iTunes vs Plex

nrc2112 said:

I have no idea what Torrent is. What I mean to say is that I have all my stuff in a cloud with no cd DVD or bluray. No drives either. So if I buy a movie I download to my hard drive

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Good question I think the plex library has to be local (on the same network)

macUser2007 said:

Plex is far more advanced than iTunes.
And having said that, if anyone came out with a small, polished sub-$200 Plex box, I'd dump my Apple TV (and iTunes by extension) in a second and move to Plex.

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I use Roku's streaming device for this. And the Netflix app works well on this device as well. The Roku device is sub-$100.

danwilliams said:

I use Roku's streaming device for this. And the Netflix app works well on this device as well. The Roku device is sub-$100.

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Yeah, you are right, Roku is pretty good. I had it for a couple of weeks, but the UI design offends my sensibilities a bit....

I uses iTunes, I have a Mac Mini as a server and 2 Apple TV's 3. It works so I won't fix it. I am happy with the set up and no issues.

Yes my setup is the same

Ive recently moved house and bought a new Samsung 46' Smart TV.

I've been having this iTunes vs Plex Argument in my head alot lately. All my media is iTunes friendly and its what i have been using for the past 2 years. However i recently discovered that my new TV has a plex app. So when my internet finally goes on tomorrow and i can update/install plex ill be test that out.

I use iTunes exclusively for everything I stream.

I have a headless Mac Mini server with all of my movies, tv shows and music. It makes streaming to any of the AppleTV's, Macs, iOS devices easy mode.

In late 09 early '10 I started with the Mac Mini running Plex, trying XBMC and various other media centers and I must say even after having to convert my video library to m4v I enjoy the iTunes->AppleTV simplicity the most.
It is very easy to go through my movies when company is over and if I don't happen to have a newer movie I can easily check if I can rent it through iTunes and be watching in a few seconds to a minute.

nrc2112 said:

I have no idea what Torrent is. What I mean to say is that I have all my stuff in a cloud with no cd DVD or bluray. No drives either. So if I buy a movie I download to my hard drive

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A torrent is a 'special' download file, which doesn't use point-point download, but a distributed download. Using torrent, you don't buy software, but just download is from sources as the Pirate Bay.

I use both iTunes & Plex. I have a little server, and iTunes runs on it, as does Plex server. I use AppleTVs around the house, so I can stream anything to anywhere in the house. But if I'm out of the house and want to watch something, I just open up my Plex app on my iPad or iPhone and stream my whole library anywhere in the world.

I used to use Boxee Box but since they have ceased development for it I use a Mede8er MED600X3D

MED600X3D

I wanted to use home sharing from my MacBook to my iPad. But it does not work. It takes forever to even open my iTunes library - if it opens at all. Most of the time I'd have to close the videos app ten times before it manages to open my library.

So, plex it is. No transcoding needed. Very stable and great UI.

nrc2112 said:

I do not believe in having optical media anymore so I use ATV3 and ITunes on my MAC Mini. So if I want to watch any programs on Netflix, Hulu etc. I use Apple TV 3 and I use home sharing on Mac Mini and IPhone 5 and ATV3 to see all movies and listen to music.

MAC Mini is on GigEthernet @ 300Mbps and all other devices are WIFI via Apple Extream.

Do I need a media server in this setup?

All connected via HDMI to my 65 inch plasma VT50

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I don't understand why you need ATV3 for Netflix or Hulu given that your VT50 will serve them up directly.

Itunes - nice for music organization and playlists for i-devices.
Plex - variant of XBMC for movies is far superior in playing all sorts of non-DRM media.
Itunes - great for playing iTunes downloaded tv and movies which Plex cannot play (correct me if this has changed). It may be possible to use iTunes from within Plex (let Plex call it up)

I am admittedly not a fan of ATV as it seems to be akin to why Kodak sold instamatic cameras long ago - a vehicle to sell more film. ATV is a vehicle for iTunes TV, Music and Movie downloads. I never saw hi def output from AT3 that was satisfying - especially on a screen like the VT50 (I have one too that is 65").

My personal take - unless iTunes movies and tv shows is your thing, skip the ATV3. There are better options out there that are far more versatile without having to convert files to play on an ATV (which is somewhat defeating the purpose of a quality play back). PLEX, XBMC both can handle many formats that are superior to iTune downloads.

I happen to prefer XBMC over PLEX but that is a personal thing. I also find that devices such as the smaller DUNE Media players to be vastly superior to the ATV (and of course they are a bit more costly) and other players such as Western Digital's little media player.


Panasonic VT50 65", Mac Mini i7 2.0 w/2-SSD and 16 gig RAM, Dune 3 Base media player, Oppo 103 Blu Ray, TiVo 3, Marantz NR1602, 2x Airport Extreme, generic gig switch, Belkin AV500 powerline pair.

I prefer the THX settings and if I use Hulu or Netfix app on the VT50, THX is not available.

I cannot get Plex to work on my new MAC mini besides, I have no DVD or bluray to rip to the Mac mini

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You state that Apple TV does not look good on the VT50? Please elaborate. Maybe my 45 year old eyes cannot tell difference.

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Is your dune 3 or 2?

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Sorry, I read Dune 3.0. Please let me know how your setup as we have similar equipment

I use both Itunes on my Mac Mini and the Plex Server. Itunes serves my tv's Apple TV 3, the Plex serves all my client's it's a great solution. I also from time to time use a googles tv Plex client on the TV, but I get better performance and image quality streaming from the Apple TV.

nrc2112 said:

I prefer the THX settings and if I use Hulu or Netfix app on the VT50, THX is not available.

I cannot get Plex to work on my new MAC mini besides, I have no DVD or bluray to rip to the Mac mini

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You state that Apple TV does not look good on the VT50? Please elaborate. Maybe my 45 year old eyes cannot tell difference.

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Is your dune 3 or 2?

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Sorry, I read Dune 3.0. Please let me know how your setup as we have similar equipment

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I apologize in advance here and don't intend to hijack the thread. Just responding to another poster.


I am unsure what you mean by THX settings. Are you referring to your VT50 or a receiver or ??? If you mean the VT50 video, it can default to that video setting and use Viera Link to talk to your AVR.

VT50 - ethernet connection to router (wireless works well but I prefer wire)
VT50 - HDMI-2 used to connect to Marantz AVR, Viera on.
VT50 - default to tweaked Cinema display setting
VT50 - remote turns on VT and Marantz

Marantz - ethernet connection
Marantz - HDMI out to VT50 HDMI-2, CEC on
Marantz - Sat input for TiVo
BD input for Oppo
Game input for Dune
any available left over input occasionally used for Mac Mini or other (PS3) items to test/compare.

QNAP NAS 559 Pro - ethernet connection
QNAP - contains ALL of my media library - - TV, Movie and Music
QNAP - Twonky on, multimedia share available, NAS iTunes on
QNAP - organization (Movies and TV with respective subfolders, multimedia with respective subfolders for itunes playable and other - including flac files)

Primary Router - Apple Extreme + generic switch fed from Cable Modem.

Other findings - in my place the powerline AV500 works only fair. In my friends place it is much faster and remains stable. I keep these for standby use. Wireless in my place works well but the layout lends itself to wired and thus I take advantage. I also have a second Airport and do bridging at times when tinkering/testing. AE to AE set up correctly works very well in bridged mode. Most important is to use static IP when possible or DHCP reservation to make sure each device always has the same IP address.

Changes - I'll be replacing the Airport Extreme with a Western Digital MyNet900 7 port router. Wireless they are about the same with a slight edge to the MN900. I may run the TiVo through the Oppo as the Oppo does far and away a vastly superior job on video. TiVo will be set to "native" on recordings so the Oppo can do the heavy lifting on video.

Retiring - The Dune, Airport Extreme(s), PS3 and my 5.1 set of speakers.
Adding over next few weeks - new speakers, another Mac Mini. Next year perhaps new AVR.

Last item - beyond "quality" of image and audio, everyone has a different take on menus and ease of operation. I believe that in terms of menus that XBMC and Plex are the nicest followed by ATV then PS3/Dune/Oppo sit on the bottom. I can live with "directory structure" type of screens as I have set my NAS with subfolders that make getting to my media rather simple from any device. I continue to use XBMC with my computer screen. I admit I liked Plex very much until they decided to create the separate database that defeats the all inclusive feel. What they did is logical but not my taste in accessibility.

Very nice, for THX yes I mean on the vieracast it cannot be set to THX only the other settings like cinema and custom. Since I prefer the THX Cinema settings for the VT50 I do not use the vieracast front end.

I tried XBMC today and Plex. I cannot get my iTunes purchases to play on plex and I did not like the XBMC directory feel.

I only use iTunes for now on the Mac Mini as a server to my Apple TV connected upstairs.

I use Hulu Desktop on the Mac Mini along with Netflix and iTunes.

Air video gets no love ?

I think there's a big difference between one's experience with ATV2 & ATV3. Perhaps, with an apple TV2 i'd go for plex, but the experience with ATV3, iFlicks (remux + metadata) and iTunes 11 is unreal. Also, the airplay ability of the ATV3 i.e. people dropping by with media on their iPhone, it never ceases to amaze others how their images/videos instantly up on the big screen. Finally, the NBA international league pass makes it indispensable.

But yes, it really does depend on ATV3 vs. ATV2.

Yes, I have the ATV3. The picture quality is as good as Blu Ray IMHO.

What is Air Video?

Looked up Air Video. It will not play DRM so it is a no go for me as I do not purchase anything on Optical media like DVD or bluray.

I always purchase via iTunes or Hulu or vudu etc. I do not see bluray staying around and see all content delivered transparently to consumers via large bandwidth pipes a la cart.

You can download a copy to your storage medium or just keep the media in the cloud.
If you lose your WAN connection then just play media locally.

All this connected to a super duper large Television

nrc2112 said:

Very nice, for THX yes I mean on the vieracast it cannot be set to THX only the other settings like cinema and custom. Since I prefer the THX Cinema settings for the VT50 I do not use the vieracast front end.

I tried XBMC today and Plex. I cannot get my iTunes purchases to play on plex and I did not like the XBMC directory feel.

I only use iTunes for now on the Mac Mini as a server to my Apple TV connected upstairs.

I use Hulu Desktop on the Mac Mini along with Netflix and iTunes.

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THX issue - have you tried going into the Viera settings and changing one of the other options such as Game or Custom to be idential to THX Cinema? I have taken custom and set it first on THX settings then tweaked it a bit based on home needs and also other calibration listings by others elsewhere. It looks very close to THX but you could just put in the THX settings. I went to Netflix on the VT50, opened up a movie. A few moments in, I went to the menu and it shows it is set up on my "custom" setting.

If you go to the settings and look up the THX Cinema, you can go in and see what all the settings are. Simply copy them to custom or any other display setting that you normally would not use. Once done, set your system to use that particular custom settings. You should have THX Cinema settings working with custom. You may need to go in deeper for other advanced settings but start by giving this a try.

XBMC and Plex - I find it is good for movie playback more than music. I'll give a nod to iTunes and ATV for being more familiar to most Mac users. You can however set up XBMC and Plex to have other interfaces and apps incorporated to expand beyond a 'directory' like structure.

I run plex media server, couchpotato, sickbeard and sabnzbd+ on my imac.

Control both couchpotato and sickbeard from my couch with my ipad and stream to my ATV3 through AirPlay with the PlexApp and otherwise use the ATV3 for netflix, youtube, podcasts and radio.

I find this setup very convenient. When I watch trailers from the iTunes movie store on the ATV3 and find something I like, I type it into couchpotato and my iMac takes care of the rest. Minutes later I can stream it through PlexApp to my TV and I have all the languages and subtitles I need.

i also use both.

i use plex for streaming to my apple tv and then itunes for anything i want to watch on my ipad (i convert films i dont think my wife will watch such as horror so i watch them on ipad)

any other film is stored on my nas in MKV format/container (as its by far the easiest method to start with when ripping dvds/blu's.

When (if?) the OUYA comes out in June it'll run Plex and XBMC and it'll cost you about $99. OUYA has pledged to support both and both have pledged to support OUYA...as the platform is so similar to GoogleTV it should be pretty easy too. I am going to get one when/if it releases.

macUser2007 said:

Plex is far more advanced than iTunes.

Having said that, I do use iTunes, simply because I use Apple TV 3s.

And having said that, if anyone came out with a small, polished sub-$200 Plex box, I'd dump my Apple TV (and iTunes by extension) in a second and move to Plex.

Plex has far more and far more useful channels. Even Netflix is better on Plex (and face it, Apple TV is basically a glorified Netflix box, unless you are stupid enough (and I suppose, a technical imbecile) to be spending your unemployment checks on overpriced media from iTunes).

So, while I am currently stuck with iTunes, because of Apple TV, Plex is far better, IMO.

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Three simple letters...DTS!!!
Am I the only audiophile here? I love the plex interface but I probably wouldn't be as inclined to use it since iTunes 11 expect the fact that plex will play DTS audio and iTunes does not. I love my ATV's I have one in each bedroom. The kids and the wife love them because they are so user friendly. That being said, yes unfortunately I do have two copies of any movies I want to be able to play on both. A mkv version and a m4v version. But I don't mind, I enjoy both.

Setup: Mac mini connected to both a 50" Panasonic plasma and to an epson 8350HD on a 120" screen. ATV in three bedrooms.