MBT vs Plex

[wolf359 6]

Yes that is a very good idea a user account remote would do the same thing. As I am ok with computers but not brilliant I did not know how to open a port etc that keeps being posted I did look at it in my router settings but did not want to mess it all up.

 

I have the kids on their tablets who watch the films tv at home but cant when they stay at their grandparents house.

 

Is there an idots guide to port forwarding/opening ? I have a bt infinity router 

[ebr 16169]

Port Forwarding - A guide

[wraslor 70]

Thanks for the info guys, Wraslor I followed those instructions and checked if the port was open which it was when server is on and closed when off.

 

I tried to conect to the dashboard using both my phone and tablet (connected via bt fon/wifi) but could not get the screen up.

Also tried to connect the same way with the media browser tablet app which works over the lan fine but not sure if that would work outside of the lan or not,,anyway nothing has worked with regards getting to see any films or indeed sign of media browser  outside of my Lan so far

First with the mb server running go to http://www.canyouseeme.org/ and test if it can see the opened port.  2nd, when you try to connect on your phone what address are you using for the server?

[wolf359 6]

HI people

 

I am in a battle with my friend who also has a HTPC. He keeps trying to convert me to Plex. I installed plex the other day to run along side MBT and I must say that MBT trumps plex in almost every way.

The look and way you can modify MBT in just about anyway you can think off to personalize it to your needs is second to none.

 

However where Plex is way ahead of MBT is the ability to have friends and stream their collection over the web. I was impressed with this as there was no setting up at all with regards router settings and so on. All I had to do was send an invite to him and share my drives with him after he accepted. As soon as he gets his internet connection to upload more than 0.34kbs (lives in the wilderness) I will be streaming his films to my tablets phone and tv from anywhere as well as watching my own.

 

Now I know I will never be converted full time to anything other than MBT as its beautiful and very smooth and I know that you are still far from finished.

 

Please do you think that the feature mentioned above could be implemented into MBT as I am sure we will be able to convert him and many more people away from Plex

 

 

 

 

[Luke 42077]

Yes, we would like to do that sort of thing, for all of our apps.

[wolf359 6]

I have checked on this site and the isp is not blocking port 8096. I am trying to connect to two ip addresses one I get from ipconfig when running cmd function the other from the info given from the MB dashboard  (external ip url)

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

Your external IP can be obtained from the Media Browser Dashboard by clicking on the Info tab. Or you can type "What is my IP in Google". Use an IPv4 address of XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX not the much longer IPv6 address.

[wolf359 6]

Your external IP can be obtained from the Media Browser Dashboard by clicking on the Info tab. Or you can type "What is my IP in Google". Use an IPv4 address of XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX not the much longer IPv6 address.

I have used both of those ip addresses and neither of them will get up the dashboard if i am running through bt wifi /fon also i have set them up in the tablet app which gives the message cant see the libuary. Stick any thing back through the LAN and all shows up straight away

[ebr 16169]

Would you be willing to pay for this feature?  We are a free and open-source project.  Plex is a commercial product and charges (I believe) an annual fee for that kind of functionality.  The reality is that providing such things will cost not only the time and effort to implement and support them but also the necessary infrastructure on the internet to do so.

 

So, would you be willing to pay an annual subscription fee for this type of feature?

[wraslor 70]

Yes that is a very good idea a user account remote would do the same thing. As I am ok with computers but not brilliant I did not know how to open a port etc that keeps being posted I did look at it in my router settings but did not want to mess it all up.

 

I have the kids on their tablets who watch the films tv at home but cant when they stay at their grandparents house.

 

Is there an idots guide to port forwarding/opening ? I have a bt infinity router 

I'm not sure if this is the same router but maybe they use a common interface?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXvkBMqU6P4

 

Substitute the port for MB3 of port 8096

[wolf359 6]

Would you be willing to pay for this feature?  We are a free and open-source project.  Plex is a commercial product and charges (I believe) an annual fee for that kind of functionality.  The reality is that providing such things will cost not only the time and effort to implement and support them but also the necessary infrastructure on the internet to do so.

 

So, would you be willing to pay an annual subscription fee for this type of feature?

Some of the plex features you have to pay for however this ability is not one of them. I think the online cloud/briefcase is part of what you pay for. All I did was download Plex install it and send invite and it sorted out all of the remote connections to my friends server and his film collection on his pc. Nothing is stored online for this operation

 

Dont take me the wrong way guys what you are doing is absolutely excellent and yes if this ability came along and had a fee in the way of a plug in then of course I would give up my hard earned on it

 

As I said I will not be converted to plex as its look and speed is not even close to what you guys have done.

[ebr 16169]

I'm pretty sure your friend has to have a PlexPass subscription in order to share his library.  You might not need it in order to receive it.  But, I could be wrong.

 

Also, yes, information is stored on the internet in order to be able to find and see your friend's collection.

 

So, the bottom line for us is that we will need more infrastructure in order to support such a feature.  But we would like to do so.

[wraslor 70]

I'm pretty sure your friend has to have a PlexPass subscription in order to share his library.  You might not need it in order to receive it.  But, I could be wrong.

 

Also, yes, information is stored on the internet in order to be able to find and see your friend's collection.

 

So, the bottom line for us is that we will need more infrastructure in order to support such a feature.  But we would like to do so.

It is no longer a pay feature it was at one point.  

 

With that said, why not just MB3 create a user account for him and give him your IP?  I do that with my family on their rokus, and tablets so they can watch my content.

[ebr 16169]

It is no longer a pay feature it was at one point.  

 

With that said, why not just MB3 create a user account for him and give him your IP?  I do that with my family on their rokus, and tablets so they can watch my content.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Yes, you can technically do the same thing now with MB.  The only difference is ease of setup for the end user.  With Plex, it is very easy even if you don't understand networks.  We'd like to be that easy as well.

[wolf359 6]

Thanks for the info guys, Wraslor I followed those instructions and checked if the port was open which it was when server is on and closed when off.

 

I tried to conect to the dashboard using both my phone and tablet (connected via bt fon/wifi) but could not get the screen up.

Also tried to connect the same way with the media browser tablet app which works over the lan fine but not sure if that would work outside of the lan or not,,anyway nothing has worked with regards getting to see any films or indeed sign of media browser  outside of my Lan so far

Edited February 25, 2014 by wolf359

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

Sharing libraries doesn't seem to be a PlexPass exclusive any longer. It is just a combination of Dynamic DNS and UPNP opening your router up to the world. 

 

However to get the most out of Plex you do need to pay $30 a year or purchase an $80 lifetime membership. This allows managing who is able to share what and when with your friends is a PlexPass feature. It also includes CloudSync, Chromecast support and free access to the Android and Roku Apps. There are a few other freebies included as well but they will eventually get to the regular user.

[Ghostm 74]

Sharing libraries doesn't seem to be a PlexPass exclusive any longer. It is just a combination of Dynamic DNS and UPNP opening your router up to the world. 

 

However to get the most out of Plex you do need to pay $30 a year or purchase an $80 lifetime membership. This allows managing who is able to share what and when with your friends is a PlexPass feature. It also includes CloudSync, Chromecast support and free access to the Android and Roku Apps. There are a few other freebies included as well but they will eventually get to the regular user.

 

Many might not share my opinion, but I would pay for this option.

 

I hated on xbmc forums hearing dev's say your entitled to as much help as you paid for this product (nothing). And something like this would require additional attention and support and who knows what else. And while dev's have never on here refused help because something costs money, for those other reasons i would rather pay and see it able to be done right. Although I should mention i would prefer it be a flat fee for life like the current pricing system. Not an ongoing fee. 

 

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Yes, you can technically do the same thing now with MB.  The only difference is ease of setup for the end user.  With Plex, it is very easy even if you don't understand networks.  We'd like to be that easy as well.

 

 

This would be my concern as well, ease of use.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Ghostm

[ebr 16169]

Although I should mention i would prefer it be a flat fee for life like the current pricing system. Not an ongoing fee. 

 

Understandable, but the infrastructure required to do these types of things is a recurring cost so that's why some sort of subscription makes much more sense.

[Lee 212]

Has the op tried a dynamic dns set up(such as no-ip) my old bt hh2 had built in support, might make things easier...

 

Sent by my HTC8X using Tapatalk

[wolf359 6]

Hi Lee now you are putting me in the realms of gobbledygook :-) my level of internet stuff is the same as looking at windows for dummies. I know how to build and set them up etc but dns ports etc is alien to me

 

Sent from my ME172V using Tapatalk

[Ghostm 74]

Understandable, but the infrastructure required to do these types of things is a recurring cost so that's why some sort of subscription makes much more sense.

 

I certainly would not mind if you offered both like plex, i assume thats why they have both, because some people like me dont like subscription based pay. If i was a plex user (i am not) i would have no issue paying 3 times as much for a lifetime subscription as a yearly subscription (which appears how plex has it structured basically minus 10 dollars). Im sure you would find users like me and some who dont like subscription based and some who would rather do it on a yearly basis. Just my opinion and I understand your point of view as well. I would be more inclined to fork out money for this in one lump sum. 

Edited February 26, 2014 by Ghostm

[Danee 57]

Well, yes and no I guess, cause I think part of the free stuff is paid for by those willing to pay for the extra's and early access.

 

Early adopters will pay for things they want but that userbase will probably not be sufficient to survive so why not use their payments to make the for free users happy and thus create a userbase that's big enough to survive.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Danee

[Luke 42077]

Yea but just so we're clear, this server identification feature from Plex is free and does not require a subscription. Ideally we would like to do it for free as well if we can get enough community contributions (financial and other kinds). 

 

A for-pay subscription model is what Plex has for early access features. It is a completely different thing and doesn't need to be part of this discussion.

[A8HTPC 38]

One area Plex has trumped MBT (For now) is their Plex Home Theater can stream movies from a remote server using Direct Play. (This is the only thing I like about Plex Theater). This takes a huge load off the server since there is absolutely no transcoding. Plex Transcoder doesn't even load when I have my family stream movies from my PC. CPU usage stays around 10%. This depends on their download speed as well, my sister needs to transcode but at 320Kbps so my server is at about 30-40% load.

 

I am waiting for this to become available in MBT and be stable. Right now I can only use the MB Webclient and have to transcode everything. Unless I am missing something? MBT is way nicer in terms of looks, organization and server library functions (Server updates librarys more quickly compared to plex)

 

Sharing libraries doesn't seem to be a PlexPass exclusive any longer. It is just a combination of Dynamic DNS and UPNP opening your router up to the world. 

 

However to get the most out of Plex you do need to pay $30 a year or purchase an $80 lifetime membership. This allows managing who is able to share what and when with your friends is a PlexPass feature. It also includes CloudSync, Chromecast support and free access to the Android and Roku Apps. There are a few other freebies included as well but they will eventually get to the regular user.

You can control what you share from your library to which user without plexpass. Some movie folders are shared to some and not to others. Honestly, the only thing I would ever need plexpass for is to have real time access to who is watching what and possibly chrome cast. All the streaming capabilities are free.

 

Basically, I use MBT for Home, and plex for remote steaming. If I had a major server maybe with dual xeon processors and the works, or if it was only me streaming, I wouldn't care about transcoding, but my AMD A8 3870K struggles a bit, especially transcoding blurays...AMD A8 just doesn't do it quick enough when cpu usage strikes 100% for one movies regardless of quality.

Edited February 27, 2014 by A8HTPC

[candybar213 7]

@ OK thanks I thought so. So why not direct users to make it that way first instead of using the substitution thing just wondering

 

The candybar