At Xataka Smart Home, we have talked and advised more than once about useful applications such as Kodi or Plex. Both are a great alternative to expand our multimedia center and create a local server that allows us to access all our content from any device.

In this article, we decided to make things easier and explain for you. What is Plex, how does it work and how can you create your local server? You can access any video, audio and image files from your television or any device connected to your home network in simple steps.

What is Plex?

One of the priorities desired by someone who wants to enjoy their files at home The convenience of playing them easily and from any device. These conveniences are the conveniences that broadcast platforms have accustomed us to; Being able to access a catalog consisting of hundreds of movies, TV series and documentaries with a single click and without having to download anything.

If you have a lot of multimedia content stored on your computer and want to share and play these files from any device in your home, Plex is one of the ideal applications to achieve this.

The service consists of a panel where you can manage all your content and which we can access from the official Plex website, and then there is the Plex Media Server service, which is an executable file that you need to download and install on your computer. It allows you to communicate wirelessly with all the content you have.

The idea about this is this: turn your computer into a multimedia server and you can access the content you choose to share from any Plex-compatible device. To do this, you will need to leave the computer on and Plex Media Server running whenever you want to play something.

How to create a Plex server

First things first though. You must have a Plex account to access this service. Once you get it, it will help you log in to the Plex app and website. Its app is compatible with multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS, SmartTV, Chromecast, and PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Once you have an account, you will need to download the Plex Media Server application to the computer where you want to set up your server. You can do this from the official website and from now on You will need to install it on your PC. The good thing about the app is that the process is relatively automatic; We will only need to click ‘Next’ and configure the server by adding a name and folders that will be used on our computer to add the files.

Once you install and run the client, it will take you to the localhost where you can view your entire library. Of course, you’ll need to configure which folder you want to sync with Plex so that its contents are visible on other devices. This is very easy when you first enter because Plex will ask you for the location of your filesboth music, photography and video.

If you want to add a library later, simply press the ‘+’ symbol that appears next to the name you gave to your device at the top left of the site. You can also: configure streaming quality From Plex settings. It is recommended that you change the quality depending on how good your internet connection is. By default it is 2MB/s and 720p. This means your computer will do additional compression work if necessary. If playback causes interruptions, lowering the quality is recommended.

Particular attention is paid to the Plex interface thus it is very similar to a streaming platform. We will organize all our titles and folders and have the ability to download the metadata of any title to add covers and additional information. We can also automatically add subtitles from external sources and much more.

Another option that Plex offers us is share our server with others, even if they are in another part of the world. And Plex allows us to keep our server running OnlineSo if you’re away from home and your computer is still running the server, you can play your content from any device as long as it’s in the Plex app and logged into your account.

The server website can be accessed from any browser. But if you want to access from another device, Download the Plex app. There are some limits we need to consider here. And if we do this from a Smart TV or console, the Plex app does not have any playback restrictions. However, if we want to use Plex from our phones and play all content, we will need to update with Plex Pass.

What is Plex Pass?

Plex Pass is something similar to Plex’s Premium plan. It offers us additional functions such as the elimination of ads, the possibility of downloading titles from the devices on which we play the content, more encoding options, the ability to skip the introduction and credits of a title and much more.

This plan comes at a cost 4.99 euros per month, 39.99 euros per year or 119.90 euros in one payment and for life. However, if your aim is to play the content you downloaded to your multimedia server on your television, you can do this completely free of charge.

Additional Plex Features

Another advantage of Plex is its free channel catalog, an option that is very similar to what other competitors such as Pluto TV, Rakuten TV and other services offer. Thanks to this, Plex, in addition to helping us create our multimedia server, also became a FAST streaming platform, that is, a platform where we can find it. free television channelsA business model that is essentially sustained by integrating advertising into its content.

Plex Live Channels

To cover more functions, Plex offers a recommendation system very similar to what we can see on social networks today, as well as a system that can follow other accounts so you can keep track of what they are watching at the moment.

Over time, Plex has evolved greatly, but at its core, the vast majority of users continue to use this application because of its functionality. easily create media servers.

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