Take back your media
Don’t be perplexed. We’ve got the lowdown on Plex right here!
Streaming services have kept a lot of us sane over the past few months. The erstwhile occupants of APC Towers have put in a whole lot of hours binge-watching The Boys on Amazon Prime, smashing Cobra Kai on Netflix and watching endless hours of chess commentary on YouTube. Of course, we’re fans of less proprietary options too, such as the decentralised PeerTube and the plethora of content available through the likes of Wikimedia Commons and Open Culture. However, as seasoned readers will be well aware, we’re big fans of using Linux to self-host our own takes of these services.
And now is a great time to reacquaint yourself with your own media collection. Remember all those conspiracy documentaries that you downloaded in the mid-2000s? Or all those albums you dutifully ripped to OGG or FLAC files? Whatever your taste in media, chances are if you’re reading this feature then you’ve got several gigabytes, and potentially hours of entertainment stashed away. And we’re here to help you enjoy it. Whether you’re at home, in the garden, or out and about.
Easy-peasy streaming
Over the page we’ll show you how easy it is to install the Plex Media Server and stream your media anywhere. Let’s be clear about this: Plex is proprietary software. We’re covering it here because it has always supported Linux, is a fine choice for a media server and is extremely popular. There are plenty of other open source options and we’ll look at some of those later.
If you want to support the Plex team, or have access to high-quality steaming media (and some extra features), then you can pay for a premium Plex Pass. Having a free Plex account enables you to
“Plex is proprietary software. There are plenty of other open source options and we’ll look at some of those later.”
view Plex’s own streaming channels (now available in over 200 countries), but these are funded by Ad-supported Video on Demand (AVOD). You may not be interested in Plex’s premium features, and that’s fine. However, if you are then check the box overleaf to see what your money gets you.
You can also use Plex without an account (free or premium), which is good news if you’re against the idea of signing up to a third-party service at all. You might also prefer to skip to the end of the feature where we look at Emby (now also proprietary) and Subsonic. It’s worth noting that you can associate your server with your Plex account, so having one gives you a free authentication mechanism as well, although we’ll show you how to lock things down properly for remote access later on, too.