MEDIA LIBRARY STREAMING
Right off the bat, Plex Media Server is, by far, the slickest and cleanest solution for getting video and audio content that you own from a personal server on to basically any device anywhere in the world. Originally developed as a fork of XBMC (now Kodi), Plex has, over the past nine years, evolved into an extremely capable media host, which can look after everything from your music to your video content and — even, if you sign up for the monthly Plex Pass service — serve as a backup method for critical files such as photos. It offers apps for every major games console, and for mobile phones and tablets, includes compatibility with the Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick, and has a fully-featured web interface for everything else. The server itself can run on a number of devices — you may even be able to get it going on your NAS — but we recommend something solid. Check the ‘Right Hardware’ box opposite to see the kind of gear you should be aiming for to get maximum performance.
Getting it set up is simple. Grab the appropriate installer for your device from plex.tv/downloads and run it. It’s a straightforward installer, no surprises. When it’s over, you have to run through a bit of first-time setup in a browser window. This basically just involves creating an account on the Plex.tv website — Plex handles online translation and routing for you, which makes for vastly simplified remote streaming — and running through a few self-explanatory steps, including setting up a folder for your media. This can reside, realistically, wherever you’d like, although it’s most efficient to use a drive directly connected to the computer that’s running the server, because pulling from network storage in order to send media via the network doubles up the bandwidth required — unless you opt for the cloud option (part of the Premium package), which accesses content on storage providers such as Dropbox and Google Drive, and doesn’t require a server PC at all.
With everything in place, you have access to your entire media library from anywhere. Just sign into the Plex client, on any device, with the credentials you set earlier, or head to plex.tv/web in a browser window. If your files are named correctly (see bit.ly/1Rxz8Ca), the server polls sites such as The Movie Database, Last.fm, and TheTVDB for thumbnails, episode information, and even trailers, and automatically arranges your media. Honestly, it’s ridiculously easy and compatible with just about every format — the most difficult thing you have to do is collect together and rip your media.
In theory, you have other choices if you’re already tied into a different