- You've got all these photos, videos,
and music sitting on your computer at home.
Just sitting there
when you could be enjoying them from anywhere.
You need to get a media server.
- [James] But, Linus, I have a Google Drive
where I keep my photos, movies...
- And you're paying Google how much a month
just to access files remotely?
There's a much better and much cheaper way.
It's called Plex.
And while Plex did sponsor this video,
it's no secret that I was already a mostly happy
long-time user of their product.
And it's not just me.
One in every seven people in our office
hosts their own Plex server.
Why?
Because of its ease of use, general polish,
and near universal cross-platform compatibility.
And they're one of the few software companies
that still offers perpetual licenses
with affordable per-device licensing
or more expensive memberships
that cover all devices connected to your server.
So the topic we landed on for our collaboration
is three ways that you can set up your own server at home,
along with some simple tips and tricks
to get you up and running.
First things first, though, why Plex?
If you are someone
who has a lot of media stored on your computer,
be it high-quality audio files, photos,
home movies or home movies,
Plex is pretty much the easiest way
to get your own media server up and running
so you or your friends and family
can access your collection from anywhere
and on nearly any device,
be it a computer, phone, game console, or smart TV.
One of the brilliant features of Plex is its ability
to find the metadata for all of your files,
automatically sorting them into folders with episode titles,
thumbnails, descriptions, and cast members.
It'll even find and sort
behind-the-scenes clips and trailers.
My deployment is pretty simple with two personal folders,
one for TV and one for movies.
And I don't even sort anything more than that.
I just toss my legally obtained DRM-free files
with descriptive titles into those folders
and let Plex sort out the rest.
Misidentified clips and other problems
can crop up occasionally, but it can be easily corrected.
More on that later.
Also, the darn thing can handle
pretty much any file format you throw it at,
be that video, audio, even subtitles.
It's pretty amazing.
All right, this all sounds great, but how do I do it?
Well, strap in for some tech tips here
because we're gonna give you a rundown
of three different ways
that you can implement a personal Plex server
using a windows PC and NVIDIA SHIELD.
That's not my SHIELD. There it is.
Or a network attached storage server or NAS.
Ooh, a server, hey.
Doesn't that need super expensive,
high-performance hardware?
Not really.
As we demonstrated in this recent video,
your old PC is sitting there waiting
for its second life as your new server.
And the basic features of Plex are light enough
that you can install it on some pretty dated hardware.
Though there are a few things to consider.
If you have slower hardware,
that could limit the performance of your server,
particularly if you have multiple clients connected at once
or if you are transcoding the videos being viewed.
When a client tries to watch a file
that is too beefy for their connection
or that was encoded in a format
that isn't natively supported on their device,
your server will attempt to convert that file on-the-fly
so that it can be viewed.
This can take a lot of computational power,
especially if the files are big.
So if you're using an older system as your server,
you may consider limiting the resolution of your media.
One benefit of Plex's paid tier, Plex Pass,
is that it allows you to use hardware encoding.
So if you have an Intel CPU
or NVIDIA GPU from the last decade or so,
you can take advantage of those super fast hardware encoders
to ensure a smooth streaming experience.
Now the question is which platform should you use.
Using your current PC is the simplest, has the most users,
and thus the most support materials,
but the downside is that if your server is being used,
say, by a sibling or a spouse,
while you are using your computer, say, to game,
you can encounter performance issues.
Also, your precious local storage is gonna be taken up
by your media files.
So the NVIDIA SHIELD is one of the cheapest ways
to move the processing load away from your main rig
if you don't have another device to host your server.
Though it does come at the cost of easy expandability,
and it doesn't really have a meaningful upgrade path.
Your NAS, well, that requires a bit more know-how
and also a NAS, but it can be easy to expand,
and you can configure your system to be as powerful
or lean as you like.
Adam is gonna get you started with Windows.
- First, go to plex.tv and download the Plex Media Server.
Follow the steps in the setup wizard
and then select your media folders.
You can use pretty much any folder,
but for the best experience,
use dedicated library folders
that only contain a single form of media each.
Don't mix your photos
with your DRM-free digital movies.
Then, give a quick test to make sure your media is working
and you are off to the races.
Download the Plex app on, well, pretty much anything,
log in and boom,
you have your media libraries at your fingertips.
Yeah, it's really that simple,
at least on your local network.
We'll talk about remote access a little bit later, though.
- We're gonna give you some tips
on how to manage your server, but, first,
we're gonna show you how to get things up and running
on my favorite streaming device, the NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro.
- [Colleague] Ooh, nice backpack, Linus.
- I know, right?
It's super durable
and comes with a limited lifetime warranty
from lttstore.com.
There are two versions of the SHIELD TV
with nearly identical features
as far as most people are concerned,
but we need the Pro version for our application
because it supports expandable storage over USB.
First, you'll download the Plex app
and the Plex Media Server app.
Then, boot up the Plex app,
click on Enable Plex Media Server, follow the prompts,
wait for the server to configure, and you're done.
Now take your external hard drive
and plug it into your NVIDIA SHIELD.
Click on the notification and tap to set up.
Then, eject the drive and take it to a computer.
You'll see that the SHIELD created a folder
aptly named NVIDIA SHIELD.
This is the folder on the drive
that the SHIELD will be able to access.
Move your media folders inside the SHIELD folder,
and while you're on the computer log into app.plex.tv
so you can configure your server in the next step.
Plug your drive back into the SHIELD.
Then, back on the Plex browser app, click Manage Libraries
and add folders and select the folder on the drive
that contains your media.
You should see Plex begin
to auto populate with your folders.
Your Plex server will scan the files,
find poster art, metadata,
and all sorts of other fun stuff,
but this stuff will be stored directly on your SHIELD,
meaning that your 16 gigs of internal storage
could start filling up,
especially if you have a large media library.
We recommend moving the server location
to an external drive,
but that puts us in a bit of a pickle
because if we wanna add media to our drive,
then we need to unplug our server.
That's no good.
But there is an easy fix.
Just use the SHIELD as a network drive,
where you can drop files in from your PC.
We don't have time to cover exactly how to do that here,
so check out Lon.TV's video.
We're gonna have that linked down below.
- Pfft, that looks inconvenient.
So here's the king's way of doing things on your own NAS.
I mean, you already have the server set up,
why not use it?
While Plex is available on open source operating systems,
like TrueNAS, which is meant for storage,
our tutorial will be centered around Unraid
since that's what Linus and I both use at home.
If you've never configured a NAS before,
I know it can sound a little intimidating,
but it's actually not that hard
as long as you don't have to do it with Linus at your side.
Check out floatplane.com
for a longer version of us building the server
that runs our firewall here.
It was total absolute shenanigans.
We're gonna assume
you already have an Unraid NAS up and running,
but if you wanna learn more about doing that,
you can check out our video about it
down in the description.
The first thing you're gonna need to do
is set up a new share.
This will be the folder structure
that will hold your media files,
and you can name it something like Media,
or My Stuff, or Files, or not Pron. (chuckles)
And then you can make a couple of subfolders
for your categories like movies, family videos,
TVs, photos, whatever you want.
Go to Apps and install the Community Apps plugin.
We'll have a link to that in the description.
Follow the instructions, search for Plex Media Server,
and then hit the download icon.
From this screen,
we're gonna need to input a couple of things.
First off, in the Host Path 2 where it says /transcode,
you're gonna type in /temp/.
This is where files will live
when they're being transcoded for a client.
In Host Path 3, which is /data,
type in /mnt/user/
whatever you named your media share earlier,
so not Pron or whatever you titled your media share.
Then in Key 1, which is titled PLEX_CLAIM
you're gonna input your Plex Claim code.
To get one, head to plex.tv/claim
and log into your Plex account.
If you don't have one already,
you can make one at this step.
And then copy and paste that code into the text box.
Leave everything else alone and then click Apply.
Then the app will automatically get downloaded via Docker
and set up.
To get started using your Plex server,
go to the Docker tab, click the Plex logo,
and then hit WebUI.
This will take you to the web UI of your Plex server.
And before you can actually start watching anything,
you're gonna need to go into your settings
and set up your library folders.
So each of those folders you made before,
let's say TV or movies, select those,
then Plex can actually see the media and you can watch.
See, I told you it wouldn't be that hard.
Back to you, Linus.
- But Plex isn't just a bring your own media affair.
When you sign up for a Plex account,
you also get access to 300 live TV channels
and 50,000 on-demand movies and TV shows completely free.
You've got things like "I, Tonya"
or Anthony Bourdain's "A Cook's Tour".
And another cool feature
is that Plex will let you keep a watch list
that includes not just your local files,
not just Plex TV,
but media from every other streaming service too.
For free, you get a ton of awesome features.
But if you're keen for a couple more things,
you can get Plex Pass for 4.99 a month, $40 a year,
or $120 for the rest of your life.
You can upgrade your Plex experience
to take advantage then of members-only features,
like hardware transcoding, which, if you plan
on having a lot of people using your server, is a must.
You can even use Plex as a DVR with your Set-Top Box,
or antenna and record broadcast television,
or you can download media to your mobile device
to watch on the plane.
There are even fun settings
like playing trailers before your movie
so that you can get the cinema experience
right in your home if you're into that sort of thing.
Do they have a feature where I can press a button
to pay an extra $10 for my popcorn?
And new features are always being added,
with early access for Plex Pass members,
like support for multiple editions of movies
so you don't have to find out 15 minutes
into "Return of the Jedi" that you chose the version
with that awful Jedi rock song.
Oh, and we haven't even mentioned
that Plex has their own audio player targeted
at audio files called Plexamp,
which allows you to listen
to your audio files at full bitrate
and has the ability to link with your title account
so that you have all your high-fi audio
in one slick media player.
Now that your server's up and running,
you're probably ready for some tips and tricks.
If you wanna watch content
from your server on a mobile device,
you'll have to either have Plex Pass
or pay a one-time fee for your mobile device.
Also, during setup, the server will attempt
to configure remote access
so you can get to your media files
from outside of your own WiFi network.
This configuration uses universal plug-and-play, or UPnP,
which should work fine as long as you have a router
that's less than 10-or-so years old.
But if you have a unique home router configuration,
or if you disabled UPnP
because it's a fundamentally flawed feature
that carries enormous security risks,
then that might not work.
Thankfully, Plex's massive knowledge base
and large and enthusiastic community means
that almost any issue you'll encounter,
well, someone else has probably had it too,
and there's likely a solution.
If UPnP isn't an option,
you can either open the ports manually
or use something like NGINX Reverse Proxy
to make sure that your server is secure.
Again, check out the description
for a link to the software
and a tutorial for setting it up with Plex.
If your system struggles with transcoding your media,
you can optimize your media ahead of time.
This function converts your media to a file size and format
that's ideal for specific scenarios,
like streaming to your TV or to your mobile phone
so you don't have to deal with buffering or processing
when you're just trying to enjoy your content.
On that subject,
if you don't wanna see anything other than your own content,
like the free TV shows and movies,
here's how to turn that off.
In the left-hand menu, you have your pinned libraries.
So just hover over that, click the dots,
and select Remove from Pinned.
This will hide the content of those libraries
from the side menu and from the Plex homepage.
Should you ever change your mind,
you can see all of your servers
and their respective libraries,
and from here, you can pin them.
If any of your content gets misidentified
or is missing metadata,
you can manually set them like this.
But you should be able to mostly avoid this
if you follow Plex's published best practices
for file naming.
We're gonna have that linked down below.
And if renaming all your files sounds incredibly tedious,
don't worry,
tinyMediaManager is your night in shining armor,
allowing you to batch process these tasks.
Now all of this is super cool,
but we do need to take a second to acknowledge something.
Inconvenient timing for this collaboration,
but Plex was just in the tech news
due to a recent data breach.
This past August, usernames, email addresses,
and encrypted passwords were accessed from Plex's servers.
That sucks.
However, Plex immediately alerted their customers
and encouraged users to change their passwords,
even though the passwords that were stolen were encrypted.
This is a good response.
And it's also nice to know
that Plex isn't storing credit card data on those servers.
This kind of thing is a downside
with any centrally authorized service,
and I sincerely hope that they can do better in the future,
but I do applaud them for their transparency,
and that's the reason
we were still comfortable working with them.
Back to the stuff they'd rather I talk to you about.
Next week is Plex's Pro Week,
between September 19 and 23, 2022.
It's a great time to learn
how to take your personal media experience to new heights.
And throughout the week,
Plex will be highlighting experts and community members
to discuss various features and benefits of Plex Pass.
We're also included in the lineup by the way,
so be sure to check out the video next week
at the link down below.
If you enjoyed this video,
why not check out our video about my home server?
You can learn more about Unraid or ZFS.
Cool, right?