Configuring a PLEX Media Server

As a follow-up to my blog, Cutting the Cable and Streaming Everything, this post will cover setting up your own Plex Media Server.

Plex is a powerful and east to use media server you can install on almost any computer to host and playback your media.  Whether it is music, photos, television series, or movies - Plex has you covered!!


THINGS YOU NEED...

To begin you need a computer that will act as your media server.  Plex can run on a Mac, Windows, or Linux computer.  For playback, you'll need the Plex App for whatever device you wish to play your media library back on.  If you won't be streaming anywhere, you could go as bare as connecting your media server to your television and using Plex's web interface.  Going this route, I would recommend getting an inexpensive Bluetooth keyboard, such as the Logitech K400r.  This keyboard comes with the Bluetooth transmitter so if your computer does not have Bluetooth built-in, it will with this keyboard AND it has a built-in two button mouse trackpad so no separate pointing device is needed!  There are also Plex apps for Android, Chromecast, iOS, PlayStation, Roku, Xbox, and several others - you'll have to decide how you want to play/stream your media! 

The minimum requirements for the media server as Plex recommends is this:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor 1.6 GHz or better
• At least 1GB RAM for Windows/Mac OS X
• At least 512MB RAM for Linux
• Windows: Vista SP2 or later
• OS X: Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later (64-bit)
• Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux

The recommended requirements for the media server as Plex recommends is this:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor 2.4 GHz or better
• If transcoding for multiple devices, a faster CPU may be required
• At least 2GB RAM
• Windows: Vista SP2 or later
• OS X: Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later (64-bit)
• Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux

From my own experience, I would not recommend the minimum requirements.  It will work alright with those settings but often I would run into 'buffering' issues.  Don't let that discourage you though, give it a try with the computer you want to use. My media server consists of this (and only has a Windows Experience Index of 1):

• Intel Pentium 4 processor 3.20 Ghz
• 2GB RAM
• 32-bit Windows 7 Professional
• 3 hard drives:
• 32GB primary drive - only Windows and the Plex server program are installed
• 2 storage drives for media only
• 2TB secondary drive
• 3TB tertiary drive

What I found made my media server perform the best wasn't more memory or processing power, it was an upgrade to my network router!  Refer back to an earlier post titled "Shopping for a Home Wireless Access Point or Router?" and scroll to the middle of the article to the Netgear R6300 if you want to read more about my router.  Upgrading my router made all the difference in the world, my buffering issue are rare now, video playback is near HD quality - I keep the streaming quality at 4 Mbps, 720p for local.  Remote and Web playback quality is set at 1.5Mbps, 480p.


WHAT YOU DO NEXT...

Next you need to get your media in order.  This process can take a relatively short amount of time or a long time just depends on how much you have at the moment!

I am going to assume your media is all stored on DVDs.  To get them off of your disc and on your computer as a file, you'll need a DVD ripping tool such as Freemake Video Converter.  When you open this program, click on the DVD button and for what you want to convert the media to I have found the FLV files playback better than MP4, AVI, or MKV.  Especially when streaming to devices over the Internet.

After you have your media converted you need to setup folders and sub-folders and file names in a certain way for the media server to be able to index it properly.  Plex has a rather well documented section for the best way to do this.  You can find this information by clicking this link.  An example of how this should be structured, check out the following example pictures for sections on movies, music and television:

For movies:

For music:

For television:

Overview of all of the structure of all the main folders:

 As you can see each section has is its own folder (see the overview image immediately above) and within those sections is first a folder titled what it is (either a movie with the year it was released in parenthesis, television series, or in the case of music is the artist - album name).  The folder inside the first is either the name of the movie again with the year of release, the season of the tv series, or the name of the song.  The third level, is for television series, the files there are named by the show title followed by a series number and episode number.  For help on naming you can also refer to the Online TV Database, there you can find the season and episode numbers if you need it.

I highly recommend taking your time and getting this set up before moving forward.  There is a lot of up front work but once you get this done, any media you add after this will be simple and easy!!  When I first configured my Plex server I didn't know about the proper naming rules and went my own way about it.  I ended up with one confused media server when it came to television series.  Movies I got it right, I didn't have the year of release and that messed up a small number of listings. 


PLEX MEDIA SERVER...

OK, so you have your computer ready and now go to www.plex.tv, click on the downloads link at the top of the screen.  Click the "Computer" button for the Plex Media Server to go to the screen to choose your operating system and download the software.  Once downloaded, begin the installation program and follow the default settings.

 If Plex does not automatically launch when completed,  right click on the Plex icon in the system tray (down by the clock) and select Media Manager.  Since this is your first time opening interface the Plex Setup Wizard will appear.

So the basic setup happens.  It asks for some simple information at the start.  It wants you to name the server, connect your server to Plex to be able to access it when not at home.  And asks if you want to send any anonymous data back to Plex for helping improve the program.  

After this you are greeted with a screen to add a library.  Go ahead and begin! 

1. Click the  Add Library button
2. Choose the appropriate Library Type
3. Name the Library if the default name doesn't suit you
4. Click Next
5. Click Add Folder
6. Browse for the folder to add
7. Choose Add once done
8. Add additional folders if required in the same way
9. If necessary, set the Advanced Options
10. Once done, click Add Library
11. The Library is created and the media found will be added to the database

If you need or want more information regarding Creating Libraries, click this link which will take you to a Plex article.

For now, skip Channels and continue with the setup wizard.  For more information on channels click this link.

Once the setup wizard has finished, the server will begin scanning your media and creating the Plex libraries.  Depending on how much media you have, this could take a matter of minutes or hours. 

 
Congratulations!!  You have a running media server with the capability to streaming to your cell phone, tablet, computer, from anywhere where you have an Internet connection.  For home use, I would recommend either getting a Roku box connected to your television.  See my article on Cutting the Cable and Streaming Everything to see how Plex is one of several things that can help you save money each month!

If you would like more detailed instructions, you can find that at Plex website by clicking this link. 

Cutting the Cable and Streaming Everything

Are you tired of paying high monthly subscription fees to the satellite or cable company fortelevision?  If so, read on!

I often am asked if there are alternatives to satellite or cable television.  The answer is, yes... several.  The first alternative is to watch only OTA (over the air) television.  Depending on where you live, the financial impact of you wallet may be just a few dollars if you live in the city of Chicago, IL for a inside the home digital television antenna and possibly up to a hundred bucks or more if you live in rural Pittsburg, KS for an attic or outside mounted antenna.  Don't underestimate the digital OTA service, there are (depending on your location) quite a lot of stations broadcasting!  Last time I connected a digital antenna to my television and scanned for the channels in my area there were close to two dozen channels!

However, where I live I cannot have an attic mount or outside antenna and an inside antenna has to be power amplified antenna which picks up quite a few stations but not without distortions.  So I opted into to go to Internet streaming for television and here is what I did and the route I suggest when asked for options other than satellite or cable television.

I recommend using a Roku 3 and subscribing to a couple streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and USTVnow.  All three streaming services can be subscribed to for less than $50 a month!  And if you don't want to spend a dime there are hundreds of free streaming services available on the Roku.  The Roku 3 has been out since 2013 and it is faster than the other Roku models, has a few more features and while it is currently in beta mode has a mirroring feature similar to Apple TV.  And while I don't make use of it, the Roku boxes also have games that can be added and the remote acts as a gaming remote - it reminds me of a Nintendo Wii remote.

For streaming services, I use USTVnow, Hulu Plus and Netflix.  I have found that Netflix is rarely used in our household, except by my son, so I'm tempted to cancel the service. USTVnow is an excellent website and channel for Roku.  While it is geared for Americans living abroad, I live in a far suburb community of Indianapolis and have never been abroad.  I've used their services for the past three years and have been very pleased with it.  Since a digital antenna doesn't perform well where I live they provide me for my "local" channels.  Ah, you ask..why'd he put that quotes?  Good question and the reason is, they are local if I lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  This doesn't bother me, it is the same television shows on their system as it would be if I were on an antenna only thing that doesn't apply to me is the news.  Along with ABC, CBS, CW, NBC, FOX, they also, for the same $29 a month (USD), provide some basic cable channels like AMC, History, Nickelodeon, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, etc.there are twenty-five channels all together for a little over a dollar per channel a month.  And if you are ever away from home, you can use your smart phone, laptop, or tablet to sign into the website and still watch your programming - if you want.

I won't really go into details on Netflix and Hulu Plus because they are pretty well-known services.
Both cost, at the time of this post, $7.99 a month (USD) and each contain a pretty decent library of movies and television shows.

Lastly, I have my own media server running the PLEX media system on an old Dell Optiplex
computer.  With this system I have converted my large DVD library into media files on the computer that I can stream to all four of my Roku boxes, my tablet, gaming consoles, and cell phone.  Meaning I can watch a movie or listen to my music from anywhere with a decent wifi connection or use my data on my cell phone if there is no wifi available.  I won't go into much more on this and will instead make it a future blog post!

All streaming services, of course, require internet access from home.  Whether you keep the cable just for its high speed broadband service or live close enough to be able to use DSL or even better live in a location to get Fiber To The Home (FTTH) you will need the internet.

You might wonder why I didn't speak much of or don't recommend the Apple TV.  This is all personal opinion, but in my experiences with Apple TVs over the last three years I find them not reliable and too closed.  Straight out of the box you don't get a "channel store" so the only channels you get is what Apple wants you to have.  I haven't tried, but I've read that if you 'jailbreak' an Apple TV not only do you void its warranty but you can then add channels that aren't 'stock'.  The Apple TV is also slow to respond and its interface is a rather bit clunky.  The remote is very basic and very small = easy to misplace.  The remote also uses infrared, so you have to point it directly at the Apple TV, where on a Roku the remote uses radio freqency and I can take the remote to the master bedroom closet (about 60 feet away) and still change channels.  Also means I don't have to hold the remote and point it at my Roku.  It'll be awhile before I am sold on an Apple TV.