TheBigDave

According to the article:

Plex's new offering doesn't come with a price, but it does come with ads. Even if you're a Plex Pass subscriber, which unlocks numerous features for streaming and managing a personal collection, these new movies and TV shows will still be punctuated by ads. Plex says it will serve "only about one-third the amount of ads you'd expect on cable television" and that while some movies and TV shows will be geo-restricted, the "vast majority" of content will be available worldwide.

RichC2

https://deadline.com/2020/07/plex-jo...ls-1202990118/

Added 80 new "channels".

joeblow69

So I just installed Plex, and am confused by it. There's a section called "Channels" that only has Crackle listed, and no way to add any other other channels. I had thought I read that you could add custom channels, kind of like Roku, so did some searching and found a bunch of plex channels (or plugins) and tried to install them, but none of them worked. Then found some articles implying that plugins and custom channels were not supported anymore. What's the deal?

TheBigDave

Custom channels and plugins are dead. Plex got rid of them about a year ago.

joeblow69

Boooo. It's so dumb to have a whole page for "Channels" and only have crackle there, and no way to add any more

Dan

Bump?

Anyone actively using Plex these days? I've come across a weird issue...

About a year ago, I was able to play all of my subtitled movies without issue on my Roku Premiere+ using the Plex app. But now, suddenly, I cannot play them if subs are enabled. If I disable them, the files play.
The description of every single MKV can be summarized as:
- I made the backup copy myself, from my own discs (no piracy here, thanks)
- The MKV contains the exact copy of the subtitles that's from the discs, basically called "PGS" format
- The video and audio is a direct rip of the BD; no compression.
- For anime features, I kept both the English and Japanese audio; English + no subs if my kid is watching (until she can read faster ), Japanese + Subs if I'm watching.

I know .SRT subtitles are more widely accepted (and it's great that Plex lets you search OpenSubtitles for replacement files, but most of those I've tried don't sync up with the video because they're from slightly different versions, it seems), but I don't want to go through the hassle of converting my PGS subs to SRT or seek out good SRT files without having to re-edit them to sync.

The error I'm getting on Plex on my Roku is along the lines of "This file cannot be played. Direct Stream is OFF."
I checked all the settings in the Roku Plex app (turning Direct Stream OFF and ON) and still no dice.
I even tried the "beta" app, and it doesn't work.

tl;dr - I suddenly can't play ANY files with PGS subs enabled on my Roku Plex app, but I 100% could before without issue. Now I can only play them if I turn the subs off entirely. What gives?

Is it some obscure setting in the Plex server app on my PC? I don't think I've changed anything there in a long time.

Noonan

No issues for me lately but I don't use subtitles. Do you have your PC app up to date?

Dan

Yeah, I updated it just this last week. I'll dig through the server settings, as I think it has to be something there. I know that some basic transcoding is required when PGS subs are involved, but it sounds to me like the app is saying it's not possible.

fujishig

What server are you using? I know there is a problem with transcoding subtitles using the latest driver on synology:

https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-tr...ses/482428/376

which I don't think is fixed yet, I had to do some manual fix which is buried in that thread somewhere.

edited to add: this is what I did to change it back to the old driver on the synology server itself (the other solutions involve ssh'ing into the server to delete the newer driver or getting into hidden settings in plex, this one is just adding some text to a file):
https://nascompares.com/2020/07/30/s...720-and-ds420/

TheBigDave

I just noticed a really cool feature on Roku's Plex. When you're watching a movie and bring up the progress bar, it shows what time the movie will end. I wish other streaming services would pick this up. It's pretty useful.

Here's a pic with the current time in the upper right corner, and the movie end time in the lower right corner.

E Unit

I love that new finger function!

Dan

Not seeing that on my Nvidia Shield, which replaced my Roku, but it probably will be updated soon.
I put together a Synology NAS this week, since I didn't want to keep using my PC as a Plex server, in addit to wanting better control of my data. I'm loving it, and wish I had done it sooner, though the cost of entry can be steep. I'm backing up 'literally everything' that I have on disc to this thing. Fun!

mndtrp

That feature has been there for quite a while on Roku, but I agree it's nice to have.

fujishig

Yeah, the extra horsepower of the NAS (depending on which one you got of course) enabling it to be a standalone server without a PC always being on is awesome.

How large/many disks did you put in? I have a four bay but while I bought four drives, I haven't needed the space so I just put three in, and have the fourth as a potential replacement.

Dan

^ So... about that... I made a bit of a mistake.
Firstly, I'll say that I budgeted a decent amount of cash for this, because I knew it'd be a long-term investment in something I'll use a lot. I also still don't really know how much storage I'm going to need, because I'm copying all my movies/shows uncompressed, (which I've been collecting since 2001) though I am stripping out any 'extras' and unwanted audio/subtitle tracks. Also note that this NAS is replacing my 14TB external drive which I got dirt cheap at Best Buy last year, and which was about 65% full before last week.

That said, I got a DS1520+ which has 5 bays. I was seriously considering 4-bays, and maybe that would have been better in the long run, but I wanted the extra bay and expansion slots just in case, y'know?

So... after some misunderstanding on my part and jumping the gun (I thought I could start the NAS with two larger bays, and then slowly add smaller/cheaper ones as I go, but apparently it's the other way around, at least if using SHR, the Synology-specific RAID option), I am currently sitting here with 16TB of storage...

fujishig

You can start with larger drives and add smaller drives with SHR and waste less space than with regular RAID, though, especially if your largest drives are paired. Have you used this to check?
https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator

Dan

yeah, I didn't initially read the fine print on that page...
and from the first of the two links in that bit...
So since I started my SHR with two big drives only, I'm pretty sure I'm either stuck to adding the same sizes going forward OR I can add smaller drives as a smaller but separate volume. I might still do the latter for non-movie/show data. We'll see...

clckworang

I'm looking at conserving space and have been considering backing up the collection and using Plex. Reading this thread has me a little overwhelmed, though. Yikes. I don't know a lot of what you guys are talking about! I guess it will be s learning curve.

Along those lines, I wanted to throw out some questions. My collection is pretty large, so I know I'm going to need a lot of space. I'm trying to figure out first what my setup expenses would be. Am I missing anything I'd need: a server, UHD burner drive, disc backup software, computer, Plex membership? Also, this will take a ridiculously long time to do, won't it? Notice any difference in playback quality?

I've been trying to read up, but I thought some actual users might be able to point out some costs or challenges that I wouldn't think about. Appreciate any help or advice.

RichC2

You only need a free membership, the Plex Pass adds features that most don't use.

it can be time consuming depending on your server.

I have Plex running on a 10 year old desktop and have never had an issue.. it's all pretty easy once you get a handle on it.

TheBigDave

Plex can be very cheap and simple. Just download the free software on your home computer. Set-up is easy and it runs in the background. Then put some movies on an external hard drive, and watch them on the Roku's Plex app. You might want to start out with this and play around with it.

If you're doing a large collection of 1:1 copies it can be very expensive and time consuming. You'll want to set-up a NAS. That's where your major expense will be. The NAS itself will probably cost $500 and up. And the drives will be $100-$200 each.

It'll depend on how much storage space you'll want. Blu-rays are 25-50 GB and UHD are 50-100 GB each. That can add-up quickly. You can use free software to downsize the movies. I'm happy with 7-10 GB (1080p) or 15-20 GB (4K).

If you get a decent NAS, you can run Plex directly on it. But make sure you get one that has enough power to transcode and stream 4K video. Some NAS like Synology have the Plex app right in their software, so it's easy to set-up.

If it's your first time using a NAS, keep in mind that drives will fail. So keep an extra drive handy.

A 4K disc drive will run around $100-$150, and the backup software is free.

clckworang

Thanks for the responses. That actually helps a lot, especially trying to get a feel for just how much space I would need for a significant portion of my collection. While I don't have as many these days, I'm thinking I might start with backing up my remaining DVDs. Quicker and less initial memory needed. This gives me a better idea of some things to research.

I forgot to ask. Do you also use some cloud storage as backup? Just extra drives?

TheBigDave

I set-up my NAS about 10 years ago, and back then the cloud storage options were crazy expensive. I backed up everything to a couple external hard drives. Unfortunately, my NAS just crapped out this week. So I'm glad I had the backup.

But today, you can get 10TB cloud storage for under $100/yr. I just saw that IDrive is running a sale right now. The 10TB plan is $3.98 for the first year (normally $80/yr). I haven't used IDrive, but I've seen it recommended at a few tech sites.

https://www.idrive.com/idrive/signup/el/techradar95
https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-cloud-storage

Also keep in mind when you're planning your NAS, you'll need extra space for redundancy. I had four 3TB drives in my Synology NAS (12TB total). But that only gave me around 8.5 GB of actual storage.

mndtrp

I set up my NAS, and then use my desktop's various hard drives as backup. I also have an offsite external hard drive that I back up the more important items. RAID redundancy, onsite full backup, offsite majority backup.

When I originally started with Plex, I just used a couple of internal hard drives on my desktop computer. It worked perfectly fine, once I battled through the sleep settings.

John Galt

To give you a decent reference, my collection includes 2,400 Blu Rays, and over 100 TV series and takes up about 95 TB. Everything is ripped at 100% quality and stripped of menus and special features. The TV Series can be a little misleading since that can be a simple two episode DVD miniseries, or a 10 season Blu Ray series. I haven't ventured into ripping UHDs yet. That was still relatively new a couple years ago and seemed overly complex and tricky and takes a lot more storage space. With the price of hard drives coming down, it's something I should start looking into though.

For the equipment, I built an unRAID server with 15 hard drives. I've been running it for about ten years and started with 15 3TB drives and have replaced the drives to the point that everything is now either a 6TB or 10TB drive giving me a total of 100TB (unRAID uses a single drive for parity). We're finally starting to get to the point that drives are large enough that I no longer fill them as fast as I replace them. I just ordered three 18TB drives which will add another 40TB. I'm hoping to slowly fill these over a couple years and actually reduce the number of drives once we get into the 25-50TB range. I've also replaced the motherboard and CPU over the years to keep up with the modern requirements. It's not a cheap endeavor, but it's a bit of a hobby and I love the end result of having everything digital and accessible from anywhere.

For backing up, it will take a LONG time to rip that much, but it's all in the background and really helpful if you work from home or otherwise spend several hours a day in front of a computer. I added three BD Roms to my computer so I could rip 3 BDs simultaneously. At that rate you're getting 6-10 back ups per hour and can do 50+ a day in an 8 hour workday. I do everything at 100% quality because storage is cheap and I don't want to spend thousands of dollars and put this much time into something only to scrimp on quality, even if it isn't a perceptible difference. You never know what might change in your situation where you wish you had 100% quality down the road.

Plex itself is pretty decent. A few hurdles to get everything configured initially, but it's smooth sailing after that. I've overall been happy with them, but be aware that their support team kind of sucks and they're constantly tweaking things which usually means add a new feature that nobody wants and break something else that gets used regularly. And maybe they'll get around to fixing what they broke in a couple years. I was using a feature they had that offered that backed up all the photos I took on my phone onto my server each night. Then they abandoned that and removed it completely. They've also had a lot of issues with the DVR features and local channel guides for those of us with OTA antennas set up. They're constantly adapting their revenue model to focus more on selling streaming programming and less on what attracted most of us to Plex in the first place, which is to set up a file server to share the media we already own. I paid for the lifetime Plex Pass but they still push things like PPV movies and that package of shitty streaming channels that everyone pushes but nobody watches. Anytime they update the apps on my TVs I have to go in and unpin that stuff so that only my movies and TV shows are showing. Not a big deal, just annoying....but it is more difficult for my parents who don't understand things like that and can't figure out the changes and why there's all this new stuff for them to have to sort through to watch a movie that I'm sharing with them.

I also mentioned the OTA antenna and DVR settings. To my knowledge, that is only available with the Plex Pass subscription and well worth it if you go that route. I have a HDHomeRun 4 tuner box set up to pull in all my local stations. I can simultaneously watch four different streams on four different devices from anywhere, as well as record OTA programming. This has been a very nice feature if you've cut the cord since OTA is constantly left out of most streaming packages. I can also watch local news from anywhere out of town since it all gets streamed to my device. If you do this, make sure you get a powerful processor and RAM for your server.

mndtrp

It'd be nice if Plex would give more control over to music, and allowed for track-based metadata and searching. Plexamp is a great app for listening to music, but it could be so much more if Plex itself would put some effort into the music side of things.