[krish_2k4]

can anyone explain what this addon does exactly? i tried to figure it out form the posts but im just drawing a blank.

[pecinko]

can anyone explain what this addon does exactly? i tried to figure it out form the posts but im just drawing a blank.

It allows XBMC to read and play content from Plex library.

[krish_2k4]

It allows XBMC to read and play content from Plex library.

installed it, went to open it and just get an error saying "unable to connect....."

i tied to google around and all im getting is it just plays anything you have off itunes and iphoto. is that right?

[pecinko]

installed it, went to open it and just get an error saying "unable to connect....."

Well I'm not the author of this plugin, but it could be helpful to know the usual things - Xmbc version, plugin version, what did you enter in settings ...

[hippojay]

I think it highlights the lack of detail in the first post of this thread ;-) Tonight I'll put together a proper readme for this thread and also get an update for the one over at plexapp.com. I'll need Harley to update the post though, so it might not happen straight away.

installed it, went to open it and just get an error saying "unable to connect....."

you'll need to configure the addon to point towards your PMS server instance.

[jelockwood]

No probs, you need to use what works for you best, although I'm not sure what you mean by PMS not being suited to local files?

I agree that the library system for XBMC needs a but more work, the fact that you heed to use 3rd party apps like EMM shows that there is an area that XBMC is missing.

I do have another addon that's in it's early stages called XonX (thread in this forum) which attempts to utilise a single XBMC instance as a central library - however it requires some extra functionality to be built into XBMC for it to match PLeXBMC/PMS in terms of maturity.

XBMC uses SQLite as the backend database. SQLite supports multiple concurrent users. Would not a blindingly obvious and simple approach be to have multiple XBMC systems read/write to the same database? This approach (unlike PMS) would still require each XBMC system to have direct access to the media files but that is something most of us already have in place with (typically) a NAS server.

This approach is pretty much what some people have done in the past by locating the XBMC SQLite databases also on a server and using symbolic links to the 'normal' location. However cleaning this approach up would seem to achieve the main goal (a central database) without having to re-invent the wheel or a major redesign. The extras offered by PMS of streaming and transcoding are really separate issues and can somewhat already be done with XBMC.

The above is not saying that the PMS approach is a waste of time, obviously it works (well) and the extras included in PMS are also beneficial including the fact that PMS has an elegant approach for handling multiple meta agents with the ability for lower priority agents to fill in the gaps higher priority ones may leave.

[hippojay]

Hope this doesn't come over all "He said WHAT about my plugins!!" :-)

Not sure exactly which addon/solution this refers too:
1. plexbmc - this plugin is especially useful for those running a PMS central server and also which to have the flexibility of running other platforms for the client: windows,Linux and atv2. I use it to play back media on my windows laptop, whilst my main living room player runs plex on OSX.

2. XonX - addressing the database backend may be the simplest solution, but not convinced it is the easiest at the moment. It's much better to use the exposed interface (JSON) than to attempt to directly address the db - if only from a support and maintenance view.

I see this as an alternative to using the mysql workaround, that doesn't require extra software install and configuration.

I'm more than happy if something better comes along that obsoletes any of my plugins, they are tactical solutions not strategic ones.

[hippojay]

can anyone explain what this addon does exactly? i tried to figure it out form the posts but im just drawing a blank.

2nd post updated with details now (i'm not the OP, so can't edit 1st post)

[krish_2k4]

2nd post updated with details now (i'm not the OP, so can't edit 1st post)

ahh nice one lol was still racking my brain trying to figure out what it is, never used plex before.

thanks

[hippojay]

Updated release - Version 1.8

https://github.com/downloads/hippojay/pl...mc-1.8.zip

I know it's been a while, but I managed to put some time aside to make some changes to PleXBMC:

• Support for configurable PMS port number. Only on main server - still need to figure out the cleanest way for secondary servers
  
• Added in skin support for icon and thumb (as requested by Pecinko)
  
• Fixed resume time storage. It'll only do it for > 5% and less than 95% (as it was daft [and annoying] resuming from 5 seconds in)
  

I've also been working on Subtitle and audio stream support - as requested by some users. This has been a complete nightmare, as XBMC doesn;t have any really useful functions to control this. So there are some caveats:
1. It works using the PMS configuration. Bascially it selects the streams that PMS decides you need for audio and subs. If it wrong, blame PMS...
2. Audio stream selection doesn't always work. This is down to XBMC and detection of the streams..
3. It only works for Pre-11 builds of XBMC. Yep, if you are running 10.X then it doesn't happen - because the audio stream functions are missing..

I've tested this on an April 13th build (rev - bbea662), so depending on how different/broken the builds are YMMV. By default managed subs and audio are turned off for this reason - enable them through settings.

[Chambers]

Hi hippojay, I've been trying this awesome add-on and having some issues with authentication. I checked the xml config files and the info is correct. Username is Administrator and I put in the password (works from win32 unofficial standalone app and android app) but I keep getting a 401 unauthorized error. I checked the logs (turned on debugging) and it looks to be going to the correct servername and address. I thought it might have been cause I was on Dharma but also updated to the nightlies (May 2nd) and problem persists. Anything else you can think of? Do I need a domain before the username? Thanks for the help!

[hippojay]

Chambers: I've been having a look at this tonight, but can't see what the issue might be.

I don't have an external connection to test with that is next to my server, so any end to end testing will have to wait till I get to work tomorrow. However I've checked that the plugin is doing the right stuff, sending the right format username/password with the right header info.

If you look in the "Plex Media Server.log" that should hopefully give you an indication of what is causing the problem:

C:/Users/<username>/AppData/Local/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log

[Chambers]

Thanks for the quick reply. I looked at the logs see denied when coming from my xbmc, pt it lets it through the android app. I tried with no password and it worked fine but obviously I can't leave it like that my password is a combination of capital letters, lowercase, and numbers. Maybe that is causing it?

[hippojay]

Thanks for the quick reply. I looked at the logs see denied when coming from my xbmc, pt it lets it through the android app. I tried with no password and it worked fine but obviously I can't leave it like that my password is a combination of capital letters, lowercase, and numbers. Maybe that is causing it?

Just tried this on an external connection and it works fine here. I can authenticate with user/password:
user: Administrator
password: lowercase letters/number/punctuation

However, there is something amiss with Windows PMS, as I'm not able to change my password or turn off secure access (in the web GUI). Keeps rejecting my password, even though it is correct.

Perhaps try changig your password to something simple to start with, such as abc123 and see if that works. if not, could you post up your Plex Media Server.log and xbmc.log files. Perhaps via PM, as that is more secure.

[Chambers]

However, there is something amiss with Windows PMS, as I'm not able to change my password or turn off secure access (in the web GUI). Keeps rejecting my password, even though it is correct.

Same thing happens to me! I need to use the sqllite command line to null out the database password and reset it. I'll email PM you all log info once I get back home. Thank you again, maybe we found a bug in windows pms?