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Thanks for the review.
I like the idea of being able to watch stored content on an iPad. Not so sure about the rest of the user experience though.
Plex can now stream full 1:1 Blu-Ray rips with DTS HD-MA and Dolby TrueHD pass-thru to the NVidia Shield TV.
As the question above, what do you mean by 1:1 blu-ray rips? Last time I check Plex can not do ISO and BDMV.
Apple Store means essentially re-buying my content - not insignificant for 500+ movies. Obviously also quality takes a significant hit. Big plus is convenience/ ease - plus no re-rips/ management of iPad copies for the kids (big win).
Simon
I would argue that UV/DMA through Vudu is a better option than Apple for a couple reasons. The quality is basically the same between the two, so that does not play into it.
1) Apple works with Apple, but only Apple. Vudu works on most set top boxes, smart TVs and mobile devices as well as anything that has an HTML 5 compliant web browser.
2) Because almost all of the movies on Vudu are part of either UltraViolet or DMA, you are not entirely beholden to Vudu.
3) There is a HUGE marketplace for UV movie codes that will allow you to acquire pretty much any new release for somewhere between $6 and $12. I would say $7-8 is average. This saves a LOT of money vs paying full freight on iTunes. You can also shop around between UV services. It is a much more open ecosystem.
4) Disc-to-Digital allows you to buy HDX copies of most movies at $1 per Blu-Ray or $2.50 per DVD.
I had heard wonderful things about Plex and decided to try it when I wanted to set up a movie server for the family before coming to Kaleidescape. Since Plex has no online movie store, my main use entailed loading my own physical media. This was way too complex for even a technical person who did not want to spend a lot of time at it. I asked Plex experts how to do this simply, including getting metadata, and their only response was it will take time and energy and there is no turnkey way to go about it. Plex largely assumes you already have your media in an online format and that is its achilles heal for many real-world uses.everything about plex is wonderful except ripping.
Agreed on all of the above. I just wish Plex had *some* way of at least cataloging your non-Plex movies. I'd love to be able to drop in a text file with the proper movie name and instead of playing the movie (since it isn't there), the Plex user gets the message in the text file. Which could be something like "We own this movie, but it's in Vudu." Then you could at least have some kind of single interface that shows your entire movie library, even if it can't play it all.
And agreed on your previous post...everything about plex is wonderful except ripping.
--Donnie
I had heard wonderful things about Plex and decided to try it when I wanted to set up a movie server for the family before coming to Kaleidescape. Since Plex has no online movie store, my main use entailed loading my own physical media. This was way too complex for even a technical person who did not want to spend a lot of time at it. I asked Plex experts how to do this simply, including getting metadata, and their only response was it will take time and energy and there is no turnkey way to go about it. Plex largely assumes you already have your media in an online format and that is its achilles heal for many real-world uses.
I then invested in Kaleidescape and it did everything I wanted with DVDs including simple loading of media. Fusion Research and ReQuest may offer something similar for physical media with more flexible storage options but I have not seen anything that rivals Kaleidescape's user interface and programmatic control despite what people often argue.
The biggest headache is forced subtitles. The rest is pretty easy. Open MakeMKV, pop in a disc, click "open disc", select the main title with the sountracks and subtitles you want, name it and click Make MKV. Done, unless you have forced subs.
I had heard wonderful things about Plex and decided to try it when I wanted to set up a movie server for the family before coming to Kaleidescape. Since Plex has no online movie store, my main use entailed loading my own physical media. This was way too complex for even a technical person who did not want to spend a lot of time at it. I asked Plex experts how to do this simply, including getting metadata, and their only response was it will take time and energy and there is no turnkey way to go about it. Plex largely assumes you already have your media in an online format and that is its achilles heal for many real-world uses.
I then invested in Kaleidescape and it did everything I wanted with DVDs including simple loading of media. Fusion Research and ReQuest may offer something similar for physical media with more flexible storage options but I have not seen anything that rivals Kaleidescape's user interface and programmatic control despite what people often argue.
I like others is not looking at plan B and my last foray into ripping was DVD and the very early Blu Rays (which were a major mess back then).
So, forced sub titles mean you rip the main feature and you check it and it has sub titles? If so, how do you then remove the subtitles?
Kaleidescape is better. In every way.
It also costs 10-20x more and unless you buy a grandfathered system can't rip, either. And it's currently in a limbo state it may (but hopefully will) never come out of.
So we're talking about Plex and the possibilities.
As has been pointed out, ripping has gotten possible without being horrible in terms of complexity. What it still does take a lot of is TIME. Takes quite a while to get a ful BR rip, and a LOT longer if you want to compress it down. So moving a big library to Plex is hard. Starting from scratch and adding what you want as you go isn't *so* bad.
And for things you don't care about the quality of so much, you *can* just download from a torrent. Now, I'm not talking about bootlegging per se, just using someone else's rip of something you paid for. Gray area to be sure, but hell, so is ripping things you actually own, too. And you might get busted and get caught up in a lawsuit just because you did a download that way. But if none of that bothers you much, torrent downloads of movies drop right in to Plex and work great. For most of us with even a decent download connection, it's faster than any rip you're going to do yourself. Quality is usually passable to pretty good.
--Donnie