Its_All.Lost
Because hope just breeds everlasting misery…

Vizio Smart TV and Netflix – No login (updated, again)

(Update at the bottom)

A few months back I decided to drop the multi-monitor setup (I had three at the time) and get one large screen. Since my job takes me in and out of peoples home everyday I get a lot of opportunities to see many different setups. So over the years I have gravitated to the larger screens, I’m talking 27″+.

I bought a 32″ HD Vizio M-Series Smart TV (model M322i-B1) with all the fixins. Had the best picture at the time I was in the store, glossy screen, super light and thin – it was perfect. It has been perfect, I love this thing. The only downside now is that I want two, and… the TVs native Netflix app will not work.

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ClearOS/Apache and Mod_Rewrite

Installing WordPress on your ClearOS box? Want to use permalinks? Enable them and find out that you are getting a 403 Forbidden? If you are getting a 403, like I was, then here is the quick fix for you.

In your .htaccess file, add this line to the top:

Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

That should clear up the 403 for you.

Plex (on ClearOS) and Subscene.com Subtitles

(These directions should work on most linux installs of Plex)

I have kids, three of them. This makes actually hearing a movie or TV show damn near impossible, so I usually have the subtitles on – you get used to it after a while.

Since I have been using Plex (before on Zentyal and now on ClearOS) I have been manually downloading subtitles from Subscene.com and adding them to specific Plex movies as I watch them. A tedious process. I already have my system set to automatically download my torrents directly to the media folders, then Plex auto refreshes and the movies are good to go (works for the most part, I need to work out some permission issues). Now I have found a way to automate the subtitle process. I just got it working so I have not tested it fully yet. But so far it appears to be working.

Go here for the Plex plugin
https://github.com/kronenthaler/plex-subscene

On ClearOS 6.5 the plexmediaserver folder is located at
(this seems to be the location for most Linux based Plex installs)

  1.  

    Just add it to your plugin folder (may need to change permissions).

  2. Then open Plex in a browser.
  3. Go to your Plex SERVER SETTINGS > AGENTS.
  4. From there click on Movies or TV Shows and your new plugin should appear under Freebase or TheTVDB.
  5. Configure how you like from there.
  6. When done with settings, go into Tv and Movies and force a library refresh, this should update your existing movies/shows with subtitles.

Oh, and it’s not my fault if you break something…

UPDATED 2-11-2017: It seems the original Plex Subscene plugin I was using and mentioned in this post is no longer available at Github. The page has also been removed. I found this https://github.com/pannal/Sub-Zero.bundle/releases in my searches while looking for a replacement. It is a different plugin called Sub-Zero. It does much more than the plugin mentioned in this post. Download that one and give it a shot. If you get stuck check out this blog for help https://blog.rylander.io/2016/02/26/install-sub-zero-a-plex-plug-in-based-on-subliminal-to-download-subtitles/.

 

ClearOS HTTPD & Reverse Proxy

I already host a few domains on my ClearOS box with no problems, but they are all hosted on the Clear box itself. I recently had the need to point a subdomain to another machine on my network. In Apache2 this is reverse proxy (pointing a domain/subdomain to an internal IP address). A few Googles here and there and all I could find was a few 3-4 year old posts regarding the topic. It mentions installing and building Pound, and a few other options. None of those seemed to be right. A bit more Googling and I finally found it. Its super easy.

All I had to do was modify my existing /etc/httpd/conf.d/flex-80.conf file, nothing to install.

Heres where I found the solution
http://www.clearfoundation.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,232/catid,17/func,view/id,32097/#32108

The forum support for ClearOS sucks, and everything I find is years old. Hopefully this helps someone, this solution worked for me using ClearOS 6.5 (as of 12/2014).

😀

ClearOS

Since Zentyal decided to drop support for all of the modules that I was using it for I had to switch, and I chose ClearOS. It does the job, but I miss Zentyal. Things were just easier with Zentyal, sure they both have a web GUI but Zentyal just seemed to have it all together. Things made more sense, and I feel like Zentyal was faster. The internet and local network all seem a little slower than before. I can’t say for certain but it feels that way.

One major thing I am missing from Zentyal was the firewall and Traffic Shaping. In my experience with Zentyal the firewall was super easy to understand and setup, and it worked. The traffic shaping (qos) was also easy to setup, and it worked! ClearOS has a firewall and it works, but it requires a lot of pre-configuration to get working properly. I still have issues with my setup. ClearOS doesn’t have QoS either (its in beta). Zentyal’s traffic shaping made it super easy to segregate the phones from computer and the rokus in the house. Making it easy to prioritize your netflix experience for example.

Dealing with ClearOS for now.