Published by We Got Served Ltd. Copyright 2014 by Cameron Bishop. The right of Cameron Bishop to be identified as author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. All trademarks mentioned in this ebook are the property of their respective owners. We Got Served Ltd. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. First Published: January 2014 Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of this content of this work and specifically disclaim all waranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. The advice outlined in this book may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author are not engaged in providing professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher, not the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organisation, service provider or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organisation, service provider or website may provide.
About the Author Cameron Bishop Cameron Bishop is an Australian tech writer with a knack for IT and all things tech-related. Outside his IT job, Cameron is active in helping people plan their digital lives and manage their information. Whether it's setting up a NAS for family member photographs, or selecting the best router for someone setting up a coffee shop, he's always ready to offer advice and find a solution to make the IT work for the user, not the other way around. When Windows Home Server came around, Cameron built a v1 server and was hooked. By the time Windows Home Server 2011 emerged, Cameron was moving up to RAID and experimenting with virtual machines to add more functionality. He hopes that as long as community-generated guides exist, the art of tinkering will not die out and enthusiastic users will continue to find new and exciting ways to use their technology. About We Got Served We Got Served (http://www.wegotserved.com) is a popular technology news and community site which was founded in February 2007. It is written, edited and moderated by a dedicated and knowledgeable team of technology enthusiasts across the world who are focused on bringing you the latest news, reviews, tutorials and support for the products you re using today and tomorrow. We created We Got Served as a place to learn about new technology, help readers make the most of the products and services they use, and most importantly to create a community where readers can learn, discuss and share their experiences and knowledge with others in need of support. However you use the site, we hope you enjoy it. Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server About the Author 3
Revision History v1.0 January 2014 Initial release Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Revision History 4
Please Register This Book Whilst the concept of registering a book may sound a little strange, I heartily invite you to do so! Registering your email with us allows us to inform you of updates and amendments to the book, and let you know about new ebooks we re writing as well as some offers on our other titles. Hey, if that s not enough, you know us so we d like to know you too! So head over to http://eepurl.com/kzuch and spend 23.2 seconds signing up! Did You Purchase This ebook From Amazon or Apple? Many of our readers prefer to purchase our ebooks for their Kindle or ipad via Amazon or Apple. If you have purchased this ebook through one of those stores then note that the image quality of screenshots illustrating the walkthroughs will be heavily compressed. Unfortunately, Amazon and Apple place strict limits on the format of ebooks they allow to be sold through their stores. In Amazon s case, the maximum file size for an ebook is just 50 MB - fine for a text-only work of fiction, but terrible for an illustrated guide such as this. So, firstly, apologies if you experience poor quality graphics from your purchase at Amazon or Apple - that is unfortunately out of our control. However, don t despair - we can get you set up with full quality epub, PDF and Mobi files that will work on a host of devices, and will look great. Here s how: 1. Please register your purchase at http://eepurl.com/kzuch 2. Please contact us at http://www.wegotserved.com/contact-us/ explaining that you purchased this title at Amazon or Apple. Attach an image of your receipt as proof of purchase. 3. We ll set up new download links for you to grab full quality versions of the ebook, which you can simply drag and drop to your favourite mobile device from a PC or Mac via a USB cable. Alternatively, view the PDF directly on a coputer. 4. Please purchase your ebooks directly from us at http://store.wegotserved.com to avoid future issues (you may get a little money off in the future too!) Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Registration 5
Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server A We Got Served How To Project Contents About the Author 3 Revision History 4 Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server 8 Installing Plex Media Server 9 Configure Plex Media Server 11 Administering Plex Media Server After Setup 18 Connecting a Client Device 20 Metadata Acquisition 23 Correcting Bad Metadata 24 Managing Metadata Size 26 Managing Plex Channels 28 Run Plex Media Server as a Service 30 Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Contents 6
x The Project Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server
Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server So, you have a collection of videos that you like to watch, they might be TV shows, movies or concerts. You ve probably also got a music collection, and some photographs. You might not be the only person who watches them, maybe your family or housemates watch them too. And perhaps you would like access to them on a variety of devices without having to copy the media to multiple locations, and maybe you would also like to access your collections while you aren t home. You are not alone. If you re anything like me, your collection of media is growing in many directions, and it s slowly starting to spread out: maybe your holiday pictures are on the laptop you took with you, and then you loaded them on to a USB drive to show them on the TV - but then you edited some of the pictures. Hang on, which ones got edited, the ones on the USB drive or on the laptop? It s questions like these that take all the fun out of using media and make you feel like a full time archivist, intent on organising all the digital goods and chattels that your household owns. What you need is an assistant - something to help you keep your media files in one place but let a variety of devices access them. Suddenly you don t need so many copies of the media, or so many different file formats to make sure every device can display what it needs to. Enter: Plex Plex aims to keep all your digital media under one roof and supply it to any device you wish. This includes tablets, phones, connected devices like the Roku or Google Chromecast, and some smart TVs. Computers are covered too - whether it s Windows, OS X or Linux. There are even clients for a variety of NAS devices so your media can be shared without a standalone machine being required. Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Project 8
The full list of devices can be found here (https://plex.tv/downloads) Plex is designed so that one machine (be it computer, home server or compatible NAS) is left in charge of your media collection, and it becomes the Plex Media Server. All other devices are clients and contact Plex Media Server via a dedicated client application to access your media. In this How-To Guide I will be installing Plex Media Server on a Windows Home Server 2011 machine, but the installation process and configuration is very similar for other devices and operating systems (especially Windows-based machines). Installing Plex Media Server Download the Plex Media Server installer and copy it to the machine which will become the Plex Media Server. Then remotely access the machine and login. I used Microsoft Remote Desktop to access my Home Server, as we need access to the Desktop environment to install the application. Double-click on the downloaded installer to get underway. The Plex Media Server installer. The only option available changes the install location. I don t recommend changing unless you have a specific requirement. Once you click Install, the magic happens by itself. Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Project 9
Installation completed. Once completed, it s time to click Launch. The install wizard will close, and Plex Media Server will now be running, as indicated by the icon in the system tray. Check the System Tray for the Plex Media Server icon. Plex Media Server is now installed, but a bit like a fresh install of an operating system, it doesn t really do anything yet. The next step is to show Plex some media and see what it can do! From this point onwards Plex Media Server is configured via a web browser, so if you installed it on a server machine like I did, it s time to switch back to your everyday machine. Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Project 10
Important: If you log out of your server at this point, Plex Media Server will shut down as by default it only runs when a user is logged in. This is not a problem for testing - simply minimise or terminate your Remote Desktop session without logging off. Later on in the guide I ll show you a way to make Plex Media Server run all the time, but as it is a little advanced, we ll save it for once you ve decided Plex is for you. Configure Plex Media Server Administration of Plex Media Server is performed via a web browser, which means it can be done on your everyday machine and not on your server. The administration page is accessible via http://<yourserverip>:32400/manage or http://<serverhostname>:32400/manage. So, in my case, I use http://192.168.1.16:32400/manage. When you first access the web interface of Plex Media Server, a setup wizard takes you through a few steps to help you get set up. The first step is the End User License Agreement: The Plex EULA. Once you ve read and agreed to it, move on to the MyPlex signup page. Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Project 11
Creating a Plex account. A Plex account gives you access to more features and helps with accessing your media from remote locations as well as queuing video files from sources like YouTube. It is also used to participate in the Plex forums, and can be upgraded to a PlexPass to access bonus features like cloud synchronisation, offline playback on portable devices, and early access to new features. You can check it out here. (https://plex.tv/subscription) If this is your first time installing Plex, I suggest skipping the signup process (if you already have an account, log-in by all means) and coming back to it later. If you want to see whether Plex is right for you, you don t need the account to test everything out. I didn t use one at all for any part of this how-to guide. The next step is Basic Setup where you name your machine, set an option for feedback and enter your email address, if you d like Plex to contact you from time to time. Stream Music and Video With Plex Media Server Project 12