A DIY streaming service
Place all your movies, music and other media in a convenient place with the help of Plex.
These days, we consume media – from music and photos to movies and TV – on a variety of devices in various locations. Digital media is both liberating and yet constricting at the same time. If you’ve built up a huge media library and want quick and easy access to it from any location, then you need a media server.
A media server allows you to collect all the media you own the copyright to together in one location – your PC’s main storage, a USB-attached drive or even a network-attached drive – and then access it from just about any smart device you own – other computers, your phone or tablet, even the set-top box or smart TV in your living room. It provides you with a consistent experience wherever you happen to be, and allows you to start watching on one device, then finish on another without having to manually skip to the right place.
Our media server of choice is Plex (www.plex.tv) – it provides an easy way to browse and watch or listen to your media, and thanks to its clever ‘On Deck’ function, will line up the next episode of a TV show after you’ve finished watching the current one.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT HARDWARE
Plex should ideally be left running 24/7, so we recommend installing it on a low-power device such as a high-end network hard drive (QNAP, Synology or
WD My Cloud) or a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4.
Make sure all your home movies are stored as MP4 files using the H.264 video and AAC or MP3 audio codecs – this is the closest to a universal format you can get, most devices should be able to play it directly. Handbrake (www.handbrake.fr) is the best tool for video conversion. Music should be MP3 for the same reason – convert using MusicBee (https://getmusicbee.com).
With your media in place, follow the quick-start guide at https://support. plex.tv/articles/200264746 to download, set up and then start configuring your new streaming media server (see the step-by-step guide). By default, you’ll be able to stream media on your own network only; to open access to the internet, select ‘Settings > Remote Access’ to do so. If you’d like to share your server with friends and family, select Users & Sharing under your account name – the benefit of doing this is that you control which libraries they can access, while they’ll also enjoy their own personalised On Deck experience.