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Hi,

I've found a really nice media server some time ago and i think this is a must have for CleaOS. The developers of Plex are creating Linux beta versions of there software. There are already version for Ubuntu, Slackware (unRAID) and upcoming versions for Synology and Qnap NAS devices.

You can do real cool things with Plex Media Server. Have a look here and here When you have installed Plex Media Server you can stream to all kind of clients. Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS devices like phones and tablets. Even LG has integrated Plex client in there Televisions so you can stream content directly from a Plex Media Server to a LG Television.

[strike]So we have to convince the developers of Plex to create a version for RHEL 6.1 so the community can create a add-in for ClearOS Enterprise/Home.

I started a thread over at the Plex forums. I'll hope you are just as enthusiastic as I am.

Lets covince them![/strike]


Update:

There is a CentOS version of Plex Media Server for awhile now. You can easy install it on your ClearOS server. See the download page. You can download the rpm to your tmp directory and install it with:


yum localinstall plexmediaserver-0.9.7.22.511-4b5280f.x86_64.rpm



Update:

Ben Chambers is packaging and making a app for Plex Server.[/color]


Update:

The Plex Server app is now available. Go to the Marketplace and install!!!


Enjoy!

http://elan.plexapp.com/files/2012/08/Plex-Web-Client.jpg
Friday, August 05 2011, 02:52 PM
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  • Accepted Answer

    Friday, August 05 2011, 08:47 PM - #Permalink
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    Thanks Marcel, looks interesting - Serviio is also another one to watch that offers transcoding
    http://www.clearfoundation.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,232/catid,40/func,view/id,25951/#25951
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    Friday, August 05 2011, 09:29 PM - #Permalink
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    Interesting Tim.

    I had completely forgotten that this media server also existed. Just a couple of things crossing my mind. Plex offer some client apps to cooperate with Plex Media Server. Are there apps for Android or iOS? If remember correctly Serviio uses the DLNA standard don't know of Plex supports this. So a Android or iOS device have to support DLNA. Hmm... Plex is also indexing your media and automatically retrieve metadata from the Internet. Does Serviio this?

    I have some reading to do.
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  • Accepted Answer

    FastLaneJB
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    Monday, August 08 2011, 08:00 PM - #Permalink
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    Yeah Serviio gets my vote. I've been using it for months and it's by far the best Media Server I've used on Linux or even Windows for that matter.

    It automatically fills in movies cover art, along with downloading the right meta data for who was the actor, what genre it is and so on. It'll remember what was the last file played in a folder if you use the meta data views so if watching a series you can remember where you were up to quickly. It's never once crashed or not updated so files were missed (MiniDLNA used to miss a file once in a while and I'd have to stop it, delete it's cache and fire it up again so it could rebuild). Oh and the transcoding to my Xbox 360 works perfectly. So I think it's the best all around DLNA server for Linux currently and would recommend if any DLNA server was to get a module this would be my choice.

    However that's not to say others shouldn't get a look in. I'm currently right now putting on AirVideo which has an Alpha for Linux (Currently version 6). This should for iOS devices automatically transcode video including to a much lower bitrate for it to work over a WAN link. Not sure my broadband is up to it as the upload is poor but I'm going to try it anyway. It's of limited use to most people however compared to a generic DLNA server.

    Cheers,
    James
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  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, August 08 2011, 08:48 PM - #Permalink
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    James,

    Do you have Airvideo running on ClearOS ?
    Looks very good (also Plex). Would be great to play my movies on my iPad.
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  • Accepted Answer

    FastLaneJB
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    Tuesday, August 09 2011, 08:09 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi Patrick,

    I had it fired up and could browse my server, it would render a thumbnail of the video as well but when starting to play it would fail because the ffmpeg isn't new enough. I did kind of expect that as they have a version on their site which you need to use however a quick attempt to compile that fails because x264 isn't nearly new enough on ClearOS.

    Not had time to look into it today but it seems they suggest compiling a static binary. I installed a ClearOS VM last thing yesterday before I ran out of time so my plan is to manually upgrade that to the right x264 if possible, compile ffmpeg as a static binary and copy that over to my box. However x264 failed to compile from source so clearly there's a bit more effort needed to get this working.

    Ultimately though with the right ffmpeg static binary and java installed, Airplayer is extremely easy to get up and running. Will let you know if I make more progress.
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    FastLaneJB
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    Thursday, August 11 2011, 11:36 AM - #Permalink
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    I'll make a seperate thread for this once I've written an init script for it. Gonna have to head out however my firing it up manually and leaving it running as root I have AirVideo running now. It works an absolute treat, videos start almost instantly and I can skip forwards and backwards with no issues. I am running on a Quad Core Xeon though so with a slower CPU it might take a while however if it's too slow to do an on the fly convertion it can do the full lot before it starts I believe.

    Anyway you'll need a newer ffmpeg to get it working which I've managed to compile and while it's got the static flags, it does need a newer libx264 which I have. I didn't compile those, I found rpms in the end for EL5 which work fine.

    [URL]http://www.kinectech.com/avffmpeg[/URL]
    [URL]http://www.kinectech.com/libx264_115-0.115-16_20110610.2245.el5.i386.rpm[/URL]

    I've renamed the ffmpeg to avffmpeg so I can see when it's running easily in top but also as serviio is using an older version fine so haven't changed that just incase currently but might well try it with the newer one in a bit.

    You'll need the test.properties file which is just a text file, edit the path for ffmpeg to point to where you put the avffmpeg and fingers crossed you'll be good to go.

    Anyway I'll make a proper thread for this to document it, just need to get an init script sorted.

    Cheers,
    James
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    sbn
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    Wednesday, December 14 2011, 06:49 PM - #Permalink
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    I saw that post you made Marcel over at Plex forum, quite disheartening to see that nobody ever replied. I just got a new HTPC set up and would like to run Plex on ClearOS. I don't see that they make anything available other than Ubuntu (i.e. no compile yourself version), which also makes me think that it would take some Linux gurus to compile this for ClearOS anyways.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Wednesday, December 14 2011, 07:46 PM - #Permalink
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    sbn wrote:
    I saw that post you made Marcel over at Plex forum, quite disheartening to see that nobody ever replied. I just got a new HTPC set up and would like to run Plex on ClearOS. I don't see that they make anything available other than Ubuntu (i.e. no compile yourself version), which also makes me think that it would take some Linux gurus to compile this for ClearOS anyways.


    The Clear OS Home server community is not very big. I think ClearOS is mostly used in small business environment. As i said there are a few die hard home users (also active in the forums). That's think the main reason why never anybody responded.

    The time i made that post i was pretty sure to go the Apple way. So plex fitted nicely. At the moment i'm not sure which way to go.

    I think it's a bit difficult to compile because there is no source code and i'm not a Linux guru. So much to learn.., so little time...

    :cheer:
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  • Accepted Answer

    Thursday, December 15 2011, 10:01 AM - #Permalink
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    I use plex front end from time to time on a couple of macbooks

    Have you seen this by any chance (Plex Media Server rpm's for Fedora/CentOS/Rhel )
    http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/33426-plex-media-server-rpms-for-fedoracentosrhel/

    I am running short on vm servers at the moment but might have some free time and coming up soon enough to test it out
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  • Accepted Answer

    sbn
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    Thursday, December 15 2011, 11:43 AM - #Permalink
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    Just downloaded the RPM and did a quick test just to see what would happen, this is the output:

    Examining plexmediaserver-0.9.5.2-1.i386.rpm: plexmediaserver - 0.9.5.2-1.i386
    Marking plexmediaserver-0.9.5.2-1.i386.rpm to be installed
    Resolving Dependencies
    --> Running transaction check
    ---> Package plexmediaserver.i386 0:0.9.5.2-1 set to be updated
    --> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.6) for package: plexmediaserver
    --> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.7) for package: plexmediaserver
    --> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.8) for package: plexmediaserver
    --> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.9) for package: plexmediaserver
    --> Processing Dependency: libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.11) for package: plexmediaserver
    --> Processing Dependency: libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.9) for package: plexmediaserver
    --> Finished Dependency Resolution
    Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.8) is needed by package plexmediaserver
    Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.6) is needed by package plexmediaserver
    Error: Missing Dependency: libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.9) is needed by package plexmediaserver
    Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.7) is needed by package plexmediaserver
    Error: Missing Dependency: libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.11) is needed by package plexmediaserver
    Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.9) is needed by package plexmediaserver

    Suffice to say I think there is still a lot of work thats going to be needed. Hopefully with some RPMs we can get this working.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Thursday, December 15 2011, 01:33 PM - #Permalink
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    Maybe you could try use alien and import the deb packages and attempt to convert them to rpm on cleaors

    http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/alien/

    Thing in its going to want to change up Glibc libraries which are used by nearly everything uses them. It would be super useful to grab the source and compile it ourselves
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  • Accepted Answer

    Saturday, February 04 2012, 09:47 PM - #Permalink
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    Have been using this guide to get it running on Clearos 5.1.

    http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/29038-guide-plex-935-centos/

    It runns, but needs some hardware to transcode.

    Have problem to get subtile to run. :-(
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  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, April 09 2012, 10:33 AM - #Permalink
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    At the moment i have Plex Media Server running on my ClearOS community 6.2 box. It's very easy to install just use the RPM of ZiGGiMoN. See this thread over at the Plex forums.

    Link

    I can stream movies to my iPhone and iPad. This is working really awesome. As for the subtitles this is working now. I think it was a bug. Only streaming movies of my server when i'm on the road is not working yet. Some configuration troubles... i suppose...

    If you check the thread of ZiGGiMoN leave a big thanks... :)
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  • Accepted Answer

    Saturday, April 28 2012, 12:02 AM - #Permalink
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    Just found this thread. I have been using Plex for a while and just wanted to second Marcel. I use it on my android phone and tablet just fine. I have 2 android clients, 1 iPad client, and a windows client. The apps do cost $4.99 per device but since both of my android devices are tied to the same account I only had to pay once for the android app. I have tried watching two movies from two clients and then opened another movie via smb at the same time. All worked without any studdering on my lan. I'm hopeing to add a googe tv box to my setup for the living room.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Leon
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    Saturday, May 05 2012, 10:51 AM - #Permalink
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    Hi Marcel

    I have installed Plex rpm from - http://plexrpms.markwalker.dk/latest/ on my "Test" ClearOS 6.2 and i am unable to run Plex.

    Did you do anything else to get it to work?

    Got it Working... was a "Rights" issue :blush:
    Now to set the Folders where my Video's are....

    Z69
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  • Accepted Answer

    Sunday, May 06 2012, 12:13 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi Leon,

    Glad to hear you fixed it!

    Already checked the Plex app for phone or tablet?
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    Sunday, May 06 2012, 09:21 PM - #Permalink
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    Hey Marcel have you ever tried to mount a remote filesystem and have plex run off that
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  • Accepted Answer

    Leon
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    Monday, May 07 2012, 06:11 AM - #Permalink
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    Hi Marcell

    Got Plex working on my test system.
    So now i have to change my home server from 5.2 to 6.2...

    I loaded a Plex "Widget" in my Samsung Home Theatre, works like a charm..
    The only issue i still have is embedded sub-titles, but that is a Samsung thing as they do not support it via streaming...
    The way to get pass that is to change the sub-title to a .srt file and place it in the same folder as the movie.
    One added plus is that i can now resume playback, where before my Home Theatre did not support it.

    I have been using minidlna up to now, but with it's limited GUI, it is not wife friendly. so it seems that i shall be looking to move to Plex in the near future.

    Leon
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  • Accepted Answer

    sbn
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    Wednesday, May 23 2012, 08:51 AM - #Permalink
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    So I followed those instructions, added the plex repo, installed fine. Started the service without issue, navigated to the manage URL. I added a section for music, and it scanned correctly mp3s, and some music videos that range from FLV, mp4, xvid, etc. I then added a section for movies (almost all xvid) and nothing comes up. First thing I looked at was file/folder read permissions and everything looked fine (664). For some reason it just does not scan them. Anyone else experience this?
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    Leon
    Leon
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    Wednesday, May 23 2012, 09:08 AM - #Permalink
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    Hi sbn

    I have not seen that as i only tested mkv's

    I have not done the switch over as we here in South Africa are having problems with out SAT service provider, do not want all systems to be down....

    The plan is to switch over once our SAT service is back to normal.

    Leon
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  • Accepted Answer

    Leon
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    Saturday, June 16 2012, 09:08 AM - #Permalink
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    Hi All

    I have been using COS 5.x now, in "Gate Way" mode for a long time and it has been working brilliantly..

    When i start to investigate PLex i found that COS 5.2 can NOT run Plex.
    I fired up my "Test" box, installed COS 6.2 community in normal mode, installed Plex, copied a few media files to see how it worked.
    For what i require, it worked 100% as i also found a Plex widget for my Samsung TV..... sorted...

    I installed, on a new drive, COS 6.2 in "Gate Way" mode, installed Plex and..... this where things go all screwed.....

    When i start Plex, i get the following error:

    ]# /etc/init.d/plexmediaserver start
    Starting PlexMediaServer: [ OK ]
    ]# sh: line 1: 9293 Segmentation fault ./'Plex Media Server'
    /etc/init.d/plexmediaserver stop
    Stopping PlexMediaServer: /etc/init.d/plexmediaserver: line 46: kill: (9293) - No such process
    [FAILED]
    Stopped PlexMediaServer [ OK ]
    ]# /etc/init.d/plexmediaserver stop
    ]#


    The only difference i can see, is that COS is now in "Gate Way" mode.
    I have proved that it is "Gate Way" mode that stop Plex.
    When i change to "Stand Alone" mode, Plex works

    Any ideas where i can start to look?

    Leon
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  • Accepted Answer

    Leon
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    Monday, June 25 2012, 04:30 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi All

    Some update on Plex

    I have just installed a "Beta" test of Plex media server on COS 6.2 in "Gateway" mode with success.
    Please note this is still Beta, but so far so good...

    You can find the post to the link here 0.9.6.4.154 Beta

    Leon
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    sbn
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    Friday, December 07 2012, 12:07 AM - #Permalink
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    sbn wrote:
    So I followed those instructions, added the plex repo, installed fine. Started the service without issue, navigated to the manage URL. I added a section for music, and it scanned correctly mp3s, and some music videos that range from FLV, mp4, xvid, etc. I then added a section for movies (almost all xvid) and nothing comes up. First thing I looked at was file/folder read permissions and everything looked fine (664). For some reason it just does not scan them. Anyone else experience this?


    Just to answer my own problem in case anyone else experiences it. Just saw that Plex had been updated via the repo and decided to take another look at it again on ClearOS. While I thought the issue was Plex not having or using the correct codecs, turns out it was a very strange permissions issue.

    Let me re-phrase that, it was a permissions issue that made absolutely no sense what so ever. First my solution was to change the group to "plex" on all the media files that plex server could not see. Then added my user account to the group. Where it got strange is that one directory that did work I essentially replicated the permissions to another directory that did not work. I went so far as to do 777 and still plex could not see the videos.

    What is odd is that the directory of music videos that plex saw had vboxusers as group, the directory of Mp3s had domain_users and users. But the directory of regular videos HAD to have plex as the group, regardless of permission level.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Wednesday, May 29 2013, 12:44 PM - #Permalink
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    Updated the opening post B)
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    Monday, August 26 2013, 02:28 PM - #Permalink
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    do i need kde or gnome to run plex on clearos of can it run from a browser
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    Leon
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    Monday, August 26 2013, 02:54 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi Norbit

    You only need a browser.
    Go to http//:yournetwork:32400
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    Monday, August 26 2013, 03:06 PM - #Permalink
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    i install plex how do i set it up to use it
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    Leon
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    Monday, August 26 2013, 03:14 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi Norbert

    1. Re-start Clear-os
    2. Use any web that is linked to your network and go to the following address - http://your-network-ip here:32400/manage/index.html#!/dashboard

    Look at the instructions here - http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/PlexNine_PMS_MediaManager#Launching_Media_Manager_on_a_Linux_PC
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  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, August 26 2013, 07:36 PM - #Permalink
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    I see you did get help Norbert. It's really easy to install.., thanks Leon!
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    Tuesday, August 27 2013, 01:11 AM - #Permalink
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    Thank you

    Why dose it not show movies it show my tv shows
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    Tuesday, August 27 2013, 03:06 AM - #Permalink
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    My life (OK...my kids lives) got infinitely better the day I switched from Mediatomb to Plex...it really is another example of a very high quality pieces off FOSS. Consider supporting the project.

    Given that RPM's are already available, Plex is very low hanging fruit to add to the ClearOS Marketplace...other than proviging a non-command line install and a bit more exposure to users, anyone have any ideas what additional integration features could be done? The only one that comes to mind and where I had a hiccup is that content must be owned or grouped as 'plex'...I think. Some type of cron/listener, to automatically change the folder/file permissions of source directories???

    Ben
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  • Accepted Answer

    Leon
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    Tuesday, August 27 2013, 01:03 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi Norbert

    The most common reason for NOT finding your movies as the naming.....
    Use this link to help.. http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Media_Naming_and_Organization_Guide

    Also make sure Plex has "permission" to scan the folders.....
    As all my media is "Owned" by Flexshare i gave allusers full access to get Plex to work.
    I could NOT get Plex to work with read-only permissions.....

    I made Flexshare with "trash" folder, so if a file is accidentally deleted, i can recover it from the "trash"
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    Tuesday, August 27 2013, 02:54 PM - #Permalink
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    thank you for that fix

    now how can i watch the movie on my apple tv

    also can i use itunes to see the server or do i have to use plax
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    Leon
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    Tuesday, August 27 2013, 04:51 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi Norbert

    Please do the R.T.F.M. thing here http://www.plexapp.com/
    I am sure you can get all the info you need much quicker than posting it on ClearOS forum.

    I have found the Plex forum very helpful
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  • Accepted Answer

    Saturday, October 05 2013, 08:39 AM - #Permalink
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    Version 0.9.8.7.186 is out for Plexpass users!
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    Friday, November 08 2013, 12:06 AM - #Permalink
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    Friday, November 08 2013, 02:56 AM - #Permalink
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    Thanks for that, Ashford! I got it installed and working to some degree. When I try to play videos from some of the channels I get a "cannot load M3U8: crossdomain access denied" error. Sometimes it says "404 not found" instead of crossdomain access denied. Let me know if you get the same thing and or if you come across a fix. I get this in Firefox and Chrome. Thanks for the post!

    Update: It may be a browser issue with the M3U8 errors I'm getting on my PC. Works fine using my iPhone with the Plex app. This is cool stuff.
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    Sunday, November 17 2013, 10:32 PM - #Permalink
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    Maybe an off topic question, but based on the information on this page it's stated that the plex app should be downloadable via the marketplace. I can't find it, has it been published formerly and then been removed again?
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    Monday, November 18 2013, 12:23 AM - #Permalink
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    Goran,

    Sorry for the confusion...the documentation is ahead of the release of the package. I'm just waiting on Pete to release the Network Map app with 20 user limit to the Community Edition. Once that is done, I'll flip the bit and it will be available in the Marketplace.

    Ben
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    Monday, November 18 2013, 10:03 AM - #Permalink
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    Good news! :)
    This will ofcourse make it more straightforward to setup and get it running instead of hacking around in the system. *Two thumbs up*

    Cheers
    Göran
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