1. KODI - I'm slowly starting to warm up to KODI. What really helps is changing out from the awful default skin. I think this should be Step 2 on any new user's guide...(you know, if there were actual good, centralized new user documentation there--yes im bitter).
The biggest pluses for me are that it natively has handles every file format I've tossed at it, and its player feels lightweight and not bogged down. It also handles all of the soft-subs I've tossed at it without fuss (I've ripped most of my anime and foreign film collection for instance) and has no trouble trying to access my files on the NAS. A huge following means there are lot of add-ons, even fi they're not always well maintained--but browsing and installing addons from within the interface is also a plus.
Negatives? I have to get used to a new remote schema or find a good plugin to make my very usable MCE remote more feature-integrated. It's fine with me ripping single title Blu-Rays (i.e. movies) to folder structures...but it doesnt like me using folder structure for collected TV episodes. Seems like the best workaround is to re-encapsulate all my ripped episodes to MKV containers which is a lot of tedium work. Could use better default audio/subtitle controls.
2. Emby - Media Browser 2.x was a fantastic add-on to 7MC for me, giving a full, rich Movie and TV cataloging experience with lots of extra data, great cover and fan art, hosts of different layout possibilities (which expanded greatly with different skins using different layouts), that along with 3rd party media players (I only really needed BluRay Playing software) handled everything I threw at it with even less fuss than Kodi does (Media Browser seemed to LOVE folder-structure rips of my DVDs and Blu-Rays)
Emby (MB 3.x+ rebranded) seems to be trying to handle that and push it forward. It's promising, but it needs a little work for my taste.
Plusses: Seems to love all the media I throw at it. Seems to love folder-structure rips just fine with no need to baby it or hold hands. Fantastic media organizing capabilities using a web app. Plug in support, including one to launch steam in big picture mode. Support for multiple use profiles each with their own separate access to titles (throw the XXX media on the network then lock it away from guests, kids and the cat!
). Support for plug in and skins. While it's moving to a server-client paradigm to push for streaming your library anywhere (minus in my book, but plusses for others), it does also support clients simply reaching through the server to grab at the files natively.... i.e. why force the server to spend cycles transcoding, and then send pixelated, re-rendered video down to the client when my HTPC is sitting on my homes gigabit network and is powerful enough to play games over steam. Yeah, doesnt need to happen.
Minuses? Documentation is sh*t. Combines the worst experiences of lazy wiki centralization, "here's the way we think 80% of you will do things" attitude and a forum that intimidates new and casual members with "its in there somewhere" replies. So far seems to handle all my media formats just fine, but doesnt handle soft subs at all (and maybe im missing something, but lets go back to that point about documentation). Also, I really have no understanding of how to bring up the server management web app (no icons dropped in my desktop or start menu, no consistent system tray appearance, so I'm resorting to bookmarks since I didnt tie things to a centralized online account yet)--the documentation just assumes its always running. Did I mention the documentation sucks? As a geek, I'm ashamed to have stereotyped against my own kind, but this actually made me curse out "f****ng neckbeards" for the first through third times in my life when I discovered the original blocking issue I had with setting up my library in MB3 last year was easily solved by something I overlooked...and never mentioned in the promoted documentation/threads (I had to dig on down to the butt-end of a non-popular forum thread to find the realization of what I was doing wrong).
3. Plex - I want to like this. I love the concept. But I cant seem to right now.
Plusses: Steam everywhere if that's your thing. Other PCs. Tablets. Phones. Xbox. Huge buy-in for this too, with applications built for consoles, streaming boxes (roku, amazon Fire stick, etc). It looks like it's got some decent polish.
Minuses: I dont want to stream everywhere. I dont want to transcode at all--where as this model seems based around having to transcode. Emby gives me an option not to, but It doesnt look like Plex does. Have to setup a server for it (true for Emby too, but I have less issues running server and client on same PC for that than for plex). I moved all of my media off the HTPC and got a NAS just so that I would have more efficient, always on access to centralized media. Now you're telling me the ideal thing is to stick a PC on my network and leave it always on to serve up media? Bah!
While its big reach means that Synology has a native plex server app in its packages, it's barfing on even DVD quality material because the tiny little processor that is more than enough at handling 5 disks and a house-sized workload cant transcode fast enough. Also, its a picky eater. Everything it eats has to be single file format, so folder-rip structures are right out. It seems to only want MKVs too (perhaps not true, but it feels that way) which will be a royal hassle for my whole collection. But that's what the documentation suggests. Convert to MKVs, keep all your movies and episodes single file. Thats the way we're going to do it and we're not going to change. Great. It's not so much that I think they're stupid as I think they're extremely focused on a model that works for them. More power to them. It's just clear that what works for me is a different direction.
