Plex is a one-stop shop for all your streaming needs.
After my major media and equipment de-clutter, I needed a reliable method to get my newly ripped audio and video files to my HiFi and TV in the most efficient fashion. I had previously dabbled with both Windows DLNA Media Server and Serviio with mixed results, but both were sadly lacking in their own ways. Then I stumbled upon Plex.
Plex is a two-part solution. The server (which hosts and indexes all of your media) and the client (which pulls streams to the particular device it is installed on).
The easiest and quickest way to create a Plex server is on your existing PC or laptop. Simply download and install the Plex server software, point it to your media libraries during setup, and Plex will do all the rest automatically, indexing, tagging and downloading all the relative movie/band/album info to provide an immersive and feature-rich interface from which to access all of your music and movies. It is important that files, especially for video (and series in particular) are named correctly so that Plex can recognise the titles. Naming conventions are very well documented on the Plex wesbite, so I don’t feel the need to clarify further here. I must stress it is worth getting this right before pointing Plex at them!
The basic Plex setup, which includes maybe 95% of its available features is free. If you want more advanced features e.g. hardware decoding, remote streaming (when away from home) or recording programmes from a TV aerial (which also requires an external tuner card or box), then a Plex subscription is required. Monthly, yearly and lifetime pass options are available.
I snaffled a lifetime Plex pass a few years ago at the bargain price of about £75. It’s over £200 now, but if you’re serious about streaming your own media it’s still well worth considering.
Using my PC as a Plex server allows me to stream music and video to any device in the house, and if you use it in conjunction with a TV tuner as preciously mentioned, you can use it to watch live TV programmes and recordings without even having to connect them to an aerial socket.
The advantages of this are many. Away from home in a hotel or travelling on a train? You can watch or listen to any of your media or live/recorded TV from anywhere, provided you have the Plex client installed on your device and you’re logged in to your account. The only proviso is that the machine on which your Plex server is installed has to be switched on and the software running.
I use my main office PC to run Plex server on and it is switched on 24/7. My media files are hosted on three separate portable 4Tb HDDs: Disc D holds all the originals and is backed up nightly to Disc E and weekly to Disc F. Therefore if one disc fails, there are two backups to fall back on. That may sound a bit OTT, but with disc space being fairly cheap, it’s just not worth the risk.
You can structure your file folders to your liking – taking care to pay attention to file names (see above), but I prefer simplicity so I just have separate folders for TV Programmes, Recorded TV programmes, Films, Recorded Films, Music, Music Videos and Audiobooks.
Plex will automatically tag all of your files with genres, actors, directors, years, etc. so you will easily be able to drill down to your favourite movie or album with minimal effort. It will also remember where you left off a particular stream so you can pick up exactly where you left off. Neat! Plex pass holders are also able to automatically skip through intro sequences and outro titles plus ad breaks in recorded material. Nice!
The last thing that really sold me on Plex was the ability to tell it what streaming services you have access to. Then when you watchlist a movie or show that you are interested in, it will tell you where to see that programme as soon as it becomes available. Just click on the streaming service (say, Netflix) icon and Plex will open Netflix on your TV and take you straight to that show. Ace!
I have been using Plex for about five or six years now, streaming to a variety of gadgets around the house: three TVs, four steaming boxes (2 x google TV streamers, 1 x Nvidia Shield Pro and 1 x onnTV box I acquired during a visit to the USA) for video, plus two phones, four WiiM units (1 x Mini, 2 x Amp, 1 x Pro) for music. I would say that Plex is dishing up music or video somewhere in the house just about all my waking hours and consider my paltry £75 investment in setting up Plex worth every penny.
Further reading:
Plex TV
Why WiiM is the way!
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