What Is Plex

Plex is a multimedia centre that puts at your disposal all the video, audio and photo files that you save on your computer, avoiding having to see it directly on it. In other words, you can comfortably watch the video files that you have stored on the desktop of your room, from the big screen of the room.

Like any multimedia centre that boasts, in addition to reproducing all the content, the speciality of Plex is to manage and centralize all your multimedia files a single platform accessible to all your teams. Some of the plex alternatives or the plex like sites organizes the content by categories and improves its presentation by adding album covers, lyrics and other alternative supplements that enhance the multimedia experience.

Instead of having to search all your multimedia files on your computer, just start Plex and all your content will be shown to you from any device and from anywhere.

How Does Plex Work?

Plex is an application that converts practically any mobile device, computer, TV box, NAS unit and even a Smart TV or a Chromecast in a multimedia centre.

In order for Plex to work, it needs two active figures: that of the server equipment, which is the equipment in which the content is stored and is responsible for retransmitting it online; and the client team, which is in charge of receiving the retransmission of the content sent by the server and reproducing it.

The team that acts as a client, in which the content will be displayed, must also remain connected to the Internet to receive streaming of the content sent by the server and must have the Plex app installed, although depending on the device, you can access to content through the browser.

One of the great advantages of Plex is that the transmission of streaming content can be easily carried out both from a local network, that is, between the computers in your home connected to the same router, and from the internet. This capacity allows you to have your multimedia content always accessible (taking into account that the server equipment must be turned on and connected to the internet) from anywhere in the world.

Connect Your Equipment With Plex

The first thing you need is to install the Plex server program on the first computer that will act as a server. This will be the computer in which the multimedia files (videos, music, photos, podcast, etc.) are stored and must remain on and connected to the internet.

From this computer, access the Plex page and download the appropriate Plex Media Server installer for your computer's operating system and install it. Once the installation is finished, the default browser will open and you will access the control panel of the Plex server on your computer located at URL 127.0.0.1:32400/web/index.html.

From here, you must create a Plex user account with which you will synchronize access to your content from any place and device. So you only have to click on Sign Up to complete the registration form and create your user account.

Then, identify your server with a name that you easily recognize and check the box Allow access to my files from outside my home. This will allow you to connect remotely to your server and view your content from any place and device, and not only from those connected to your local network. For security, if you're never going to use this option, you can keep it off. Continue by clicking Next.

Plex Helps You Set It Up

In the first start of the application, Plex activates a wizard that guides you step by step through the different sections of its configuration helping you to create the content libraries. Setting up these libraries is as simple as telling the program in which folders of that computer you keep the multimedia files. You just have to click on Add Library

After this, Plex analyzes the locations you have indicated and classifies all the content of each category you have indicated (series, movies, photos, music, etc.)

In our case, Plex Media Server has detected the system language and has been automatically configured in Spanish. However, if you do not finish by yourself when you finish, you can go later to the Settings section in the upper right corner and, in the Language section, choose Spanish to translate the Plex interface. In this same configuration section, you can also set the quality of the transmission.

In the Quality section, click on Video Quality and establish the quality of the streaming. It is important to consider the speed of connection to the internet when choosing a value that is too high since a very high quality in a slow connection can lead to jerks in the playback of the content.

In addition to the initial configuration of the libraries, you can always add new locations or modify existing ones to change the source of the content to keep it updated.