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From Plexapp:
Plex bridges the gap between your Mac and your home theater, doing so with a visually appealing user interface that provides instant access to your media. Plex can play a wide range of video, audio and photo formats as well as online streaming audio and video. The real power of Plex is found in its library features: Organize your media into versatile libraries, automatically retrieve metadata from the Internet, and display your libraries using one of the visually stunning skins.
What's new in this version:
- NEW: Developer ID-signed for Mountain Lion.
- NEW: (OS X) Support for Crystal HD
- NEW: Allow forcing transcoding on local networks (good for older clients).
- FIX: Fix a crash when playing video over VNC.
- FIX: Apple remote keymap was incorrect in Now Playing window.
- FIX: (OS X) Many fixes for optical/HDMI audio output.
- FIXSee all new features
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All versions:
2.9 starsout of 19 votes
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Current version:
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"Not As Easy As It Looks..."
Version: Plex 0.9.3.4
Pros
Easy to pin Internet videos from any site to watch later
Cons
Never able to watch videos from hard drive but I can see them in My Plex account
Could only watch videos I pinned on internet with my computer onSummary
I seen 5-Star ratings on Roku for streaming like Air Play.
I have used these types of apps before for iPad to view content from my computer hard drive as long as both share the same router. Those apps were easy compared to Plex. I installed the apps on my computer and Roku and set up an account on Plex website and created a bookmark to tag videos in my browser. Everything works except the viewing video from my computer hard drive part. I see the videos on the website but Roku doesn't see them even when manually setting ports and entering it's address. I could view the web videos that work very good. I trusted them but allowing Plex to scan my hard drive and yet I couldn't do what I set out to do and watch videos from the computer. The web videos were only available with the computer on and I had lost the link twice and had to generate a pin, go to the web site enter it to reconnect. This is a good idea but it's not ready for prime time with the headaches users have to go through to view videos. I'm back to saving videos on the USB drive and plugging them into Roku. Safe and secure. -
"complete solution = sign your life away"
Version: Plex 0.9.3.4
Pros
seems to promise a richer movie experience?
Cons
difficult to understand and get support.
complicated and heavy.Summary
I was attracted to this by the idea of watching netflix on my laptop with a better experience than firefox. But I could not figure out if I needed the server, the client or both. DEspite several hours research, I couldn't find the info on their 'wiki' and their instructions to add plug-ins did not work with whichever app it was i downloaded (not labeled on the app, just says 'plex'). after attempts web research, wiki research, forum research, chat-room (unanswered), and forum posts (standard response, watch the videos), I am giving up. From what little I can tell, the netflix plugin (I gues there is only one available but i could not even get this straight!) doesn't work well anyway. I was not interested to stream to a TV, ipad or iphone, so these aspects do not count in my review.
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"Takes Over and Slows Down"
Version: Plex 0.9.3.4
Pros
Great idea
Cons
Launches itself, and doesn't fully shut off even when you Quit. Causes Safari to hang because it's hogging bandwidth waiting in the background. GUI wants you to use keyboard, but you have to use mouse to hit icons on toolbar and it can be difficult to get the pointer back onscreen. I tried for a week and gave up.
Summary
I keep reading great reviews, but I think this bites
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"Too much stuff, hard to uninstall"
Version: Plex 0.9.3.4
Pros
Looks nice, has lots of features. Probably great if you have a computer dedicated to TV/media.
Cons
Tries to take over your life by installing things that start up on their own. And hard to uninstall.
Summary
Nice interface/graphics, and has tons of features but it was too much stuff for me. And for some reason it installs a "media server" that launches by default whenever you start your Mac. That irritated me enough that I decided to uninstall the whole thing, but instructions to do so aren't included and requires a bit of searching to find out how.
Also I was hoping Netflix would work better than it does in a web browser (Silverlight seems to make my computer overheat and drain the battery) but Plex offers no improvement. Boxee for mac uses less of your CPU power for Netflix but has problems of its own when it comes to browsing for movies. -
"Phenomenal Software"
Version: Plex 0.9.2.3
Pros
Plays most kind of media, streams from any Mac or PC on your network to any Mac, iPad or iPhone (or outside your network if desired). Plugin architecture, and integration with iTunes and iPhoto.
Cons
No sort by composer for iTunes, requires some skills to set up, some customization requires knowledge of system software and a little Python
Summary
Plex is remarkable software that turns a Mac Mini connected to a TV into an Internet-based Media Center that makes the most of the Mac's software and integrates metadata (information about movies and TV shows from Internet databases) into a beautiful user interface that you can operate with your Mac remote. This software gets us much closer to the future of television, and does so in a very 'Mac-like' way. Imagine FrontRow on steroids, plus an added plugin-in architecture for Internet video and audio (like Hulu and Pandora in the US, other streaming content like YouTube and TED Talks) and an attractive and highly customizable on-screen guide.
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"invasive; can't uninstall. Is this a scam?"
Version: Plex 0.9.1.13
Pros
I have found nothing to like
Cons
Shows me media that I do not have. Its app support files are hidden. It threatens that my media are unavailable if I close it. Even App Trap cannot uninstall it.
Summary
this is a nightmare -- it's like being in Windows again. What does it want to do? Why is there no uninstall? If I try, it wants me to cancel my account with "ILighthouse" or something -- i never opened an account.
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"User unfriendly"
Version: Plex 0.9.1.1
Pros
Nicely collects information about performers
Cons
Too difficult to use with mouse (and keyboard)
Summary
Needs more work to become really good
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"Very nice multimedia center"
Version: Plex 0.9.0.21
Pros
Automatically movie information from the web. Nice looking interface
Cons
little heavy.
Summary
Perfect if you have a spare machine you would like to use as multimedia center.
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"Plex Review"
Version: Plex 0.9.0.21
Pros
Good multimedia center.
Cons
clunky, confusing, bad interface (compared to iTunes), and slow
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"Pretty face but that's about all"
Version: Plex 0.8.5
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Make sure the time you spend setting up on Plex is worth the end result. It looks pretty BUT, it takes a lot of time setting up the correct names, changing names, busting up multi-disc dvd sets, getting it to display info on two sided dvd's and backing up the files (as everytime you change a folder name (or its contents), its delete the old one and recopy the new ones)). What you get for this is a pretty face in front of the same movie, Hulu program, whatever. Or, you can put a few icons on your dock and relax watching content.
I've been gradually getting into it for a bit over a month now and there's still much to do to get it right. Or, I may abandon it and simply open DVD Player or Hulu and enjoy the show.
Beyond the above, this is not a Mac "intuitive" program. The prefs are scattered all over the place, the Apple Remote stinks compared to a mouse (even with the Candelair driver) and its not lightening quick. Perhaps this is what the X-Box is like but its not Apple-land.
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