
Plex Introduces Plexamp - grep4master
https://medium.com/plexlabs/introducing-plexamp-9493a658847a
======
untog
I wish Plex would focus a little. They're simply not big enough to be doing
the number of things they're doing and do them well. I'm currently using Plex
as a DVR service for my cable TV and it _mostly_ works, except sometimes it
doesn't and it's all but impossible to work out why.

It's all the more infuriating because so much of what they do is based on open
source stuff (the original version was based on XBMC, though I think little of
that is left now), but they don't open source anything themselves. I'd love to
take a dig through the code to maybe fix these issues myself but I can't.

There is a rival service, Emby, which is open source:

[https://emby.media](https://emby.media)

Last I looked their frontend apps were lacking (and that's not an area I can
help in, sadly) but it might be time to take another look.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
I don't see the need for another Plex rival. XBMC/Kodi is perfectly fine. It
can play local content swimmingly. It can set itself up as a UPnP server so
that Roku's, consoles, and Prime sticks can grab its content. It can even
setup a web client so that you can access the library in a browser tab on the
local network. It's also FOSS.

Really, the only use-case I see where Plex beats Kodi is if you have all of
your media stored in the cloud. But I feel like for real media die-hards, that
very quickly becomes impractical (e.g. I have about 3 TB of pictures / music /
video and storing that all on Amazon S3 servers would run me hundreds of
dollars a year).

~~~
untog
Plex beats Kodi in two areas for me: DVR service, which Kodi doesn't provide,
and remote playback. Plex will transcode videos on demand to smaller storage
sizes, and store them in its iOS and Android apps for offline viewing (and
their Roku app is _far_ superior to Kodi UPnP). When it works, it works great:
like having my own version of YouTube TV/Sling TV, only without any of the
DRM/non skippable ad nonsense. But it doesn't always work great.

The reason I pointed out Emby is that it has all the features Plex does that
Kodi does not. Kodi has some stuff available by plugin but matching the
features I require from Plex has never been possible.

~~~
sysbell
[http://kodi.wiki/view/PVR](http://kodi.wiki/view/PVR)

~~~
untog
Yeah, I tried that, but couldn't find a backend that would work seamlessly.
And besides, it still can't do the transcoding/mobile app stuff Plex can.

I love the customisability of Kodi but there's something to be said for a
front-to-back, opinionated solution. It works a lot better (...even though my
original complaint is that Plex can be flaky...)

------
flexplexx
So plex profits from yet another GPL software, this time MPD
([https://github.com/MusicPlayerDaemon/MPD/blob/master/COPYING](https://github.com/MusicPlayerDaemon/MPD/blob/master/COPYING))

The previous being ffmpeg which they openly admit to have internally forked in
the swedish podcast kodsnack.

They must publish their code modifications to comply with GPL.

When is a good time to take these freeloaders to court?

~~~
untog
IIRC, Plex have published their fork of ffmpeg. But as a zip file, and the URL
is somewhere on their forums. Following the rules to the letter, but
definitely not in spirit.

~~~
flexplexx
" ...You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had
you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.' But the plans were on
display...' on display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find
them.' `That's the display department.' `With a torch.' `Ah, well the lights
had probably gone.' `So had the stairs.' `But look you found the notice didn't
you?' `Yes,' said Arthur, `yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a
locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door
saying "Beware of The Leopard".”

Still looking for that post

~~~
flexplexx
Found this link, but it says access denied.

[http://files.plexapp.com/elan/ffmpeg/PlexTranscoder.tar.bz2](http://files.plexapp.com/elan/ffmpeg/PlexTranscoder.tar.bz2)

source
[https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2974](https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2974)

~~~
elanf
Try
[https://files.plexapp.com/elan/ffmpeg/PlexNewTranscoder.tar....](https://files.plexapp.com/elan/ffmpeg/PlexNewTranscoder.tar.bz2)

