Plex have revealed the new front end for the their media server – ‘Plex Media Player’.
The existing ‘Plex Home Theatre’ will still be available but no longer developed. PMP is based around the open source mpv media player, with Plex hiring their lead dev…
What’s the best media playback engine in the world? After careful consideration, we chose mpv to power the Plex Media Player. A massively popular open source project with great community support, mpv effortlessly handles any media you throw its way and looks great doing it. It’s lean, incredibly fast, and very actively developed. We know the ones and zeros are only part of the story, though, so we reached out to @wm4, the primary contributor to the project (and incredibly talented individual), and promptly hired him full-time. He’s played an essential role in continuing to make mpv awesomer (it’s a word) while ensuring that it works even better within Plex Media Player.
With this change Plex drops the last of the XMBC (now Kodi) code it was using and Elan posts a nice thank you to the team..
It’s been almost eight years since we set out on this wild ride, when we originally ported Kodi née XBMC to OS X, and we’ll always be thankful for that. Over the better part of a decade we’ve evolved that original code to align with our Home Theater users’ needs while simultaneously building our vision of a media platform for the future (a centralized server! a cloud component! mobile apps!). And now, finally, it’s time to take the next giant step. With Plex Media Player, we leave all that original code behind and strike out with a new core platform for the living room. We just wanted to take a moment to thank all those behind Kodi. We all cut our teeth on hacked Xboxes running XBMC, and we wouldn’t be here without you!
PMP brings the new Plex look and feel of all their recent TV and Device apps to your Mac and PC using the Chromium 45 web engine for a best in class media browsing experience.
Plex Media Player has launched as an early preview for Plex Pass subscribers. Once the preview period ends it will be available to all.
plex.tv : Plex Update for Music Lovers
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Sounds good, get the general idea, too but, even after visiting the Plex website, still don’t know what it does & what it needs … eg: does it need a dedicated PC / Mac, what sort of bandwidth / monthly allowance for the Internet connection, how much HD space, memory, etc, and what would happen to our DVD collection … ???
Hi Chris
> still don’t know what it does
Plays all your media on loads of devices.
> & what it needs … eg: does it need a dedicated PC / Mac,
Requires the Media Server software running (on a Mac, PC, NAS etc).
> what sort of bandwidth / monthly allowance for the Internet connection,
You only require bandwidth if you want to stream media from outside your home (you’ll need a fast UP connection for this). Then it becomes a how long is a piece of string question.
> how much HD space, memory, etc, and what would happen to our DVD collection … ???
Takes as much space as your media requires. You’d rip your DVDs and store them on your server.
There are loads of how to videos and tutorials for Plex if you want to get started.
M.
Wishful thinking. After years of using Plex (was Plexpass user at some time), I’ve switched completely to Kodi. Just few point Plex forgets or ignores:
– speed of start playing
– media compatibility
– subtitles downloading (interactive as in Kodi is perfect)
These three are show stoppers for Plex. Wish them success with a new hire though. Perhaps in few months I’ll revisit the subject. Competing is a good thing.