Not an expert, but the11-55 will be able to see Plex (and i assume Kodi as well) through its HomeMedia source / input.......what you get is a folder structure i think....i did it briefly, but in the end just plugged in a USB drive to my TV (12-65) to get to the same outcome..........if you want the Plex UI, you will need to do it through an external box (ATV4) or your mac mini.............as for managing the media library using one remote, the tv itself can't do that (the HomeMedia function), but may well work through an external box.....i think thats how most BV owners, who use media servers, do it.......as for music with the TV off,  if you power on your BV11-55 system using the remote straight to the (media server) source, the screen will come on.....you can play music, and then flick the picture off, but it will come on initially i believe.......others may know if you can save the preset to have picture muted..... 

@Sandyb is right on everything said:  I've got a BV11, and the HomeMedia source can see the Plex Server, it is presented as a raw folder structure. (I'm also assuming since the BV11 is a DLNA receiver, it will see Kodi and other servers too). The BV 11 will have to be "on" in order to play sources, but the picture will turn off (in settings) automatically after a few moments. The LED on the upper right portion of the television's frame will be Green when the screen is off letting you know that the TV is "on."

I use the HomeMedia function quite a bit on my BV11 to play music through connected speakers, and it is quite good. Again, simple folder structure, but it does the job, and shows the album art and a progress bar. It is bare bones functionality though, play, pause, volume, and tracking and maybe shuffle, though I haven't used that. I'd recommend using an apple TV and manually turning the picture off if you want more functionality like Play NExt, etc.

As for using the iPhone to control the BV11, yes, the BeoRemote App can control the BV11 and other B&O products, but the BV11 must not be in the powersave mode for that to work (again, settings). You asked if the BV11 is responsive, yes it is. I wouldn't say that the "smart" functions are responsive, hence I don't use the smart functions at all. No apps, no nothing.

I've got an AppleTV connected to it if I want a more pleasing experience with Plex or music playing (among other apps of course).

You also asked about a shared iTUnes library. The BV11 by itself can't see the shared library like the ATV can. You'll have to run a barebones server pointed to your iTunes/Music folder in order for HomeMedia to see your music folders.

At one point I did the same as you: had an always on Mac (Power Mac [cheesegrater]) connected to the BV11 via HDMI adapter cable and controlling functions  with an app called "remote buddy" which allowed even more control of the Mac via a GUI remote on your iPhone. But then I moved to running my iTunes library and Plex on a QNAP NAS. A separate profile on my main computer is the "brains" for that Media so whenever I need to make adjustments or add music / movies, I log into that profile, mount the NAS as a network drive and Plex and iTunes on that profile see the storage and I can make changes, etc. Then I log out of that profile and the NAS keeps chugging along. It uses less power than an always on computer -- though a Mac Mini is a pretty great always on machine as a server. 

Your final question about button mapping, the buttons are mapped to ports on the back of the BV11, HomeMedia, WebServices, etc. So you'll have to have separate sources / ports mapped to each button. For example, HDMI1 if mapped to TV, that port (HDMI1) won't be available to map to DVD. And Vice Versa, so if you want to do the same thing from one port, but with a slightly different setting, that's going to prove to be next to impossible. What you can do, though is to look into something called LinTronic, which would allow you to create macros perhaps allowing you for more refined and complex control of how the BV11 reacts to certain button presses, only brainstorming here.

I say the path of least resistance for you is to perhaps invest in a Mac Mini with an external HDD, run plex / kodi / iTunes on it, or keep using your MBPro to run Plex / Kodi / iTunes, and have the BV11 be the receiver for it, either using HomeMedia, or a more elegant approach is purchase an AppleTV, to be your BV11's "receiver" for the media you've got on your MBPro. 

Sorry for the long winded response.

Thanks for the replies!

Seems like I'll probably have to get a mac-mini tucked away somewhere. Not so sure whether an apple TV is tough enough for rendering bluray uncompressed remux mkv files (which are some 40Gb per movie). I've read a bit into the Apple TV and it may even require a jailbreak to get what I want. 

I guess a mac mini is the easier solution + it simply works as a computer in case I want to slideshow photos, or present/discuss travel plans to family members. (For I haven't seen any good and responsive solution for showing photo's on screen, without having sorted them really nicely beforehand. Simple mouse and keyboard seem to do the trick much better for me.)

What may be a possibility is to have the media center software (either kodi or plex, but I lean towards kodi as this is what I'm used to now) send its audio through the HDMI interface, while having the regular audio (itunes) play through the optical out of the mac. That way, I could map two different sources and use the BV in two different 'modes'. I'd have to rely on a PUC mapping of the beo4 commands to mimic an apple IR remote to control kodi.
I'd have to check if a mac is able to use both audio outputs independently.

Apart from this, I've been looking at some BV11 reviews, and the input lag seems to make it hard to use it as a monitor for a computer. I guess these reviews are from the first versions and that some firmware upgrades have already significantly reduced input lag. Is this true?

crossbytje wrote:

Apart from this, I've been looking at some BV11 reviews, and the input lag seems to make it hard to use it as a monitor for a computer. I guess these reviews are from the first versions and that some firmware upgrades have already significantly reduced input lag. Is this true?

There's a "GAME" mode which is supposed to reduce the input lag if I'm not mistaken. 

Yeah, but even in that mode, the input lag was still considerable. Anyway, I just searched a bit (I remembered a thread on the input lag of the BV11) and found that there was indeed an update, somewhere 2014, that reduced the lag to acceptable figures, so that's good!

With regards to the mac mini, I've just tested another 'old' macbook I had laying around (an early 2011 MacBook Pro 15") and found that it can indeed output two different audio signals. It can pass digital audio with the video feed through HDMI (from kodi eg.), while simultaneously sending digital sound through the optical out (from itunes, both playing different stuff at the same time). So it could be connected to two separate sources on the BV. At least, if the BV allows assigning the spdif input to any source. I've searched the manual but it is not clear whether the spdif could be used for a 'music' preset on the BV? It says somewhere it could be used for a computer input, but it will probably not allow the spdif to be assigned to a disconnected hdmi port?

crossbytje wrote:

I've searched the manual but it is not clear whether the spdif could be used for a 'music' preset on the BV? It says somewhere it could be used for a computer input, but it will probably not allow the spdif to be assigned to a disconnected hdmi port?

Indeed it can.

I use the SPDIF-in on my V1 (will be the same on the BV11) for the digital-out of a ChromeCast Audio dongle.

You can configure the (sound) settings of that source just as you need it.

MM

That's great news!

(The BV I had my eyes on was sold before I could go and look at it, which is a bummer. On the other had, I'm not in a hurry, still awaiting my 10y old 720p LG to go out (with a bang?) Until then, I keep a close eye on the second hand market.)