PLEX MEDIA SERVER ON HOME ASSISTANT (with Network Storage Configuration)

[@thesecretreviewer8242]

life saver ty sir. i moved my HA to a Proxmox server and initially had Plex on it's own vm, but didn't like how i had to update the software and the integration into other apps. not to mention now i can utilize the entire power of the vm this way. I find it faster to put plex, *aars on HA rather than in a container. They appear more responsive. easier to back everything up, restore, etc

[@smart_home_australia]

Got to love proxmox, such a great application. I work in DC’s in RL and my engineers think it’s amazing considering that it’s freeware.

[@akorejepade1261]

Great video! I like others on here would love to see one like this but with using the Samba NAS add-on in HA with attached USB external HD's and PMS setup to access them. Thx!

[@smart_home_australia]

Did you check out the reply to @DaniloEsseduekappa from 6 days ago? That should help you out :)

[@akorejepade1261]

@@smart_home_australia Yes I did and I was able to figure out how to setup the drives so that PMS has access to them. Thank you.

[@smart_home_australia]

Oh I see what you are trying to do. Sorry but I dont know that. I moved away from running it in HA and reverted back to hosting from my Synology NAS.

[@cnc_mill]

soweit eine gute anleitung, es sollte noch erwähnt werden das wenn das internet aus ist ES AUCH KEIN PLEX STREAMING vom eigenen Homeassistant gibt und das die app schon mit werbung überladen wurde und schon fast zum kauf zwingt. aber alles in allem die schnellste lösung für streaming zuhause das sogar ein computer unerfahrener hin gebracht hat. Die frage bei der App wenn ich sie auf 3 geräten habe MUSS ICH FÜR 3 APPS Zahlen?

[@smart_home_australia]

I have a love hate relationship with Plex. It’s still the best transcoding on the market outside of Netflix, but there subscription plans are damn annoying. Even when you have a life Plex pass like I have. I seriously think Jellyfin might be a better option.

[@TechWokki]

is there also a way i can do it without network storage on a usb device?

[@smart_home_australia]

The storage that you can connect to Plex is only limited by what you can access from your Home Assistant. For instance, you could mount a Network Attached Storage in HA and then connect that to Plex. So no, it does not have to be USB storage.

[@TechWokki]

@@smart_home_australia i did found out a workaround to use usb, and it works great actually

[@TechWokki]

So i followed @localhostcoding tutorial about mounting a usb device

[@smart_home_australia]

@@TechWokki Did it work?

[@TechWokki]

@@smart_home_australia Yep, it works great, i did do something so when i restart it auto mounts to the location, but after that it worked like a charm

[@CastroSuarezFamily]

Hi there, I can’t close the windows Plex Pass so I can’t configurate the server, can you heal me?

[@smart_home_australia]

Can you send the time stamp of where you have this in the video ???

[@catalinpatru6791]

All good and nice for music but what about movies when even locally played it ask for transcoding ? For me, the best solution to host a Plex Media Server is on a Nvidia Shield Pro with media librairies on RPi SSD NAS. Shield Pro is supporting Hardaware transcoding yet low power consumption, and RPi 4 with a 2TB USB 3 SSD atached as shared media storage with low power as well. Plex HA integration is giving too little info to hassle. But, it's fine for automations like dimming the lights when you start watching a movie, etc. Anyway, thanks for the videos on your channel. Lot of works you put on this and I appreciate this allways.

[@smart_home_australia]

I like your solution. Low power also. I mentioned in another comment that u actually run Plex server none Synology NAS as it supports hardware transcoding and is collocated with the media. I filmed the video to show what’s possible so people can make their own choices. I’m hoping that the Plex integration does improve and widen its scope if control as it’s pretty limited currently.

[@markloughtonUK]

How can I play music playlists off a HA dashboard ? I tried adding the built in Plex web view but it didn't work in an .

[@smart_home_australia]

Not as far as I know. I don't believe you can load a plex viewer in as there are limitations. You can however view full statistic as to what and who and where media is played by using tautulli.com, which is a great app.

[@markloughtonUK]

@@smart_home_australia OK thanks. I did try Music Assistant but it used up too much RAM and didn't seem very stable.

[@smart_home_australia]

If you are running on a lower powered machine such as a RPi then probably not the Add-on for you. Although I seem to be getting updates for it every other day at the moment so development on this is very active. I just wish they would allow Alexa integration so I can send music to my speakers and not just google and Sonos speakers.

[@akorejepade1261]

Could you do a video that goes over how to update PMS on Home Assistant when new versions are released?

[@smart_home_australia]

As its an Add-On, simple go into the Add-Ons, press the reload button in the top right to manually force the upgrade notification..

[@akorejepade1261]

@@smart_home_australia That only upgrades the Add-On. How do you upgrade the PMS version when it says "There is a newer version available"?

[@smart_home_australia]

Sorry I cant help with that as I created the video and then made the decision to revert back to PMS running on my NAS. So I never investigated upgrading the PMS.

[@koneko_x]

I don’t really understand it unfortunately 😅 there is no way I could just connect a hard drive to my raspberry pi, and then use that as my plex server via home assistant?

[@smart_home_australia]

This video is specifically about teaching people what the Plex integration with Home Assistant brings you. If you just want to make a RPi a Plex server, then I'd suggest following this tutorial www.electromaker.io/tutorial/blog/how-to-install-plex-on-raspberry-pi#:~:text=Building%20a%20Raspberry%20Pi%20Plex,media%20server%20for%20the%20Pi. Super simple and to the point.

[@DaniloEsseduekappa]

thank you! I would love to see how to add a USB disk :-) thank you!

[@smart_home_australia]

Thanks. Adding USB disks varies dependent upon the types of USB format and the hardware you are connecting it to and the type of Home Assistant instance. Thats the reason I didn't cover it in this video. In the future I'll cover adding a USB thumb drive to a VM, if that's of interest to you?

[@DaniloEsseduekappa]

Thank you, I have a raspberry with HA😊

[@smart_home_australia]

I dont actually have a Pi anymore as I moved across to VM. But I did a little hunting around and found these instructions, they are for Frigate but the principles are the same for adding storage. Ref: www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/18twepd/solved_beginners_guide_to_using_a_usb_drive_on/

[@DaniloEsseduekappa]

@@smart_home_australia thank you very much!! 👍👍👍

[@TechySpeaking]

Don't run something as resource-intensive as Plex as an HA add-on. Run it either on dedicated hardware, or at least as a separate Docker container.

[@smart_home_australia]

The video was more about that you can, not that you should. I'm about giving people options as everyone's requirements are different. I run Plex Server on a Synology NAS as it has dedicated hardware transcoding and is collocated to the media.

[@RohanNadagouda]

Could you please make a video of create Samba share or Zpool for external storage like he’s and then link with Radarr, Sonarr and Plex.

[@smart_home_australia]

I could but as Radarr is a fork of Sonarr and both are movie collection manager that monitor RSS feeds for new movies and then uses Usenet or BitTorrent for download. I'm sure that "someone" would not be happy about that. So, I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline that video request. Unless I totally missed the point, which does happen. :)

[@RohanNadagouda]

Ah fair enough. Thanks

[@AdamWrightthegeek]

@@smart_home_australia This is a good discussion, because I was going to comment to ask about running Plex as it's own separate container vs as an addon within HA. That said, I'm new to HA and it would be great to learn about how Plex might be able to tie-in with HA when installed as it's own container. For example, is it still possible to have Plex info in your HA dashboard in that situation? Seems like it would be pretty cool if so.

[@JBranzo]

Frustratingly, I have just repurposed my plex server (an old gaming PC, with an M.2, and SSD and a HDD) into HAOS Server, thinking I could remount the storage drives with the films and use the plugin, but it looks like thats not something I can do?

[@smart_home_australia]

Did you load your HAOS into a VM? If so then simply install Plex in the Windows OS and use this integration in HA to monitor. It will take information from the Plex Server but doesn't act as a true server allowing for media to be played through it.

[@JBranzo]

@@smart_home_australia I didnt, but I suspect this will now be my next step! :) thanks for your help

[@smart_home_australia]

@@JBranzo You're welcome.

[@TechySpeaking]

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