As a Mac household, and hater of all things cable, I’ve written a bit about my love of Plex. I’ve been a staunch defender of it online and on the forums, even though there are numerous shortcomings. Surprisingly, the biggest shortcoming of Plex is the playback capabilities of its client, the “Plex Media Center”. Based entirely on XBMC, there are numerous threads on the Plex forums noting its shortfalls: Its inability to adjust the refresh rate to match the monitor to which its attached, and its inability to play true 24fps material well. For a long time, there was nothing to be done, and users were left with a choice – easier library management and remote flexibility vs playback. Well, ever since Plex split is Media Server and Center software into to distinct packages, it enabled the ingenuity of a Plex user to come up with a solution: PleXBMC. The hack, which is really an XBMC add-on, leverages the best features of both systems to deliver a truly terrific experience. Essentially, XBMC become the Plex Media Server client (which can be setup in about 10 minutes).
To review, let’s review the pros and cons of each system (based on the opinion of this author)
Plex
Pros:
- Content Setup
- Centralized Library
- System extendability (Roku, ATV, GoogleTV, Samsung/LG TVs etc)
- Remote access (myPlex, transcoding for mobile devices)
Cons:
- Playback
XBMC
Pros:
- Playback
Cons:
- Setup
Step 1: Install Plex PMS
- Download and install Plex PMS
- Setup Library (see our guide here)
- Setup myPlex (for remote access, same link as #2)
Step 2: Download and Install PleXBMC Add-On
- Download and install XMBC from here.
- Download PleXBMC here.
- Ensure your PLex Media Server is up and running.
- Install addon directly via zip file in Step 2. This is done in XBMC by going into Settings->Addons->Install By ZipFile
- Configure the Addon with the IP address of the Plex Media Server (only if XBMC is NOT on the same machine as the PMS).
- Start Addon from Video -> Addon -> PleXBMC
You can also find the XBMC wiki entry with instructions here or on the Plex Forums here.
PleXBMC Video AddOn
Step 3: Download and Install PleXBMC Skins (Optional)
- Download Skins:
- Go back to the XBMC supplied confluence skin (system -> setting -> appearance -> skin)
- Go back to home
- Video -> File
- Add source
- Browse to “Home folder”, “addons”, “plugin.video.plexbmc”, “resources”, “dummy library”
- Add this folder as a source and select “movies” as the content. Ensure you select “Run automated scan”.
- Hit OK and the dummy file will be scanned into the library (it will appear as Aladdin (1992))
- now go back, switch to confluence.plexbmc, enable integration and it should work..
PleXBMC Home Page with Quartz Skin
Review
Having played around with PleXBMC for the past week, I’ve been very pleased with the results. Playback is flawless and I can visibly observe that the PMS is not transcoding nearly as often or using as much CPU as when the Plex Media Center was the playback client. With the integration of Plex into XBMC via the PleXBMC skins, (I prefer Quartz), as a Plex user, usability is nearly identical, including my use of my Harmony 890 remote, which I didn’t even have to program away from Plex to XBMC. For users who are using XMBC but want to consider the benefits of Plex’s Media Server, XBMCs home page customization enables you to stick PleXBMC right on the homepage for easy access rather than having to go through the Videos -> Add-Ons menu route.
There has been some caveats. The big one, at least for me, and that’s Netflix. Currently, OSX users (which I am) are unable to get the XBMCFlix Add-On working, and as such, PlexFlix (insert link), which enables Plex users (and therefore PleXBMC users) the ability to integrate their Netflix queue right into one’s movie and TV show libraries, does not work. For most, this is likely a minor annoyance, and one that will likely be fixed soon, but its a feature my family uses quite a bit. Another caveat, which will likely impact an even smaller group, is the audio isn’t synced properly when watching Plex Channels via PleXBMC, that’s if the channel plays at all. I test numerous Plex Video Channels, and it was hit or miss as to whether they played through PleXBMC.
All in all, I’m pretty pleased with PleXBMC thus far, and for those users who are looking for the best of both worlds, this could very well be the solution at least until either Plex gets its Media Center up to snuff, or XBMC catches up on ease of use/setup and remote connectivity. Its definitely worth the effort, as soup to nuts it took me about 20 minutes total to get PleXBMC fully set up.
Not sure when this was written but “Its inability to adjust the refresh rate to match the monitor to which its attached, and its inability to play true 24fps material well” is both redundant and untrue 🙂
Better talk to Charles! 😉
Elan,
Thanks for the read and the clarification. I should have been more exhaustive in my list of reported playback issues vis a vis XBMC (issues I know you have read on Plex forums), such as higher CPU usage (related to PMS but using XBMC as the playback client doesn’t appear to require transcoding as often), A/V sync issues, and ability to playback any format thrown at it (see our Cord Cutting Pt 3 comments for another data point). This is especially true now that Plex is supporting numerous operating systems. This isn’t to say Plex isn’t a terrific system (or my favorite and default), it just still appears that the one advantage XBMC may still have over Plex is media playback. For those users still frustrated with Plex playback, Hippojay’s PleXBMC may serve as a solution. Thanks again.
Just wondering: Have you tried plexbmc with a roku yet?
I’m wondering if this reduces the server load while transcoding, or if files still need to be converted via handbreak or ffmpeg… etc.
Phil. I have not but I haven’t experienced that long load for a while. The brand new roku plex channel update along with the beta PMS 0.9.6.2 seems to dramatically improve playback on roku
Hmm… I haven’t tried it for a few weeks but last time when transcoding it used both cores and all 4 threads At 95% on my core i5 450m.
That’s on a roku 1 xd/s.
I am just starting to learn the htpc world. I do not know it the new xbmc changes any of the idea of plexbmc or not. Does this still work on the new xbmc and or is it even worth it? Trying to soak it all up. Thanks!
Jon. Thanks for the read. I think plex has come so far since this writeup that I wouldn’t even consider plexbmc anymore. That said, given that XBMC is the front end of the hybrid, I imagine it works with frodo.
Would you just do Plex then and leave out XBMC all together. I just spent all day configuring XBMC with Windows on Saturday and feel like I got nowhere. I am not where I am doing servers at this point in my life. I would like to watch Blu rays, DVDs and stream media from a number of sources online. Would love to also do Wii Emulation. Everything I find to set up XBMC talks about scripts and as hard as I have tried to figure out where to put scripts (like in a command prompt on the unbutu I tried years ago). I am sure this is easier then I think it is and will feel very stupid if someone actually shows me how to do that. Any recommendations? Thanks!
Yes. Leave out XBMC. Just use Plex PMS and HTC