Chowmain - Plex Full Driver for Control4

[alanchow]

 

Chowmain - Plex Full 

Plex is a centralized home media playback system with a powerful central server (Plex Media Server) that streams its media to many Plex player Apps which can reside on a number of devices from Roku, Amazon Fire TV, HTPC’s, mobile devices and even Smart TV’s. The Server is available on many platforms like Windows, OS X, and many flavors of Linux, as well as many NAS devices.

 

 

The Chowmain Plex Full driver is one of the only Control4 drivers to have full library integration including Movies, TV Shows, Music and photo browsing/searching/playback and can be used to control Plex on various platforms including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Sony Android TV’s (FY15 up), Dedicated HTPC’s running Plex Home Theater or Plex Media Player. 

This complete solution provides the consumer will seamless playback of content from any Control4 interface including SR-250/SR-260, Onscreen Navigator, Touchscreens, IPhone/Android based Navigators and more. 

This driver will only work on Control4 OS 2.7 and above. 
Features

• Ability to browse/search/playback Movies, TV Episodes, Music & Photos from any Plex client/server with cover art including local or remote servers. 
• Ability to browse content by recently added, recently aired, recently viewed and more. 
• Ability to resume movies or tv episodes from where you have left off. 
• Ability to program any event in Control4 to trigger playback. Eg keypad on the wall, security system disarm, motion sensor trigger. 
• Ability to automatically turn the room on upon playback. This is good for dedicated Plex systems where you might want to send playback of content from your mobile device or tablet to your TV. 
• Two way feedback for client state (Play, Pause, Stop, Playing Video, Playing Music, Playing Photo, In Navigation) 
• Can be setup for any Plex Client including Plex Home Theater, Plex Media Player, Plex for Roku, Plex for Amazon Fire TV and Plex for /Android TV's. 
• Ability to launch Plex on Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices. Upon media playback the driver will launch Plex on the device, wait for it to startup and then start playback. 
• Support for Sky Now TV and Telstra TV boxes (Roku rebadged boxes). 
• Ability to return to the Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Sony TV drivers upon exiting Plex. Makes the experience seamless. 
• Ability to return to onscreen navigator on playback ended. This is great if you want to hide Plex’s interface and use Control4 only. 
• Ability to switch users. This allows for content restriction based upon username/passcode. Limit children to G rated content only. This also allows multiple family members to resume playback from different spots. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

I'm confused which Plex driver should i be using? 

A while ago we created the Plex Home Theater driver and Plex Media Player driver. These drivers utilised the older Control4 media player interface which could only handle movie integration. Back in August 2015 we released Kodi Full. This driver utilised a new method to display content on Control4’s devices. We decided that we would improve on our Plex driver’s by doing something similar and have named it to match our Kodi Full driver. Plex Home Theater is still an excellent driver and may do everything that you want. Plex Full however is superior to Plex Home Theater and the development time period reflects that. 

Do i need to the Plex Media Server driver as well? 

No additional drivers are required to operate Plex Full. Please read the installation PDF to get an understanding on how the driver works and how to set it up. 

Can you give us some examples of how we could use this driver? 

• Browse/search/playback movies, tv shows, music, photos from Plex.on any Control4 user interface including touchscreens, onscreens, smart phones, tablets and remote controls. 
• Resume content that you have started watching from where you left off from a different Plex client. 
• Complete your media playing solution by pairing our driver with a Roku or an Amazon Fire TV. Both devices can utilise streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu. With our driver installed the customer will now be able to browse/search/playback any of his own personal content on the system. 
• Create the perfect cinema experience by dimming the lights down when a movie starts, ramp it back up when the movie ends or if the user pauses or stops the movie. 
• This driver provides two way feedback on what media you're consuming and what the state of the media player is. It will tell you when the movie is playing, paused, stopped or if it is a video, photo, song or if it is in navigation. This information is useful for customising your lighting and environment to suit your customer's requirements. 
• Start a movie on your tablet and then cast it to your theater to have your theater automatically turn on. 
• Fall asleep at the TV? The driver will automatically turn the room off once the movie has finished after a period of time. 
• Setup a button on your onwall keypad to start playback of you or your family’s favourite movie. One touch playback. Great for kids. 
• Limit the content your children can watch to G or PG-13 rated content by using User/Pin codes. 

What hardware will this work on? 

This driver has been tested on Roku (including Telstra TV and Sky Now TV variants), Amazon Fire TV, Sony FY15 Android TV’s, Plex Home Theater (OSX/Windows), Plex Media Player (OSX/Windows). If you choose to use it on any other platform you do so at your own risk. It should work however you will find the problem is launching into the application on the platform of choice. It is recommended that prior to purchasing this driver you utilise the free 48 hour trial period for testing. 

NOTE: Amazon Fire TV OS 5 and above currently has a bug which do not allow multiple ADB connections simulataneously. If you chose to utilize the the Fire TV with OS 5.0 and above then you cannot add in the official Control4 Amazon Fire TV driver. This is due to a single connection limitation for ADB. You can however utilize the Houselogix Amazon Fire TV driver as it will launch Plex for us. 

Why do you only support OS 2.7 and above? 

We utilise methods exposed only to the Control4 OS 2.7 Driverworks software development kit. It will not work with any lower versions of OS. 

I want to try this driver out before buying it? 

All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 48 hour trial. This is activated once you add the driver to the project. No additional steps are necessary. 

How do I find out more information about the driver? 
Please see the links below for more information about the driver. 

Chowmain Website

Download Installation Guide

How do I buy the driver? 
This driver is developed by Chowmain software & apps and is distributed and supported by Houselogix, Inc. 

Download Driver / Purchase Licence

Who do i contact for technical support? 
This driver is developed by Chowmain software & apps and is distributed and supported by Houselogix, Inc. 

Support

Do you provide trial licences? 
All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 48 hour trial. This is activated once you add the driver to the project. No additional steps are necessary. 

Do you have any videos of it in action? 
Yes we do. See link below for a video we made previewing the driver. 

Preview video

 

 

 

 

 

[digitaltrader]

How does this work with a matrix switch.  I downloaded the documentation and would like to know how this might work in my situation as follows  I have a 16x16 matrix switch and 4 different plex clients (2 rokus and 2 TiVo units).  It looks like just a single client can be set up and requires binding to a specific TV.  How is this done when using a centralized matrix solution?

[StroTek LLC]

once you find a client, hit the client button again.. it will find the next client..

 

and you bind it to a input on your hdmi matrix vs a tv

[digitaltrader]

Just so I het this straight how would I bind a roku that is currently bound to input 10 on my HDMI switch?  WOuld I bind the roku passthrough HDMI to my roku unit then the Plex Driver DMI output to input 10 on the switch:

Roku--->Plex Driver------>Matrix Switch

[alanchow]

10 minutes ago, digitaltrader said:

Just so I het this straight how would I bind a roku that is currently bound to input 10 on my HDMI switch?  WOuld I bind the roku passthrough HDMI to my roku unit then the Plex Driver DMI output to input 10 on the switch:

Roku--->Plex Driver------>Matrix Switch

Yep you got it

[digitaltrader]

Thanks Alan and Johann.

 

How do I bind multiple clients to the Roku passthrough (or cycle to the next client to make the binding)?

[digitaltrader]

Do I need a separate Driver for each client?

[alanchow]

19 minutes ago, digitaltrader said:

Do I need a separate Driver for each client?

Yes you do.  Each driver is designed to control 1 client.

[digitaltrader]

After launching a movie, the IE touch screens have no control over the movie unless I back out and choose the control function.  Is this the intended function, or should I immediately be able to control the media after launch?

[alanchow]

2 minutes ago, digitaltrader said:

After launching a movie, the IE touch screens have no control over the movie unless I back out and choose the control function.  Is this the intended function, or should I immediately be able to control the media after launch?

Unfortunately the Flash based touchscreens do not come up with the dashboard (little bar on the bottom which shows play,pause,stop,skip).  This isn't something we can resolve as its fully controlled internally on Control4's firmware.  You should see the dashboard come up on IOS/Android/T3 based navigators though.

The Plex Control proxy is designed to be used with touchscreens and is used exactly how you are using it.

[digitaltrader]

One last question:  I have 2 users under my Plex account called Kids and Parents, with the Kids movie database being limited.  I also have created a separate driver instance for each client Roku Kids and Roku Parents.  How do I assign a unique plex user to each library?  When I use the driver fields no additional users are seen, when I use the switch user tab within the library no additional user as seen as well.  When I use the inherent plex app on the roku I can view both users.

[digitaltrader]

49 minutes ago, alanchow said:

Unfortunately the Flash based touchscreens do not come up with the dashboard (little bar on the bottom which shows play,pause,stop,skip).  This isn't something we can resolve as its fully controlled internally on Control4's firmware.  You should see the dashboard come up on IOS/Android/T3 based navigators though.

The Plex Control proxy is designed to be used with touchscreens and is used exactly how you are using it.

Alan, the driver looks really nice.  Unfortunately my T3 TS does not offer transport controls when a movie is played either.  Without control of the movie this will be a frustration for anyone but educated users and unfortunately my family has been frustrated with work arounds in the past.

[alanchow]

1 hour ago, digitaltrader said:

One last question:  I have 2 users under my Plex account called Kids and Parents, with the Kids movie database being limited.  I also have created a separate driver instance for each client Roku Kids and Roku Parents.  How do I assign a unique plex user to each library?  When I use the driver fields no additional users are seen, when I use the switch user tab within the library no additional user as seen as well.  When I use the inherent plex app on the roku I can view both users.

You need to sign into your plex.tv account first in the driver.  After that it will pull all the users in.  Also make sure that your server is signed in as well.

[alanchow]

1 hour ago, digitaltrader said:

Alan, the driver looks really nice.  Unfortunately my T3 TS does not offer transport controls when a movie is played either.  Without control of the movie this will be a frustration for anyone but educated users and unfortunately my family has been frustrated with work arounds in the past.

The T3 should show the dashboard.  I tested this on the roku, plex media player and plex home Theater clients.

please submit a ticket to our helpdesk with relevant logs to try and capture it and we will try to see why it's not working.

[blub]

Hi

If I use the Plex driver and Kodi together can I select a movie via C4 GUI browsinf Plex server and the start that movie on my Kodi HTPC running Plexbmc?

[alanchow]

3 minutes ago, blub said:

Hi

If I use the Plex driver and Kodi together can I select a movie via C4 GUI browsinf Plex server and the start that movie on my Kodi HTPC running Plexbmc?

We have not tested plexbmc.  We have tested it on plex home Theater though which utIlises XBMC as its core code. Our driver is written to control clients that adhere to plex's client API.  If it can be controlled using the official plex iOS of android app then it should work with our driver. Please do your own testing using the built in trial licence in the driver prior to purchase.

[christophers]

hey @alanchow this is an awesome driver, really makes the c4 media experience better! (and makes my T3s much more usable haha)

one question/comment/suggestion, it doesnt look like there's a way to shuffle a show. normally, when we turn on a show, we go to roku > plex > the show > shuffle. would there be a way to invoke this in your driver? 

[alanchow]

43 minutes ago, Christopher Spitler said:

hey @alanchow this is an awesome driver, really makes the c4 media experience better! (and makes my T3s much more usable haha)

one question/comment/suggestion, it doesnt look like there's a way to shuffle a show. normally, when we turn on a show, we go to roku > plex > the show > shuffle. would there be a way to invoke this in your driver? 

I'm not sure how that works (API wise that is).  We implemented everything we found in the API so it might be something that the client does with the data the server returns.

[christophers]

interesting, i will check into the API. right now, if you go to a show, it will list all of the seasons, then there's a shuffle button, where it will shuffle all episodes in all seasons. 

 

--edit, this is present in roku plex client, from what im finding out, this isn't present in all clients (and i can't verify amazon player, so i ordered one ha). 

[SE-AGR900]

Can I use a Apple TV 4 as a Client with Plex installed?

[alanchow]

2 minutes ago, SE-AGR900 said:

Can I use a Apple TV 4 as a Client with Plex installed?

Although our driver will work with all Plex clients we only recommend the roku, amazon fire TV and HTPC (Plex media player & plex home theater) clients as they are either dedicated clients or we can launch the Plex app on those machines.

All other clients including apple TV are discouraged as you need to manually start the application up.

[alanchow]

Forgot to mention ppex for Sony Android TV's

 

[jamieuk]

One question I am confused on here, my apologies. If I have an Amazon Fire TV connected to a 4x4 matrix i.e. serving 4 rooms ..... I run the Plex Server on my NAS and the Plex app on Amazon Fire .... but I need 4 drivers to allow C4 to access it in room 1,2,3,4 ?

[msgreenf]

1 hour ago, jamieuk said:

One question I am confused on here, my apologies. If I have an Amazon Fire TV connected to a 4x4 matrix i.e. serving 4 rooms ..... I run the Plex Server on my NAS and the Plex app on Amazon Fire .... but I need 4 drivers to allow C4 to access it in room 1,2,3,4 ?

if you only have 1 plex player instance, then you only need one.

[alanchow]

Mitch it correct. 1 instance per player/client.