Hello the community,
I remember reading somewhere that to use Infuse I wouldn’t need Plex.
There is a fast connection between the 2 but I was wondering what do users are actually doing and whether there is actually a value to use Plex or on the contrary a loss in quality of files ?
All the files are over a NAS with network share potentially available directly to Infuse.
The plex server is currently on the NAS as well.
I use Infuse for its flawless 4K Remux support.
It’s all in your personal preferences and equipment.
Infuse works perfectly well alone without Plex and you don’t have to manage two different machines and applications.
Both can have issues depending on your equipment and combination of but they are usually minor and are corrected easily.
I tried Plex for a very short time but found Infuse to be everything I needed without having to maintain a separate application on a second machine.
I have had zero problems with 4K files over SMB.
Probably the biggest variable is the connection between the device that Infuse is on and the server. Ethernet is more likely to work the majority of the time vs wireless but both can function well if you take the time to make sure everything is set up correctly. This is applicable to both Infuse only as well as having Plex so that’s probably the biggest concern.
If you want some of the features that Plex offers that Infuse doesn’t then go with Plex. If you are content with the features of Infuse alone then why add an additional layer of possible problems?
I use both Plex and Infuse. I have it is easier to manage metadata for my movies and tv shows using Plex and then have Infuse read it from the server. This gives you much more control over collections and artwork and things of that nature. As far as quality goes, I don’t think there is any difference as long as both Plex and Infuse are able to direct play the file. If Plex has to transcode it, then there may be a loss depending on how low the transcode has to go. The only difference I can see as far as the experience once the video actually starts playing is Plex seems to skip forward faster than Infuse does, meaning when I skip forward 10 seconds in Plex, it is pretty much instantaneous. There by a slight pause when skipping forward 10 seconds in Infuse, but it isn’t bad to the point of ruining the experience. Also If you have Plex generate thumbnails of your videos, they will show up much faster in Plex when you are scanning forward. Infuse does this on the fly, and on my setup, it seems to take a little while for those thumbnails to pop up.
I had used plex but moved over to emby. The reasons are the same:
Thank you for your answers and details about your configuration.
Emby is indeed a great alternative especially for hue support which I’m waiting for a long time on Infuse.
I managed to get a script working on my smart home installation with Plex but it required the Plex pass which I eventually cancelled.
Now I would like to get to Coachdport implying that the video is being processed differently when Infuse read the file directly as the buffers seems handled differently.
Do I have a quality penalty reading the video from Plex over than a native Infuse player ?
I don’t seem to have any transcode as it was the main reason I moved to Infuse on the ATV 4k.
The quality is my main concern over features to play Remux 4k file. Sometimes, I feel like a Remux HDR could display a greater image than what I get but it could be also me getting used to the image and not baffled anymore.
Infuse direct plays everything, and as far as I can tell the quality is no different from Infuse to Plex. To someone with a better eye than mine, the picture may be slightly different due to different software or filters that each app uses by default, but I can’t tell a difference in either.