Plex is the perfect way to watch your library on Apple TV

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Tell me honestly, how many movies per month do you buy or rent from iTunes? And Apple TV owners, do you have more costs for licensed content? Even if we bought every movie or series that is available on the set-top box, we would still continue to store content in the folders of our computers. Not because it's a pity 100 rubles for the rental, but because most of the series, for example, are not dubbed in Russian, and this is a big minus for many. But you can't connect an external drive to Apple TV to watch the next episode. What to do? Alternatively, you can use the excellent Plex app available for Mac, iOS and other platforms.

Surely many of our readers are already familiar with the development and enjoy all its advantages. But there will always be someone who is not yet in the know and, having an Apple TV connected to the TV, continues to watch video from a DVD or external HDD. Down with wires! Stop juggling cables back and forth and copying video from one disc to another.

Plex installs on two devices. In this case, this will be your OS X computer and an iOS device. The server side will be installed on a Mac, and the client side will be installed on a smartphone or tablet. Now we just have to add the necessary categories (movies, TV shows, music …) and folders where media files are stored.

After adding all the necessary folders, Plex will scan their contents, and then pump up the missing posters and descriptions, so as not to get confused for those who like to store dozens of series without deleting them at the end of viewing. All this, of course, is configured in a convenient web interface under an account (have you already registered?).

All that now needs to be done is to open the iOS application under the same account and select the video or music you like. Play starts on the device. I think it's clear what needs to be done to now watch the video on a large TV screen: just turn on AirPlay and start playback on the set-top box.

Unlike the analog that I used before, AirVideo HD, Plex starts playing files noticeably faster and “rewinds” the video quite correctly. You can install the app on all your iOS devices and play content from any of them. It is enough to log in under your account or add a new one in the server settings. A separate accounting is useful for parents who can view statistics in the monitoring, how many, for example, episodes the child watched instead of doing homework.

Unfortunately, more fine-tuning of parental access is possible only on an extended PlexPass account ($ 4.99 per month and $ 39.99 per year). But along with this, you will have other, no less interesting opportunities. For example, watching videos from your computer on a smartphone or tablet over the Internet anywhere, wherever you are. The installed applications for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the next generation consoles will also learn to play content from your computer with a subscription (you can officially download Plex from the consoles' app stores). And also some other possibilities.

But, probably, the main advantage of Plex is its multiplatformity. Plex, it seems, can soon be installed even on microwaves and refrigerators, not to mention smartphones, tablets and computers running OS X, Windows, Linux, TVs of some models and network storages.

- a plugin that allows you to more tightly integrate Plex into Apple TV without jailbreak by spoofing certificates and DNS. Previous versions of iOS for Apple TV used the Trailers app to replace it with Plex. But after this "hole" was closed, users began to replace other installed applications.

Decent, but more expensive, alternative to AirVideo HD, with additional features, cross-platform functionality and good performance. How do you watch movies and TV shows? Share the methods in the comments!

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