Plex Announces Roku Client

[Stork]

Apple isn't the only one to have an announcement today.

...a wide variety of clients are available to consume content from the Plex Media Server...The Roku client is considered beta, and supports only video content at the moment, although photo and music support will be added in the future

Plex Blog - Plex on Roku

Now, Tony's idea of a iTX Hackintosh HTPC has merit to those of us who like to show off our Audio equipment. The iTX ugly box can go in the back of the audio rank/stand running Plex serving up to the Roku which, in my household, has a very high WAF. I can then make my neighbor, who is a audiophite and Windoze fan, jealuous by showing him the power of the little black Roku Box.

Plex now has a forum section for the Roku: Roku Streaming Players

Here's the Roku line up.





[*] WAF = Wife Acceptance Factor

 

[ethree]

Stork,
Did you ever decide to go with a Roku? I've been trying to decide on whether to build a HTPC for the living room and using something like an Apple TV in the bedroom, all using PLEX , or to build a desktop and then use 2 extenders/media clients like the aTV or Roku. The reason I was interested in the Roku was that our TV in the living room is still using Cathode Rays .
Cheers.

 

[josephbphillips]

I tried the roku client but I was not impressed. I have used plex on my hackintosh, iMac, iPad, ATV2 and ATV1 via Crystalbuntu and PleXBMC. All of those worked fairly well.

The roku implementation was a good try, but not mature enough to use in the living room. The interface was very slow, the video quality was much worse than any of the other clients, and it was prone to crashes. It was unusable from my perspective, and definitely not "wife approved".

It may improve in the future, but I haven't seen much in the way of updates since it was announced.

The ATV2 is a great option, as that client seems much more robust. It also has frequent updates and a fairly active user forum.

 

[josephbphillips]

Sorry, just noticed the CRT mention.

That is what lead me to Crystalbuntu and ATV1. I have an LCD in the bedroom with no HDMI inputs. I ended up adding a CrystalHD card, an external wifi adapter, and PleXBMC to an original ATV, and it is great!! I use component, but it can be set up for composite as well.

I am very impressed with the capabilities of this box. They can be had for $40 on craigslist, as people don't realize everything that they can do. The crystalhd card is about another 35-40.

I held off on this for a while, as I thought it might be too difficult. It was SIMPLE.

There is a tool to make a usb drive that will run everything you need. Swapping out the wifi card for the crystalhd card took about 5 screws and 10 minutes. There was nothing to screw up.

I am happy to help if you have questions on this procedure.

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/top ... -for-xbmc/

http://www.stmlabs.com/2011/03/28/crystalhd-released/

 

[ethree]

Sorry, just noticed the CRT mention.

That is what lead me to Crystalbuntu and ATV1. I have an LCD in the bedroom with no HDMI inputs. I ended up adding a CrystalHD card, an external wifi adapter, and PleXBMC to an original ATV, and it is great!! I use component, but it can be set up for composite as well.

I am very impressed with the capabilities of this box. They can be had for $40 on craigslist, as people don't realize everything that they can do. The crystalhd card is about another 35-40.

I held off on this for a while, as I thought it might be too difficult. It was SIMPLE.

There is a tool to make a usb drive that will run everything you need. Swapping out the wifi card for the crystalhd card took about 5 screws and 10 minutes. There was nothing to screw up.

I am happy to help if you have questions on this procedure.

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/top ... -for-xbmc/

http://www.stmlabs.com/2011/03/28/crystalhd-released/

Thanks for the ideas. I had thought about the ATV1 with the crystalhd before but for some reason had just seemed to forget about it. I'm currently living in Vancouver and these things seem to stay overpriced for the resale value, but I may just have to check it out anyway. Looks like a fun project.

 

[Stork]

Good info, josephbphillips. I need to look at the CrystalHD in more depth. I, too, have a couple of hot rodded ATV1s using atvusb-creator and eSata AppleTV Mod. The CrystalHD "card", which you mentioned, is the Broadcom Video Accelerator Card miniPCI card. Several threads (I don't have the links) in the MacRumors ATV fourm section and the Handbrake Tiki forum section both have info on updating ATV1s with the Broadcom card. BTW, the Plex client may be immature still, but the Roku is a well designed set top box with other mature "channels." Netflix works great on it.

ethree, sorry for the late reply. I forgot to subscribe to this thread. The Roku preferences allow for setup on any type of TV. Even though you have a 4:3 TV vs. a HDTV, I'd get the new XS, top of the line because you'll be using it for while, and it can play AV from a USB drive. (Check the Roku 2 XS manual to be sure; it's easily found on the Roku site on the Roku 2 XS page.) Mine is two model "years" old and it still works great. Amazon has it with free shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/Roku-XS-Streaming-Player-1080/dp/B005CLPP84/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1313328460&sr=1-1 Of course, it's the same cost as an ATV2, but with the ATV2, you're locked into Apple's iTunes & iCloud.

As for building an HTPC, I'd take a look the tonymacx86 Recommend Build link in my sig block. tonymacx86 has build both a H55n and H67n systems. I'm expecting the Intel integrated graphics HD3000 to work on Lion real soon now which means that you can use a nice looking HTPC slim case that would be respectable in anyone's AV tower because you don't need a discrete graphics card (except for the initial install, maybe.