Using the Chromebox and following this guide gets you a real Plex client, that supports fan art, multiple users, channels, and supports ALL surround sound formats. Any other format gets downmixed to stereo before getting sent to your Fire TV. The Fire TV only supports AC3 surround sound, after you tweak the profile in the settings. It also only supports AC3 and AAC for surround sound, with no support for DTS or the HD codecs ever coming. In the past, you could patch around that, but that is getting harder and harder to do. The Chromecast has a hard bitrate limit of 12mbps.

The Roku will do AC3 and DTS surround formats, but not TrueHD or DTS-HD. Plex is forced to follow the Roku guidelines, and it doesn't make for a pleasing interface. The Roku has a somewhat clumsy interface. Why do this over a Roku, Chromecast, or Fire TV?Įach streaming stick/box, while usable, comes with some limitations. The issue is that even the most frugal shopper will still spend over $200 for anything worth while.

One way people solve this is by building a HTPC so that they are in control of the power and performance. While this obviously works, the interface is a little slow and clunky and you wind up with a functional solution without much wow factor. When it comes to watching Plex on a HDTV, most people plug in a Roku or Chromecast and call it a day. Plex has apps out for just about any device or OS you can think of. UPDATE OpenPHT isn't a go, being unable to use a mouse is a deal breaker and the menu system isn't fluid like XBMC.Anyone who has a Plex server will tell you that there are countless ways to access it. UPDATE LAST So I need a Plex Pass to get the Media App for Win7, which isn't cheap, was happy paying once off on WIN10 but monthly for features I don't need is a waste. Is there any other alternatives clients, or a way to get the windows 10 client on Windows 7? or something the community can recommend?

I do not want to use the Web Client as I want to avoid trans-coding that much, and the client supports more media types. I really liked the Windows 10 application to watch Plex on, but the version for Windows 7 (Plex Home Theater) is horrible compared to the Windows 10 version. So I had to downgrade a PC in my home from Windows 10 to Windows 7 due to driver issues with a GPU.

Plex home theater