<firstimage=”//static.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/plex-icon.jpg” />Plex is widely regarded by many as being the best media player, manager and streaming application around – available for both Windows, Mac and even mobiles (though the mobile apps are not free). If you’re looking for a single solution as both a media center and server, then read on – this *is* the Media Center app you’ve been looking for your whole life.
Everything you need to edit photos PhotoScape X is an all-in-one photo editing software which provides photo-related features such as Photo Viewer, Editor, Cut Out, Batch, Collage, Combine, Create GIF, Color Picker, Screen Capture, RAW images and More. Media management service Plex has announced that its Plex Media Player app is now free to everyone. Previously only available to Pass subscribers, the Plex app for Mac is a home theater-style.
If you read through and decide you’d rather check out some of the alternatives, have a look at Bakari’s round of streaming and converter apps for OsX4 Awesome Free Digital Video Converter and Streaming Apps for Mac4 Awesome Free Digital Video Converter and Streaming Apps for MacRead More, Tim’s collection of linux-based media center distros5 Great Linux Media Center Distributions To Transform Your TV5 Great Linux Media Center Distributions To Transform Your TVRead More, or Justin’s list of TV-ready media centre apps6 TV-Ready Media Center Programs You Should Check Out6 TV-Ready Media Center Programs You Should Check OutIf you're looking to set up a media center, you need to know what free software is out there. Choose the media center application that works best for you by comparing the best programs on...Read More last month.
Is it a player? Is it server?
Plex produces a media server and client app for Mac OsX, however there is only a server app for Windows currently available. To view your media on the Windows side of things, you can use a Plex plugin. Since Plex is essentially a fork of the XBMC app, there is very little difference in the client/player side of things.
Both Mac and Windows Plex Media Servers can send data to the mobile clients (obviously, there is no media server for mobile devices).
I’ve made a little diagram to help explain this:
Installation
Download and install the appropriate version from PlexApp.com . During the install, point the app at your directories for movies and TV.
Naming Conventions and Fixing MetaData
One thing that always annoyed me about media center systems in the past has been how utterly incapable they seem to be of identifying my eclectic collection and gathering the appropriate covers / metadata. The secret is to name the files correctly – this helpful page details the process, and though it may be tiresome, it does result in a beautifully unified media collection rather than a mess of folders. For those of you who can’t be bothered to read, name your movies “name of movie (date of release)” like “Steal This Movie (2010)”. I suggest you go through your collection and do a little renaming before you install Plex to give it the best chance of correct identification. If you have odd formats such as .img or .iso, then no worries – just name them and Plex will handle it all!
To launch the media manager and see what it’s found, click the taskbar icon (or right click in windows) and select Media Manager. You can then choose between TV and Movies, as well as Music if you chose to import that.
You may find a few odd matches – in that case you can easily right-click on the item in question, and select Fix Incorrect Match. this will bring up a list of possibilities. In general, I found that if the files were actually named correctly a match would generally be found – it was only when I had files that didn’t follow the guidelines that mismatches occured.
The only complaint I do have is that the poster picture can’t be changed by dragging and dropping – it takes a bit of effort to navigate through the options for that – but then again you shouldn’t need to most times if it’s been correctly identified.
The Plex Player App (Mac only)
When your data is sorted, go ahead and launch the main player app (from Applications or the Start menu, not the icon already running in your taskbar). Bear in mind that you can’t use the mouse, as it’s designed for full-screen – so stick to the keyboard or remote. Hit Apple-F to switch to fullscreen, and start browsing through the options.
The movies and TV menus options don’t need an awful lot of explaining really, except for that you can change the view style to cover flow or grid view (my personal favorite) by selecting “right” on your keyboard or remote to bring up the view options:
Plex Online is the place to find plugins – such as the BBC iPlayer (UK only) – that enable Plex to interface with hundreds more free online video sources.
To access the online media content channels that you install, choose Video Plugins from the main menu. I especially recommend TED for some fantastic inspirational talks:
The app also makes a really good interface to YouTube and other social video sites. Just hit Search and type in your query – local media will appear first, as well as tons of internet videos that you can start streaming instantly. I actually found it easier than browsing the real YouTube site, since’s there’s absolutely no clutter and zero commentary from 14 year old idiots. Bonus!
PleXBMC (Windows)
To view your movies on Windows, you will need to install XBMC, then the add-on for Plex. Tim has covered the ins and outs of XMBC before with a thorough reviewXBMC 10 'Dharma' - A Mature, Feature-Rich Cross-Platform Media CentreXBMC 10 'Dharma' - A Mature, Feature-Rich Cross-Platform Media CentreRead More, so I’ll only be showing you the actual connector add-on. To install it, make sure you use the XBMC interface rather than downloading and installing the zip file manually. Head to the System -> Add-Ons -> Video Add-Ons -> PleXBMC -> Install. If you have the server software running on a remote machine, you’ll also need to configure the IP of the remote server in the Configure option for the add-on. You should then be able to browse your Plex media server using the Add-Ons folder from the main Video menu, complete with covers and meta-data.
Conclusion
Plex Editor For Mac 10.7.5
I have to admit, having all my movies in one central place with all the metadata correct is incredibly satisfying. If you have a large collection you’d love to browse by DVD covers then I strongly suggest Plex. I’ve tried other solutions in the past, but none have handled my movies particular well, and I find the media manager of Plex to be the best overall. It’s a shame there isn’t a native client for Windows yet, but the add-on for XBMC means I can basically have the same fantastic player interface while we wait for the official client. Plex is going to form the center of my living room now, and I’ve even splashed out on the iPad app which let’s me stream any of my collection without format worries.
If you’re having any troubles setting it all up, then feel free to ask away in the comments or Q&A section, and we’ll see if we can help. There is also a detailed Guide To Plex that you can download or read online.
Plex Media Server Mac
Oh and one last thing – Plex supports streaming over the internet too!
Explore more about: Media Player, Media Server, Television.
Until Plex can serve to DLNA/uPnP compliant devices such as my WD TV Live and my PS3, I won't even consider using it. Plex's metadata capabilities are amazing - unfortunately, without DLNA/uPnP, Plex becomes ABSOLUTELY USELESS to me.
There is also a Plex client available for AppleTV (black) users that want to jailbreak their ATV. It's a great way to get your Plex content to your TV.
Isn't xbmc both a server and a client? And isn't plex based on xbmc?
If so, why wouldn't running plex on an android be able to serve and stream to a an xbmc on a pc?
I currently use the samba app on my (rooted) android to stream to an xbox1 running xbmc, but I'm looking for a better way...
Anyone try Twonky? Doubletwist? ProSyst MediaServer? TVersity? AndroMote?
Heck, even XBMC serves to my WDTV Live. Who wants to watch a movie or a TV show on their Windows PC? (Unless, of course, it's a Home Theatre PC with a fast Graphics Processor and an HDMI output)
I was dismayed to see that Plex can't serve video to UPnP/DLNA devices like my WDTV Live. Twonky, TVersity and Playon are more useful for me if I want to watch on my (non-LG) HDTV.
I am having trouble with Plex. It can't pull in the metadata for my TV show.
Maybe you have encountered this situation. Here is the solution. This article will recommend a more powerful application. It lets you add metadata information smoothly without any interruption. Also this application processes videos at 30X faster speed and the processed video has no quality loss.
Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate for Mac (Windows version also avaliable) is the best tool to let you add metadata to any video without format limitations. The metadata tagger is compatible with both Windows and Mac (Yosemite included) OS. You can add metadata to your movie, TV show and home video. Metadata includes the information of directors, actors, episode name, comments and descriptions, etc. It is absolutely a more advanced metadata tool than Plex.
How to Add Metadata to Videos
Here is a brief tutorial based on the Mac version. If you are looking for an iFlicks alternative for Windows, please click here.
1 Upload your video to this metadata tagger
You can drag and drop your video into this application, or you can upload your videos into it by clicking the '+' button on the main interface.
2 Set video output format
This metadata tagger requires you to set output video format as MOV, M4V or Apple device. Just follow my way to do it. Please click the 'Video' tab, and then select MOV or M4V. Also you can click the 'Devices' tab, and then choose one of Apple's devices, for example iPhone or iPad.
Plex Editor For Mac Mini
3 Add metadata to your video
Plex Mac App
This metadata tagger lets you add and edit metadata to your video in any format. Just click this icon type your video name, click “Search”, and then click “OK”. The application will look up for metadata information and match them well. The whole process just costs a few seconds.
4 Play videos with metadata
Now it's the last step. Please just click the convert button . Then the video with metadata will soon be synced to your iTunes. When you open iTunes, you will find that metadata has been added, and then video is recognized with a cover.
Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate is not only just a metadata tagger or editor. It is actually an all-in-one video converter. It can let you convert videos, edit videos with beautiful effects, burn video to DVD, and even download videos from video sharing sites, like Facebook, YouTube. With such a versatile tool in hand, it can save you a lot of trouble.