Plex Media Server on AC68U in debootstrapped debian

[m0thman]

Once you install the plex server disable encoding and make sure to force only direct play. It should work so wont need to use much ram or CPU.

Unfortunately it's not possible to disable transcoding on server. It's only possible on some clients. For example Samsung application have such option.

 

[System Error Message]

Unfortunately it's not possible to disable transcoding on server. It's only possible on some clients. For example Samsung application have such option.

If thats not possible than a sure way to test directly is to use it from a PC and set the quality to original. On the PC you can set it to direct play.

 

[m0thman]

If thats not possible than a sure way to test directly is to use it from a PC and set the quality to original. On the PC you can set it to direct play.

On PC you may do that in Plex Home Theatre. As I mentioned before it works with no problems. But Plex Home Theater is not designed to be used as desktop application. In browser only MP4 and other videos optimized for streaming may be played directly. That's sad. So I'm thinking about buying something like Odroid for Plex.

 

[TeHashX]

On PC you may do that in Plex Home Theatre. As I mentioned before it works with no problems. But Plex Home Theater is not designed to be used as desktop application. In browser only MP4 and other videos optimized for streaming may be played directly. That's sad. So I'm thinking about buying something like Odroid for Plex.

I have an Odroid-C1 and plex running just fine, of course without transcoding.

 

[System Error Message]

On PC you may do that in Plex Home Theatre. As I mentioned before it works with no problems. But Plex Home Theater is not designed to be used as desktop application. In browser only MP4 and other videos optimized for streaming may be played directly. That's sad. So I'm thinking about buying something like Odroid for Plex.

How does the plex server know if theres not enough CPU power? I have an udooquad and a developer snapdragon 810 to play with but unless you can install plex server on android it would be hard to test. The udoo quad is going into my quadcopter.

They really need to do GPU accelerated transcoding and even the snapdragons and mali GPUs support openCL and many mobile chipsets have hardware acceleration for videos.

 

[m0thman]

How does the plex server know if theres not enough CPU power? I have an udooquad and a developer snapdragon 810 to play with but unless you can install plex server on android it would be hard to test. The udoo quad is going into my quadcopter.

They really need to do GPU accelerated transcoding and even the snapdragons and mali GPUs support openCL and many mobile chipsets have hardware acceleration for videos.

It does not know. Transcoding is just disabled in ARM builds.

 

[YasharF]

Yeah! Finally it works!
Netgear PMS for ARM5.x works fine for me in debootstraped debian jessy with /lib partially replaced by entware /lib!


QNAP ARM-X31 binary compiled with armv7hl architecture and just not working.

I was not able to test playback yet. For web interface it displays message "This server is not powerful enough to convert video." – and I don't understand why does it want to convert it. I hope it will not try to convert video for my TV app. Will try it in the evening.

Can this be packaged and put in Entware repo? or can you write a step by step guide with the commands that need to be typed for others if an Entware package is not feasible?

 

[toufiq47]

Yeah! Finally it works!
Netgear PMS for ARM5.x works fine for me in debootstraped debian jessy with /lib partially replaced by entware /lib!


QNAP ARM-X31 binary compiled with armv7hl architecture and just not working.

I was not able to test playback yet. For web interface it displays message "This server is not powerful enough to convert video." – and I don't understand why does it want to convert it. I hope it will not try to convert video for my TV app. Will try it in the evening.

hi could you pls address a tutorial for this ? many thanks for your help

kind regards

 

[GG7]

EDIT: I misunderstood the original question. I didn't realize that the OP was attempting to run Plex on a router! I have commented on that idea further down the thread.

In short... Bad idea!

My host/media server machine is a 27" Apple iMac under OSX Snow Leopard with two 9TB raids attached running RAID 8. (4 x 3tb drives each) Connected to the Mac via Firewire 800 and then out to our LAN.

end of edit...

We have had no issues running any Plex based media to any connected device that can run the Plex app. I am using the latest public release of the Plex Media server for OSX.

I don't think your issues are related to the router or its firmware.

 

[toufiq47]

I am running Plex with 378.56_2 on my new 68U rev B1 router and all works fine.

The host machine is a 27" Apple iMac under OSX Snow Leopard with two 9TB raids attached running RAID 8. (4 x 3tb drives each) Connected to the Mac via Firewire 800 and then out to our LAN.

We have had no issues running any Plex based media to any connected device that can run the Plex app. I am using the latest public release of the Plex Media server for OSX.

I don't think your issues are related to the router or its firmware.

can u guide us a tutorial for the installation. thanks!

 

[TeHashX]

He want to run plexmediaserver installed on router not on a pc through router

 

[GG7]

He want to run plexmediaserver installed on router not on a pc through router

Oh!

Really?

Why on earth would you want to do that? The 68U or similar does not have the CPU horsepower to run a reliable Plex media server install. Not even close!

I would suggest just biting the bullet and buying a dedicated Mac Mini to run the server on. Not only will it run circles around ANY router, it will be a very stable platform for your Plex devices to access.

Considering that storage is going to cost you the same regardless of what is running the media server, a Mac Mini is one of the cheapest pieces of hardware in the package. At least if you run a system like mine.

 

[GG7]

Even if you get it to run on a router, I doubt it would be able to handle more than one stream at a time. And will probably choke on that far too often to be useable.

Take it from a 5+ year Plex user. The media server is a CPU hog when you are serving up multiple clients, all streaming 1080p HD content. It taxes my iMac at times and it has a Core i7 processor!

 

[m0thman]

Oh!

Really?

Why on earth would you want to do that? The 68U does not have the CPU horsepower to run a reliable Plex media server install. Not even close!

I would suggest just biting the bullet and buying a dedicated Mac Mini to run the server on. Not only will it run circles around ANY router, it will be a very stable platform for your Plex devices to access.

Because, for example, I don't have iMac and I don't want to turn on my Macbook each time I want to watch movies or shows. And I don't want to have something big and white near my TV (that runs only plex, because I can run any other software on my router).
I think that AC68 have enough power to run PMS (excluding media conversion) but the problem is that PMS developers are not sharing it's source code and it's not possible to compile it for Asuswrt.

 

[m0thman]

Even if you get it to run on a router, I doubt it would be able to handle more than one stream at a time.

Why? I can run at leas 3 streams in parallel using DLNA. Why do you think I can not do the same with PMS?

 

[GG7]

Why? I can run at leas 3 streams in parallel using DLNA. Why do you think I can not do the same with PMS?

Just a hunch based on previous experience with trying to run Plex on an underpowered media server.

 

[john9527]

Even if you get it to run on a router, I doubt it would be able to handle more than one stream at a time. And will probably choke on that far too often to be useable.

Take it from a 5+ year Plex user. The media server is a CPU hog when you are serving up multiple clients, all streaming 1080p HD content. It taxes my iMac at times and it has a Core i7 processor!

The version for ARM doesn't do transcoding....it will only serve files it can deliver in 'direct' format.

But, personally, I still wouldn't do it.

 

[m0thman]

Can this be packaged and put in Entware repo? or can you write a step by step guide with the commands that need to be typed for others if an Entware package is not feasible?

Answering your question – don't waste your time. I was able to run PMS on my router, but it crashes each 3-7 minutes when I'm browsing media And browsing itself is so slooooooooow… Sometimes it takes ages to open "Movies" page. It takes a lot of time to generate thumbnails for movies. And Plex does not cache them for some reason.

I'm sorry but I will not write a guide because a lot of time has passed since I was installing it. I was using this guide to install debian chroot: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/how-to-install-debian-squeeze.10558/
And I took scripts to start PMS itself from NetGear package.

And one more reason – I have removed PMS from router after 3 days of torments. Now I'm runing PMS on Odroid XU4 (linux) It runs perfectly there. Still with no transcoding. But I newer met any video that needs transcoding for my Samsung UE55HU8500 TV

 

[Nullity]

The version for ARM doesn't do transcoding....it will only serve files it can deliver in 'direct' format.

But, personally, I still wouldn't do it.

What, you wouldn't want to overload the most vital piece of your network?

It only makes sense to me if the media is not being streamed from the router. Like when I use AllCast on my Nexus 9 to direct stream something from my Media server to my TV, no media passes through the Nexus.


@m0thman, why would you need something big and white near your TV? My wired desktop downstairs runs Plex and streams across WiFi to my Samsung Smart TV. Nothing needs to be near the TV.

 

[m0thman]

What, you wouldn't want to overload the most vital piece of your network?

It only makes sense to me if the media is not being streamed from the router.


@m0thman, why would you need something big and white near your TV? My wired desktop downstairs runs Plex and streams across WiFi to my Samsung Smart TV. Nothing needs to be near the TV.

I have my Macbook, iPad and iPhone. I don't need any desktop. Buying an mac mini (or any desktop PC) only to run PMS on it is like buying a car only to listen music on it's sound system.

So I bought an Odroid single-board and I'm happy now