Plex on Multiple Devices

Hi,

I'm a noob trying the base Roomie before going whole hog and purchasing the entire Roomie suite plus several iTachs.

Right now I'm trying to configure Roomie to work a Pioneer VSX-60 receiver and a Plex media server (PMS). I'm a bit confused because the VSX-60 can see the PMS and control it for music using either a TV and the standard remote or Pioneer's iControlAV app. The PMS can make itself known either through DLNA or through a Plex client. I'm not sure which method the receiver uses.

So my question is, when I set Plex as the second device on my Roomie, exactly what is Roomie trying to do? Is it accessing the PMS through my receiver, through DLNA, or as a Plex client in its own right? And, no matter how Roomie accesses the PMS, how can I integrate control of the receiver with control of Plex?

If you add a Plex client through the Auto-Discovery process in Roomie, Roomie is talking directly to Plex. The connection between Roomie and a receiver and Roomie and your Plex have nothing intrinsically to do with one another.

Thanks. That clears that up.

But if I'm accessing the PMS via Roomie, how do I tell it where to play the selection? My receiver, TV, iPad, and even Blu-Ray can all access Plex by themselves. Now that Roomie's doing it, how do I get it to play music through the receiver, videos on the TV (with sound EITHER through the receiver or TV), and pictures on the TV?

(Bear in mind that I'm still using the base version of Roomie, so probably I can only use Plex with either the receiver or the TV but not both.)

Those are details that are outside of Roomie. How to control Plex to play something or how to setup your receiver to play from your Plex are specific to your system setup and don't relate to the method by which Plex or your receiver are controlled.

I understand your point, but I'm still confused.

Plex uses a client-server architecture. I've installed and administered the server on both Macs and NAS drives. I've used clients on Macs, iPads, and TV's (with Samsung TV's, one has the choice of DLNA or using a Plex app.)

But all these clients also have the ability to render the media that Plex streams between from the server to the client. For example, the Plex client app for IOS has no volume controls because it plays on the IOS device and uses the device's physical controls. If you use it with Airplay, either the IOS device's volume control or the other device's (e.g., an Airplay-capable AV receiver) volume control will work.

Moreover, the Plex server can serve multiple clients simultaneously. For example, the same server can be streaming jazz to the dining room and hip-hop to the family room. So control of Plex is client-specific.

Roomie, on the other hand, is solely an intermediary. It's neither a client nor a server. Just as a TV remote control cannot itself display a video, Roomie cannot display videos, play music, etc. by itself. The free Plex app for IOS is excellent, so one hardly needs Roomie to provide another means for controlling Plex if all one wants to do is render Plex's streaming on the IOS device. I therefore assume that Roomie can render Plex's streaming on devices other than the IOS device. I just don't understand how to tell Roomie which device to use to render Plex's media stream or if Roomie is capable of supervising multiple streams targeted at different devices under Roomie's control (e.g., music from Plex to an AV receiver and video from Plex to a TV monitor).

How and is it?

Roomie controls Plex using the commands shown on the Virtual Remote when you add a Plex device. From that point, how you tell Plex to play a video is the same way you would tell Plex to do that from the Plex user interface.