I would highly recommend getting a separate internal Hard Drive specifically for your Plex media if using a Mac Pro or Windows desktop for your server. Plex Media Server can run on a variety of platforms, including macOS, Windows, and Linux. On a personal note, I used Plex for more than a year before deciding to upgrade to the Plex Pass. Plex Pass is included in the paid upgrade, and live TV recording of music lyric support, phone games, and live TV recording. It makes it possible to transfer media files from a server to a variety of client devices in a plethora of client computers. If you want to make sure Plex doesn't confuse your film for a film of the same name, make sure to mention the year it was made in after the title: TV shows take a little more effort. You can simply drag the files into your Movies folder, and Plex will usually recognize them by name. If you point Plex toward the folder where they live, they may appear, but Plex will not be able to play them.
For any computers you want to use, please install Plex Media Player applications. 9 Mavericks or later, with an Intel Core i3 processor or faster and 2GB of RAM or more to set Plex up as a basic media server.
You'll need an Always-on, internet-connected Mac running Mac OS 10. A sufficiently fast NAS drive, as well as one model of Netgear router, will run on Macs, Windows, or Linux machines. Plex is cool with that, too, if for whatever reason you want multiple Plex servers on a single network. The same computer can run a player game, as can any other devices you connect to your server. To run Plex Media Server, you only need one computer. On Plex, there's also an activity tab that you can use to check your history and previous activities.
Most videos are available in 720p HD, and some are even available in 1080p HD. The application is available as an in-browser extension that allows you to plug into Plex's feature and content. With Plex Media Server for Mac, you can access free online video content straight from the archives, track your own videos, add your own channels, and more. Requirements for a Plex media server can be found here.This app can be very useful to users who are not looking for a basic video editing service but rather a complete online video content solution. (One caveat: iTunes purchased content cannot be played via Plex). The new Apple TV (forth generation) has a Plex client you can download, so if you are an only-Apple technology household, you can still take advantage of the better Plex media server. And everything listed above is compatible with running the Plex client software, which is what you will use to enjoy all your content! Apple TV Smart TVs, Android, Windows, Playstation 3 and 4, the Xbox, Amazon Fire TV, and ROKU (just to name a few). While we all love Apple and Apple products, we also live in a world with numerous other technologies.
Even cooler? Any time you add something new, Plex will update your library automatically at a set interval. Simply connect a large external hard drive, or even a RAID, to your Mac, configure Plex to look on that drive, and your all set. Running a large media library via a Plex server is no problem.
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It will scour the internet to provide movie descriptions, album artwork, keep television series tagged correctly for season and episodes, provide album data for your music, and much more. And you know you always wanted to play around with Linux a little, right? Here is your chance!Ī Plex media server does something really cool that we only wish Apple’s iTunes did: it takes care of all the meta data for you. Ubuntu 10.04 can be run on many older Macs, and will make a fine server. If you have an older Mac that does not run Mac OS 10.8, you could install Linux on the machine and run a Plex media server that way. The biggest software requirement for an older Mac to become a Plex media server is that it has to run Mac OS 10.8 or later, otherwise known as Mountain Lion. Plex does what iTunes does, serving up your content over your network, but it does so much more, and it does it so much better.ĭo you have an older Mac sitting around with nothing to do? You have to really watch those old Macs, they get lazy if you don’t tell them what to do! Why not repurpose that Mac to be a Plex media server? OS X Minimum Requirements PlexĪ much better solution has gained widespread adoption over the last few years, and that is Plex.
It worked decently enough, but the user really had to take the time to manage file information, metadata, album or movie artwork, and much more. For long time Mac users, iTunes became the default media server for all your movies, television shows, music, home videos, and the like.