It also gives you the ability to open up your Plex library to other people (like your favorite coworker) no matter where they live. Plex supports a wide variety of file types, like JPG, MP4, and FLAC, and it can output in both 4K and HDR. And, if you set up correctly, you can even access it when you aren’t on the same network, which makes it great for using on road trips. Because of its server-and-client design, you can access your Plex library from pretty much any platform and device in your home.
Plex’s Features PlexĪ Plex Media Server can store all of your movies, TV shows, photos, podcasts, news, and web shows, and it enables you to set up multiple profiles if you need.
Every feature is always available to you, and you’re even free to hop in and add some of your own, since it’s open source. And because it’s free, you won’t ever have to worry about any of its functionality being locked behind a paywall. Kodi, on the other hand, is a free local media player that runs on your computer, TV, mobile device, or streaming device. There’s a $4.99 monthly plan, a $39.99 annual plan, and a $119.99 lifetime plan, and they all unlock an impressive array of features (which we’ll discuss below). Plex also has a premium subscription service, dubbed Plex Pass, as an optional upgrade.
All you have to do is download the Plex Media Server onto the device where you store your media, connect all of your media files, install and log into the app, and voila! You’re ready to go. Plex offers a free server-and-client model that’s easy to use. Once I was fully satisfied with my files, I transferred the drive over to the Raspberry Pi.Plans and Pricing Plex's Features Kodi's Features User Experience Device Compatibility The Verdict Plans and Pricing This enabled me to quickly experiment with various music tags and video file name patterns to get the results I wanted.
I installed Kodi for Windows on my PC, and plugged in the same external hard disk. See naming video files for all the file name patterns that Kodi recognises.įinally, I'd like to share a useful tip. Apparently there are no standard metadata tags for videos. All video metadata will be automatically downloaded from the internet.Any missing music metadata will be automatically downloaded from the internet.I had already comprehensively tagged my music in advance, and it seemed to pick up everything. Kodi will extract most standard metadata tags from music files, if present.You can add as many different sources as you like. Select a folder that contains video files. From the main menu, click "Videos", then "Add videos.".Select a folder that contains music files. From the main menu, click "Music", then "Add music.".What confused me was that Kodi could see my hard disk without me adding it, so it didn't occur to me to search for a way to add things to the library.
Media library features are only available when you explicitly add a video or music source as described in adding music to the library and adding video sources.
I have got it working now, courtesy of the Kodi wiki manual.
Can anyone either (a) tell me how to achieve this on Kodi, or (b) recommend another O/S that does what I want? There is a "library" checkbox in the view menu on each folder, but it's always disabled. It would be nice to have all media displayed in a flat list, with custom grouping/searching/sorting based on metadata, not physical folder structure.ĭoes Kodi support this type of user experience? I have gone through all the settings dialogs that I can find, but I can't see anything useful. I was expecting a media centre O/S to offer a user experience more like a media library, e.g. However, the whole user experience is akin to manually browsing the file system in Windows Explorer, and manually selecting files to play. The music files correctly display the metadata tags I have defined when I select them. In Kodi I can see all the folders on the external drive, navigate around them, and play all the media. The files are organised into folders by genre, artist, album, etc. I have all my photos, music and videos stored on an external hard drive, formatted with NTFS, plugged directly into a USB port. I have a Pi 2 Model B, running Kodi on OSMC with the Confluence skin.