I am a newbie to Plex. I would like use invoke VLC to play media files from within Plex rather than using Plex’s default ‘buit-in’ media player. I have not been able to figure out how to configure Plex to do this? Can this even be done? If so, how? This functionality is available with the PlayOn media server (www.playon.tv). I would much prefer to use Plex but have found its built-in media player to be inferior to VLC. TIA for any help and advice on this topic…
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Which built-in plex player have you used?
- The player built into the web interface?
- Plex Home Theater (OpenPlex), the standalone plex client
If all you want to use is the plex.tv/web interface, and you use Chrome, take a look at this thread:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/190505/plex-web-external-player
At first glance these items appear to be exactly what I am looking for! I’ll investigate and report back my results. Thanks!
Successfully installed Kayomani’s PlexExternalPlayer 1.7 into my Firefox environment (via GreaseMonkey/GreasyFork). I am encountering a configuration problem when invoking the external player - the following popup message (verbatim) is returned :
“Error getting metadata fromhttp://localhost:32400/library/metadata/XXX?checkFiles=1?&includeExtras=1” where ‘XXX’ appears to be a (Plex-internal) numeric identifier associated with the item selected.
My Plex Media Server installation is up-to-date and ‘vanilla’ (no customizations or known variances). OS is Windows 8.1 and VLC is my default media player. Plex and media files are on a single machine with no networking considerations. The ‘built-in’ web client player does successfully play the media.
I looked at the PlexExternalPlayer script and did not see anything that was obviously causing this problem - but then again I am not a coding guru. Nor did I find anyone who has encountered this same problem. Suggestions?
GitHub shows one other person who reported this problem on April 24th but there is no feedback/resolution documented. I managed to get this plugin working with my Windows 8.1/Firefox setup, based upon the following:
README installation step #3 (https://github.com/Kayomani/PlexExternalPlayer) states: “Install the agent using the installer from the releases page above. Requires .Net 4.5 on Windows, may work on Linux/mono.”
Problem: There is no ‘agent’ associated with current release 1.7.
Resolution: I stumbled around inside GitHub.com and found a PlexExternalPlayerAgent 1.3.1 (https://github.com/Kayomani/PlexExternalPlayer/releases). Installed PlexExternalPlayerAgentInstall.v1.3.1.EXE but it did not work with current release 1.7. Worked backward through each PlexExternalPlayer release (1.6 and 1.5) until was successful with PlexExternalPlayer 1.4!
Observations:
With this plugin release combination, the ‘overlay’ TV icon onlys work at the ‘episode’ level. In other words, even though the icon is visible at the ‘series’ level, it does not handle multiple episodes to invoke VLC. This is the case even if you have only one episode within a series. The desired episode must be selected with the PlexExternalPlayer whereas the ‘built-in’ web client player does resolve multiple episodes under within a series. I did not test this with audio media (album/song) to see if the plugin behavior is similar.
I don’t know if there is a variance of behavior between Firefox and Chrome from a development/release and/or end user standpoint. I don’t consider this issue resolved because the current release does not work with Firefox.
Installed patch release 1.8 via GreasyFork.org but it did not fix this ‘problem’. Rolled back to 1.4 to restore functionality.
Is this Kayomani/PlexExternalPlayer still working with newest Plex-tv version? I installed all the requirements and scripts, i got the buttons but cannot view in external viewer video files.
Quick edit : It works ok with individual files. There is other topic in How I make Plex use VLC to play Movies which explains more of this functionality. I could’t make the “header” button to work. I tested with Waterfox v56 and no difference so it seems that the agent or script needs update?
Works perfectly with current latest everything in Chrome
Plex Version 1.14.1.5488
Chrome 72.0.3626.96
External Plex Player Agent v1.12.0.0
TamperMonkey v4.8 + Plex External Player v1.16
Opened immediately to : MPC-BE v1.5.3 … it even flags the episode as watched the moment you click ‘play externally’
… even works over network (after I mapped my TV/Movies shares to the same local paths as they are on my server: T:/ and M:/ respectively).
MUCH APPRECIATED. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this myself for ages but browsers don’t like referencing local files very much. This is just awesome.
Turn on DLNA server in Plex.
the current version of VLC for Apple TV4 has an option to connect to a generic server, using SMB, FTP or Plex.
how do I have to set this up ??
the main problem is: what port is PMS using in order to work with VLC ??
