Amazon Fire TV - Plex

[Sugar Ape]

I lent one of those Android boxes off my mate to try for XBMC in my bedroom; and it was shite quite frankly. Awkward to use and buffered constantly.

 

I've been looking at these Amazon Fire TV boxes and the specs seem great on it. I'd imagine it would stream XBMC no problem and I think it can be installed on it easily enough looking on a few forums. A couple of the lads in work have got them and said streaming the footy works great through it as well. Netflix and Amazon prime as well as iPlayer etc... come on it as standard also.

 

I notice it also supports the Plex app though. Anyone got Plex running on any of their devices? Thoughts on it?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Which android box? Minix m8 is supposed to be very quick. 4k etc.

[Sugar Ape]

Don't know which one but it was utter gash. My mate said it was a nightmare trying to constantly keep it updated. Like I said a few of the lads in work have got this Amazon one and said XBMC runs likes a dream on it.

 

Think I'm going to give it a go.

[Furmedge]

What forums you used to get xbmc on your fire tv? Pm if you can. I've looked about and I'm either blinded by nerd science or the links have been expired/removed. Got mine on launch day and tried to load it once and then got a shit on.

[Sugar Ape]

I haven't got one yet, was just thinking of getting one. I'd suggest having a look at some of the YouTube clips? Thinks that's how some of the people I know installed it.

 

 

Or try some of these?

 

http://www.tvaddons.ag/install-kodi-amazon-fire-tv/

 

http://www.alashiban.com/running-xbmc-amazon-firetv-step-step-tutorial/

 

http://kodi.wiki/view/Amazon_Fire_TV#Install_XBMC_to_the_Fire_TV

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

So, I've got loads of local content - TV Shows and Films - on my HD. On the computer, they display brilliantly, with DVD covers as icons, is there a way I can get them to display well on a TV? At the moment, things like XBMC just give you a file name and a generic icon list. I like all these new interfaces, the Amazon Fire looks great in that video, but I need a device that pulls a DVD cover from the web or something.

[stringvest]

So, I've got loads of local content - TV Shows and Films - on my HD. On the computer, they display brilliantly, with DVD covers as icons, is there a way I can get them to display well on a TV? At the moment, things like XBMC just give you a file name and a generic icon list. I like all these new interfaces, the Amazon Fire looks great in that video, but I need a device that pulls a DVD cover from the web or something.

 

or an app.  

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

This looks like just the job.

 

 

It fetches the metadata, film covers, and all that.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKeXgQ0ZZck

[Furmedge]

I'll be taking a look at this tomorrow afternoon. I've cancelled my sky so need live sport and films on my telly by the weekend.

[Furmedge]

I haven't got one yet, was just thinking of getting one. I'd suggest having a look at some of the YouTube clips? Thinks that's how some of the people I know installed it.

 

 

Or try some of these?

 

http://www.tvaddons.ag/install-kodi-amazon-fire-tv/

 

http://www.alashiban.com/running-xbmc-amazon-firetv-step-step-tutorial/

 

http://kodi.wiki/view/Amazon_Fire_TV#Install_XBMC_to_the_Fire_TV

Spot on, that alashiban link done the trick. Now to put showbox and the snes emulator on there.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy one of these for plex.

[Sugar Ape]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy one of these for plex.

So is Plex a case of:

 

You download something. Then transfer it to a harddrive for storage. Load the Plex app on your device and that finds whatever is on the harddrive and streams it?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Yeah. I've already got a pretty huge library, Plex seems to make the best of that. You put it on your computer, which grabs all the covers, descriptions, names, etc, then you can connect to it from anywhere. Smart TVs, apple/fire TV, phone, etc; you can connect from anywhere though, as long as you're connected to the net.

 

I think it has add-ons like xbmc but called channels. Probably not as many though. I'm going to give it a go later.

[Sugar Ape]

Yeah. I've already got a pretty huge library, Plex seems to make the best of that. You put it on your computer, which grabs all the covers, descriptions, names, etc, then you can connect to it from anywhere. Smart TVs, apple/fire TV, phone, etc; you can connect from anywhere though, as long as you're connected to the net.

 

I think it has add-ons like xbmc but called channels. Probably not as many though. I'm going to give it a go later.

 

Only issue there is my laptop is only 320gb and my mac mini is 500gb ( though I can expand that ) so I'd need something considerably larger to start building a worthy library.

 

I haven't looked into this at all yet, but something like a 4/8TB harddrive would be what I'm after I think. Connect this to my computer and then how would it be accessed from my phone or say if I took an Amazon Fire box abroad with me? Would that be possible?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Yep, seems that way. Although, unless you get a NAS that runs it, you'll have to leave you computer on. If hadn't spent the best part of 10 years building my library, I'd probably just pay for netflix or something.

[Sugar Ape]

Does seem like a bit of hassle. Might just stick with Xbmc on my telly and tablet and download stuff direct onto my laptop for trips away.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Having a quick internet helps. A few clicks and I'm sorted. Plus, it's quicker. Both have downsides, Plex takes them away if you've got some already. If you haven't, building one would be a bit of a pisser.

[Sugar Ape]

I don't mind building a decent library, in fact I quite like the idea. I downloaded every Hammer horror film on my mac mini which is about 70gb and it's ace, I'd love to do the same and build a collection of hundreds of films and TV shows etc...

 

It's just time for me. I've hardly had a minute to myself the last few months with working 12 hour days through the week and most weekends along with the normal family shit you have to do, I just can't see me finding the time to work out how one of these NAS harddrive works, load it with stuff and then configure Plex to get the best out of it.

 

It does sound pretty awesome though, if XBMC is down ( which to be fair it isn't often ) then I'm fucked, but this way I'd always have exactly what I wanted provided my internet is up and running. I've got 150mb internet as well so it'd be shit hot.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Yeah, I totally get that. I have a 'to watch' folder which normally contains the daily TV shows (usually between 1 and 3 episodes) but I've now got fucking loads to watch. I'm backdated on almost everything. As long as I download them though, that's fine. You can actually get your phone to start your downloads on your computer using dropbox. You set your torrent client to automatically add a torrent file from a certain location - if you set it to dropbox/torrents then you can just download the tiny torrent file from your phone to that location. Boom.

 

With 150mb broadband, doing some overnight is easy stuff. Did I ever show you my library?

[Sugar Ape]

Is that a euphemism? I think I've seen a few pictures with the artwork etc... But not the actual content. How big is it? ( the library I mean )

 

Talking about it makes me just want to order it. And with christmas coming up...

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

It's about 1.5tb, but it's growing much quicker now I'm adding HD and replacing SD content with HD stuff. I'm going to have to go down the NAS route myself at some point.

 

The problem I have always had is getting it to my TV in a way that looks good. It looks really great on my computer but it's just a list of folders and files. With Plex, it will take those files and build a database with its own covers without me having to do any of the work. I might download plex now, so if it's any good.

 

Those videos I posted earlier are quite good. He uses a NAS connected to his router by ethernet.

[Sugar Ape]

Hmmm. Plenty to think about. It's probably worth buying one of the Amazon fire boxes just to download xbmc on it alone without even thinking about Plex. How did you get on with the XBMC on it Furm?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I've just downloaded the Plex app. It's flying with my media. It has done all my movies already. I've not gone through them to check yet. It's my TV Shows I worry about it getting right. Soon see. Looks very good so far though.

[Sugar Ape]

What it the app doing exactly? Getting your media and allocating art and descriptions to it? I assume it's easy enough to set up things in genre order?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Fucking hell, it's done. Took about ten minutes, everything seems perfect, without me having to change anything. It has gone out, got the covers, the metadata, the actors, background images, directors, years, episode names, everything. It hasn't touched my original files or anything either. Just worked perfectly. It's using those files, with my naming system, and just working with them perfectly.

 

Stunned by how easy that was. I like it.