Home Theatre PC Software

[Theldron]

Hi all,

 

I am building a home theatre PC, but I can't decide what HTPC software to use.

 

I want to use it for freesat (buying a DVB-S tv tuner), DVD etc.

 

I have heard good things about Kodi, I used MediaPortal a long long time ago, not sure how that has developed since though.

 

Can anyone recommend anything?

 

Cheers

[Dos_Box]

It depdends. Are you planning to have it run off Windows or use a Linux distro (baring in mind compatibility with your cards)?

[Theldron]

Sorry meant to say - I will be running a windows PC.

[XiJ]

Plex

 

Now has Dvr option stop (although it's fair new so tuner support is limited).

[XiJ]

Although you could always run other software for dvr and have media available in plex.

[LeMarchand]

I like Plex, too. Don't use any of the DVR stuff, though.

 

IIRC @zag is on Kodi team in some function.

[Theldron]

I always liked the way that MediaPortal and I know Kodi does it would download and give information and thumbnails for films and TV Series. Does Plex do this?

[LeMarchand]

I always liked the way that MediaPortal and I know Kodi does it would download and give information and thumbnails for films and TV Series. Does Plex do this?

 

Yes it does. When I was playing around with the XMBC (as Kodi was back then) and Plex etc I found Plex required less work from me in terms of changing my folder structure/naming conventions. This was a few years back, so things have probably changed. I did prefer XMBC/Kodi's "look" (and skinability) but the most recent incarnation of Plex looks much more "modern".

[Arthur]

Does Plex do this?

Yes.

 

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200241558-Agents

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200289516

[Theldron]

Does Kodi or Plex come with Parental controls so that the kids (4 and 7) can only watch what is suitable for them.

[XiJ]

Plex has such a feature. I have our main account passcoded and a children's account that is restricted to just two children's folders. My kids are 6 and 4 so similar age. And they know how to use plex - the eldest at least! So it's family friendly.

[2ilent8cho]

Another thumbs up for Plex, i've got 24TB's in an i7 for my Plex Server , love the software.

[LeMarchand]

You might also want to consider how you're going to control this. I've tried numerous devices and at the moment a small Logitech wireless keyboard with trackpad (was Daily Deal on Amazon a week or two back) is what I use for "outside of Plex" type stuff and I fitted an iR receiver and spent ages with various bits of decoding software so that i could use the TV remote to do up/down/left/right plus enter and ESC which means I can control most of Plex's main functions from the TV remote.

[techy32]

Kodi all the way......never tried Plex...

[XiJ]

It's a good point re the '10 foot interface'. Which is why I like plex (although not used kodi). Bought my TV cos it had a great plex client. We all have iOS devices with the plex client and for the TV with an old client, we send video via chromecast

 

There's android and windows apps too as well as vales into the nvidea shield.

 

Key to it all is It has WAF

[Theldron]

I must say I am leaning towards Plex, mainly for the android sync as we are getting the kids android tablets to use on long car journeys (the continuous "are we there yet?" is making me tempted to jump out of a moving vehicle ) and being able to have their media on them would make life so much easier. With Plex you have to pay a small amount for the extra features, in comparison with Kodi, is it worth it?

[LeMarchand]

With Plex you have to pay a small amount for the extra features, in comparison with Kodi, is it worth it?

 

It certainly was when they had their "last chance for a cheap lifetime pass" sale.

 

As I don't use Kodi, I couldn't say whether it's better value. As @Galway says, you can try the basic features on both for nowt.

 

My impression is that if your preferred mode of dress involves lots of jewellery and eye make-up with a frock coat, you like to set off your costume with a parrot on your shoulder, and you want that lifestyle built into your media client/server setup then it's probably easier to go Kodi. Otherwise it's mainly down to aesthetics and which you find easier to use.

Edited September 26, 2016 by LeMarchand
Punctuation

[zag]

I like Plex, too. Don't use any of the DVR stuff, though.

 

IIRC @zag is on Kodi team in some function.

 

Yep

 

I'd recommend LibreELEC (Which is just Kodi with a small linux OS pre configured). It can be installed to local drive or simply booted from an SD during testing.

 

Then just install TVHeadend Add-on from inside kodi, and configure via the web interface.

 

Should be a 10min setup really, if done correctly.

 

Let me know if you need any help.

 

Regarding Kodi vs. Plex (which was a commercial fork of Kodi many years ago)

 

I'd always recommend Kodi, it has far more Add-ons and control. The only reason I would use Plex is for its transcoding support.

Edited September 26, 2016 by zag

[XiJ]

They just announced plex in the cloud. You'll need a plex plus sub and Amazon drive - but could run a whole cloud plex server.

 

It's an invite only beta at the moment - but definitely interesting.

[Arthur]

It's an invite only beta at the moment - but definitely interesting.

Just signed up for an invite. Plex Cloud sounds really cool.

[XiJ]

Cant see the point myself. I can SFTP into my media server and access all my media should I need to and it don't cost me a bean. That coupled with large USB sticks I can watch what I want cheaper.

 

It's clearly not for everyone. One of ten advantages is view anywhere - without being crippled by a relatively slow upload speed.

And the option to not have a media server I. Your home at all == less hardware / power costs.

 

Our American cousins are concerned about the MPAA and their strict viewed on 'pirated' media - even rips form your purchased optical discs - being stored on Amazon.

[zag]

I don't quite understand the plex cloud offer, its only possible with Amazon unlimited drive, but surely that's not a sustainable solution if it proves popular I'm sure their "fair usage" limits will come into play.

 

I can't see me copying my 20tb NAS media server to the cloud

[Norphy]

I can see some advantages to hosting your media library in the cloud

 

1) Less chance of hardware failure

2) If you're out and about a lot and you stream from a mobile device, you're not using a tiny upload pipe from a home internet connection to stream your content from

3) If Amazon Drive truly is unlimited in terms of space, you can add stuff to it at will

4) If your home internet connection goes down, you can still stream while you're out.

 

 

Of course, there are disadvantages too:

 

1) If you stream exclusively from home, it's silly to upload your content to the cloud then download it again. It's more efficient to use a local content server in this instance.

2) The same tiny upload pipe from home means it'll take forever to upload your content to the cloud

3) Ongoing costs

 

Swings and roundabouts, they're making options available and that's good.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Norphy

[Arreks]

I still don't understand Plex/Kodi tbh. My TV handles digital freeview, my Amazon Fire stick handles Prime/Netflix etc but it's still not quite where I want my setup to be. Like, the crunchyroll app doesn't work on the Fire along with a lot of other apps and it's not great if I want to watch a bunch of stuff I already have on my PC.. so would it make sense to set up a little HTPC kinda thing and put all the content on there?

[Norphy]

I still don't understand Plex/Kodi tbh.

 

The main thing I use it for is to store rips of DVDs that I already own. That way, I don't need a DVD player under the telly and I don't need to handle media.