Plex jumps into VR on Google Daydream headsets

Posted on 24/01/2018 by Engadget RSS Feed

Last year Plex's reach extended to cover live TV and automobiles, so in 2018 the company is jumping into yet another platform: virtual reality. As it has done before, the company brought in the developer of a community project, Plevr, to work on the...

Plex makes its adaptive streaming tech available to all

Posted on 04/10/2017 by Engadget RSS Feed

If you own a giant personal media collection (legally or otherwise), few services are as useful as Plex. The media server and streaming apps combo makes it easy to watch your favorite movies and TV shows from anywhere, and on any device. Now, the com...

Netgear’s new Nighthawk router doubles as a Plex server

Posted on 19/10/2016 by Engadget RSS Feed

Video streaming is becoming one of the main things we do on the internet, and few things in life are more annoying than having to wait for a clip to finish buffering. To keep up with our growing appetites for speed, Netgear has unveiled the Nighthawk...

NVIDIA’s Shield is now an all-in-one Plex box

Posted on 09/06/2016 by Engadget RSS Feed

Everybody loves Plex, but it's always been a stumbling point for novice users that it still needs a dedicated, always-on PC to run the show. Thanks to the power of NVIDIA's Shield TV, that's no longer the case, and Plex has revealed that the device c...

Plex comes to the new Apple TV for free

Posted on 02/11/2015 by Richard Lawler

The Plex team just delivered the first version of its media streaming app for the new Apple TV. Now that there's an app store, Plex's media player is accessible without any jailbreaking or even AirPlay sidestepping necessary and better yet, it's fr...

Plex updates Media Server software and highlights PlexConnect Apple TV client hack

Posted on 07/06/2013 by Richard Lawler

Plex adds multiuser support and more to Media Server, highlights Apple TV client hack

The team behind the Plex media playback package seems to rarely rest, and has most recently pushed an update to the server end of the software. Now up to version 0.9.8 and nearing the lofty 1.0 tag, Plex Media Server is finally offering proper multiuser support, giving each user their own view state. That means your kids can have their own account, for example, with access to only certain silos of content. Even better, the Web, iOS, Android and Roku clients are already prepared for this, and the others are getting updates soon, although it's currently only enabled for PlexPass subscribers. Also new is a "now playing" status which carries more importance thanks to the previously mentioned multiuser feature, all viewable through Plex/Web or accessible via the API. The last major change is that it can create video index file that drops in thumbnails for each section of a video. That enables image previews while navigating on the Roku, and thumbnails of progress in that new now playing feature.

On the client end, the Plex blog highlighted an interesting project called PlexConnect which runs on the Apple TV. While that's not new by itself, the twist here is that it works on Apple TV second and even third generation boxes without the need for a jailbreak. This bit of magic is apparently achieved by spoofing Apple's Trailer app, which means it requires firmware 5.0 or higher to work. It doesn't have all the features of other clients (yet) and it will require a bit of Terminal know-how to get running, but there's plenty of information in the wiki to get you started.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Plex Media Server, PlexConnect

Plex Media Server update brings web client for all, new PlexPass-only feature teased (update: PlexSync)

Posted on 20/11/2012 by Richard Lawler

When Plex rolled out its PlexPass subscription that offered paying customers access to some new features as they were being developed, a new web client was first in line. Now an update to its Media Server is available that brings it to all users, along with a slew of other fixes and tweaks including improved photo access, transcoder management and increased subtitle support over DLNA. If you are on PlexPass however, now that the Plex/Web feature has escaped over the paywall the blog post teases a "mystery feature" set to debut tomorrow. Hit the source link for the full changelog and instructions on how to access everything.

Update: The new PlexPass-exclusive feature is "PlexSync", that lets users flag content in their library to be automatically reformatted and loaded on their iOS (or Android, soon) device. There's several filters included to manage what content gets sideloaded plus APIs for developers, check the new blog post for more details.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Plex (1), (2)

Plex launches new Web Client and PlexPass subscription, updates Media Server

Posted on 31/08/2012 by Jon Fingas

Plex fans among us just got treated to a smorgasbord -- albeit one that isn't completely free. The media front-end developer hopes to boost its bottom line through PlexPass, a subscription service that amounts to a paid beta program. Shell out $4 per month and you'll get early access to in-development features, including a slate of premium-only extras during their incubation phase. One of the more ordinary (if important) features is going live today: a revamped Web Client not only rivals the native OS X app for speed but offers full media playback on top of the usual queue management. Whether you subscribe or not, you'll want to get an updated Media Server app that supports both PlexPass and the new client along with improving the server's behavior in several areas, such as lowering its memory use and supporting RTMP transcoding. We hope Plex keeps enough components on the free side of the fence as time goes on. For now, at least, we'll see the paid model as a way for loyalists to reward a company that has been powering their home theater PCs for years.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, HD

Plex launches new Web Client and PlexPass subscription, updates Media Server originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plex Media Server beta adds DLNA support, streams to PS3, Xbox 360, WP7 and more

Posted on 30/03/2012 by Richard Lawler

Using Plex as your media server software is great, with its ability to organize and transcode media for playback on a variety of devices, but what about platforms that still lack a compatible client? The freshest beta version of Plex Media Server fixes that by supporting DLNA, making it compatible right out of the box with many of the HDTVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other connected devices released recently. There are some limitations when it's being used this way in terms of metadata and subtitle support, but we're pretty sure being able to access Plex at all from devices like the PS3 (as shown above), Xbox 360 and WDTV Live (the profiles it's been tested with so far) is worth it. Also featured in the beta is support for Silverlight Smooth Streaming, which comes in handy for the new Windows Phone 7 client app (Update: If you're not seeing it yet don't worry you're not alone, it's been approved by Microsoft and should be live soon, check the forum thread linked below for more information). Check out the blog post for all the details or just head to the download page to try it out yourself if you're on a Windows PC or Mac -- Linux builds are still being tested.

Plex Media Server beta adds DLNA support, streams to PS3, Xbox 360, WP7 and more originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.