As it turned out, the flat folder structure I had grown to love wouldn’t cut it anymore so I used a mass file renaming utility called Filebot (which I strongly encourage) to rename everything to the necessary format.
Plex requires that your media to be in a specific format for it to parse movie and episode names from the filenames and folders in which they reside. It’s also a good idea to backup your content if you can before having Plex scan the media folders. You can alternatively use the Plex viewer app for your platform to perform the server configuration and maintenance as well. HowToGeek has a great how-to guide on setting it up and running.Īll of the configuration is available to you via a web browser at once you have it installed and running. Setting up Plex is fairly straight-forward thanks to the effort that has gone into the installer setup and the configuration walk-through on first-run.
What this means is that you can install Plex Media Server on your main content storage device (most likely a server or PC of some kind running on your network) and can stream it to any Plex viewer app available (on iOS, Android, RasPlex, etc.) Setup # With our easy-to-install Plex Media Server software and your Plex apps, available on all your favorite phones, tablets, streaming devices, gaming consoles, and smart TVs, you can stream your video, music, and photo collections any time, anywhere, to any device. Plex is like mission control for your personal media collections. Here’s a quote from the Plex site explaining how it works: It manages and allows you to stream your content on your local network, across the internet, and to almost every device you own (excluding your toaster, but maybe your Samsung fridge). Let’s start with Plex: it’s the one piece of this setup that brings it all together and adds tremendous value.
How to use a DSLR or mirrorless camera as a webcam Plex Media Server # I also don’t take into consideration using a NAS (more on that at the end).
It goes without saying but also make sure to search the forums first before posting on them!Ī note before continuing: I am writing this with Windows 10 in mind, but most of the apps have other ways you can install them on various OSs, your mileage may vary ✌️.
If you ever feel confused about anything, all of the applications mentioned here have great communities, and are very receptive to new people joining them, asking questions, and getting help.
The upgrade in hardware allowed me to consolidate a tonne of physical and digital space to a single machine that can do the heavy lifting of multiple machines. This was primarily because the seedbox machine needed to be running on a dedicated VPN, while the Plex machine needed access to the internet unfettered (for Remote Access to work properly without workarounds). The previous iteration of my setup saw two separate physical machines with one running as the “seedbox”, and the other running everything else. Since I wrote this guide, I’ve moved through a few slightly different setups and settled on one that I really enjoy: a single “server” running Windows 10 Pro, and on it runs several Virtualbox VMs in headless mode for the various services required. I’ve recently rebuilt my aging “server”, upgrading it from a marginally-OK gaming machine without virtualization built in 2012 to a fairly beefy dedicated server build. This is an affiliate link it helps support keeping my website content up to date.