It has been a while since I have last talked about PLEX. Now if you don’t know what PLEX is about, check out my previous post here. For me, I have been religiously using PLEX media server as well as the PLEX app on my iOS devices.

Why do I like using PLEX?

It automatically extracts metadata from the internet and the little electronic elves just readily provide information such as the poster for the TV show or movie, provides the usual synopsis for it and best of all, categorises all of my media for me.
Easy to use – Just point your PLEX server to where your files are stored and it magically does the rest of the work!
Usability – PLEX can be used on basically all devices, my iOS devices, my Macbook, my PC and other devices. It works so seamlessly!
It is free!

Previously, I had a desktop computer which was connected to my house wireless router via a network cable which then broadcasted it through to my other devices as shown below.

This proved to be an expensive way because I realised that my desktop PC which I built a while back was favoured for gaming hence it had a huge power supply and sucked a lot of energy. Last year I swapped it out for a Mac Mini (the cheapest variant) and it proved to be a godsend because I managed to cut off more than RM50 from my electricity bill.

Only last month I decided to swap out my Apple TV and use the Mac Mini to connect to the TV directly instead.

My Issues With PLEX

The downside to this is because the Mac Mini where the PLEX Media Server is running isn’t connected to my ASUS RT-AC68U wireless router via a network cable due to me not installing LAN cables in the house hence the only connection between the server and my other devices is through the router. To add more complexity to that, I had to install a wireless repeater upstairs as well.

So far the experience has been quite seamless. I haven’t had many issues in terms of connection speed and connectivity issues. Only the occasional need to restart the wireless repeater.

Recently, PLEX just announced that they have an app ready for the 4th Generation of the Apple TV. This is fantastic as now the Apple TV is able to be a PLEX player and hopefully in the future, we might see an iflix Apple TV app as well!

The benefit which I have now that I have the Mac Mini directly hooked up to my television is that I can also watch iflix on it.