**LONG** Mac mini (Mid-2010) as a HTPC with Plex Setup and Review

[oldHuck]

Much appreciate the time you spent detailing your home network, bravo!
I'm on the ledge & about to jump into a similar set up for htpc & I have 1 or 2 questions about your experience with your current network.
Anyone else who can answer these questions please jump in!

1 It looks like you have physical cables connecting Drobo/AE/Mini..... this begs a couple of questions as I try to get my head around this. I assume you're essentially using the AE as a switch connecting drobo & mini via gigabit ethernet? Does this mean you have the drobo in the living room, or is it a long run of cables to another location? (I ask because I live in an apartment & the server would be nearby & besides the aesthetics of having a server/cables visible in a living area, I've heard the drobo is somewhat noisy.)

2 Why not connect drobo/AE via cable & then wifi the NAS media to the mini and other clients using the networks? Seems it would be an easier setup, is there a performance issue with this?

3 What is the advantage of this set up instead of just having the broadband internet go directly into AE & wifi stream that to the mini & store/back up data with 2 daisy chained FW800 hard drives attached to the mini? (If this is possible it seems simpler & much cheaper.)

I'm still trying to clarify my current & future needs for a media server set up (music, stored video, streaming media via broadband & cut my cable tv service) in a smallish living area that already has several hifi boxes in it.

Thanks again!

 

[Jawnathin]

Excellent. Thanks for that. I've been looking around the plex web site and in particular the next version out I think they are calling it 'plex: alexandria'. Looks as though it won't matter what the source file is named - which would be great. Thanks again!

Sweet. Thanks for sharing. I was unaware of this new revision coming out and it will make Plex much more accessible.

Here's a link to those that are interested...

http://elan.plexapp.com/2010/03/24/the-road-to-alexandria-part-1-introduction/

 

[Jawnathin]

Thanks for this review, it was very helpful to me! I bought a mac mini server over the weekend and hooked up my old macbook air super drive to it to rip my dvds. (I have around 350 of them and want to start the long tedious transcoding/compressing process but have been waiting for something better than the apple tv). I also created a home share to share all my itunes content on my macbook pro with the server.

Screen sharing between the mac mini server and my macbook pro makes managing the server really easy. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse, but found that my att uverse router and my phone were messing with the bluetooth signals and the keyboard and mouse kept diss-connecting. It is much easier to manage the setup from the macbook pro.

Congrats on the new purchase and I'm glad the post was able to help. The new mini is a nice looking machine. I'm completely thrilled with mine and I'm sure you will be too.

One suggestion if you haven't done this already, is that I created a bookmark in Safari (this might work in other browsers too) for easy access to screen share with the mini from the MBP.

I simply created a bookmark, changed the url to vnc://ip.add.re.ss (whatever your IP for the Mini is). This way any time I want to screenshare with the Mini, I just open the bookmark from Safari (which is almost always open anyway), and the screen share application opens up automatically. I don't need to type in the URL or go into the Finder window to get to the screen sharing.

You may even be able to create an alias which uses this URL and place it in the dock or one of the dock's folders, for even easier access, but I haven't tried that yet.

 

[Sdashiki]

Since im about to do this same thing (sans the NAS for now) id like to say that using an iPhone/iTouch is nice and all...but you really need something like a real remote to give you control at your fingers for EVERYTHING Plex is capable of.

I recommend looking into the Logitech Harmony line of remotes. With Plex, Ive found most people like the Harmony One ($150 or so).

Since Im going from an original XBOX with XBMC and 750GB internal storage to a Mac mini...Im used to using the dozen or so buttons on the XBOX controller...going to something like the Apple remote (even with remotebuddy's tweaks) is just not going to cut it for me.

Time to upgrade my TV too...damn...$1300 for a 46" LED LCD, and I bet it wont last 5 years. My 27" CRT is 10yrs old with no sighs of aging yet. But Plex on it looks like crap.

 

[glitch44]

Awesome, thanks for the in depth review. Was wondering which app/ website you used to make the network diagram? I need to make one to plan my future upgrade.

 

[Sensamic]

Playing HD videos (40GB or more) over wifi with the Drobo FS is smooth?

 

[Jawnathin]

Playing HD videos (40GB or more) over wifi with the Drobo FS is smooth?

I have not tested such a file, I don't have any HD content that large. Files I use are heavily compressed H.264 .mkv or .mp4 files. I honestly can't see much of a difference in the compressed files compared to a raw BD dump.

 

[Jawnathin]

Awesome, thanks for the in depth review. Was wondering which app/ website you used to make the network diagram? I need to make one to plan my future upgrade.

I used Gliffy. I didn't bother to register, just made my diagram and screen captured.

http://www.gliffy.com/

 

[Jawnathin]

Much appreciate the time you spent detailing your home network, bravo!
I'm on the ledge & about to jump into a similar set up for htpc & I have 1 or 2 questions about your experience with your current network.
Anyone else who can answer these questions please jump in!

1 It looks like you have physical cables connecting Drobo/AE/Mini..... this begs a couple of questions as I try to get my head around this. I assume you're essentially using the AE as a switch connecting drobo & mini via gigabit ethernet? Does this mean you have the drobo in the living room, or is it a long run of cables to another location? (I ask because I live in an apartment & the server would be nearby & besides the aesthetics of having a server/cables visible in a living area, I've heard the drobo is somewhat noisy.)

2 Why not connect drobo/AE via cable & then wifi the NAS media to the mini and other clients using the networks? Seems it would be an easier setup, is there a performance issue with this?

3 What is the advantage of this set up instead of just having the broadband internet go directly into AE & wifi stream that to the mini & store/back up data with 2 daisy chained FW800 hard drives attached to the mini? (If this is possible it seems simpler & much cheaper.)

I'm still trying to clarify my current & future needs for a media server set up (music, stored video, streaming media via broadband & cut my cable tv service) in a smallish living area that already has several hifi boxes in it.

Thanks again!

Yes, I'm connecting the AE to the Drobo FS and Mac Mini via Ethernet. I also live in an apartment where space can be limited. The Drobo sits next to the AE and both of these devices are in the living room. They somewhat 'hidden'. By this I mean they sit in the corner of the living room, not in plain sight, behind a few things, but easily accessible if I need to make any changes.

I could wifi from the Mac Mini to the AE to access the content, but I stuck with ethernet for faster and consistent throughput. Given that both were in the living room, and the way its currently setup, I was able to hide the ethernet cable that's connected to the Mini.

A FW800 external drive is fine if you want to stream content directly to the Mini, as well as backing up the Mini. However, I am backing up 2 Macs right now (MBP and the mini), so whatever setup I choose needs to allow Time Machine from both Macs to access it. MBP would need to access it wirelessly as well. Also, while the FW800 drives can back up the Mini, theres nothing protecting your content if that FW800 drive fails. From what I understand from the setup you described, if the drive fails, the media/content is gone. The setup I have now allows both macs to backup, wirelessly if needed, and protects against a drive failure on any of the disks.

 

[Jawnathin]

Since im about to do this same thing (sans the NAS for now) id like to say that using an iPhone/iTouch is nice and all...but you really need something like a real remote to give you control at your fingers for EVERYTHING Plex is capable of.

I recommend looking into the Logitech Harmony line of remotes. With Plex, Ive found most people like the Harmony One ($150 or so).

Since Im going from an original XBOX with XBMC and 750GB internal storage to a Mac mini...Im used to using the dozen or so buttons on the XBOX controller...going to something like the Apple remote (even with remotebuddy's tweaks) is just not going to cut it for me.

Time to upgrade my TV too...damn...$1300 for a 46" LED LCD, and I bet it wont last 5 years. My 27" CRT is 10yrs old with no sighs of aging yet. But Plex on it looks like crap.

Great suggestion on the Harmony, Logitech makes a quality remote.

Could you elaborate a bit more on what you gain by going with the Harmony? I haven't found anything I needed to do in Plex that I can't do with the standard remote now, so I'm very curious to understand what I'm missing.

Thanks.

 

[dh2005]

Playing HD videos (40GB or more) over wifi with the Drobo FS is smooth?

Wired, maybe - wireless, I'm willing to bet, definitely not.

 

[flipangle]

The 1080p videos Blu-ray rips, either downloaded or ripped myself from the disc. However, all of them are compressed to make them smaller.

What software do you use to rip and compress the blu's. Also what blu-ray dvd rom drive do you recommend?

 

[a2applegirl]

Congrats on the new purchase and I'm glad the post was able to help. The new mini is a nice looking machine. I'm completely thrilled with mine and I'm sure you will be too.

One suggestion if you haven't done this already, is that I created a bookmark in Safari (this might work in other browsers too) for easy access to screen share with the mini from the MBP.

I simply created a bookmark, changed the url to vnc://ip.add.re.ss (whatever your IP for the Mini is). This way any time I want to screenshare with the Mini, I just open the bookmark from Safari (which is almost always open anyway), and the screen share application opens up automatically. I don't need to type in the URL or go into the Finder window to get to the screen sharing.

You may even be able to create an alias which uses this URL and place it in the dock or one of the dock's folders, for even easier access, but I haven't tried that yet.

Again, thanks for the suggestion. The bookmark in safari (saved at the top as a favorite) really speeds up access to screen sharing.

Some other things that I noted in the last couple of days. I find that only turning on wireless on the server for when I am sharing videos from my macbook pro, and using an ethernet connection from the mac mini server to my uverse router all other times, really speeds things up for some reason. I guess that all the interference of so many wireless, bluetooth devices, etc is creating wireless noise that slows things down. My ipad REALLY slows down when the wireless connection is turned on on the mac mini server, and behaves fine when I use ethernet. Since my long term goal is to get all of my media in one place, (ie the mac mini server) I am hoping that at some point I will not need to even use the wireless on the server.

I am curious about the architectural decisions you made for your setup. What made you decide to go the NAS route? I have considered doing that, but wasn't sure of the benefits versus the extra added complexity. I would love to hear your thoughts on this as this home-media-library project of mine is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, and if there is a better way to do things, I want to make that decision now before I rip too many of my dvds.

 

[Sdashiki]

Great suggestion on the Harmony, Logitech makes a quality remote.

Could you elaborate a bit more on what you gain by going with the Harmony? I haven't found anything I needed to do in Plex that I can't do with the standard remote now, so I'm very curious to understand what I'm missing.

Thanks.

Ill just go by my XBOX and XBMC since its basically the same control ability (plex has more I know, so having more buttons is a good thing)
Most things, like PLEX, had multiple uses depending on what you were doing. Things changed based on if you were navigating menus, watching video, playing music, etc

the basics I can think of off the top of my head:

• left thumb stick moves playhead in the timeline to any point you choose
• right thumb stick up/down is volume control (from with XBMC, not TV/mac mini system)
• clicking the stick takes a screenshot
• d-pad navigates menus and pressing left/right skips a chunk of video which is useful for quick ff/rw
• start brings up a virtual start/stop/ff/rw controller (useless with larger remote like Harmony One)
• back takes you back one step inside menus
• white brings up info about the current video/music
• black brings up technical info about the file playing
• X button puts playing file into a "Picture in Picture" window so you can get back to the menus while it plays
• Y button cycles thru the aspect ratios or changes the visualizer
• B button stops play and goes back to menu
• A button starts/stops play
• L and R shoulder buttons scan thru the file as it plays or quickly scans up/down menu lists. These being analog allow you to go as slow or as fast as you want

Now, tell me, how easy would it be to program just that basic stuff into Remote buddy VS having an actual remote control with specific actions assigned to the array of buttons.

The touchscreen menu customization allows you to quickly switch between the parts of PLEX you use most: video, internet apps, music, hulu, netflix etc. With just a click.

I like the true customization available when using a real, honest to jeebus remote control.

 

[richard.torble]

I didn't have to use one of the Apps.

I originally had trouble when I just got the device to show up in the 'Shared' section, but that wasn't enough. I needed to actually log into the Drobo from Finder and 'click' into the share I wanted to use. Once I did that, it 'Mounts' the drive and becomes an option under the sources.

I have the same problem with Plex/Mini (new model) and my WD NAS drive. It's ok to access the drive from finder to 'wake' it up so it mounts and Plex can access it but if another user logs on or the mini goes to sleep then the mount 'unmounts' and you have to re-access it again before Plex can play back any content. This is a bit annoying. Is there a way to permanently mount the drive?

Great guide btw.

 

[irishv]

A couple questions

Love the post, thanks for the indepth review. I currently have an Apple TV that is ready to be replaced.

1. DVR Functionality - I recently bought an HDHomerun and plan to drop cable soon (I can live with OTA HD and DVDs/downloads). Have you tried launching apps in Plex (such as EyeTV)? I'm specifically looking to see how smooth the integration is (easy enough for a non-tech person).

2) iTunes Library features - online it looks like Plex can make use of the iTunes library. Does this mean it places iTunes movies and tv shows in the respective plex menus or is it a separate menu option? I will have one iTunes library on a drive connected to a time capsule and sync that with my iPhone (don't want to maintain a separate plex library). Assuming iTunes drm'ed movies won't play in plex, is amazon on demand an option for renting HD movies?

 

[Jawnathin]

What software do you use to rip and compress the blu's. Also what blu-ray dvd rom drive do you recommend?

I did this on a Windows XP machine about a year ago but since stopped. The guide is old and outdated now, as much better solutions are available. I have some cheap Lite-On external drive that I picked up at Frys for like $120 about a yaer and a half ago. It works, but I imagine there are better solutions out there.

I've heard that MakeMKV is a pretty good application that runs natively on OSX, but it doesn't compress it just yet. I'd love to find an application similar to Handbrake, that can rip Blu-rays, compress them, and maintain the subtitles/audio tracks in an mkv file. All the methods I'm aware of so far requires a bit more work than that, so I stopped ripping myself.

 

[Jawnathin]

Again, thanks for the suggestion. The bookmark in safari (saved at the top as a favorite) really speeds up access to screen sharing.

Some other things that I noted in the last couple of days. I find that only turning on wireless on the server for when I am sharing videos from my macbook pro, and using an ethernet connection from the mac mini server to my uverse router all other times, really speeds things up for some reason. I guess that all the interference of so many wireless, bluetooth devices, etc is creating wireless noise that slows things down. My ipad REALLY slows down when the wireless connection is turned on on the mac mini server, and behaves fine when I use ethernet. Since my long term goal is to get all of my media in one place, (ie the mac mini server) I am hoping that at some point I will not need to even use the wireless on the server.

I am curious about the architectural decisions you made for your setup. What made you decide to go the NAS route? I have considered doing that, but wasn't sure of the benefits versus the extra added complexity. I would love to hear your thoughts on this as this home-media-library project of mine is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, and if there is a better way to do things, I want to make that decision now before I rip too many of my dvds.

No problem! Glad to see that helped as well. I found myself having to try to remember the ip address (unfortunately I now know it by heart), then I decided to try the bookmark, and viola. Makes accessing the mini a little bit easier .

I have my Mac mini connected via ethernet because I wanted the most consistent connection possible from the Router/NAS since that's where I'm pulling content from. If the wireless signal can't keep up with the amount of data for a movie to play back in real time, I'm going to experience quality issues. Probably not a big deal on SD stuff, but on HD stuff, having a solid connection is important. It also reduces the buffer time needed before playing back a movie. If you plan on storing everything on the mini server, then ethernet may not be required. If I wasn't pulling content from the NAS, I'd be OK with using wireless.

My previous setup was an external disk connected via USB to the Airport Extreme and used as an AirDisk. It performs a somewhat similar function (can be used for wireless backup and external storage), but it was too slow to stream HD content reliably since the router had to manage the data connection. I also ran into a few scares where I thought some of the data was lost. Trust me, its not funny when you think your 750GB external drive is empty! So in short, I really wanted to have a solid backup solution, wireless access to content from all devices in the house, and a central storage location. If none of those things are important to you, then I wouldn't worry about the NAS.

The largest negative to setting up a NAS is the extra complexity, cost, and setup required. If you have the time and resources to get one and are cautious about backing up your data, I'd suggest looking into one. There are different NAS options out there with different feature sets and price points. If you aren't too worried about a HDD failure or any of the other features I mentioned, then I wouldn't worry too much about it as 1TB on the Mini is alot of room.

 

[Jawnathin]

Ill just go by my XBOX and XBMC since its basically the same control ability (plex has more I know, so having more buttons is a good thing)
Most things, like PLEX, had multiple uses depending on what you were doing. Things changed based on if you were navigating menus, watching video, playing music, etc

the basics I can think of off the top of my head:

• left thumb stick moves playhead in the timeline to any point you choose
• right thumb stick up/down is volume control (from with XBMC, not TV/mac mini system)
• clicking the stick takes a screenshot
• d-pad navigates menus and pressing left/right skips a chunk of video which is useful for quick ff/rw
• start brings up a virtual start/stop/ff/rw controller (useless with larger remote like Harmony One)
• back takes you back one step inside menus
• white brings up info about the current video/music
• black brings up technical info about the file playing
• X button puts playing file into a "Picture in Picture" window so you can get back to the menus while it plays
• Y button cycles thru the aspect ratios or changes the visualizer
• B button stops play and goes back to menu
• A button starts/stops play
• L and R shoulder buttons scan thru the file as it plays or quickly scans up/down menu lists. These being analog allow you to go as slow or as fast as you want

Now, tell me, how easy would it be to program just that basic stuff into Remote buddy VS having an actual remote control with specific actions assigned to the array of buttons.

The touchscreen menu customization allows you to quickly switch between the parts of PLEX you use most: video, internet apps, music, hulu, netflix etc. With just a click.

I like the true customization available when using a real, honest to jeebus remote control.

Thanks for sharing that, it looks like the Harmony One allows easier access and less button presses to do a few things than the Apple remote. There are some things you mentioned (screen capture) that I'm not aware of, but may be accessible through one of the menus that is accessible via remote.

Lets see if I can map out what I can do with the remote...

Press or hold Up - Navigates up through the UI. Increases playback volume in Plex.
Press or hold Down - Navigates down through the UI. Decreases playback volume in Plex.
Press or hold Left - Navigates left through the UI. Rewinds video. Longer you hold, the more you rewind.
Press or hold right - Navigates Right through the UI. Fast Forwards video. Longer you hold, the more you fast forward.
Press Play/Pause - Selects option within UI. Pauses and Plays content while in playback.
Hold Play/Pause - Brings up submenu for the file in UI. Stops video and returns to main UI in playback.
Press Menu - Goes to previous menu within UI. Brings up options within playback (Audio and video settings, file information)
Hold Menu - N/A in Plex, Brings up the remote buddy interface

Additionally the aluminum remote has both a Play/Pause and Select something. Standard configuration has them both doing the same function, but you can configure them to perform a different action as needed.

For each of the applications (Hulu, Netflix, etc) the behavior is the same.


Remote Buddy has way too many specific commands to map out on this post, but it does offer a lot of customizing. The most customization I could add via remote buddy is 2 additional commands without losing functionality or its current implementation. This is because I have two buttons that currently do the same thing and each button can do 2 commands with a press or a hold. I could map one of the buttons to a unique command with a press or a hold.

 

[Jawnathin]

I have the same problem with Plex/Mini (new model) and my WD NAS drive. It's ok to access the drive from finder to 'wake' it up so it mounts and Plex can access it but if another user logs on or the mini goes to sleep then the mount 'unmounts' and you have to re-access it again before Plex can play back any content. This is a bit annoying. Is there a way to permanently mount the drive?

Great guide btw.

I had the same problem using a WD Drive with the Air Disk functionality on my Airport Extreme. The disk would go into sleep mode if unused for a certain period of time (15 minutes or so). This seems similar to your issue. You may already know this, but whatever you do, don't click on 'Clean Library' when this happens. It'll wipe your library clean.

Is Your WD NAS drive configurable in anyway? Mine were just a regular USB external drive, so I didn't have any options, but if you've got a specific NAS one, that offers any sort of configuration options, you may be able to set the drive to not sleep after inactivity. That may keep the drives mounted and accessible.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Jawnathin]

I want to provide an FYI for anyone using a Drobo and finds their library inaccessible with 'File not found'.

The Drobo FS allows 2 different ways to mount the drive. This actually caused a problem accessing the content on the Drobo, in which the library was inaccessible, and I had to rebuild it unnecessarily.

1.) Use the Drobo Dashboard and 'Mount' the drive. This has always left the drive mounted and accessible at all times.
2.) Open the Drobo in the 'Shared' section under Finder and access the share. I don't know if the disk unmounts after inactivity as I do not use this feature on the mini.

I have found that 'Mounting' the share via the Drobo Dashboard creates a different directory and path than accessing it via 'Shared'. This caused an issue because when I originally setup my library, the 'Mounted' file directory was used. I was unaware of the benefit of leaving that open, so turned that setting off. I restarted the Mac mini, and when I went to play content within Plex, it couldn't find my file. I remounted it via the 'Shared' option and it was still unavailable within the Library, but available within Finder. I was confused so I cleared my library and rebuilt it using the new 'Shared Directory', but it wasn't needed and actually caused more problems later on. If I just remounted the drive through the Drobo Dashboard using the 'Mount' option, it would have worked just fine.

The solution for this is to leave the Drobo Mounted via the Dashboard. Additionally, I have the Drobo Dashboard setup as a login item, so every time the computer restarts, the Drobo Dashboard reopens and always mounts the drive. I'm not sure if this is necessary, but there was no harm in doing this, so why not.

I shouldn't run into this again, but just an FYI for anyone using a Drobo and finds their library inaccessible with 'File not found'. However, because I remade the library using the 'Shared' directory instead of the 'Mounted' directory, I had to yet again recreate my library because the directory changed yet again. Not a big deal since I figured it out, but can be frustrated for someone who isn't sure whats happening.

 

[Jawnathin]

Love the post, thanks for the indepth review. I currently have an Apple TV that is ready to be replaced.

1. DVR Functionality - I recently bought an HDHomerun and plan to drop cable soon (I can live with OTA HD and DVDs/downloads). Have you tried launching apps in Plex (such as EyeTV)? I'm specifically looking to see how smooth the integration is (easy enough for a non-tech person).

2) iTunes Library features - online it looks like Plex can make use of the iTunes library. Does this mean it places iTunes movies and tv shows in the respective plex menus or is it a separate menu option? I will have one iTunes library on a drive connected to a time capsule and sync that with my iPhone (don't want to maintain a separate plex library). Assuming iTunes drm'ed movies won't play in plex, is amazon on demand an option for renting HD movies?

I haven't used EyeTV so i cannot comment on its integration, sorry about that. There are quite a few videos online (that may have already seen) that could help.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=plex+eyetv&aq=f

That said, I do have experience 'installing' Apps via Plex. The 'Apps' I installed on Plex were Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, and a few other video sources. This is quite easy to do. Simply go to the 'App Store',find the App you want, and select it. You'll be asked if you want to install it, select Yes, and its now its listed under 'Watch your videos' as another source.

Regarding iTunes, I was under the impression that was only for Music. I haven't bothered to sync up Plex with an iTunes library (maybe I'll try it today). On the sections where you add a source for videos, I don't remember seeing iTunes as an option, but I can't say I was looking for it. However, you can add whatever subfolder you want, so if the videos on your iTunes library is stored within a folder, you can certainly add that as a source. Whether or not it'll play due to DRM restrictions, I'm not sure.

As far as Amazon VOD, apparently someone makes a plug in for it for use with Plex. I have not done this either.

http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Amazon_Video_On_Demand

 

[irishv]

I haven't used EyeTV so i cannot comment on its integration, sorry about that. There are quite a few videos online (that may have already seen) that could help.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=plex+eyetv&aq=f

That said, I do have experience 'installing' Apps via Plex. The 'Apps' I installed on Plex were Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, and a few other video sources. This is quite easy to do. Simply go to the 'App Store',find the App you want, and select it. You'll be asked if you want to install it, select Yes, and its now its listed under 'Watch your videos' as another source.

Regarding iTunes, I was under the impression that was only for Music. I haven't bothered to sync up Plex with an iTunes library (maybe I'll try it today). On the sections where you add a source for videos, I don't remember seeing iTunes as an option, but I can't say I was looking for it. However, you can add whatever subfolder you want, so if the videos on your iTunes library is stored within a folder, you can certainly add that as a source. Whether or not it'll play due to DRM restrictions, I'm not sure.

As far as Amazon VOD, apparently someone makes a plug in for it for use with Plex. I have not done this either.

http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Amazon_Video_On_Demand

Thanks for the response. I'll try to play with Plex on my MacBook over the next few days to see how well the integration with iTunes is. This guide from last year seems to suggest that you can tie in videos, although I'm not sure how "videos" work but not TV Shows or Movies (http://smokingapples.com/software/tutorials/a-guide-to-using-plex-to-manage-your-media/):

To do so, set a static local IP address for the MacBook (192.168.1.10). Then go to the Plex app, and add a source from Videos, Music, or Pictures depending on what you’re adding. Instead of going to browse, simply rename that to one of the following. Replace that with the IP address you’re connecting to.

Music: plex://192.168.1.2/music/iTunes
Videos: plex://192.168.1.2/video/iTunes
iPhoto: plex://192.168.1.2/photos/iPhoto
Aperture: plex://192.168.1.2/photos/Aperture

Plex will automatically connect to those libraries, and pull media as well as push back playcounts, etc. For this to work however, Plex must be running on both machines. Note that Plex still cannot access the TV Shows and Movies database, either locally or over the network.

The main concern is that I don't want to rely on the scraper in Plex, as all my media is already tagged.

 

[Irishman]

The 1080p videos Blu-ray rips, either downloaded or ripped myself from the disc. However, all of them are compressed to make them smaller.

Do you have a solution (other than buying more HDs) for those of us who don't wish to compress our Blu-rays?

 

[richard.torble]

I had the same problem using a WD Drive with the Air Disk functionality on my Airport Extreme. The disk would go into sleep mode if unused for a certain period of time (15 minutes or so). This seems similar to your issue. You may already know this, but whatever you do, don't click on 'Clean Library' when this happens. It'll wipe your library clean.

Is Your WD NAS drive configurable in anyway? Mine were just a regular USB external drive, so I didn't have any options, but if you've got a specific NAS one, that offers any sort of configuration options, you may be able to set the drive to not sleep after inactivity. That may keep the drives mounted and accessible.

Thanks for the feedback.

It's a MyBook World NAS drive, not just a standard USB type drive and it does allow some configuration, I looked into that a couple of weeks back. There's an option to tell it to not go into standby, which it now doesn't do, the drive has activity lights on the front that tells you it's state, it stays active now. Unfortunately this hasn't helped though, the drive still needs manual mounting from any machine (I've got a MacBook as well on the same network) that wants to access it. I think this is a flaw in SL, unless someone can point out something I am doing wrong.