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Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

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Jamie
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Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Jamie » Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:21 pm

I know that this is not Bluray news but I think that it is just as important. I got this news from JRiver. JRiver forgets that there are still holdouts like CMC, Mymovies, Kodi and the WMC hack.

The hack is running strong. I looked at it 4 months ago and the french developers have done some remarkable things to the interface. It did use up all my memory and CPU after I installed it but I did see enough of it to know the CMC is slicker and better in so many other ways. You don't have to worry about downloading a virus with CMC too.

Good day,

There was some Big News for the HTPC last week. Plex announced that, beginning in January, Plex will no longer offer Plex Media Player for installation on a Home Theater PC.

Our esteemed user, glynor, summed up the situation this way:

"MC works quite well alongside Plex (that's exactly what I do). You can:
* Use all of the tools and organizational prowess of MC to manage your media (which Plex doesn't provide at all and you have to do it like an animal).
* Theater View for your HTPC(s)
* MC is hands-down better for music.
* Import the media folders from your MC Library into Plex to serve to mobile clients and any TV-pucks you have, and MC will let you "perfect" the file naming structure to conform perfectly with what Plex expects."

Quality
The Plex announcement stirred up a lot of discussion on our forum about JRiver's place in the market. One element was the recognition that JRiver is becoming one of the last media players devoted to high quality audio and video. That's a position we're very proud to own, and we're grateful to our customers who have helped guide us in that direction.

Now here's what we've been up to at JRiver this summer.

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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Teddyboy » Tue Aug 20, 2019 9:41 pm

Interesting but not surprising news. Htpc users are but a small fraction of their user base. I can’t believe the WMC 10 hack is still going. It just does not make any sense to me. Htpc’s where never going to be mainstream. They were always a niche market. I had at first bought sage TV and was going to use that, but when I saw media center I switched. That was back towards the end of 2004 start of 2005. I’m grateful that Paul has developed CMC. It’s pretty slick for a fledgling application. For me to have the ability to import my movie collection from MyMovies is a godsend. I do like jriver, but they have a steep learning curve, and I don’t like theatre view very much. Basically all I wanted was a poor mans kalidescape.
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Pauven
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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Pauven » Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:57 am

I read that Plex was going app only a few days ago, abandoning the PC. I was shocked. I'm glad you posted about it here. I suppose that means there might be some Plex defectors.

Of course, hardly anyone knows about CMC. The main source of discovery is on the My Movies forum, no surprise there. There's also the post on The Green Button forum, but even though they are WMC fans, most of these users are die-hards that want the cable-card/tuner functionality, so CMC doesn't help them. There was also that one post on AVS that got a little attention, but I think that has lost its effectiveness.
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Teddyboy
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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Teddyboy » Wed Aug 21, 2019 2:50 pm

If media center was still included in windows, I’d probably still use it. Once I left media center several years ago I never looked back. It was relegated to just being a movie and music library. I stripped it down to the bare essentials with media center studio. When Arcsoft stopped development on TMT, I continued on using MCE. after a while it started throwing stop errors along with media center studio. I gave up trying to use it, and it sat collecting dust after I migrated to Tivo. I had a Ceton four tuner Infinitv that work for the most part, but I had constant headaches with pixelation that no amount of firmware revisions would fix. They are now a ghost of what they once where.

I like my Tivo, but my cable bill is aweful. Now it’s going to be a combination my htpc using CMC, pandora, Netflix, prime, and YouTube tv. I’m going to get a Apple TV because I’m already in the eco system, and if I’m using Apple TV some of the apps will also be on my htpc, so I don’t have to switch inputs often. Plus it’s got a slick interface and the box works. That’s why I like my Tivo. It’s a closed box that I rarely have to reboot or have issues with. I like to tinker with my htpc, but not as much as I used too. I just want it to be a stable box that I can watch movies and listen to hi def music.
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Jamie
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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Jamie » Wed Aug 21, 2019 6:33 pm

I used to have tivos until I switched to Directv in 2008. I use to hack the Tivos to add bigger disk drives and more capabilities. It was a nice box but directv had an antiquated interface on their tivo which I gave up on. I moved over to Comcast between 2016 - 18 but they got to be too expensive plus I missed my Sunday Ticket. I will stick with Directv until the lose the Sunday ticket, or move it to their streaming service.

Jamie

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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Teddyboy » Thu Aug 22, 2019 4:22 pm

My cable bill is $220 bucks a month, so I’m going to let that go probably at the end of next month before the next billing cycle. I like Tivo, but it’s just not worth it for the amount of tv that I watch. Youtube tv will serve me better, I think. I’m going to start a trial this weekend. I’m going to order a Apple TV and use that as my streaming box, and keep the htpc for movie and music serving. I’m trying to simplify as much as possible. I could actually spend the money and get kalidescape, but I can’t really justify the cost and it has what I think are too many restrictions.
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Jamie
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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Jamie » Thu Aug 22, 2019 4:54 pm

I liked my appletv. It was the second version, being made before the 4K version. I had some minor freeze ups with it but unplugging and plugging it back in seemed to fix it for two weeks at a time. This seemed to start just after 2 years of good service. I had similar issues with an IPad, It seems that apple expects their customers to buy a new product every two years. They charge a lot too.

I am using my sister's roku right now and I'm disappointed. There is no Podcast software and I watch a lot of technical podcasts. I have not been able to find something to play them. I have been thinking of seeing if I can find something for the PC to run and then use CMC to watch my Podcasts while using that app. There is YouTube but they do not run a lot of my poscasts. Apple did. Maybe I will have to use itunes?

If someone knows of a PC app that runs RSS feeds or is known to be a Podcast app let me know.

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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Pauven » Thu Aug 22, 2019 5:32 pm

Jamie wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 4:54 pm I watch a lot of technical podcasts... thinking of seeing if I can find something for the PC to run and then use CMC to watch my Podcasts while using that app.

Okay, I know I'm going to sound real ignorant, but it's only because I am. I think I've listened to part of one podcast in my life.

My perception, maybe rooted in what podcasts were 10+ years ago, is that podcasts are just audio recordings, for listening on iPods (remember those?).

In my mind, listening to the a podcast is like listening to the radio on demand, but instead of radio stations most of these are just random people making audio recordings, just like much of YouTube is random people making video recordings. I know there are some famous podcasts, like Pod Save America, but I've never listened to it.

But you wrote "watch" twice. I'm thinking maybe I don't really know what a podcast is.

What makes a podcast a podcast? Can it have video? If it has video, how is that any different than a YouTube channel?

Where would I find some podcasts to listen to?

I'm open to exploring adding a podcast player in CMC, but I need a crash course in podcasts...
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Jamie
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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Jamie » Thu Aug 22, 2019 6:13 pm

A podcast as I know them is a discussion between 2 or more people talking, or expounding, on a specific subject matter. They can be daily, weekly, or monthly recordings. These recordings can be audio-video, or just audio. Think of these shows as instructive TV, or radio, shows like This Old house, the frugal gourmet, other cooking shows, and gardening shows.

My shows are more technical in subject matter but they don't have to be. There are podcasts on Harry Potter, Star Wars. Star Trek too. I just wasn't interested in those particular podcasts.

Some of the podcasts i watch are. https://twit.tv/, http://www.htguys.com/, https://www.avexcel.com/, CNET,. I just found out about feedburner and it just may be what I am looking for.

Jamie
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Re: Plex stops supporting PLex Media Player for HTPCs

Post by Jamie » Thu Aug 22, 2019 6:20 pm

Here are some of the best Podcast Players. I think that I would like VLC over itunes.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/best-pod ... windows-10

Cross-platform syncing: Pocket Casts.
Native UWP: Grover Pro.
Podcasts and music: Spotify.
Native media: MusicBee.
Lesser known: Audiocloud.
News heavy: NPR One.

I'll have to play with these to see what I prefer.

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