Rasplex - Plex on Raspberry Pi

[wayner]

I am just starting to play around with this but the first look is promising. There is a third party version of Plex that runs on a RPi. Since Plex, like Sage, is a client-server implementation it is pretty easy to add new clients and they can be fairly lightweight. And the RPi is pretty cheap at under $40 - but a PS, case and SD card will get you up to $60 or so. And then you need to somehow control it.

[Taddeusz]

I bought my Pi specifically to access Plex and I came away completely disappointed and have now found an alternate use for the device.

The reason I found it so disappointing is that the Pi is only capable of playing back H.264 up to Level 4.0. Blu-ray H.264 video is level 4.1 and so exceeds the capabilities of the Pi. As a result, in the latest versions, Rasplex ends up telling Plex to transcode Blu-ray video sources. As a side effect surround sound audio is also lost. Older versions of Rasplex would attempt to play Blu-ray video sources but it was not watchable due to the decode limitation.

For this reason I have determined that the Pi, at least for our purposes, is an unsuitable device for Plex playback in our household.

[wayner]

Thats too bad - are these BR rips that are not transcoded? My BR rips are generally transcoded to mkv or mp4 - will these work on the Pi?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

Thats too bad - are these BR rips that are not transcoded? My BR rips are generally transcoded to mkv or mp4 - will these work on the Pi?

No, my BD rips are not transcoded. I copy the video straight from the disc to a new m2ts container to get rid of any unneeded streams.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

Thats too bad - are these BR rips that are not transcoded? My BR rips are generally transcoded to mkv or mp4 - will these work on the Pi?

They should work as long as the H.264 video doesn't exceed the Level 4.0 maximum bitrate.

I actually have the same issue with our HD100. It has the same Level 4.0 limitation. Most movies I don't worry about. I did end up have to transcode Frozen so that it can be played without issue on that extender.

[wayner]

Other than that, any issues with Rasplex?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

Other than that, any issues with Rasplex?

Not in the last version I tried. Earlier versions had trouble with the interlaced recordings from my HD-PVR and would not de-interlace my HDHR recordings. I know the issue with the HD-PVR recordings was corrected. I cannot remember whether or not it was de-interlacing video.

[valnar]

I see that RasPlex now supports the latest Raspberry Pi 2 with a quad-core processor. It should be much snappier, but I don't know if that changes it's ability to playback level 4.1 video.

I know it's been a while, but when you were testing your Raspberry, do you recall how the video quality was in comparison to an HD200/HD300 extender? Scaling, color saturation, motion, etc? I can't seem to find any comparisons on the Interwebs.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by valnar

I see that RasPlex now supports the latest Raspberry Pi 2 with a quad-core processor. It should be much snappier, but I don't know if that changes it's ability to playback level 4.1 video.

I highly doubt it since the Pi 2 uses the very same VideoCore IV as all prior Pi's.

[sprucesage]

I have been converting my vob files to mp4 to use less storage/disk space and enable them to be played on various devices (PCs, tablets, etc.). My Sage 300 clients do not do well with MP4 files so I have started using RasPlex on a RasPi and so far so good. Now I am finding that Sage has problems playing back its own TV recordings. Perhaps because I am running both my SageTV and Plex servers on the same PC? Meanwhile, Sage has been becoming more quirky so I am wondering whether it is slowly becoming incompatible as Windows 7 updates keep coming.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by sprucesage

I have been converting my vob files to mp4 to use less storage/disk space and enable them to be played on various devices (PCs, tablets, etc.). My Sage 300 clients do not do well with MP4 files so I have started using RasPlex on a RasPi and so far so good. Now I am finding that Sage has problems playing back its own TV recordings. Perhaps because I am running both my SageTV and Plex servers on the same PC? Meanwhile, Sage has been becoming more quirky so I am wondering whether it is slowly becoming incompatible as Windows 7 updates keep coming.

Plex will not have any effect on SageTV recordings ... You need to indicate what tuners you are using and what Java version you are using before making a blanket statement that Sage is having problems with Windows 7. I have never had a problem running SageTV in windows 7. The problem is that Sage is outdated and has some problems with certain TS Video streams. Hence I have moved on to the new Network prime encoder.

[Fuzzy]

I bought a Pi for the specific purpose of using Plex in my RV - unfortunately, RasPlex is based on the Plex Home Theater software, which doesn't support PlexSync - a feature I really wanted in the RV, since internet access is hardly something to be depended on. As a result, I haven't really used it much, and have instead used my previous ell phone with the android Plex app, which DOES support syncing content.

I have since worked out a solution to this, in that the Plex software can playback any synced content on any other plex devices on its local network, so a wifi router addition allows me to still use the Pi to drive the TV, and it can play media that is synced to my phone, my wife's phone, or either of the kids laptops. Control can be done with any of those devices, though I'm just now wiring up an IR remote for it, so I don't HAVE to use the touch devices.

[soulprops77]

I picked up a Raspberry Pi a few years ago and have toyed with XBMC and Plex on it. I've also been disappointed. It's a great little device that's currently serving me well, just not for media playback.

For Plex use, I eventually settled on a Roku streaming stick. It's not much more expensive than an Pi and it just works, doesn't need a case, etc. . .

[valnar]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

I picked up a Raspberry Pi a few years ago and have toyed with XBMC and Plex on it. I've also been disappointed. It's a great little device that's currently serving me well, just not for media playback.

For Plex use, I eventually settled on a Roku streaming stick. It's not much more expensive than an Pi and it just works, doesn't need a case, etc. . .

Do you have a Pi2? Once the new Rasplex 0.6.0 comes out (any day now), coupled with a Pi 2, it should be fantastic. Plus the Plex Home Theater experience is just much better overall.

[wildgoose]

I have the pi2. raxplex 0.5.1 currently doesn't playback my sage TV recordings due to a bug (stuttering in audio). 0.6.0 when released should have a fix for this as OpenElec on the pi2 plays back those files fine.

I don't have H.264 video that is at level 4.1 bitrate, but it does playback everything else in my collection fine. Some of which the HD300 struggles a little for some reason (like a really long pause before it will start playing while PLEX would just play it immediately).