Plex server advice.

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  • Rev
    Rev Posts: 3,142
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    I never thought to roll back to Windows 7.

    Which version would you recommend?


    I'm finding Linux a bit of a faf to be honest. Everything seems to take an age.
    Sigless
  • toshi
    toshi Posts: 308
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    You need to get used to Linux world :) Linux uses less memory and better resource management than Windows, especially true for older hardware.

    How old your computer is ? Which CPU you have got ?
    https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043-What-kind-of-CPU-do-I-need-for-my-Server-

    Which LinuxMint do you use ? If you may prefer MATE to Cinnamon as MATE is less demanding, if your computer is not powerful.

    I used to play Kodi with LinuxMint mate, it was fun. I don’t use Plex. I use a NAS's build in DNLA server and stream music only. (I know I am lazy but works fine)

    Receiving streaming to mobile phone, then divert (via bluetooth 4) into bluetooth receiver, connecting to aux jack (headphone) at an old HiFi. You can use your (old spare) mobile phone as a remote controller. You can do a lot of fun stuff.

    Happy streaming:)
  • Rev
    Rev Posts: 3,142
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    toshi wrote: »
    You need to get used to Linux world :) Linux uses less memory and better resource management than Windows, especially true for older hardware.

    How old your computer is ? Which CPU you have got ?
    https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043-What-kind-of-CPU-do-I-need-for-my-Server-

    Which LinuxMint do you use ? If you may prefer MATE to Cinnamon as MATE is less demanding, if your computer is not powerful.

    I used to play Kodi with LinuxMint mate, it was fun. I don’t use Plex. I use a NAS's build in DNLA server and stream music only. (I know I am lazy but works fine)

    Receiving streaming to mobile phone, then divert (via bluetooth 4) into bluetooth receiver, connecting to aux jack (headphone) at an old HiFi. You can use your (old spare) mobile phone as a remote controller. You can do a lot of fun stuff.

    Happy streaming:)

    To be honest windows is very clearly much more resource hungry but it has the pro of being much simpler.

    It took me over two hours last night to figure out why plex wouldn't see the hard drive. That's not particularly user friendly. Especially to someone completely new to linux.

    But, I can't argue that for old hardware it's much better.

    Not decided if I'll keep it yet, the plex server isn't seeing all the media, some episodes are missing, I've used filebot to rename them and they show up fine if I install plex server on my desktop and point it to the same external drive.
    Sigless
  • toshi
    toshi Posts: 308
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    edited 13 June 2017 at 9:41PM
    Rev wrote: »

    It took me over two hours last night to figure out why plex wouldn't see the hard drive. That's not particularly user friendly. Especially to someone completely new to linux.

    Not decided if I'll keep it yet, the plex server isn't seeing all the media, some episodes are missing, I've used filebot to rename them and they show up fine if I install plex server on my desktop and point it to the same external drive.

    Rev, you have done remarkably well, I think.

    It seems that two issues may be involved.

    1) accessing to your external media.

    /media/(user_name)/(device_name)

    I believe that you have done this. This is Linux specific stuff, No C: drive unlike windows.

    2) Missing file


    When you browse your external hard disk with LinuxMint file manager, can you see the all file names? (I think YES)

    Then it seems that this is Plex specific issue ? not Linux OS itself.

    How about this ?
    https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/198461/missing-files

    I have a similar problem with music streaming, I encounter duplication of song names or missing songs. it seems that DLNA server doesn't care about file names, it checks tags information. You may find the way to access your file name instead, or you may change the tag.

    Sorry I would be completely wrong, as i am purely talking about MP3 tag issue when scanning music files. But I would assume DLNA server may act in a same manner ?

    You may want to investigate Plex forum (as well as LinuxMint forum, which is very user/beginner friendly)

    Hope you will sort it out very soon :)
  • Rev
    Rev Posts: 3,142
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    edited 13 June 2017 at 10:31PM
    DavidP24 wrote: »
    That is weird, usually Plex only gets confused by layout of file name or because a series has several versions in different countries.

    For it to work on one OS and not another is unusual, probably a question for the plex forums.

    It will do you no hard to get your head around Linux, you can always partition disk, reducing size of Linux and creating primary partition for Win7, then in Win7 use EasyBCD to make it dual boot.

    That way if you ever get a problem with Linux you just reboot and load Win7 and update libraries to get going quickly.

    It's Doctor Who episodes. Specifically the specials. It wont see them at all, well it sees one but has it listed as an episode from series 7 when it's the 50th anniversary special.

    It wont see the others at all but on my desktop it sees them fine. I've used filebot to triple check the names etc.
    toshi wrote: »
    Rev, you have done remarkably well, I think.

    It seems that two issues may be involved.

    1) accessing to your external media.

    /media/(user_name)/(device_name)

    I believe that you have done this. This is Linux specific stuff, No C: drive unlike windows.

    2) Missing file


    When you browse your external hard disk with LinuxMint file manager, can you see the all file names? (I think YES)

    Then it seems that this is Plex specific issue ? not Linux OS itself.

    How about this ?
    https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/198461/missing-files

    I have a similar problem with music streaming, I encounter duplication of song names or missing songs. it seems that DLNA server doesn't care about file names, it checks tags information. You may find the way to access your file name instead, or you may change the tag.

    Sorry I would be completely wrong, as i am purely talking about MP3 tag issue when scanning music files. But I would assume DLNA server may act in a same manner ?

    You may want to investigate Plex forum (as well as LinuxMint forum, which is very user/beginner friendly)

    Hope you will sort it out very soon :)

    It was getting my head around the fact that as far as linux is concerned I don't own the external drive until I tell it otherwise so I can't use things like plex to access it until I tell it I can.

    Yes I can see the files when I browse the hard drive and it's just those episodes.
    Sigless
  • rtho782
    rtho782 Posts: 1,189
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    edited 14 June 2017 at 9:43PM
    Plex Server is light weight, the issue comes if you're expecting it to transcode.

    RPI3 for example is not man enough for transcoding.
  • S0litaire
    S0litaire Posts: 3,535
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    To get "Specials" to be shown (they don't usually fit in the "S##.E##" format Plex likes and expects.)

    You usually have to manually add into the name the series number and use the episode counter of 00 (double zero)

    Example:
    in the case of The Doctor Who 50th Christmas special, you would have to add in "S07.E00".

    Plex should now spot it and label it correctly for the Christmas episode.

    You will find things might need manual tweaking to get things to show properly.

    I.E for trilogies or multipart movies/mini-series you might have to make sure the titles are identical and then add in "Part1", "Part2" etc...
    Laters

    Sol

    "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
  • Rev
    Rev Posts: 3,142
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    S0litaire wrote: »
    To get "Specials" to be shown (they don't usually fit in the "S##.E##" format Plex likes and expects.)

    You usually have to manually add into the name the series number and use the episode counter of 00 (double zero)

    Example:
    in the case of The Doctor Who 50th Christmas special, you would have to add in "S07.E00".

    Plex should now spot it and label it correctly for the Christmas episode.

    You will find things might need manual tweaking to get things to show properly.

    I.E for trilogies or multipart movies/mini-series you might have to make sure the titles are identical and then add in "Part1", "Part2" etc...

    Figured it out in the end. For some reason filebot had listed changed the name of one episode (The christmas invasion) , literally one episode. Soon as I figured that out and corrected it they all showed up fine.

    Okay, next question, how can I access the external drive attached to the laptop from my windows 10 desktop in another room?

    Can't figure out how to share it, I have 'shared' it in linux and it shows up on my windows machine but the folders are empty and don't match the actual folders on the drive.

    I want to be able to transfer things via network from the desktop to the laptop external drive.
    Sigless
  • rtho782
    rtho782 Posts: 1,189
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    Plex is even better when linked with Sonarr for TV shows and Couchpotato for films. These actually name files correctly so they are picked up better.
  • psychic_teabag
    psychic_teabag Posts: 2,865
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    Rev wrote: »
    It was getting my head around the fact that as far as linux is concerned I don't own the external drive until I tell it otherwise so I can't use things like plex to access it until I tell it I can.

    Always worth remembering that linux is at heart a multi-user system. ("Proper" multi-user, rather than one-user-at-a-time like windows.) So it just makes sense that you have to tell it who has access to any particular device that's been plugged in - it doesn't automatically assume that any particular user who happens to be logged in at the time automatically owns everything. (Though some desktop environments do try to make it look that way.)

    And as I mentioned earlier, system utils and daemons typically run in their own user account (for security), so just because you can access things doesn't necessarily mean that they can (and vice versa). But I don't know about plex specifically.

    e.g. I run a thing called tvheadend on an rpi - that runs as user 'hts' and the files it creates (by recording freeview) are owned by that user. So during setup I had to do some configuring to arrange that they can be accessed by, eg, my web server.
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