcoding. It can simply stream the original file as-is.

But even better than that is bypassing the http server altogether and accessing the files over the network. That is something path substitution canhelp with.

February 28, 2014

MBT can still direct play without path substitution. But is more than one form of direct play. It can direct play by streaming through MBS's http server. Note that streaming does not equal transcoding. It can simply stream the original file as-is.

But even better than that is bypassing the http server altogether and accessing the files over the network. That is something path substitution canhelp with.

So in my locations I have it as \\mediastorage\movies (nas) should I use substition? Or will it direct play when ever it can with the locations as they are

The candybar

February 28, 2014

So in my locations I have it as \\mediastorage\movies (nas) should I use substition? Or will it direct play when ever it can with the locations as they are

The candybar

You shouldn't need path substitution if you're set up like that. Should still be able to direct play. However if you have it set up as d:\movies then path substitution can change it to \\mediastorage\movies for client access.

February 28, 2014

MBT can still direct play without path substitution. But is more than one form of direct play. It can direct play by streaming through MBS's http server. Note that streaming does not equal transcoding. It can simply stream the original file as-is.

But even better than that is bypassing the http server altogether and accessing the files over the network. That is something path substitution canhelp with.

I didn't think you could direct play in an internet browser via internet from a remote location. Thought it had a limitation with html5 or something. I've been wrong before.

February 28, 2014

This thread is talking about MediaBrowserTheater app nothing to do with an internet browser/html5

February 28, 2014

I didn't think you could direct play in an internet browser via internet from a remote location. Thought it had a limitation with html5 or something. I've been wrong before.

So you are referring to the web client? And other clients? I think when using the web client everything is transcoded, im not sure about things like roku or chromecast or other clients. I would assume those would only transcode if needed but someone who knows would have to clarify.

So it sounds like you would like direct play in the web client.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Ghostm

February 28, 2014

Luke had mentioned being able to direct play through MB server http server so I was assuming he was talking about the web client. Since the thread is about MBT vs Plex, I would round it off to MediaBrowser vs Plex. Unless we are talking soley about Plex Home Theater vs Media Browser Theater but didn't seem like that was the direction.

Roku you have a choice with plex to direct play or transcode. Can't remember with MediaBrowser channel. I'm assuming you have a choice to direct play as well. I used MB channel when it first came out but a little slow and sluggish though im sure its been updated since then. Could just be my Roku device being slow too.

My original post was soley talking about Media browser theater vs Plex home theater in terms of streaming over internet.

Edited February 28, 2014 by A8HTPC

February 28, 2014

All the clients access our http server so that doesn't indicate the web client. I believe the web client can do limited direct play but it is in the form Luke mentioned where the file is streamed through our server. MBT and MBC have the ability to bypass our server entirely (for playback) and just get the file from the network - if you either define the library using network paths or use the new path substitution feature.

February 28, 2014

Hello

I have made 2 videos to show the functions of Plex in details, please note one of the videos is pretty long

Video 1

Video 2

Thanks

March 1, 2014

Looks like 3:28 in the first video is the options he was asking for...

March 1, 2014

Looks like 3:28 in the first video is the options he was asking for...

Hi as Luke said before MB3 will over come and kill any other service or program out there but it need more developers and more users

so i will wait and one by one everyone will get what they want from MB3

March 8, 2014

Hi as Luke said before MB3 will over come and kill any other service or program out there but it need more developers and more users

so i will wait and one by one everyone will get what they want from MB3

I agree with this. Plex has been around longer and is jsut a bit more mature in some aspects, but with the rigth development team, MB3 will likely equal and eventually surpass it, but being open source is a huge benefit. Making it XBMC compatible so it can be an XBMC backend, with full XBMC integration, and still have the streaming for exterior will be a huge bonus for people who currently use xbmc locally and plex for remote viewing.

... as long as they get that linux version working well with an easy install. (i plan on taking a stab at writing an unraid plugin for it but we will see).

That aside, they probably could implement the sharing feature that is being asked about in OP. Plex uses their hosted server to negotiate accounts, to link up clients with servers, and friends servers using something as simple as logging into the server / client app. This is a server that plex themselves are hosting however, so should it ever go down all those sharing features and remote hosting goes with it.

---------------------------------

I think that what MB3 needs to implement is an option on the server side to input the external IP and port (or preferably dynamic DNS) of a friends server and have it show up in the your server under a new area for remote servers. Then have the application be able to browse and stream from that remote server.

Plex uses their hosted server as a central station, when you have your home plex server turned on or log in with a client, it basically checks in with their hosted server to let it know your home server/client is available and it also makes note of the IP address. With their server knowing your IP address for your home server and the status (that its available), when your friend goes to browse your collection it merely has to check in with their hosted server to get your current IP and status so it can connect. MB3 would not have this central server since it incurs costs to host an always on server that can handle potentially large amounts of traffic, so keeping IP addresses up to date would be a pain for users, especially users who aren't teksavy and wouldn't use dynamic DNS addresses. At least that's my understanding of how plex works. Hopefully if i'm wrong someone can post the correct way plex actually works.

TL;DR - MB3 would have to host its own server (which costs money) to allow friends servers to find each other since home IP addresses change regularly

March 15, 2014

Wonder if this thread should be moved to the general area.

I had a bit of time to fool around with plex, i think mb3 direction is better, and Im glad i chose it, i will list a few things i like about plex which i would like to see mb3 take a look at adding. I guess its a fine line between what you would want to copy from them or essential features to mb3 own product that would be beneficial to the mb3 experience as well. I hope the mb3 team is aware of what they are adding thought through their blogs, while mb3 imo is better, a few things could be taken to improve mb3 . Some of these have already been mentioned in the thread i just thought i would list them from my experience.

1. The big one is discussed in this thread, the sharing of your library, and accessing it away from home or basically from anywhere, plex is pretty well tuned and marketed i notice to social integration and sharing of content. For instance they added a camera upload feature on ios so that when you take pictures on your phone it can be automatically uploaded to your server and shared for your family. They did a nifty promo of a dad taking pics of the kids and the grandma viewing them, your probably going to see requests for things like this from plex users who also look to mb3. They also have an itunes sharing plugin which seems to share content from itunes on phone, or on pc, into your plex server which is also nice.

2. I mentioned this to redshirt but chrome cast mirroing, what you browse on your phone is also displayed on the screen, imo mb3 is nicer with artwork and metadata and its something the ios/android/windows phone people on here i hope would consider adding. It was pretty cool to mirror what your doing on your tablet on your chromecast. Especially if you have friends or family and your browsing your library to pick a movie to watch, this way everyone can see it and come to a decision.

3. Sync, i noticed they have a nice sync to device feature and even a sync to icloud or dropbox or whatever, this would also be something many users would find useful.

4. This is a selfish one which probably shouldnt be listed but i recently created a request for api to allow instant mix or shuffle all your music and play it to a client (over a home sound system for instance). I tried this on their iphone app and it worked great, they just added it to right after i made a request on here for mb3 to do it. I created a shuffle list and could remove songs, edit the list, ect... and then airplay it, or play it to any client and skip songs ect..., i hope the iphone developer can later add this if the api ever exists.

So those were the big ones, beyond that i dont think mb3 is missing much, and does alot of other things better and that plex cant. One off the top of my head using the ios app was i couldnt play something on my phone while also playing something to a separate device. It made me control one or the other. I also didnt see trailer support, ability to stream to a web client....i could go on and on.

The one thing I will give them credit for they seem to take an apple approach and try to incorporate everything into a plex ecosystem which is a good idea, especially for promotional purposes to appeal to general users with the syncing, sharing, and social integration, it will appeal to alot of casual users, I think its an approach that would also help mb3 if some of these plex sharing features are ever added. I also like how they seem to have cross client communication, i noticed often if a feature was available for android but not iphone or vice versa they made sure new features would eventually be added to all clients so one user base is not missing features.

Anyway i went all in with mb3 i gave up xbmc, and i feel like i chose correctly over plex, and I would be willing to pay for any features if any of these would cost money, or if they would require donations as they would be useful.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Ghostm

March 15, 2014

Luke and I have been discussing the library sharing and dynamic dns features you mentioned. We would like to provide that and intend to find a way to make it happen. In addition to the technical implementation, though, as you point out, this also involves an additional hosting cost that will scale with the number of people using it.

March 16, 2014

I have just converted from Plex to Media Browser. Plex pass is monthly subscription or you can pay $75 for lifetime subscription. The 2 things that plex pass lets you do is sync movies to the cloud and also sync movies to your mobile devices. which are both awesome things to have which i am willing to pay for.

2 things i would love mieda browser 3 to do is:

Sync movies to your iphone/android device

sync movies to anther person media browser server. eg i have one at my house and one at my parents house and they choose the movies they want to sync. The reason for this is because my upload is only 100k/sec

March 16, 2014

I have just converted from Plex to Media Browser. Plex pass is monthly subscription or you can pay $75 for lifetime subscription. The 2 things that plex pass lets you do is sync movies to the cloud and also sync movies to your mobile devices. which are both awesome things to have which i am willing to pay for.

2 things i would love mieda browser 3 to do is:

Sync movies to your iphone/android device

sync movies to anther person media browser server. eg i have one at my house and one at my parents house and they choose the movies they want to sync. The reason for this is because my upload is only 100k/sec

it will happen. welcome!

March 16, 2014

@ Luke glad to her that I spoke about it last year with concept of mb3 plus & my mb3 web login but the whole thing back fired on me lol