# Music-only server? Better than Plex?



## arkiedan (Oct 20, 2013)

I've burned all of my classical music collection to flac and am happy with the sound quality. I've installed and, after a lot of fiddling, find Plex to be merely okay for my purposes. I use my own local media assets and don't really want any help from an agent, like last.fm. In other words, my needs are relatively simple. I use a Roku 3 to stream Netflix, Amazon and Acorn to my HDTV and so I don't want any apps for streaming movies, TV shows or music. Right now I'm running Plex through my Roku and I suppose it's the Roku app that limits comments to a very short sentence.

What I'd like is good music-only server software that will allow me to add more than a short line of text for each album (comments, or "Review" in Plex.) It would be great if I could add a paragraph of information about a classical piece and the composer that would be on the TV screen while it played.

I might be looking for something that doesn't exist but if anyone here can make a recommendation I'd appreciate it. I've tried Serviio and XBMC and they offer less than Plex.

If you have a suggestion please let me know. If I find nothing here I'll settle for Plex.

Thanks,

old arkiedan


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

look into JRiver ...about the most configurable music manager on the market....


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## prerich (Mar 26, 2008)

RTS100x5 said:


> look into JRiver ...about the most configurable music manager on the market....


Agreed - I just bought my Master license! Planning on building a linux based machine. I already have a NAS built with NAS4Free


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## arkiedan (Oct 20, 2013)

Thanks to you both. Based on a jriver recommendation at another forum I'm now "playing" with it. While I think it might be the way to go I'm put off by it's freezing and forcing a reboot too often. I am running Linux Mint and that could be the problem but................... 

Again, thanks for the suggestion.

old arkiedan


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## prerich (Mar 26, 2008)

arkiedan said:


> Thanks to you both. Based on a jriver recommendation at another forum I'm now "playing" with it. While I think it might be the way to go I'm put off by it's freezing and forcing a reboot too often. I am running Linux Mint and that could be the problem but...................
> 
> Again, thanks for the suggestion.
> 
> old arkiedan


So are you using a Master licence or just a trial license?


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## darucla (Apr 29, 2015)

This is just food for thought. Personally, I don't want my TV on when listening to music. (I am assuming that you are using an AV amplfier). I find it distracting, and of course it is using electricity. So I use a solution that uses MPD (Music Player Daemon) on the player device. This allows me to control my music/media player with any mobile device capable of running an MPC (MPD Client). I have clients on my phone and tablets, as well as any PC I have lying around. GMPC for instance runs happily on any PC based device I have, maybe other things too. It displays information about my music collection, including lyrics, artist information and gives links to various web resources. The only snag: I have no experience with Roku, so you would have to look if there is an easy way to get MPD on your box. You can also control Kodi from your smart device, although there is less information available as you pointed out.

One of the great things about Plex is that you add your own information about the media. This is always available in the Web client. I have not tried running the Plex client on my media Player by remote control from the web client though. There appears to be some problem in this respect with current versions of the Plex server or web client, according to recent posts on the Plex forum.


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## klnglim (May 12, 2014)

I recommend KODI (previous XBMC), if u like tv program and new movies.
for music stream I suggest Spotify, music player software try Jet Audio,watch bluray and movie streaming try vlc player


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## happyhorns (Mar 15, 2014)

Nothing special here, networked Mint 17, servers and client setups. Just use Banshee out of the repositories. I'm not a tagger so don't know about that. I just need a nice player that supports gapless, gain control, FLAC, and comes with a nice equalizer. Put it on shuffle and send the output where ever. Nice price too.


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## klnglim (May 12, 2014)

well, try jet audio, it supports all type of music and movie files include flac, alac, ape, mkv.
its all totally free software and easy to use


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## wynshadwm (Sep 15, 2009)

> arkiedan, I might be looking for something that doesn't exist but if anyone here can make a recommendation I'd appreciate it. I've tried Serviio and XBMC and they offer less than Plex


I have the Plex lifetime subscription, and I think it's a great software, as over the last few months they have made tremendous improvement in upgrades & updates, and they're always working hard to improve the system, you can now add (itunes and pandora and more as a music/movie channel) 

are you using the free trial or the paid subscription onder:


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## arkiedan (Oct 20, 2013)

prerich said:


> So are you using a Master licence or just a trial license?


Trial only.


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## klnglim (May 12, 2014)

free version is enough, dont purchase upgrade license


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## arkiedan (Oct 20, 2013)

Well, after much experimenting I've come to realize I'm a complete novice when it comes to music server/client software. And, after reading and re-reading forum posts all over the internet I've also come to realize I'm far out of the mainstream when it comes to my preferred music and how I listen to music. What I want from my system seems simple enough but has turned out to be impossible. I want to play my fairly large collection of classical music. I don't want to stream music from any of the on-line services.

Here's what I've been chasing: A music server that will let me add a paragraph or more of my own "Comment" metadata (in Plex called "Reviews) and a client that will display that metadata on my TV when I select an item. For example a recording of Beethoven's Sixth by Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra could have a paragraph about the composer, the composition, the conductor or the orchestra. 

Streaming from the Plex server on my Linux computer to the Plex app on my Roku 3 allows for this to a point but truncates anything longer than maybe 100 words (just cuts it off.) Plex to my Denon AVR, my Sony Blu Ray or my Visio TV drops the "Comment" metadata completely. Many players/servers allow for plenty of metadata to display on the computer but it's always dropped completely when streamed to one of the above "clients."

So! There it is! Impossible I suppose but I thought I'd post this in case someone has any further thoughts. :dontknow:

old arkiedan lddude:lddude:lddude:


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## prerich (Mar 26, 2008)

arkiedan said:


> Well, after much experimenting I've come to realize I'm a complete novice when it comes to music server/client software. And, after reading and re-reading forum posts all over the internet I've also come to realize I'm far out of the mainstream when it comes to my preferred music and how I listen to music. What I want from my system seems simple enough but has turned out to be impossible. I want to play my fairly large collection of classical music. I don't want to stream music from any of the on-line services.
> 
> Here's what I've been chasing: A music server that will let me add a paragraph or more of my own "Comment" metadata (in Plex called "Reviews) and a client that will display that metadata on my TV when I select an item. For example a recording of Beethoven's Sixth by Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra could have a paragraph about the composer, the composition, the conductor or the orchestra.
> 
> ...


Custom fields can be applied in JRiver but I do not know the character length or restrictions. Here's a link that tells you about custom fields
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Fields


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## arkiedan (Oct 20, 2013)

Well, the new Plex app for my Roku 3 is now available. I installed it without much hope for my particular needs but was elated that it is exactly what I've been searching for. I can now include and view metadata on composers bios, orchestra and/or conductor information, and history of a piece, simply through a click of the "Info" button. Kudos to the Plex developers for this valuable upgrade! And, of course, it's free! 

I don't know if this is an improvement for those concerned with movies or "today's music" :sarcastic: but for a classical music server like mine it's fantastic. 

old arkiedan lddude:lddude:


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## JordanAvery (Aug 19, 2020)

I thought I'm crazy as I'm looking for the same thing as you, and found almost nothing about this. Getting the Plex app for my Roku 3 as soon as possible because I read dozens of comments on different forums and no one gave me a direct answer to my problem. I'm debating on getting a NAS for plex too, to have all the shebang already. I read a lot of revisions on prizedreviews.com but I have yet to decide what to get. Well, if you can help me with this issue also, I'll be in debt for life.


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

klnglim said:


> free version is enough, dont purchase upgrade license


Free/upgrade versions of what?


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## RichardTS (May 15, 2014)

arkiedan said:


> Thanks to you both. Based on a jriver recommendation at another forum I'm now "playing" with it. While I think it might be the way to go I'm put off by it's freezing and forcing a reboot too often. I am running Linux Mint and that could be the problem but...................
> 
> Again, thanks for the suggestion.
> 
> old arkiedan


Just a simple suggestion. Linux Mint with Minidlna. Some may complain but I’ve found this extremely reliable and reachable from any device on my network. Minidlna simp,y doesn’t care-it just serves up your music. Simply sends the file in whatever format it is to the the renderer of your choice.


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## RAJBCPA (Jul 31, 2021)

prerich said:


> Agreed - I just bought my Master license! Planning on building a linux based machine. I already have a NAS built with NAS4Free


I tried a Linux based software on a laptop I intended to use as a dedicated media player. I spend several hours trying to get the simplest things done like creating a folder, searching the web. I did get it to play DVDs from a SSD, however. I'm getting it converted to Windows10/11 today at BestBuy.


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## juanalexei (Jul 15, 2011)

You might try AirSonic (Advanced) or Ampache


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