Plex Media Server is a user-friendly way to store all your movies, shows, and other media in one place–and make it accessible from any device, whether you’re at home or on-the-go. If you’re looking for a no-headache way to watch your movies anywhere, this is it.
What Is Plex Media Server?
Here’s a common situation that all too many people find themselves in. You have media files–music, movies, TV shows, and even photos–but you don’t have an easy way to easily access them on your plentiful and varied devices.
The Plex model is simple: you park all your media on a single computer with the Plex server software installed, and then you install Plex on on all your other devices. You can install it on Windows, Linux, or Mac computers as well as Android and iOS, video game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation, your Apple TV, and there are even smart TVs that come with Plex built right in. Then, from any of those devices, you can remotely access your entire media library and watch it with no hassle.
Further, because the Plex model is a server/client one, you don’t have to worry about copying files to your various devices and dealing with issues like playback quality, video resolution, and other details. Your Plex server will, transcode all your media content on the fly, so that it plays properly on whatever device you’re using. Want to watch your TV show in the backyard on your iPhone? No problem. Want to watch it on your laptop at your in-laws’ house? Also no problem. Want to hook your new smart TV right into your media collection without any additional hardware? Buy the right TV and that’s no problem either. In short, running Plex is like running your own private and polished streaming service, where you’re the one curating the library.
Let’s take a closer look at what you need to get started and then jump right into preparing your media collection for Plex, installing Plex, and–everyone’s favorite part–accessing your Plex media collection.
What You’ll Need
Plex is a really polished product, and once you get it up and running it’s about as headache free as it gets. That said, however, the most important thing is to go into the experience with a clear picture of what you need and how all the pieces of your Plex setup work together.
Home Is Where The Server Is
First and foremost, you need a computer that houses all the files and runs Plex Media Server. You can install Plex on Windows, Linux, OS X, and even on dedicated server software like FreeNAS and on NAS hardware like the Synology system (you can see all their supported platforms for the Media Server app here). But regardless of what platform you choose, it’ll have to be a computer that’s always turned on. There’s no point in having a comprehensive streaming solution for all your personal media needs if, when you go to access it, the content is offline.
In addition to always being on, you’ll want the server computer to have a decent amount of processing power to handle the aforementioned transcoding. The more users you expect to be watching at once, the better hardware you want. Plex media server still works on older hardware but it will automatically disable transcoding if the hardware is insufficient, and playback will suffer and stutter on really old or under-powered hardware.
So, you’ll want as beefy of a CPU as you can spare. Plex recommend at least an Intel i3 processor (or equivalent) or better with at least 2GB of RAM (RAM isn’t particularly important to Plex). You can read over their hardware recommendations here.
Lastly, you’ll want a lot of hard drive space–enough to store all the movies, TV shows, music, and photos you have.
If you already have some hardware laying around you aren’t using, by all means give it a shot. Worst case scenario, you find that file playback is unsatisfactory. Best case scenario, you find that the old hardware works fine and you avoid purchasing any new gear.
A Client For Every Device
The server just one half of the Plex system. The other half is the “client” app, or the app you do all the watching from. While you can play the media from the server’s web-based control panel, it’s like watching Netflix in your web browser–most people prefer to sit down in their living room or watch on their mobile devices. And for that, you need the Plex client to access the server.
You can find a Plex app for just about every platform you can imagine: Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Apple TV, Roku, and more. One thing that has been a source of perennial confusion regarding Plex is whether or not it is free–and a big amount of this confusion hinges on the fact that the mobile apps have an “activiation fee”.
The Plex media server software has always been free. Most of the client apps have always been free. Some of the client apps have a nominal one time activation fee a few dollars (e.g. the iOS Plex client app costs $4.99).
Plex has two ways of dealing with the paid apps. If you only need one app, you may wish to just activate that single app. The other option is to buy a Plex Pass, which is like a subscription service that gives you both access to all paid apps, plus benefits like syncing to your mobile devices for offline access and cloud-based file storage. If you need many apps across multiple platforms and you want the premium features, you might consider the Pass subscription for $4.99 a month or a $149.99 lifetime pass.
