Get ready to enjoy all your movies, series, music and photos that you have stored like never before thanks to plex, a system that puts all your multimedia content on a tray through a simple interface, smooth operation, and a "enriched" user experience. Here is my experience with plex, and you will tell me what you think.
Until recently, you stored a lot of series, movies, programs, etc. on your computer or on your hard drive, and when you wanted to see one, you would look for it and open it in a player. That is to say, you were limited to opening and seeing, that simple, with nothing else to enrich that experience. And beware! with not having stayed halfway watching a movie, because then you had to look for the exact moment where you stopped it, in short, lost time and desire. The experience it offers us plex It is totally different, a true "media center" on your iPhone, your iPad, your iPod touch or your fourth generation Apple TV.
plex it has a client-server architecture, let me explain, actually against two applications. On the one hand the server, Plex Media Server, which will be the one in charge of "serving" all of our content and downloading everything necessary to make the experience unmatched. On the other hand, the client, that is, the Plex apps for iOS and Apple TV, through which we can access and view all our content.
I tell you my particular case:
- I installed Plex on my iPad, my iPhone, and my Apple TV 4.
- I installed Plex Media Server on my Mac Mini.
- I have my movies and series stored in a Time Capsule
Step by step: installing Plex
The first will be visit the Plex website and create a user account for us. Once we have done it, touch download Plex Media Server on our Mac.
Open the downloaded application and press the "Move to Applications Folder" button, so the app will go to the applications folder on your Mac. Next, the Plex website will open: log in or, if you don't hack them before, register.
From here the process is very simple, you just have to follow the indicated steps:
- Give your server a name to easily identify it when you access it.
- Leave the two options that you will see on that same screen checked (if you want). With the first you can access from outside the local network, for example, if you are traveling; with the second you will help developers to continue improving the service.
This done, the good comes, organize your content in libraries, and this is really simple, yes, each library can only contain one type of medium: movies, music, photos, series or home videos.
- Press Add Library to create a new library.
- Choose the type of content, for example TV series.
- Give that library a name (I didn't complicate it, I called it "Series").
- Choose a language for the library.
- Press next.
- Add as many folders as you want by locating them on your Mac's disk or on any external drive. In the latter case, it must always be connected to the Mac.
- When you are done, press "Add Library", and while Plex scenes all your content, you can continue adding libraries from other media, for example, if you started with the series, now kick the movies.
Now let work plex, the process can take hours, depending on the amount of content you have. When it's over, you can start enjoying yourself.
Plex on Apple TV
plex it is a free application. You just have to install it from the App Store of your Apple TV 4, open it, identify yourself with your username and password and voilà! All your content will appear on your TV screen.
The main screen will show you all your libraries (the ones you created before), as well as the most recent content you have added or what you are "seeing", so that you can go directly to where you left off.
A curious feature that I love is that when you access a movie or series, in addition to having all the information on the screen, you will hear its soundtrack in the background.
In addition, you can access all your content based on a lot of criteria, genre, decade, year, director, protagonist, country, etc.
Plex on iPhone and iPad
With respect to plex for iOS devices, its operation is just as simple: download the app for free from the App Store, you open it, you identify yourself and there you have your content, however, it has a peculiarity as simple as that it only works as a "remote control" to project, for example, on a Chromecast or on an Apple TV of previous generations, that is, You can't watch a movie on your iPad unless you make a single purchase of € 4,99 which, given its neat interface and its good operation, is not bad at all.
PlexPass
And if you want to get the most out of it, there is something called PlexPass, a subscription ranging from € 4,99 per month to a lifetime account for a single payment of € 149,99. With Plex Pass you can enjoy all this:
Conclusion
plex It is an excellent solution to enjoy all our multimedia content from any device. It is not the only one on the market, there are other solutions of the same style, but different.
In favor:
- Fast synchronization
- Very neat interface
- Automatic content sorting (for example, series seasons)
- Various filtering options
- Lots of extra information for your content
Against:
- You must have the computer where you have installed Plex Media Server turned on, otherwise you will not be able to access the contents.
- Viewing your content on iPhone or iPad requires at least one in-app purchase, something that in other services is free.
MORE INFO | PLEX