A few days ago I bought an Apple TV 3 and Plex, with the idea that I want to be able to use all my media (using Plex) through Apple TV. I installed PlexConnect fine and have Plex running through Apple TV and everything is great. The only thing is that I generally don't keep my Macbook Pro open when I'm not using it, and I'd prefer to find a solution where I can just set up PlexConnect and never have to worry about opening it again. What would be the easiest way to do this? Is this something that having a home server would accomplish? If so, how? I understand that SOMETHING has to be running PlexConnect, but what can I have running it that's not a computer and how do I go about setting that up?
I'm not a network administrator or anything like that, but I'm pretty capable with computers and able to follow directions well. I just want a solution where I can have my laptop put away (or even out of the house altogether, for when I'm gone and my girlfriend wants to use Plex) but still be able to use Plex on Apple TV.
Thank you for any help you can provide in advance!
A few days ago I bought an Apple TV 3 and Plex, with the idea that I want to be able to use all my media (using Plex) through Apple TV. I installed PlexConnect fine and have Plex running through Apple TV and everything is great. The only thing is that I generally don't keep my Macbook Pro open when I'm not using it, and I'd prefer to find a solution where I can just set up PlexConnect and never have to worry about opening it again. What would be the easiest way to do this? Is this something that having a home server would accomplish? If so, how? I understand that SOMETHING has to be running PlexConnect, but what can I have running it that's not a computer and how do I go about setting that up?
I'm not a network administrator or anything like that, but I'm pretty capable with computers and able to follow directions well. I just want a solution where I can have my laptop put away (or even out of the house altogether, for when I'm gone and my girlfriend wants to use Plex) but still be able to use Plex on Apple TV.
Thank you for any help you can provide in advance!
where do you have your PMS running? Why not just run it there?
@trudge - I assume that he runs pms+plexconnect on his macbook that he doesn't want to leave open.
@Elboghdadly - unless you have some harry potter magic, you do need a "computer" to run plexconnect.
And you do need some decent processing power in order to have PMS trancode videos for the aTV - unless you only have mp4 content (unlikely).
I use a Gigabyte Brix running on FreeNas that serves both PMS and PlexConnect (very small computer with decent power; mobile i7 and due to freenas, can be operated via a webbrowser), just put in a corner somewhere.
Assuming you have a pms server running somewhere or some nice friends that do you have a few options I can think of off hand.
1. Buy a atv2 @ $175 US on iOS 5.x jailbreak it and host plexconnect and sign into myplex
2. Use a jailbroken iOS device to host plexconnect and sign into myplex
3. Use a different a different device and host plexconnect and sign into myplex
Unfortunately you cannot run a atv3 in a remote location at this time without having a instance of plexconnect at the remote location. If you are running it at home and do not have some nice friends running plexconnect do as @trudge said and run pms and plexconnect on the same os/device.
ha, a post in this forum i can attempt to answer (vs. all the others about trailer unavailable)! u just need the smallest computer in the house to run plex connected to hard rives full of stuff... i had an extra mac mini and that works nicely, although my pal is trying to get a raspberry PI doing something similar, which seems like the way to go. but my mini works great.
I would vote for eg a PI or set PlexConnect running as a daemon on you MacBook (so it always runs in the background and you can forget about it - see the OSX support folder), the disadvantage of the latter is that the other inbuilt ATV apps will not function when you MacBook is not running (this May or not be a big disadvantage depending on if you only use it for Plex or not).
Thanks everybody for your help! Sounds like the easiest way to accomplish this is just going to be keeping one computer someplace running all the time. Gigabyte Brix may be the best option for me.
Thanks everybody for your help! Sounds like the easiest way to accomplish this is just going to be keeping one computer someplace running all the time. Gigabyte Brix may be the best option for me.
Although not mentioned above, if your router supports dnsmasq, it is possible to parametrize it in such a way that, even if PlexConnect is not running, the non-hijacked channels of the ATV3 will still be available.
Thanks everybody for your help! Sounds like the easiest way to accomplish this is just going to be keeping one computer someplace running all the time. Gigabyte Brix may be the best option for me.
There are cheaper solutions - I got the brix just for space-sake. Intel-NUC's are similar. You can also build a small low-cost system yourself. For myself - this brix can handle 1080p mkv's with subtitles easily, I had a 2009 macmini before (core2duo) but it couldn't keep up with transcoding.
There are cheaper solutions - I got the brix just for space-sake. Intel-NUC's are similar. You can also build a small low-cost system yourself. For myself - this brix can handle 1080p mkv's with subtitles easily, I had a 2009 macmini before (core2duo) but it couldn't keep up with transcoding.
Could you recommend some cheaper alternatives that will be up to the job?
It's interesting you mention your core2duo macmini wasn't up to it as I have a 2009 MacBook Pro core2duo which seems fine with the transcoding. I just wanted something else I don't have to worry about potentially frying (the mac is for Uni work B) ).
Could you recommend some cheaper alternatives that will be up to the job?
It's interesting you mention your core2duo macmini wasn't up to it as I have a 2009 MacBook Pro core2duo which seems fine with the transcoding. I just wanted something else I don't have to worry about potentially frying (the mac is for Uni work B) ).
As you can see here, a core2duo is minimum for HD transcoding, my mini was a 2Ghz or something, together with 1080p highbitrate & subs it had a hard time to keep up. You just need a powerful cpu; intel 4670K or 4770K will make you very happy and are reasonably priced nowadays. Basically any desktop computer on the market will not have any problem with transcoding; as long as it is not an Atom or Celeron processor or similar.
Once you start to build a smaller system you could make sacrifices in areas that you might not want. mini-itx systems are nice too, full desktop power in a small form factor, but the bill could add up in the end.
