Understanding Kodi V Plex

matrat

Hi,
I will be building a new home media system for my house soon. The house is wired with Cat 6 so i should have no bandwidth issues.
My question is regarding the playback devices for each application and the difference. One tv is 4k so i would like the best picture possible for it. The other 2 would be fine with a decent 1080p. So for example, if i have a bluray film ripped to a NAS, and i use plex for media and client, which end of the system, i.e. the NAS or the device connected to the tv, handles the playback? Does my NAS need to be powerful enough to handle playing 4k or is it the device at the tv? And is this the same with Kodi? 
I plan to build a NAS in the attic to have tv aerial connected too, and use this to feed each tv with live tv, the ability to record live tv and access to all my media. I have no preference over which application other than having plex for media so i could add a tablet for example if travelling. But again i assume this will need to buff up NAS to handle the playback. Which may be more costly than it is worth. As long as i can get 4k to main tv, and hd to others then that would be a good start. Understanding the jobs each component does will help to decide the spec for the devices at tvs.

ED E

Plex is two things, Kodi is one.


Kodi and the Plex clients are roughly comparable.
Plex Media Server is what the name suggests and can feed either of the above.

What it will do is if the device natively understand the file, it just streams it and the device does the playing. But if the device doesnt (eg 4k bluray to a 1080p Smart TV) then it transcodes the file on the fly*. This is the real power of PMS.


* Transcoding video is to a CPU as bench pressing 100KG is to a human. If you build a weak NAS it will direct play fine but it wont transcode well/at all. If transcoding is something you want invest in a decent NAS(home server really).

matrat

ED E wrote: »

Plex is two things, Kodi is one.


Kodi and the Plex clients are roughly comparable.
Plex Media Server is what the name suggests and can feed either of the above.

What it will do is if the device natively understand the file, it just streams it and the device does the playing. But if the device doesnt (eg 4k bluray to a 1080p Smart TV) then it transcodes the file on the fly*. This is the real power of PMS.


* Transcoding video is to a CPU as bench pressing 100KG is to a human. If you build a weak NAS it will direct play fine but it wont transcode well/at all. If transcoding is something you want invest in a decent NAS(home server really).

Thanks,

Is this the same for kodi? So regardless of my tv decices, i need to allow for the nas to do the work since it will be required in various formats?
Following on from this, price depending, having 4k devices connected to tv is a good idea? That way the nas will never be stretched and the device connected to tv will never force it to transcode?

ED E

Nope, with Kodi you have to buy a box/PC for each TV.

matrat

ED E wrote: »

Nope, with Kodi you have to buy a box/PC for each TV.

Thanks Ed,

This is a great help. Can be very hard to get a full understanding from online. I assume the plex app for kodi is just the same as the plex app? I. E that the nas would still be doing the heavy lifting?

Have you a preference of these two softwares and any pros and cons? I am starting from complete scratch with a nas or nas htpc setup with 2 other tvs connected and would like to use my media and have live tv and recording available to all from a connected aerial and possibly a sat connection

degsie

matrat wrote: »

Have you a preference of these two softwares and any pros and cons? I am starting from complete scratch with a nas or nas htpc setup with 2 other tvs connected and would like to use my media and have live tv and recording available to all from a connected aerial and possibly a sat connection

I'd take that conversation to over here....
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=643

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Nope, with Kodi you have to buy a box/PC for each TV.

Not strictly true, for example you could run kodi from a central raspberry pi and with a libreelec build etc and be able to see the library from an xbox or smart tv. A cheap option would be some raspberry pi zeros though. If you have an always on box and shared libraries you can even export the live tv channels as a .m3u and be able to view live tv on devices that don't have a tuner as long as the main box is on. Using a Wetek box here as my main device and can watch a different channel from the main TV on any other device in the house with kodi on it, for those without I can access the contents of the drive attached to it and the library is organised as it would be on the main Kodi box.

Look at settings/services/ UPnP/DLNA in kodi

EDIT: Besides the dodgy add ons in kodi ... plex has them too only they are not widely known or supported what made me switch from plex was being able to run kodi on a lower powered device and not need a nas or pc running a server 24/7

matrat

Hi Enfilade,

Is a few things here, this is all based on my understanding so may be incorrect.
You are saying that you moved from plex to kodi as now with a kodi device at each tv, u can take advantage of the aerial at each tv?

Below my main tv sits the sat cables and main aerial, and i dont have access to the sat cables anywhere else. So i was thinkin that i could use a sat>ip box to send these inputs over ip to all kodi devices at tvs. Also i would build a nas to store all my media which also streams to same devices. This is just a basic overview of a possible setup. Does this match what you are saying?

matrat

matrat wrote: »

Hi Enfilade,

Is a few things here, this is all based on my understanding so may be incorrect.
You are saying that you moved from plex to kodi as now with a kodi device at each tv, u can take advantage of the aerial at each tv?

Below my main tv sits the sat cables and main aerial, and i dont have access to the sat cables anywhere else. So i was thinkin that i could use a sat>ip box to send these inputs over ip to all kodi devices at tvs. Also i would build a nas to store all my media which also streams to same devices. This is just a basic overview of a possible setup. Does this match what you are saying?

The main box is an older one of these http://wetek.com/product/wetek-play2 that one runs android , which you install kodi on. On mine I have libreelec on it not android which is essentially just a wrapper Kodi to make it boot standalone. Anyway those boxes come with a selection of tuners in my case DTB-T2 for saorview but do come with sat ones too.

Once I had the TV tuned I then exported the channels to a playlist, on my kitchen TV I have a raspberry pi also running kodi/libreelec with simple iptv client running I put the playlist on that and point the client at it to get tv there. Same idea for my partners laptop and tablet.

From the main box I have one of the small 2TB Seagate drives which doesn't need external power connected, and the media library shared and added to the libraries of the other Kodi devices but also my xbox and smart TV can see it.

The down side of the rasperry pi's is you have use an app called Kore as a remote but it's very good.

The main reason I ditched Plex was I'd sit down at the TV which is a samsung and they have their own plex client and realise the computer wasn't switched on or their would be a row over who was getting out of bed to go and switch it on And also the power consumption , I didn't want to leave a PC running all day every day for the sake of it, dedicated NAS might have been better there but cost was a factor for me there.

I won't lie and say it's easy to get live TV working on my main TV box in Kodi , it's not a simple plug and play set up and if you are throwing freesat in the mix with possibly 100's of channels and organising them etc be prepared for spending some time on here and google and a bit of a learning curve.

Also I haven't actually tested this with Sat and can't unfortunately, in principle it should be the same idea but I've no idea how well it works.

matrat

Thanks Enfilade,

Yeah will be plenty of learning for me but hoping can get whole system together and should be a much better experience. Currently i have a hd of media plugged into main tv, and all other tvs only have the rf out from sky as they arent saorview compatible so would be a huge improvement for me to have both FTA and freeview channels on all tvs, the ability to watch recorded programs at all tvs and access to all media and even 4k playback on the main tv

shanec1928

You won't run 4K direct from nas you will need something decent to do the transcoding. See link for what various nas can do
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/htmlview

durtybit

shanec1928 wrote: »

You won't run 4K direct from nas you will need something decent to do the transcoding. See link for what various nas can do
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/htmlview

All depends, if you have a 4K player with Kodi over a gigabit network you only rely on the transfer speed would it not? If the file is compressed when ripping it's all the better.

The 4K player (Android box) does all the hard work so no transcoding. I prefer this method over plex any day and I have both installed. With a plex front end the server nas will not need have huge processing power but high read speed over the network.

Lot of variables but an android box I purchased recently to use Kodi for €50 works extremely well with a weak server I use even with 1080p streams in x265

matrat

Hi guys, thanks for the input.

I have a gigabit lan network through the house so i hope to not have any transfer speeds.

My understanding was that if i used plex media server on the NAS, that it would handle the playback and the device at the tv can be relatively light. Where as if i have a kodi device at the tv, it must be able to run the 4k content as it sees the NAS as an extension of itself and handles all the playback.

Is this not correct?
In summary,
To play 4k with Kodi, i need a standard NAS and a powerful 4k device at tv,
or
To play 4k with Plex, i need a powerful NAS and device at tv just needs to support 4k playback.

degsie

matrat wrote: »

In summary,
To play 4k with Kodi, i need a standard NAS and a powerful 4k device at tv,
or
To play 4k with Plex, i need a powerful NAS and device at tv just needs to support 4k playback.

Almost , on your second setup, if the device at the TV already supports 4K, your NAS would just need to ensure it can supply sufficent data. A 'decent' NAS with 1Gb interface should be able to handle that.

matrat

degsie wrote: »

Almost , on your second setup, if the device at the TV already supports 4K, your NAS would just need to ensure it can supply sufficent data. A 'decent' NAS with 1Gb interface should be able to handle that.

Thanks,

Yeah that makes sense. Will start looking at specs maybe this weekend and i will post up what i am thinking for you guys to let me know what uz think!

durtybit

With Kodi there is little or no configuration required other than showing it where you keep your files, all the scraped data (movie/music info) is kept on the front end as part of the device.

With Kodi you can also play local files via USB or SD card etc (not sure if you can do that with plex as it needs both the server and front end app)

Kodi has a bigger scope (Pictures / Weather / plugins / IPTV / Live Tv) and can be customized to no end

Normal NAS and 50 euro andorid box (make sure its 10 bit) you prob wont have the tv panel to view however I find the box will play just about anything as display on what 8 bit panel you have.

Something like this, I find it great and its tiny.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-MX-Amlogic-S905-Android-5-1-Lollipop-TV-BOX-2GB-16GB-Gigabit-LAN-WiFi-BT4/32724867521.html

ED E

durtybit wrote: »

With Kodi you can also play local files via USB or SD card etc (not sure if you can do that with plex as it needs both the server and front end app)

Plex would be a DLNA host in this case, the TV playing from it will have its own ability to play off USB.