Plex is a stunning piece of software. Put simply, it lets you stream your media anywhere in the world, on any device, whenever you want. But there is so much more to it than that…
We covered the software’s basicsYour Guide To Plex - The Awesome Media CenterYour Guide To Plex - The Awesome Media CenterIf you have a lot of locally-saved movies and TV shows, you need to install Plex. And this is the only guide to getting started with Plex you'll ever need to read.Read More back in 2012, and although that guide is now a little dated, it will still help you get up and running if you’re a complete novice.
Sep 14, 2017 - Plex will download additional content and metadata based on those names. You can't edit the filter options once you save the playlist.
This article moves things on one step further – as we show you some of the best tips and tricks guaranteed to help you supercharge your Plex experience.
1. Install the Unsupported AppStore
This is hardly an unknown trick, but it’s still surprising how many Plex users do not take advantage of it.
The store gives you access to hundreds of TV channels and video-on-demand services that are not available natively.
Explaining how to get it working is beyond the scope of this article, but luckily for you, we covered the installation instructions along with some of its best channels20 Unofficial Plex Channels and Plugins You Should Install Right Now20 Unofficial Plex Channels and Plugins You Should Install Right NowWant to unlock more Plex plugins? We show you how to access 20 of the best Plex channels to watch via the Unsupported AppStore.Read More in a previous article.
2. Bilingual Movie Libraries
Did you know you can link several folders to one library? This has loads of advantages – probably the most obvious of which is bilingual movie libraries. Allow me to explain.
Let’s say, for example, that you are fluent in both English and Spanish. It’s highly likely that you’ll have some English-language audio movies, some with dual audio, and some Spanish-only.
Organize your folders like this:
- Folder One – English
- Folder Two – Bilingual
- Folder Three – Spanish
Then create two libraries – one for English and one for Spanish.
The English library pulls content from folders one and two with the language set to English, while the Spanish library pulls from folders two and three with the language set to Spanish.
If you have family and friends around who only speak one of the two languages, they can browse the relevant library and only see content they’d be able to watch.
3. Don’t Go Channel Crazy
New Plex users will eagerly work their way through both the native channel store and the Unsupported AppStore adding anything which looks remotely interesting. I am guilty of doing this myself. However, it’s the wrong approach to take.
Not only are you highly unlikely to ever need all those channels, they can considerably impact on your experience by hindering the performance of the media server in terms of processor load and the weird bugs that sometimes creep into dead channels.
You’re better choosing five or six of the most appealing channels and sticking with them.
4. Use The Plex File-Naming Scheme
Okay, hands up, how many of you have movie and music libraries with no rhyme or reason to their naming structureIt’s Time To Organize Your Music Collection: Tag & Rename Them With TagScannerIt’s Time To Organize Your Music Collection: Tag & Rename Them With TagScannerI don’t like to see things out of place. Lately, my music collection has been. Thankfully, there are many music organization tools that can ease the spadework if one is falling behind. MP3Tag was my..Read More?
This is already a bad idea from an organizational standpoint, but for Plex it’s an absolute nightmare.
Why? Because Plex uses scanners and metadata agents to automatically pull episode details, cover art, and other associated details into your library. It gives you a richer experience and makes in-app navigation much easier.
Details of how to name each individual type of content can be found on the Plex website.
5. Use Multiple Servers
It’s a common misconception that you can only have one server per household setup – you can actually have as many as you want. In fact, only using one server is not prudent.
What happens if you’re away from home with your laptop (which acts as the server) and your family want to watch something? Or what if you’ve got all your music on your laptop, but don’t want to keep hundreds of gigabytes of movies on the same machine? Or maybe your partner has a very different taste in TV series and wants to watch their stuff on the same Roku app?
Data backup for small business. Cloud backup services for businesses work by providing customers with access to shared, software-defined, virtualized storage infrastructure. This lets providers create a large pool of data. Unfortunately, of the small businesses that do make data backup and recovery planning a priority, many view data recovery through too small a lens. Typically they think of computer crashes, lost devices, and maybe a localized weather event.
No problem – just download and set up the Plex Media Server on any computer/network drive you want.
6. Focus on CPU for the Best Plex Experience
Heavy Plex users might find themselves in the market for a new computer and will want to ensure the machine they purchase can maximize their Plex experience. The answer is to focus your hunt on CPU rather than GPU.
Testing reveals that Plex hardly uses any GPU, but a faster processor can make a huge difference.
7. Cut the Cord, Buy Plex Pass
At $149.99, a lifetime Plex PassMaking The Best Media Center Better, With a Plex Pass [Giveaway]Making The Best Media Center Better, With a Plex Pass [Giveaway]Love Plex? You'll love a Plex Pass even more. With new and exclusive features only for Plex Pass holders, it's the best way to support development of the best media centre app around.Read More doesn’t sound cheap – but how expensive is one month of your cable subscription? Exactly.
If you’re one of the increasing number of people who are turning to Plex as a cord-cutting solutionCut the Cord Forever With These 15 TV Streaming ChannelsCut the Cord Forever With These 15 TV Streaming ChannelsCable TV is in decline, as the internet provides cheap, on-demand entertainment. Here are 15 of the best TV streaming services to help you cut the cord.Read More, it’s well-worth the investment – especially if you have a large family.
That’s because a Plex Pass opens up a vast number of cool features, including:
- Mobile syncing for offline playback
- Parental controls
- Multiple users and managed accounts
- Wireless syncing of your phone/tablet content
- Timed music lyrics
- Content flinging between devices
But do you really need a Plex Pass5 Reasons Why You Don't Need a Plex Pass5 Reasons Why You Don't Need a Plex PassDo you actually need a Plex Pass? Is a Plex Pass worth it? Here are several reasons why you may not actually need the subscription.Read More?
8. Pre-Encode All Of Your Media
Plex comes with its own transcoderHow to Get Smoother Playback on Plex With a Simple FixHow to Get Smoother Playback on Plex With a Simple FixPlex is awesome but the quality isn't always perfect. Here's a neat fix you can use to get optimized quality at all times.Read More. In layman’s terms, that means it will convert any media in your libraries into a format that’s compatible with the client deviceAll You Need to Know about Video Codecs, Containers, and CompressionAll You Need to Know about Video Codecs, Containers, and CompressionExplaining the difference between codecs and containers is relatively simple, but hard part is attempting to understand each format.Read More.
Which sounds great, but it isn’t without its downsides. For example, it will put a serious strain on your CPU, fast-moving movie scenes can become pixelated, and sometimes you’ll come across weird audio or visual bugs where the transcoding has gone awry.
The solution is to pre-encode all the videos into a format that’s compatible with the devices you use. To convert your video, try a free tool like AVC.
Note: Remember, you can have multiple copies of one video – so you could have one version specifically optimized for your iPad, one for your Roku, and so on.
Share Your Tips With the Class!
These eight tips and tricks will set you on the path towards Plex superstardom, but there are plenty of other ways of squeezing more out of Plex. Did you know that you can watch and record live TV with Plex DVRHow to Watch and Record Live TV With Plex DVRHow to Watch and Record Live TV With Plex DVRIn this article, we show you how to watch and record live TV using Plex DVR, a solid option for cord cutters everywhere.Read More?
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- The section about GPUs not being utilized in PLEX is VERY inaccurate. There is an entire video series on youtube explaining how powerful certain GPUs are for hardware transcoding. From a best bang for your buck perspective, this guy shows you how powerful a Quadro P2000 is when transcoding in plex. I think he got 30 h265 transcodes to work simultaneously while using very LITTLE electricity (huge cost when running a server in your house)
- For stability and overall reliability, stay mainstream! Forget about hardware encoding and new codecs until they are mainstream.
Do the math. X amount of transcoded streams require Z processor speed PERIOD. Purchase the server accordingly OR only expect a realistic load from what you have.
see link -> https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043-What-kind-of-CPU-do-I-need-for-my-Server-
Pre-encoding is only going to be a plus if you intend using the same exact quality (for local and remote) for all your media and all clients are compatible with it. (not very flexible).
Expect, generally, on the most part for local streams to be direct play and remote to be transcoded.
Boost speed by operating Plex from SSD and even the transcode folder from a RAM drive. The SSD decreases loading time and the RAM drive speeds up buffering and in-stream tracking when jumping around in a media file. (personally tested)
Hardwire anything related to plex, server and clients, with Ethernet, AKA no wifi. In my experience wifi was the cause of most playback issues like buffering.
Don't surf with your plex server and risk viruses and malware contamination.
Choose wisely on the client. Highly suggested clients are Roku, RaspberrPi with OpenELEC, most mobile apps for iOS/Droid and the classic browser interface. Light weight ones like the fire stick work only ok and are clunky, choppy, clumsy and even wonkey to operate.
Plex servers can be rented on remotely hosted services and are sometimes even packaged with torrent software than can provide additional streams. Usually not cheap!
As of now, the cable tuner DVR is not so great being that DRM content is not available (DRM channels are likely the ones you want), so go with the HDTV/OTA tuners. It's better quality video and 0 monthly fees. Get a good antenna.
To restrict content to the users, separating the media types and making each user have their own login allows you to only share the appropriate libraries with each user. Example, adult content can be shared with mom and dad but not the kids, but the kids can have the cartoon library while everyone has the tv shows.
Get the best suited quality of media file right from the start, like downloaded content. If you can't even support a 4K video don't get it! I suggest 720 for tv shows and 1080 for movies even though they can vary greatly. You will get a feel for what bitrate plays best so try and stick with that and you may end up trancoding much less often.best of luck,,
Chuck - For #8: using x264, aac, .mp4 is the most universal format. Every device I've tried to stream to supports that natively and this prevents the CPU from having to transcode (I have a My Cloud EX2 Ultra and this helps drastically).
- Good call. That too is what I do and have.
- it a very nice
well done• Can run on almost all Windows computers. The amateurs also can take advantage from this productive tool. • Powerful video editing tool. Sony vegas pro 13 download. Features of Sony Vegas Pro 13 Below are some noticeable features which you’ll experience after Sony Vegas Pro 13 free download. - 1. Media pre-encoding is a huge waste of disk space if you have a decent CPU and/or keep your files in high quality codecs and container formats. Why limit your enjoyment to 3Mbps MPEG2 videos with stereo-only audio because that's all the lame-o ARM-based Plex clients you're using will support? Get a Plex Media Server with a decent CPU.Roughly speaking, a reasonably new 4-thread x86 CPU can transcode two 1080p videos in real time. If you have more mobile, remote or set-top clients than that, either add another server or move up to something that supports more threads. US Residents can get a lease-returned Core i5 business desktop for all of $150 that's a perfectly good Plex Server. An nVidia Shield set top box, unique among ARM-based Plex Media Servers, can also handle two real time transcoding sessions.Transcoding is not necessary for local (i.e. on the same LAN) clients that directly support playback of the format in question. My FireTVs can even handle x.265 at 10 - 12Mbps without transcoding.2. PlexPass isn't THAT exciting. I have one. I bought it to support the developers. I don't think I've ever used it for anything besides novelty. Syncing videos on to mobile devices isn't that exciting (it's faster and in my opinion easier to do it outside of Plex unless you have iOS clients).An easy way to set up Parental Controls without PlexPass? Sort your content into age-appropriate folders and create separate libraries. I was doing that anyway.2.5 Make more than one user for your Plex Server. Especially if you have a kid who can access it. Plex tracks what you've watched and what you haven't. You don't need to know how far along the kid is into Steven Universe and the kid doesn't know that you've been paused at around the 45:00 mark of Showgirls for the last three years.3. If your Media Server's Operating System supports Symbolic Links (i.e. it's anything but Windows XP), you can also create folders and therefore libraries that don't easily align with Plex's default sorting. I create a library I call 'Geek Movies' that just has things like Star Wars and Marvel movies in it so they're faster to navigate to, even though those movies are all in my normal 'Movies' library as well.You'd have to read how to create symlinks on your Plex Media Server OS of choice, but it's at least possible on just about anything that would be a decent computer at this point.4. Not all Plex Clients are created equal. Some of them are pretty lame.The Samsung and LG WebOS Smart TV clients are both god-awful, for example, but the Windows Store Plex app is really nice. Some devices basically access Plex Media Servers or shared libraries as a DLNA server, which means getting giant lists of files with no fancy presentation. If you're serious about using Plex, get a decent client.5. There are some things that will be a mess no matter how you try to handle naming conventions. TV shows that have half-seasons or that include webisodes or DVD extras will confuse the Plex media scrapers to no end. Other times there's enough debate about episode order between Airdate and DVD ordering (Animaniacs) or just flat-out confusion about how things should be ordered that anything you decide to do will probably be wrong, even if you follow Plex guidelines. There could be scholarly papers written about how to deal with Doctor Who. Just accept that sometimes stuff will be wrong. As you find those things, you can fix them. Make sure the people on your server know to tell you something isn't right.6. Use Kodi instead for local viewing. If you have the option of watching via Kodi or watching via Plex, use Kodi. It's vastly more configurable, has a better and much more consistent interface. I really don't even use my Plex Media Server in my home, because I have Kodi clients everywhere I have Plex clients. Plex clients often don't support high quality (e.g. DTS) audio where Kodi will usually at least try to pass it through to my receiver or speakers.7. Plex is bad at music. Still. Even with a Plex Pass and the 'Premium Music Experience.' They say it's better. They're lying. Something that helped me a lot was to change the default music scraper for my music libraries to Local Media Assets. That way, Plex will look at the ID3 tags on your actual music file rather than poorly guessing what your files are and being wrong half the time. The original reason I set up a Plex Media Server in the first place was to get a nice presentation for my music, but this is in my opinion still its weakest area.
- Where do you get this $150 business computer? Very interested.
- Many local and national computer stores carry used computers that are 'off lease'. Call some of your local stores or check with chains such as MicroCenter or Tiger Direct.Here in Atlanta, Delta Computers has 'off lease' Dell computers for $150.
- Why create symlinks when you have 'Collections' this does the same thing.
- For consistency in and out of Plex, especially if at any point you have to rebuild your server.
- For naming of video files, I use TVRenamer for TV shows (as the name implies) and Filebot for movies and TV shows that TVRenamer wont get. Filebot will also let you download srt files.
TVRenamer takes some setting up, but in the end it is well worth the time spent to do so.
After it is set up, you can create a batch file (.bat) to automate it with one double click of the batch file shortcut. Poof! TV shows renamed and moved to appropriate folders.- I would suggest Couchpotato for movies and Medusa for tv shows. They can run ideally in the background and you just set up a folder to dump things in and they will rename and sort them where you tell them too. Makes life so much easier.
- Don't forget that you can use their Media Optimizer if you don't want to use other tools to pre-encode your videos:
Plex organizes all of your video, music, and photo collections, and gives you instant access to them on all of your devices. With the free Plex Media Server (download for free at www.plex.tv/downloads) software on your home computer and Plex for Windows, you can enjoy all of your personal media on your Windows device and easily share it with friends and family. Plex also makes your media look beautiful with rich descriptions, artwork, and other related information. With an optional premium Plex Pass subscription, you can even sync videos, music, and photos to your smartphones and tablets to enjoy while offline. Parental controls, premium music features, music videos, trailers and extras, and powerful management tools are also part of our premium offering. Getting up and running is fast and simple, so get started now! Free functionality • Unlimited playback of on-device video and photos. • Fling unlimited photos and videos from your Plex Media Server (available for free at https://plex.tv/downloads) and the Camera Roll on your phone or tablet to other supported Plex apps, such as Roku, Android TV, Fire TV, Xbox One, and other apps. Limitations of the free app • Playing media from your Plex Media Server on the device running this app is limited (one minute for music and video, watermark on photos) until the app is unlocked. Unlock full functionality • Unlock unlimited streaming to your Windows device with a Plex Pass subscription that includes many other premium features (available at https://plex.tv/plexpass) -OR- a small one-time in-app purchase. Here are some ways that Plex makes your media experience awesome: • Makes your media beautiful with artwork, descriptions, and more • Automatically converts your media on-the-fly to play on any device • Makes sharing your media with friends and family simple and easy • Plex Pass feature: Sync media to your phone or tablet for offline viewing. • Plex Pass feature: Sync media to your favorite cloud provider including Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, so you can stream media even when your server is offline. • Plex Pass feature: Online Trailers and Extras for the movies in your collection! • Lets you browse, fling, and control your media on most Plex apps • Gives you access to a wide range of online channels such as TED Talks, Revision3, and TWiT • Enables you to queue online videos from sites like Vimeo and YouTube and then Watch Later on any device Other features include*: • Accessibility: Connect to your Plex Media Server wherever you are, whenever you want • Plex Home: Use customized, managed accounts, and restrict content those users can access • Camera Upload: Automatically upload your photos from your device to your Plex Media Server • Mobile Sync: Sync media to your phone or tablet for offline viewing • Security: Enjoy your media away from home, knowing connection is securely encrypted • Plex Mix: Kick off a playlist of similar and related tracks from your collection at any time • Rotten Tomatoes: See how your movie collection ranks with ratings from Rotten Tomatoes • Related Movies and TV shows: Easily find similar movies based on selections in your library • Top Movies: View top movies by genre, director, and actor • Movie Extras and Music Videos: Access trailers, extras, and music videos from your libraries *Please note, some features are only available to Plex Pass subscribers. IMPORTANT: In cases where you have trouble, we're interested in assisting through our forums (https://forums.plex.tv/), so that things can be investigated and resolved to benefit all users. NOTE: PLEX FOR WINDOWS IS CURRENTLY NOT COMPATIBLE WITH GOOGLE CHROMECAST. YOU MUST HAVE A PLEX MEDIA SERVER (AVAILABLE FOR FREE AT https://plex.tv/downloads) INSTALLED AND RUNNING TO STREAM MEDIA TO THIS APP. SERVER VERSION 0.9.8.14 OR HIGHER IS REQUIRED. DRM-protected content (such as video from the iTunes store), ISO disc images, and VIDEO_TS folders are not supported. DTS audio and some subtitle formats are not supported for Direct Play, and will be transcoded. Connecting to a Plex Media Server on the local machine requires a loopback exemption due to Windows application sandboxing.