Frigging Amazing

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury) 06/29/2019 at 13:59 • Filed to: None

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Why didn't I do this sooner? I just discovered that I can access all of my recordings from right here in the hospital. Now I just need to get the networking worked out and I'll be able to access my storage server through Plex from anywhere.

SmugAardvark > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 06/29/2019 at 19:13

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No joke, Plex is the bee’s knees.

My recommendation (or at least what I did), pay for a lifetime Plex Pass membership to make remote streaming as simple as possible. Then get a decent NAS setup to prevent needing to run a full PC to stream from. I use the S ynology DS718+ with a pair of 4TB HDD’s , but the DS218+ will work just as well and cost $100 less. Just don’t skimp and get the DS218 (non plus model). The 32-bit CPU apparently leads to a choppy framerate when transcoding.

I haven’t used any of the OTA or TV recording features, but supposedly they work quite well.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > SmugAardvark 06/29/2019 at 21:40

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The DVR and OTA recording functions were the main reason I went with Plex. I was a little reluctant to give them money for this function when I had it in WMC for years, but it’s soooo much better. I was a TiVo user for 15+ years and paid the $100+ annual fee (I had better pricing than most because I was an early user), but once they were taken over by Rovio (FKA Macro vision) the quality went downhill.

I should have bought the lifetime subscription but I really needed to test it out first. I have a Hauppauge 4-tuner PCIe card I was using in an old Dell Optiplex 980, so using a peecee is critical for my application. I started with a little mini ITX system I picked up for $20, replacing the i5 2500S with an i5 2500K. 16gb of RAM, a 120 GB Samsung SSD, a Blu-ray drive and a 4TB Seagate HD rounded out the system. It works pretty well, but I’m a little concerned about the cooling off high-stress components in such a little case.

The other day I picked up a PowerSpec system with an i7 3770K for $150. I’ll transplant that CPU, which still sells for $150 on the used market, into my gaming rig and replace it with something else; I have a choice of an i5 3470, an i7 2600, an i7 3770 or the aforementioned i5 2500K, which is probably the CPU I’ll use. I want the 3770 to go back into my Hackintosh, restoring it back to add it was before I blew it up. This media center system will also be used for light gaming on the 49" 4K TV in the living room so I want it to have a little grunt. Throw in an optical drive, several quiet fans and room for additional hatd drives and I should be set for years.

The combination of Plex and a smart TV is a wonderful thing. I don’t even have to use the PC, Roku or Apple TV to watch what’s on my media server. Every time I turn around I am more impressed by the capabilities of this $250 TV set, and I take back everything negative I may have said about smart TVs in the past (even though my complaints were probably justified back then when compared to Roku or Apple TV). And the refurbished Yamaha soundbar I picked up? So far I still haven’t gotten around to hooking up the receiver and all those speakers because that little thing has amazing sound for something that small.

Now, if only I had the time to sit in the living room, watch TV and do nothing else. I've got a great setup for veging out in front of the TV, but that's just not how I work...

SmugAardvark > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 06/30/2019 at 00:24

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Nice, sounds like you have it all worked out. I bought one of the TCL Roku TV’s last year during Prime Day, and combining that with my Harmony remote means I can turn everything on and boot straight into Plex. You’re absolutely right, having a smart TV makes it all so seamless.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > SmugAardvark 06/30/2019 at 01:01

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I’ve been a Roku user for years and bought a TCL Roku set over at Costco, but I didn’t open it since I was still rebuilding my dad’s old Danish modern stereo bench he bought in the late ‘60s or early '70s . Then Microcenter had a better LG set for about the same price and I jumped on it. It’s not one of their high-end units, but it is damn good especially when considering the price. I do have a 10-unit Harmony that I need to set up, but I still need to finalize the installation of all the audio and video gear before I do that. Those remotes are great, and easily let me use a bunch of gear I’ve bought by the pound at the Goodwill Outlet that were and remote. Saved me a bundle compared to trying to track down replacement remotes.

SmugAardvark > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 06/30/2019 at 02:59

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Sounds like it’s going to be an awesome setup once it’s all done. Looking forward to seeing it when everything is complete.

Hope you’re feeling better!