frayne
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Earbuds at the gym and FM or Apple carplay when driving.
Once my Plex playlists are set up, they are so easy to use. Where I struggle is when I have to go into Plex and do anything - update server software, login, add music. I find Plex exceedingly difficult to work with. And those that write up the instructions on their website do not see me as their primary audience. I think they put too many inside jokes in the instructions and/or are speaking to code writers. Your thoughts?I'm with you, Z3Dreamer, I have all my CDs ripped to my Plex server, and put some MP3s on there, too, and now I use Plexamp to download and play my playlists, mostly when I'm in my car via Android Auto, as it has a decent Meridian system. At home I'm usually playing music off my server or YouTube over my earbuds, or occasionally out of my phone speakers (when I'm folding laundry; my phone sits nicely in the lint trap handle, where the handle indent acts as a nice acoustic amplifier).
Updating the software is very easy for me, I run it on my QNAP NAS (TS-451), and I can just install the latest package. Logging in isn't an issue for me either, and I have a 4-digit PIN on my account because it's the admin account. (I have a [Cosmic]Family account that we use for watching.) Adding content took a lot of tweaking, because of naming conventions and folders and such, and I still have a lot of trouble getting the album artwork to load in many cases, but I don't really care that much about that. The worst part for me is subtitling, as I didn't burn in the subtitles (record video with them on), I am relying on Plex and the SubZeroSubtitles agent, which I don't really understand and just follow instructions on. For that, it occasionally gets the wrong subtitles and I can't seem to fix it.Once my Plex playlists are set up, they are so easy to use. Where I struggle is when I have to go into Plex and do anything - update server software, login, add music. I find Plex exceedingly difficult to work with. And those that write up the instructions on their website do not see me as their primary audience. I think they put too many inside jokes in the instructions and/or are speaking to code writers. Your thoughts?
I need to invest some time in figuring out accounts and what the crown in one of my users means. It used to be that most of my playlists failed in Plex on Roku, but now they work. I did not cause that. Plex has added strange artist names to many of my music and forget the album artwork. Plus every time there is a revised Plex version (about once a quarter), Alexa fails to play any Plex music until I upgrade the software on my Synology NAS. But for streaming my tunes, it is great.Updating the software is very easy for me, I run it on my QNAP NAS (TS-451), and I can just install the latest package. Logging in isn't an issue for me either, and I have a 4-digit PIN on my account because it's the admin account. (I have a [Cosmic]Family account that we use for watching.) Adding content took a lot of tweaking, because of naming conventions and folders and such, and I still have a lot of trouble getting the album artwork to load in many cases, but I don't really care that much about that. The worst part for me is subtitling, as I didn't burn in the subtitles (record video with them on), I am relying on Plex and the SubZeroSubtitles agent, which I don't really understand and just follow instructions on. For that, it occasionally gets the wrong subtitles and I can't seem to fix it.
It used to be worse, I did have to research some Linux commands on my last NAS, but I haven't had to do that in many years.
It's not the friendliest, but I have been wanting to be able to stream my digitized content since CDs were new, so I'm very happy with Plex....especially since I got a lifetime PlexPass years ago, when they went on sale for $75.
The biggest feature of Plex Pass is the ability to download media to a computer or phone, so you can watch/listen offline, or with a poor connection. I don't know if it's worth the current cost, but when I bought it, I think we were still on 3G data, so even a good connection wasn't that great!I need to invest some time in figuring out accounts and what the crown in one of my users means. It used to be that most of my playlists failed in Plex on Roku, but now they work. I did not cause that. Plex has added strange artist names to many of my music and forget the album artwork. Plus every time there is a revised Plex version (about once a quarter), Alexa fails to play any Plex music until I upgrade the software on my Synology NAS. But for streaming my tunes, it is great.
I should get that lifetime pass but just don't see what it adds.
I do the same and listen/watch YouTube music videos. I do have many cd’s ripped to a flash drive but rarely use the device.We listen to SiriusXM in the car and over the internet at home.
I've got the same issue with images missing, and I just fix them manually, too. As for "various artists" or in general singles or compilations, those are really a judgement call, there's no good solution that I know of. You can just pick what makes sense to you and manually change the metadata to fit that. Glad the refresh helped, though.Just updated using the methodology you suggested. That fixed a bunch. Thanks.
Most of the music is now correct. Two types of errors still exist. A handful of artists are just wrong. For example, the picture that goes with Barry Manilow is a picture of Heart. I just went into my library, clicked on the artist, selected edit and chose a correct pic of Barry. So, I am going to try Belinda Carlisle next. She is also a picture of Heart.
Other issue, and this is about 20 albums or more. There is an artist named R Dean Taylor - He did Indiana wants me. For some reason Plex thinks he was the artist on all of my "AM Gold - 60's", Eagles greatest hits, Handel's Messiah, Ravel's Bolero and other Classics. I think I can fix this but I need to decide who the artist is. Is it Dick Clark for an album that has some of his All-Time favorites or do I want a name such as Various Artists or do I want to name the real artist on all 40 songs in the collection?
Thanks for your help.
Now on to Amazon Music Unlimited. They have 5 months free so I signed up. I like that it has lyrics.
Any pointers?
Sorry, I am testing on multiple platforms. Amazon Music on Roku shows the lyrics. I do not see this feature on Android app. OTOH, many features on Android are not on the Roku channel. For example, I am playing Who wants to live forever by Queen on Roku Amazon Music. I want to add it to My Music or some playlist. NOT an option. However, I can play it on Android and while listening add it to anything I want.Where are the lyrics to be found?
So far, I'm liking the HD FLAC sound quality. However, the user interface is kind of clunky. You choose to search for a song, an artist, or an album. Let's say you pick a song and start playing it. Now you want to find another song to put in your queue. There's a lot of back-arrow, back-arrow, back-arrow to get back to the main search page. Just seems like there is a lot of unnecessary navigation when a simple Home Menu button would get you back to your starting point.