Anyone using Plex to Supplement Kaleidescape?

[Edgar]

I'm gonna revive this thread and see if Edgar ended up using Plex? I've been using Zappiti, but the player has been misbehaving a lot, and they no longer support it. And I refuse to buy another player from the same company because they'll probably abandon that one as well soon enough. So I'm looking for an alternative to move away from Zappiti.

I'm trying to understand how it works. It can play form Apple TV? Is there a subscription you have to buy from them? And the movies you store on your own server? (I wonder if I can use the same server I use for Zappiti or if I'd have to set up a new one.)

Thanks!

Hello! I did go deep into Plex! Hopefully the other members answered your questions. In my personal experience, Plex Server accessed by Infuse from my AppleTV has been working great. I now have 706 movies loaded in there, and still working my way through my crates of movies. It’s been pretty annoying as a process. It is very manual and time consuming. But at least I now have the best version of every movie available.

 

[mariyoshikong]

The ATV4K will convert a lossless Atmos track and deliver it losslessly as LPCM but does not maintain the Atmos metadata when it does so.

Just double checked this and sure enough the server was converting TrueHD Atmos to 7.1 FLAC and I had a 7.1 LPCM output from the Apple TV.
At one point I thought Infuse was the only player that would do this but it looks like the native Plex client does too. I might actually use my Apple TV for Plex more.

 

[joey_corleone]

I had a lot of discs and a lot of time and effort and $ invested into my NAS and Plex/Infuse/Zidoo solution, and it coexists.

Plex is great for TV shows and access from any device anywhere. All our shows and concerts are there, many you can’t get on K. Somewhere near 1000 movies, ripped to mkv from DVD, BD, 4k discs in my collection with no compression

The vast majority of my K library so far is rebuying stuff I already have lol.

I prefer the Kaleidescape, so I consider buying all the movies I want to own a migration process. If there is a movie I want to watch, I buy it on K if available in the best quality. I stopped buying physical movies, but still occasionally rip a show or concert

 

[MacManAZ]

I had a lot of discs and a lot of time and effort and $ invested into my NAS and Plex/Infuse/Zidoo solution, and it coexists.

Plex is great for TV shows and access from any device anywhere. All our shows and concerts are there, many you can’t get on K. Somewhere near 1000 movies, ripped to mkv from DVD, BD, 4k discs in my collection with no compression

The vast majority of my K library so far is rebuying stuff I already have lol.

I prefer the Kaleidescape, so I consider buying all the movies I want to own a migration process. If there is a movie I want to watch, I buy it on K if available in the best quality. I stopped buying physical movies, but still occasionally rip a show or concert

This sounds like me as well. I'm new to K and it will probably take some time to ramp up my library. I'll use my existing Plex/NAS/Zidoo/ATV/streaming for all TV and some movies, plus remote access, alongside K for now. I also see the NAS rips as a backup to my library.

 

[Edgar]

This sounds like me as well. I'm new to K and it will probably take some time to ramp up my library. I'll use my existing Plex/NAS/Zidoo/ATV/streaming for all TV and some movies, plus remote access, alongside K for now. I also see the NAS rips as a backup to my library.

Yep, this is where I settled out too, despite coming at it from the reverse direction of K first. All my TV is on Plex, plus some movies, fanedits, shorts, and all the 4K HDR disc exclusives that are coming out. I also prefer K, and get movies on there through D2D plus the handful that are 4K SDR exclusives (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Under the Skin, Office Space, middle of the Bond series). As it happens, I'm still buying all my discs as before, just they're getting catalogued on K and ripped onto Plex at full size. Alas, most of them are still disc exclusives, by a factor of 2:1. But it's okay, my goal is to have all my core movies in 4K HDR on server, one way or another. With Ben-Hur coming out in February, my must-have needs are almost fully met.

 

[joey_corleone]

The first 2 days of owning my Strato all I did was catalog discs lol…it’s well worth the effort to have everything cataloged in K to get those sweet d2d offers.

A lot of what I have bought so far were $4.92 4k or $3.14 in HD

 

[MacManAZ]

The first 2 days of owning my Strato all I did was catalog discs lol…it’s well worth the effort to have everything cataloged in K to get those sweet d2d offers.

A lot of what I have bought so far were $4.92 4k or $3.14 in HD

Same here. Just got my Strato E first week or so in Jan. Already purchased 62 movies (mostly D2D and Special Pricing/Sets) and have 120+ in my Digital Offers. I'm going a bit slower cataloging all my dics into the system just due to time (going 1-2 shelves at a time lol).

 

[Wal99]

Just now getting a NAS up and running for my photography hobby so I figured what the heck, loaded up Plex and am in the process of ripping hundreds of DVD’s that have been sitting in boxes for years. Lots of New material basically free of charge.

 

[rafaelsmith]

Long story short...I recently had to make last minute trip to NC (from Florida)...yes same time as the big snow storm in NC...anyhow...reasons were not good...Mom passed....but back to relevant information....to keep my Dad busy we watched some movies he has never seen...off my Plex.....my Plex library has not been updated since I got the Strato V....so about a year....one move was Nobody (he was not allowed to watch that when Mom was around)....wanted to watch the sequal...which of course I had since gotten on K..so not avail to us on Plex..doh!... Realized I miss the remote aspect of Plex. Really wish K has something...maybe like digital code or something...even if at less quality. I mean we get codes when we buy discs...why not K? Going back in a month to visit dad...will bring the V =P

Ok maybe not so short a story!

 

[MacManAZ]

Long story short...I recently had to make last minute trip to NC (from Florida)...yes same time as the big snow storm in NC...anyhow...reasons were not good...Mom passed....but back to relevant information....to keep my Dad busy we watched some movies he has never seen...off my Plex.....my Plex library has not been updated since I got the Strato V....so about a year....one move was Nobody (he was not allowed to watch that when Mom was around)....wanted to watch the sequal...which of course I had since gotten on K..so not avail to us on Plex..doh!... Realized I miss the remote aspect of Plex. Really wish K has something...maybe like digital code or something...even if at less quality. I mean we get codes when we buy discs...why not K? Going back in a month to visit dad...will bring the V =P

Ok maybe not so short a story!

+++ I would love a remote streaming/download feature too (of course in lower quality for mobile only or something). Condolences on the passing of your mom.

 

[cardsdoc]

I have been conflicted about this topic and recently my approach has shifted. Long time Plex user and bought a Strato V about a year ago. Also around that time I upgraded my Plex system from an aging PC with direct attached storage to a NAS running Unraid. Strato V is in the theater but I also ran an HDMI extender to the living room system to have access there. Initially I was maintaining both systems and only buying new titles on K and some favs I wanted on K. However as my K collection started growing I was getting frustrated having to search through 2 systems to find a movie and I knew that would be an issue for the family as well. So I have been cataloging all my discs and purchasing all the $5 titles and others that have decent content set deals or on sale. I also have a bunch of movies that were downloaded (stopped doing that over 10 years ago) so put those on the wish list. It will still take a little while longer waiting for some sales and not wanting to buy so much at once as it is adding up fast. Over 370 titles in K and when all done will probably wind up closer to 500. So in the end I'll just use Plex for titles that K doesn't have or doesn't have the best quality of (setting up playlists for those). There are still some remaining issues though. I'm never going to buy a sever to hold 500+ movies and will just use the Strato V in standalone so in order to sort through all owned movies it needs to be done on an iphone/iPad. If with the family will need to mirror to Apple TV to accomplish that. The random movie order in the "My Movies" section of UI is not helpful. There is also the issue of no longer getting a digital copy to watch on other TVs or when traveling (or similarly serving from Plex to anywhere). So not a perfect way to do this but maybe over time things will change/improve.

2 things would make management easier. One is a sortable/filterable movie wall of all movies owned (not just downloaded) and digital codes of any K purchase similar to a disc purchase. That way even my technophobic wife could just hit the K-scape activity on the remote and browse through all our movies in a sortable manner (just like she did with Plex), we could finish a movie in the bedroom where we don't need disc quality video or audio, and download movies for plane rides. 8-10 min to download a movie on the Strato is totally fine for me so buying a server for the price of a car just to be able to browse through all our movies on the big screen doesn't make sense for our needs.

 

[Edgar]

Long story short...I recently had to make last minute trip to NC (from Florida)...yes same time as the big snow storm in NC...anyhow...reasons were not good...Mom passed....but back to relevant information....to keep my Dad busy we watched some movies he has never seen...off my Plex.....my Plex library has not been updated since I got the Strato V....so about a year....one move was Nobody (he was not allowed to watch that when Mom was around)....wanted to watch the sequal...which of course I had since gotten on K..so not avail to us on Plex..doh!... Realized I miss the remote aspect of Plex. Really wish K has something...maybe like digital code or something...even if at less quality. I mean we get codes when we buy discs...why not K? Going back in a month to visit dad...will bring the V =P

Ok maybe not so short a story!

Sorry to read about your mom passing. That’s just awful. I had a scare two weeks ago, very challenging to face the mortality of your parents. I’ve been flying back and watching movies and shows with them as well. It’s really tough.

I have been conflicted about this topic and recently my approach has shifted. Long time Plex user and bought a Strato V about a year ago. Also around that time I upgraded my Plex system from an aging PC with direct attached storage to a NAS running Unraid. Strato V is in the theater but I also ran an HDMI extender to the living room system to have access there. Initially I was maintaining both systems and only buying new titles on K and some favs I wanted on K. However as my K collection started growing I was getting frustrated having to search through 2 systems to find a movie and I knew that would be an issue for the family as well. So I have been cataloging all my discs and purchasing all the $5 titles and others that have decent content set deals or on sale. I also have a bunch of movies that were downloaded (stopped doing that over 10 years ago) so put those on the wish list. It will still take a little while longer waiting for some sales and not wanting to buy so much at once as it is adding up fast. Over 370 titles in K and when all done will probably wind up closer to 500. So in the end I'll just use Plex for titles that K doesn't have or doesn't have the best quality of (setting up playlists for those). There are still some remaining issues though. I'm never going to buy a sever to hold 500+ movies and will just use the Strato V in standalone so in order to sort through all owned movies it needs to be done on an iphone/iPad. If with the family will need to mirror to Apple TV to accomplish that. The random movie order in the "My Movies" section of UI is not helpful. There is also the issue of no longer getting a digital copy to watch on other TVs or when traveling (or similarly serving from Plex to anywhere). So not a perfect way to do this but maybe over time things will change/improve.

2 things would make management easier. One is a sortable/filterable movie wall of all movies owned (not just downloaded) and digital codes of any K purchase similar to a disc purchase. That way even my technophobic wife could just hit the K-scape activity on the remote and browse through all our movies in a sortable manner (just like she did with Plex), we could finish a movie in the bedroom where we don't need disc quality video or audio, and download movies for plane rides. 8-10 min to download a movie on the Strato is totally fine for me so buying a server for the price of a car just to be able to browse through all our movies on the big screen doesn't make sense for our needs.

You can see your full purchase wall by installing the Popcorn Ready chrome extension. It also lets you export that list, which I used to create a spreadsheet of all my movies. There was a web tools app that let me get my movies list off Plex as well. I put them together and now have a combined catalog. Of course, maintaining this thing is a bit of a chore, as is looking stuff up on a spreadsheet. Everyone just asks me what we have and where. I’m surprised I can actually answer those questions.

 

[cardsdoc]

Sorry to read about your mom passing. That’s just awful. I had a scare two weeks ago, very challenging to face the mortality of your parents. I’ve been flying back and watching movies and shows with them as well. It’s really tough.

You can see your full purchase wall by installing the Popcorn Ready chrome extension. It also lets you export that list, which I used to create a spreadsheet of all my movies. There was a web tools app that let me get my movies list off Plex as well. I put them together and now have a combined catalog. Of course, maintaining this thing is a bit of a chore, as is looking stuff up on a spreadsheet. Everyone just asks me what we have and where. I’m surprised I can actually answer those questions.

Thanks I’ll check out the Popcorn extension. The standard web UI and mobile app can show the full purchased list with some limited sorting but the list export could be handy.

 

[OCD2]

I have been conflicted about this topic and recently my approach has shifted. Long time Plex user and bought a Strato V about a year ago. Also around that time I upgraded my Plex system from an aging PC with direct attached storage to a NAS running Unraid. Strato V is in the theater but I also ran an HDMI extender to the living room system to have access there. Initially I was maintaining both systems and only buying new titles on K and some favs I wanted on K. However as my K collection started growing I was getting frustrated having to search through 2 systems to find a movie and I knew that would be an issue for the family as well. So I have been cataloging all my discs and purchasing all the $5 titles and others that have decent content set deals or on sale. I also have a bunch of movies that were downloaded (stopped doing that over 10 years ago) so put those on the wish list. It will still take a little while longer waiting for some sales and not wanting to buy so much at once as it is adding up fast. Over 370 titles in K and when all done will probably wind up closer to 500. So in the end I'll just use Plex for titles that K doesn't have or doesn't have the best quality of (setting up playlists for those). There are still some remaining issues though. I'm never going to buy a sever to hold 500+ movies and will just use the Strato V in standalone so in order to sort through all owned movies it needs to be done on an iphone/iPad. If with the family will need to mirror to Apple TV to accomplish that. The random movie order in the "My Movies" section of UI is not helpful. There is also the issue of no longer getting a digital copy to watch on other TVs or when traveling (or similarly serving from Plex to anywhere). So not a perfect way to do this but maybe over time things will change/improve.

2 things would make management easier. One is a sortable/filterable movie wall of all movies owned (not just downloaded) and digital codes of any K purchase similar to a disc purchase. That way even my technophobic wife could just hit the K-scape activity on the remote and browse through all our movies in a sortable manner (just like she did with Plex), we could finish a movie in the bedroom where we don't need disc quality video or audio, and download movies for plane rides. 8-10 min to download a movie on the Strato is totally fine for me so buying a server for the price of a car just to be able to browse through all our movies on the big screen doesn't make sense for our needs.

That's what I was suggesting in your posts on the other forum. There is acceptable functionality in the web browser for your collection (by title, all movies in collection whether or not downloaded, etc.) without having to purchase an oversized server.