What do I do on a Friday night? Watch college football, drink beer, and yes. . .goof around on my PC. I know, i love such a very exciting life. 😐
But anyway. . . .
I was told about Plex Media server to see if it would be a good option to stream my media from my home pc to wherever I want. Preferably, to my cell phone was the thought. Some of you know I currently use Ampache on my home pc. This is a server software run on Linux operating system. It has worked really well for me, but I still haven’t figured out how to get videos to transcode and play descently over 3g connections.
Plex Media server, has proven that this can be done.
Few notes:
1. Installing the server on the linux pc wasn’t too bad. Just update your repos and run your typical apt-get commands to install it.
2. Installing the desktop client on linux via WINE is not a good option. Mine crashed a few times, but I was able to get into it and add my plexapp user account so my server would work over the air.
3. Adding your library files is MUCH easier via the web browser using your localhost:34200/manage URL. This allowed my pc’s music folder and video folder to be indexed for serving up.
The Android app in the market place is a WHOPPING $5. But thus far, i think it’s worth it. I was streaming a 1080p .mkv video file on a mediocre signal (3g) to my cell. Granted your pc has to have decent horsepower to run this server (at least 2 core cpu), but this really looked good. Attached is an album of screen shots I snapped on my DroidX. There’s one shot that’s not that clear, that’s because the movie was playing and not paused.
Overall, I’m digging this software and app. I hope to spend a lil more time testing this over the weekend. The app devs give you 15 days to request a refund as long as you have your receipt number.
Check it out in the Android market.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.plexapp.android&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5wbGV4YXBwLmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..
Here’s the album of screen shots via google:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/110680838385083202892/albums/5671293245938810577
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