Plex server setup?

[Praying Colonel]

So doing a quick search, I think I may have found a topic never discussed on the DIS before, which should get me some kind of award.

I'm thinking of setting up a Plex server to rip and serve movie files in our house. It would be a lot more convenient than schlepping the physical copies of our movies up and down 3 floors.

Anyone have a Plex server, and if so, what's your hardware/software configuration? Any tips? Thanks.

 

[Floridaman999]

I was gonna go that route at my home but found a solution that worked better/easier/cheaper for me. I just bought an external hard drive and connected it to my router. Every device connected wired or wireless to the router has access to any of the files on that hard drive. Made it much easier than creating a media PC and going through all of that. Not sure what exactly you're trying to do but you might consider this option as well.

 

[kdonnel]

I have been running a Plex server for many years now. At first I ran it on my everyday desktop but for the past year I have had a dedicated Intel NUC running Linux as a home server.

Never any issues with either implementation but I have always encoded my videos so that no transcoding is required when played. You don't need a beefy server if all it is doing is streaming video.

The big benefit with plex is all the meta data.

 

[mickman1962]

Another vote for Plex. Using it for years with the added benefit of sharing with my kids in Az and mother and in-laws in NY. Any questions, message me.

 

[kdonnel]

Here are my servers specs.

An Intel NUC6CAYH with a Celeron J3455 CPU, 8GB of memory, and a 128GB SSD. It runs my Plex server, an instance of Pi-hole, and does some automated backups of some other network gear.

The load average is around .25 and memory utilization sits at around 10%.

 

[SteveH]

I'm using an older MacMini as my server. One of the reasons is its easy on power, and has a good sleep option. I am able to have it sleep during the day and wake up at night and weekends, we can remotely wake it up as well.

I'd run Plex to serve my movies for a several years with it. When we killed off DISH TV I picked up some AppleTV 4 and absolutely hated the Plex interface compared to the Plex interface I used on the Mac that used to deliver the movies to my TV. I ended up bailing on Plex because of the Apple TV app. I now host my media in iTunes on that MacMini. However, I run Plex in the background for my kids to access movies.

I still buy a lot of Movies when I can find them on sale. I also use an app called Cheap Charts that I track movie prices, honestly when I find a movie I want for $4.99 I buy it from iTunes or MoviesAnywhere now.

The MacMini does a great job even at its age. I don't use it to rip though, I could but it's slow. I have a faster MacPro that does that in a fraction of the time.

 

[TheConsciousness]

Had Plex running on my main machine for the longest time until I upgraded and converted that guy into a standalone server + HTPC. Now it runs nicely on that server.

The capabilities of the Plex server far outreach that of basic file-sharing.

 

[cabanafrau]

Whether or not Plex is the term for it, we do have an in-home server set up that performs the tasks you describe among its other functions. This is entirely my husband's balliwick however and I am happily ignorant about what it is that keeps these particular trains running in our house.

 

[firefly_ris]

Yes, I run Plex on my old laptop. It has an external hard drive connected to it that houses all of the movies. It's a 2011 Samsung RF711 running Win 7.

We have 3 Tv's in the house... one in the living room, one in my parents/guest suite in the basement, and a projector in the main area of the basement. Each has a Roku connected. The living room one is a Smart tv so I could technically run Plex through that without the Roku, but I think the app interfaces all suck and are so much slower and clunkier than the Roku (in other words I no longer use the "smart" features of that set). It's great not having to rummage through DVDs and I love the Netflix-esque interface and auto meta information. My parents a few states away can also use it as long as my internet upload speeds are decent.

Then when we go away on trips, I bring my laptop and the backup hard drive and have all 720 of my movies to choose from wherever we are, in case I can't login to Plex.

The initial ripping was a long process, but now if I get or borrow a DVD ripping a single flick is a minimal process and simple to maintain. I just have a free account, I don't pay for Plex Pass. I'm very satisfied with it.

 

[Floridaman999]

Just wanted to say thanks @Praying Colonel for bringing Plex up. I looked at it again and I've decided to install it on an old desktop I have and will set it up as a server instead of what I'm doing now. Looks like it might be a bit of fun. Thanks again.

 

[firefly_ris]

Just wanted to say thanks @Praying Colonel for bringing Plex up. I looked at it again and I've decided to install it on an old desktop I have and will set it up as a server instead of what I'm doing now. Looks like it might be a bit of fun. Thanks again.

I think you will like it once it's all set up and running smoothly. I definitely like the portability of having all my files on an external drive for travel but for at home Plex adds that little extra touch of fancy, lol.

 

[Floridaman999]

I think you will like it once it's all set up and running smoothly. I definitely like the portability of having all my files on an external drive for travel but for at home Plex adds that little extra touch of fancy, lol.

I have a "smart" tv that isn't very smart. I found that it now has the PLEX app available so that motivated me to give it a shot. I'd like to be able to stream to that tv so this might be a solution. The tv could never find the hard drive attached to the router so I might finally have it solved. Sure will be nice that I won't have to use a USB drive and doing all that copying and pasting. That's the only TV I didn't have covered with the router drive so now I'll have complete coverage as long as I can figure out how to make it all work.

 

[BLAZEY]

I know we have a plex server on DH's computer and he set it up for my viewing pleasure.

 

[Floridaman999]

Well, I messed around with it today and have to say I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to configure and setup. Wish I would have done this sooner. Now I have to decide whether I want to upgrade or not.

 

[MillauFr]

I just bought the Movie Server from DvdFab. Works great. Very easy to setup. I just had to buy an 8TB hard drive to store the movies.

 

[TheConsciousness]

I just bought the Movie Server from DvdFab. Works great. Very easy to setup. I just had to buy an 8TB hard drive to store the movies.

Had you tried Plex or Kodi before buying that software?