Plex: The Best Media Server for Your Mac

Plex is in the TV app store and it works GREAT!In my previous post I briefly mentioned the rolls I configured on my reclaimed Windows XP, (circa 2004) Dell Optiplex that I wiped and rebuilt with Ubuntu 14.04. I got quite a few comments and questions about that diatribe, the most common being questions about how I configured my media server. Obviously, given this post’s title, I chose Plex. Why?

Well, using Plex only happened after a long, arduous journey through a number of software solutions available for a 64 bit Linux machine. I have been a long-time XBMC fan, so it was the first solution I tried, and tried and tried again. More on those tribulations in a moment. For now, suffice to say I picked Plex because of its capability and polish. Plex is a commercial application and while Plex offers free versions, they are what I call “crippleware” that provide only the most basic features. To make Plex sing you’ll need to spend a few bucks, but only a few. How much depends on what you need it to do. I wanted a media server to run on my Linux box whose primary function is serving my movie library to all my computers, set top boxes, iOS and Android devices. That includes Macs, Windows 10 and Windows 7 computers, DirecTV DVRs, iPhones, iPads, AppleTVs and a Nexus 7 Android tablet. That is what differentiates Plex from all the other media servers I experimented with.

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There’s (Virtually) No Such Thing as an Obsolete Computer

Do you have an old computer in a closet or tucked away in storage? Is that machine a Pentium class or better with a 10 gig or larger hard disk? If you answered yes to these questions, then there’s no need to let the thing sit around and collect dust. Turn it into something useful like a VPN-capable network router, remote terminal, web server, network backup machine or media/file server.

The open-source community makes this possible for all but the most antiquated hardware. In fact, if your old PC was built in this millennium and is still in working order, then there’s some flavor of Linux or BSD that will make the old dog fetch again. While doing something like this used to require someone with a pocket protector and bridge-taped glasses, today’s open-source operating system distributions are installable by anyone willing to read a few simple instructions on-line.

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