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Looking to replace my parents HP Microserver with something that can transcode for Plex. I see from earlier this spring the Dell t20 would be a good deal, is there anything similar or better than this? I prefer to not build it myself. I would like 4-6 hard drive bays if possible.
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Jul 29, 2014 17:23
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kri kri posted:Looking to replace my parents HP Microserver with something that can transcode for Plex. I see from earlier this spring the Dell t20 would be a good deal, is there anything similar or better than this? The Lenovo TS140 with a Core-i3 can be had for around $250-$300. Has 4 HDD bays I believe. [edit] http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-TS140-70A4000HUX-Computer/dp/B00F6EK9J2 $262 shipped fulfilled by Amazon.
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Jul 29, 2014 17:35
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kri kri posted:Looking to replace my parents HP Microserver with something that can transcode for Plex. I see from earlier this spring the Dell t20 would be a good deal, is there anything similar or better than this? I'm in a semi-similar boat. I'm trying to decide if I want to build a custom server that will primarily be for FreeNAS + Plex, or if I should maybe just go with a Synology NAS or something. I like the idea of having a PC that I can repair / upgrade as needed, and potentially having an additional box in my place for whatever I might need it for (HTPC, maybe a Steam streaming box, or something else I can't think of yet). Then again, doing that and having a reliable setup will cost quite a bit more, as I'll want plenty of storage. The drives are going to cost a bunch either way. Anyone have any advice?
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Jul 30, 2014 00:05
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Playlists are now available to everyone (finally!). I made a playlist with all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in order that's playing right now in the background. Plex also added some new Movies Library features. PlexPass subscribers now have the option to play trailers (either upcoming releases or trailers from movies in your library) before a movie you choose to watch. Trailers are streamed via metadata agents. Again automatically streaming trailers is a PlexPass feature only. If you want this feature, but don't have PlexPass, you have to manually add trailers for movies in your library. You can also now include extras (behind the scenes, trailers, deleted scenes, etc.) to all the movies in your library. So far I haven't been able to get this feature to work with local media, as have a few others I've read online. Read full update release info here: https://blog.plex.tv/2014/07/31/frankly-trailer-dont-give-playlist/
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Jul 31, 2014 23:35
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teagone posted:Playlists are now available to everyone (finally!). I made a playlist with all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in order that's playing right now in the background. Holy poo poo extras its about loving time. It sounds pretty Plex-like that the feature is pretty broken, I have been trying to get Plex sync to work better and its a nightmare so I gave up on it and am just copying the whole mkv to my device manually.
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Jul 31, 2014 23:44
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Playlists is sweet. I can finally queue all my Steven Seagal movies in a row.
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Aug 1, 2014 00:44
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Do you need to update the plex server to do playlists?
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Aug 1, 2014 15:39
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MycroftXXX posted:Do you need to update the plex server to do playlists? Yes, in my case checking for updates indicated that I had the latest so I had to download the real latest from the website.
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Aug 1, 2014 15:51
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MycroftXXX posted:Do you need to update the plex server to do playlists? Yeah, you need to be running Plex Media Sever version 0.9.9.13
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Aug 1, 2014 16:55
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Just stumbled across the new subtitle addon, might be worth looking into. Ever since opensubtitles addon decided to download 20 different subtitles for my movies I have been looking for something else. To get rid of them you need to remove the library and re-add it  https://github.com/Diaoul/subliminal
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Aug 1, 2014 22:50
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kri kri posted:Just stumbled across the new subtitle addon, might be worth looking into. Ever since opensubtitles addon decided to download 20 different subtitles for my movies I have been looking for something else. To get rid of them you need to remove the library and re-add it Not tired subiminal, but the duplicate subtitles problem is a bug in the opensubs agent. If you provide a username/pass in the opensubtitles options, it will duplicate the subtitles every time you refresh the movie in the plex library. This is because the agent uses the URL to determine if the subs have already been fetched, and for some reason opensubtitles randomises he download URL for logged-in users. The solution is to disable the subtitles agent, force refresh the library, enable the subs agent without login details and force refresh again. EDIT: Also, anyone know who they are licensing the movie extras from? It seems like a strange business model; providing DVD extras to people who almost certainly pirated the original content. DashingGentleman fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 12:45
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Is there anything to Plex besides arranging your library & adding channels? I picked up a Chromecast a couple of weeks ago and am using it in conjunction with Plex. Seems easy enough & I've had zero problems so far.
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Aug 2, 2014 16:00
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DashingGentleman posted:EDIT: Also, anyone know who they are licensing the movie extras from? It seems like a strange business model; providing DVD extras to people who almost certainly pirated the original content. I don't think these are dvd extras. I just did a cursory look through some of my movies, especially those I would assume would have a lot of dvd extras and the only things included are very short(under a minute) featurettes and sound bites. Maybe there are a few long behind the scenes stuff, but I didn't seen any of that. This update was useless for me as it doesn't have Roku support yet. Even if it did, I don't care about trailers or the pointless extras. What I want are commentary tracks. 99% of torrents don't seem to include those for some reason. Its pretty much the only reason I still buy physical dvds.
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Aug 2, 2014 23:42
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teagone posted:The Lenovo TS140 with a Core-i3 can be had for around $250-$300. Has 4 HDD bays I believe. Thanks for this - is there an equivalent Dell hardware I could use? I get a good discount through my work.
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Aug 5, 2014 23:01
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kri kri posted:Thanks for this - is there an equivalent Dell hardware I could use? I get a good discount through my work. The Dell PowerEdge T20 you mentioned I'd say is the equivalent to the TS140. A T20 with a Haswell Pentium that will be serving content from Plex directly (i.e., your clients will Direct Play media) would be perfect. Since you mentioned transcoding duties though, I'd personally get the T20 that has a Xeon E3 as I wouldn't recommend anything less than a Core-i3 if your Plex server is going to need to transcode content to multiple devices. That said, I have read that the Pentium G3220 is a pretty capable CPU, and could be enough if the server is only transcoding one or two streams maybe. What front end/client devices are your parents using to access the Plex server? teagone fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Aug 5, 2014 |
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Aug 5, 2014 23:38
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teagone posted:The Dell PowerEdge T20 you mentioned I'd say is the equivalent to the TS140. A T20 with a Haswell Pentium that will be serving content from Plex directly (i.e., your clients will Direct Play media) would be perfect. iPad, Chromecast. Looking into it more I just might build it myself, thanks for looking though.
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Aug 5, 2014 23:47
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kri kri posted:iPad, Chromecast. Looking into it more I just might build it myself, thanks for looking though. Sure thing! If anyone else is looking for a new Plex server, Amazon has the TS140 with a Xeon E3-1225 and 4GB of RAM for $380 shipped at the moment. Just need to add hard drives and an OS. http://www.amazon.com/ThinkServer-70A4001LUX-5U-Tower-Server/dp/B00FE29IWK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407279169&sr=8-2&keywords=Lenovo+TS140 - Lowest I've seen this go is $300-$350 though.
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Aug 5, 2014 23:54
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Your media is going to play a big part of it too. A lesser processor is going to be more useful the more you direct play, and simply recut to a different resolution. I'm on an i7 with almost 100% transcoding audio and video but in hitting bandwidth limits on my outgoing (now mitigated with throttles/QoS on torrents) to the bandwidth of where I am currently streaming too. Xfinity down the shore on a lovely belkin wireless access point is my issue making me lower quality to 1-2mbit /second, but my transcoding is more then keeping up
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Aug 6, 2014 03:48
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Guess you can't use playlists on the Android app yet 
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Aug 6, 2014 04:16
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My server is only an old Dell with a C2D 2.4 and 3GB of memory and have no issues even when I transcode to 1~2 for 4G.
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Aug 7, 2014 19:41
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Looking into doing a big changeover from all my HTPC tools over to newer/fancier ones, and that includes XBMC -> PLEX. XBMC development just doesn't seem to be going in any direction I'm interested in, so seems a good opportunity to move. I've used Plex before, but it was really early in development where it just felt like an XBMC branch with a new skin, so excited to jump in. Couple of things I'm curious about: * My HTPC isn't cutting edge anymore, it's only a C2D 2.4 with 2GB RAM. However it gets by running SAB, CouchPotato, SickBeard, XBMC and sharing my ~12TB library over MySQL and all devices in the house pointing to it. Am I going to have a similar experience with PLEX or is it more resource hungry? I'm moving to NZBGet, NZBDrone and keeping CouchPotato at the same time. I'll add more RAM when I have a chance to, probably taking up to 6GB or so. I intend to run server 24/7 and client when I watch stuff on it (whereas atm I have to have XBMC running 24/7) * I'm a bit worried by the 'IOS just use Airplay from the iPhone App' part of the OP. Is there still a stable version of the app that I can install on my jailbroken ATV2? Airplay isn't generally good enough in my room, whereas a direct stream from the HTPC should suffice. I'm looking into PlexConnect at the moment, would that let me unbreak my ATV and hit newest firmware and still be able to browse my library albeit in a limited form? I'm a bit worried that one of my most used elements might be loss - I have an SMB share of my unsorted video folder that I can just idly browse in XBMC's Video menu, I get the feeling I won't be able to do that with Connect. Think that's my major concerns at the moment anyway! I'll be doing a complete OS reinstall as well to get a nice clean system just dedicated for this (plus a browser for lounge surfing) and that's it. e: looks like above user has a similar setup to me! Do you run other stuff in the BG like NZBGet/Drone/CP though? EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Aug 18, 2014 |
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Aug 18, 2014 13:05
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EL BROMANCE posted:* I'm a bit worried by the 'IOS just use Airplay from the iPhone App' part of the OP. Is there still a stable version of the app that I can install on my jailbroken ATV2? Airplay isn't generally good enough in my room, whereas a direct stream from the HTPC should suffice. I'm looking into PlexConnect at the moment, would that let me unbreak my ATV and hit newest firmware and still be able to browse my library albeit in a limited form? I'm a bit worried that one of my most used elements might be loss - I have an SMB share of my unsorted video folder that I can just idly browse in XBMC's Video menu, I get the feeling I won't be able to do that with Connect. I had a jailbroken ATV 2 that I used XBMC on. I wiped it, restored it, re-jailbroke, and sold it on ebay for $250ish. Went out and bought 2 ATV3s (One for the bedroom, one for the living room) and still had money left over. I switched to plex. I have Plex and PlexConnect running on a PC and I have absolutely no issues. Everything works great after it's set up. I populate my library with sabnzbd using rss feeds from my newznab indexer of choice. I've never understood the need for something like CouchPotato, sickbeard, or nzbdrone myself. Are those only for people who's newznab indexer doesn't have RSS feeds?
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Aug 18, 2014 15:32
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GutBomb posted:I had a jailbroken ATV 2 that I used XBMC on. I wiped it, restored it, re-jailbroke, and sold it on ebay for $250ish. Went out and bought 2 ATV3s (One for the bedroom, one for the living room) and still had money left over. I switched to plex. I have Plex and PlexConnect running on a PC and I have absolutely no issues. Everything works great after it's set up. I populate my library with sabnzbd using rss feeds from my newznab indexer of choice. Yeah it sounds like most of my setup will move over, it's just narrowing down the little things I can't see obvious solutions without getting hands on (Can I view SMB shares in Plex Connect? It doesn't appear so by default. Same with moving from SAB -> NZBGet etc, but that's another thread). quote:I've never understood the need for something like CouchPotato, sickbeard, or nzbdrone myself. Are those only for people who's newznab indexer doesn't have RSS feeds? Power of control is really good in these apps. For example, if someone mentions anything that's available to view on iMDB , I can just launch the iMDB app on my phone, hit 'Add to Watchlsit' and it gets queued up by Couch. I used to use RSS feeds back years ago, but SB/CP were like new leases of life with regards to control and categorising my library without any real thought.
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Aug 18, 2014 16:31
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I sold my atv2 for over 200 and bought more ram and an amazon fire tv. Put plex on the FireTV and my system runs flawlessly. It's really fast too.
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Aug 18, 2014 16:35
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Yeah at some point I'll be moving from the ATV2 so it's not a long term element really, it's just so I can still watch stuff in bed at night. Will get the latest ATV and a dedicated box for Plex and run them side by side then.
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Aug 18, 2014 16:40
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EL BROMANCE posted:Yeah it sounds like most of my setup will move over, it's just narrowing down the little things I can't see obvious solutions without getting hands on (Can I view SMB shares in Plex Connect? It doesn't appear so by default. Same with moving from SAB -> NZBGet etc, but that's another thread). If you map a drive in windows plex will just treat that as a regular drive on your system and use that in the library. Same if you mount that to a mount point in Linux or Mac OS. The AppleTV doesn't care where the files actually live. The PC (running either mac, windows, or linux, I've tried them all and they all work equally well) that plex sits on just streams (either directly if the ATV supports the codecs or transcoding if it doesn't) the video so the only thing your ATV is communicating with is the machine that Plex sits on. EL BROMANCE posted:Power of control is really good in these apps. For example, if someone mentions anything that's available to view on iMDB , I can just launch the iMDB app on my phone, hit 'Add to Watchlsit' and it gets queued up by Couch. I used to use RSS feeds back years ago, but SB/CP were like new leases of life with regards to control and categorising my library without any real thought. The app I use on my phone searches binsearch and any API enabled newznab server. I search for a movie or a show, it finds the relevant files, I can download them, all from within the app. sabnzbd then puts everything in the right place when it's done downloading them based on the category in which they were downloaded, tv/movie/etc... the app knows what category to put it in based on the group the file was downloaded from, so it's all automated. If I'm on my PC viewing the newznab site in the browser I can add items to my sab queue from right there. I still don't understand what extra I would get with CP or SB. GutBomb fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Aug 18, 2014 |
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Aug 18, 2014 19:25
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Thanks for going over it a bit more. Just so I'm 100% clear, the SMB shares I'm talking about aren't in my XBMC library, they're temporary holding places (or uncategorisable things like indy wrestling shows) that I just connect to as an SMB share over the network and play directly. I grab a ton of stuff I don't intend to archive, and don't really want to change my habits! I'm hoping I can continue that, but I think it's going to be a case of 'yes in Plex full theater client, no in PlexConnect' but I'm gonna just bite the bullet and find out.
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Aug 18, 2014 21:18
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EL BROMANCE posted:Thanks for going over it a bit more. Just so I'm 100% clear, the SMB shares I'm talking about aren't in my XBMC library, they're temporary holding places (or uncategorisable things like indy wrestling shows) that I just connect to as an SMB share over the network and play directly. I grab a ton of stuff I don't intend to archive, and don't really want to change my habits! I'm hoping I can continue that, but I think it's going to be a case of 'yes in Plex full theater client, no in PlexConnect' but I'm gonna just bite the bullet and find out. You can make a library for that folder called "home movies" that just puts raw files in your library and doesn't scrape or categorize them. It's good for porn and sports which don't have metadata databases.
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Aug 18, 2014 21:39
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Perfect! Thanks again.
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Aug 18, 2014 22:28
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GutBomb posted:You can make a library for that folder called "home movies" that just puts raw files in your library and doesn't scrape or categorize them. It's good for porn and sports which don't have metadata databases. Oh awesome, I have such bad luck scrapping I usually just use read organize by dates and filenames, this will let me use Plex instead of XBMC.
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Aug 18, 2014 22:54
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GutBomb posted:You can make a library for that folder called "home movies" that just puts raw files in your library and doesn't scrape or categorize them. It's good for porn and sports which don't have metadata databases. Is there a way to remove this type of stuff from ondeck/recently watched?
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Aug 18, 2014 23:33
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kri kri posted:Is there a way to remove this type of stuff from ondeck/recently watched? When creating the library go to advanced and untick the checkbox for "include in dashboard"
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Aug 19, 2014 00:46
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kri kri posted:Is there a way to remove this type of stuff from ondeck/recently watched? You can hide it from on deck and recently watched but the library will always show up in the library list (problematic if you don't want anyone who sees the list of libraries to see your porn library)
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Aug 19, 2014 00:54
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havenwaters posted:When creating the library go to advanced and untick the checkbox for "include in dashboard" I did this, I still had stuff showing up. Will try again, thanks.
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Aug 19, 2014 01:18
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kri kri posted:I did this, I still had stuff showing up. Will try again, thanks. Huh, weird. Might not be able to keep it from showing up then.
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Aug 19, 2014 01:20
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havenwaters posted:Huh, weird. Might not be able to keep it from showing up then. I tried again and it looks like its working ok after a fresh plex server install. Also, what are people using now for local metadata downloading? I prefer to have my files alongside my media files. Mediabrowser looks like it can do it, but it puts the tv files into the root directory when they need to be in the season folder.
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Aug 19, 2014 22:53
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Has anyone had much luck with the NFL channel plugin and VPN/Adfree time? My media PC runs a VPN client to connect to the internet, and then has a second NIC running that is bound to a Win 7 virtual machine running Plex. When I go to watch the NFL Network live, I get code:
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Aug 20, 2014 14:24
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Had Plex working fine as a FreeNAS plugin, but after a reboot it apparently decided to stop working. No longer wants to bind to TCP4:32400 apparently, but is more than happy to do so for ipv6: tcp6 0 0 *.32400 *.* LISTEN Any idea why that would happen?
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Aug 25, 2014 05:43
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Here's a problem. We run Plex on a Windows 7 machine in the living room where everything is stored I stream it to my room via WDTV Live Streaming device. I was having a problem with some (a lot) of movies not fast forwarding correctly. It would show the movie as 12 seconds ling, not fast forward and when I went to play it again it would start over/kick me back to the movie listing menu. So I hosed around and got a custom xml file for the WDTV player and got the fast forward to work fine, but now a lot of movies no longer play, and none of the streaming channel (giantbomb twitch, etc... play either but that was expected. When I try to play them I get "Browse error. Content not available". I noticed that when listing the movies in detail mode on the WDTV the ones that worked would list the file size and bit rate, while the ones that don't play and give the error don't have a file size listed. Pictures Working movie  Not working  Anyone ever dealt with this? They all work from other devices, heres the xml profile for the wdtv I'm using http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00013961828984664449
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Aug 25, 2014 22:36
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I did a complete reinstall and put Win 8.1 on my system for the first time then Plex Server as well as Theater for local playback. Virtually everything has slotted together nicely and I've managed to work my way out of a bunch of little issues, but I'm still struggling to get the channels working as right as they should. The folder it stores everything in seems to like to be read only (both the plugins one and the plugins preference one), which stopped it downloading anything new but that seems to be a bit better now. But even after making the preferences folder read/write, it still doesn't like writing to it from PMS and I've had to edit the files by hand. Which kind of works but it's a bit of a pain to do remotely, and the files aren't laid out particularly nicely. I'm guessing this might be a standard issue with Plex that's easily resolved, but haven't noticed anything obvious to fix it. Hoping Trakt will kick in properly soon, I seem to have issues with that plugin regardless of which system I'm using! (Previously XBMC).
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Aug 27, 2014 14:52
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