Did you move away from Plex or have you integrated Plex and ChannelsDVR?
I have been messing with MCEBuddy in an attempt to integrate, to ultimately have the best of both worlds. Daily shows like the news, gets ignored by MCEBuddy and I watch that stuff in Channels. TV Show series and movies gets sent to my Plex libraries via MCEBuddy. The setup is simple although I'm always looking for some tweaks here an there without making it overly complicated.
Personally I haven’t found a reason to continue using Plex for anything other than music. I know Plex has a broad set of features but Channels easily takes care of my family’s TV viewing habits. And it’s one less platform to support. There’s a bit of polish I’d like to see going forward from Channels but I can wait.
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Plex is far better for managing Movies, TV and Music. I also like the ability to browse Plex and fling any file (movie, tv, music) to another device. Kodi with the Channels add-on + Plex Kodi Connect is working very well. I have a feeling you could be waiting a long time. We all have different needs, but life is too short to wait.
Yeah. I used Plex for years before moving to Channels and am fully aware that it is better at certain things than Channels. But keeping my unenthusiastic users in mind, it is better to keep things simple with as few apps as possible. For me, Channels wins with TV and Movies because it has the best DVR out there and does a competent job of playing movies. Plex remains my go-to music player and does just fine. I haven't spent much time with Kodi but I know there are a lot of fans out there but being banned from the Apple app store makes it more trouble to play with than I care to endure.
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Being that I started the thread it's cool to see so many opinions.
I did fully become a Channels user. It surely works well for live and recorded tv with the new HDhomerun flex4k.
I'm still using Plex. I noticed that Plex seems more forgiving with file and folder names for the digital media collection I have in place than Channels DVR does. Channels can't get cover art or everything correct. Channels seems to be a little more picky than Plex. I have a music collection too and Plex isn't perfect for that either. All those old mp3 from way back in the Napster and MIRC days don't always have good meta data and some files are unknown song, unknown artist and you can only find it by the file names what it is.
I see channels found most of my movies and tv shows.
I'm very happy with channels. And ok with Plex and since my Plex pass is a lifetime one long ago paid for I'll still use it. It's not really costing me to do so.
Both programs seem to have strong points.
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I have zero issues with Plex at the moment for Movies, Music and TV Shows. Music tags are a must and the combination of Mp3Tag and MusicBrainz works very well.
All the stuff I record with Channels, show up automatically in my Plex TV Show library or my Plex Movie library thanks to MCE Buddy. All are perfectly named too which is great.
I have MCE Buddy ignore stuff like the News and sports which have a short shelf life, unlike TV series and such. For those I watch with the ChannelsDVR Kodi add-on. I use Kodi to connect to my Plex library using the PlexKodiConnect add-on.
This method makes setting up Kodi a snap. Once Kodi is installed, all I do is add the Channels add-on and the PlexKodiConnect add-on and all my media is at my fingertips. No tweaking needed. The tweaking is done in Plex and sent as is to Kodi. Takes about 10 minutes to set up Kodi.
I prefer EMBY for movies because of the automatic Collections and the actor Bios ...
I use a Windows 10 PC with Kodi loaded on a NVME SSD and a Logitech Harmony Hub remote over bluetooth. Low power and silent and absolutely flies. The speed is especially noticeable when it scans for Plex media files loading all the thumbnail's and stuff. Compared to sticks and other streaming devices it isn't even close.
I tried EMBY and went back to Plex a few years ago. I don't remember why. Plex does Collections great now.
I got very frustrated with music in Plex. They are trying to do too many things and this is not their core competency. I eventually moved my networked music library and streaming to LMS/Squeezebox and have been very happy with that. It's all free software from end to end now.
But you cannot click on the actors and get the Bios and other movies you have that they are in.
I use squeeze/LMS but it doesn't do multichannel music. I collect surround sound music, quadraphonic, 5.1, Atmos and Plex handles them all perfectly. No issues sending them to Kodi, from Plex.
I will somehow live without the Bio's. That is what my tablet is for.
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Does emby work seamlessly with Kodi like Plex? That may be the reason I bailed on emby.
Yes they have a great kodi interface with a great EMBY skin.
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My setup is running too smoothly to try emby again. Is emby free like Plex server? Maybe that was the reason I went back to Plex?
Glad there are options.
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Multichannel music is cool but in my media room I'm extreme in the other direction, switching from the surround amp to two monoblocks for stereo sound. Glad to know you appreciate LMS for two-channel music around the house, for which I feel it is in the class of paid audiophile solutions like Roon and Audirvana.
My two channel rig I use with LMS/SqueezeliteX is pretty nice. Conrad-Johnson Amp and Polk SDA Compact speakers.
My multichannel rig smokes it! Larger Conrad-Johnson amps x3. Full range hand built 3 way speakers for the rears.
Steven Wilson Atmos mixes are the bomb. His old 5.1 mixes are great too. There are some new Atmos mixes on Tidal that are great too. Two Tom Petty Albums, St. Vincent, Megadeath, many others.
Two channels sound wimpy compared to the best surround sound mixes. The people who haven't lived with a quality multichannel setup, and understand the good mixes vs the poor mixes, are the only people I see putting down surround sound.
If someone is commenting on surround sound and has never heard Abbey Road in Atmos, I laugh and no longer take anything they say seriously.
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