Plex media server on vero 4k?

Hi, I’m wondering if its possible to use the vero 4k as a plex media server and at the same time use it as a regular kodi box?

What I would like to is to use plex media server to stream to a tv with the plex app. When I want to watch movies I would like to use it as a normal osmc and watch movies on my projector.

Do I just need to add a plex addon or do I need to switch configurations?

/Challe

The server can be run on the Vero and if you search the forum you should find various posts on the topic. This is something that runs in the background and wouldn’t have anything to do with Kodi. The add-ons that are available in Kodi are players, not a server.

I don’t think transcoding will work so you will need to make sure you set both the server and the player for direct stream.

1 Like

do you mean that the server is installed on top of osmc just like kodi is. Osmc = OS
kodi, plex server = installed programs

Yes

If your TV supports UPnP you might be able to just enable that on the Vero and access your media that way instead. I’m pretty sure I tested that in the past with a Pi and an LG TV and it worked.

ok, do you mean that the vero works as a ”middle hand” between the source device and tv?

If your media is not directly connected to the Vero then it would be acting as a middle man with either a Plex Server or UPnP setup. A Plex server has to scrape all the media independently and has overhead associated with it. With UPnP Kodi is just making your library available over that conduit so there is only a single source and one library.

The Plex player gives you a full media interface with extended info whereas UPnP you get something much closer to just browsing files with thumbnails. If you don’t care about extra’s and just want to play files then being able with UPnP to just turn on a single option in Kodi and then on the TV being able to open the video player and browse [name of vero]>movies>recent>[name of movie] can be a practical, fast, and easy solution.

If your media is on a PC or NAS as opposed to directly connected then it may be better to run either solution on that machine instead of on the Vero. If you go that route then it is probably more personal preference than anything else on which one to go with.

thanks the plex route sound better, I have a nas with where a plex server package can be installed, but I suspect transcoding is necessary so that wont work with that processor, I think I will keep the current setup after all. I know there is a kodi app on a sony tv for example but I suspect there will be limitations compared to running a kodi box.

If your TV supports the video resolution of the source then the only transcoding that should be needed is audio and that shouldn’t be an issue (that only requires a small fraction of the processing that video does).

ok, good, but adding subtitles might be a problem…

Plex supports both embedded and external subs. UPnP supports embedded subs only.

ok, sound good, will bookmark this thread and try later, I don’t have a tv yet :wink: ( only projector )

and what I meant with the subtitles is that I read that adding subtitles requires a video reencoding, but perhaps tis is not so.

That is not something I was aware of but that does seem to be an issue with PGS subs on all players and srt subs with some (most?) players. I just tried it with my LG WebOS Plex player and turning on either type of sub does force transcoding unfortunately. I don’t think there is any hardware transcoding support using the Vero as a Plex server either so it would have the same limitations as a NAS without hardware transcoding support.

I tried the same movie on my TV with UPnP and the srt subs played there without transcoding.

yeah I suspected that, its no big deal, I just thought It would sinple to have everything together on the tv interface.