The blog & portfolio of Matthew J. Rogers

Follow up: Plex and the Mac Mini media center

November 5, 2008
Plex - Band of Brothers episode list

Plex - Band of Brothers episode list

A couple months ago I wrote my initial impressions of Plex, a Mac-centric fork of the venerable XBMC software that was originally written for hacked 1st-generation Xboxes. In early September I bought a Mac Mini to run Plex, and have been using it exclusively as my living-room media streamer since then. The original post got a number of comments, and I’ve received a lot of emails as well so I wanted to follow up now that I’m more familiar with the software.

My original endorsement of Plex stands: it’s a beautiful piece of software, and is being actively developed so improvements are constantly forthcoming. It has taken our interaction with the terabytes of video I keep on hand to a whole new level. It’s so slick and easy to use, as a matter of fact, that sometimes I’ll pick something to watch through Plex even though I have the DVD right there on the shelf next to the TV. I hate physical media, I find it to be a nuisance, and Plex delivers a much richer way of experiencing your video library.

Video library

Speaking of your video library, that is one thing about this software that requires at least some maintenance on your part: as you add new videos to the folders you’ve assigned Plex to watch, you need to make sure the filenames follow one of the half-dozen or so naming conventions that Plex can recognize. This is what allows it to go out and download all the art, synopses, episode names, and other metadata that make the library experience so great.

Performance

Running on a current-generation Core 2 Duo 1.83 GHz with 1.5GB of RAM, Plex is super responsive. It can play high-quality 720p .mkv files with nary a stutter or skip (I don’t have a 1080p TV, but users on the Plex forums report no problems with that either). One of the reasons I switched to the Mini from a hacked Apple TV is that the ATV just didn’t seem to have the horsepower to both pull high bitrate files over my home network and play them at the same time — it would start locking up and jumping around. Really, for up to 720p I know that any Intel-based Mac Mini will work fine, even the Core Solo.

Remote control

This was my only significant headache about the whole Plex experience, although most of it was not really the fault of Plex. Out of the box, yes, Plex works with the Apple remote — although with only 6 buttons, that’s pretty limiting. Plus, I love my Logitech Harmony to death and won’t ever allow a second remote to invade my single-remote nirvana. So what are the options?

Update: Since I wrote this, Plex has integrated Harmony support directly into the software, so remote setup is now practically effortless. See my newer post.

Beyond the basic Apple remote, there’s two additional control schemes that Plex supports: multi-button sequences, in which it will recognize subsequent rapid button presses from the Apple remote in order to execute a larger command set, and of course keyboard control. The free way to use your Harmony to near full effect with Plex is to follow the guide in their Wiki to configure your Harmony to send out these rapid button sequences. It does work, but is not without serious drawbacks. For one thing, the sequences simply take awhile. Yeah, there’s only a few hundred milliseconds between each command, but when most of the video operations consist of three virtual button presses, it does get annoying after awhile to press “Pause”….and then wait a couple beats until the video actually pauses. Also, it introduces a lot of margin for error. Often, one of the commands from the sequence will simply be missed, either because of an obstruction or just for no apparent reason at all, and Plex will recognize two button presses instead of three — which will execute a completely different function and will have you wanting to throw your remote across the room in no time. This is no way to relax and enjoy a movie. It also fails the “wife test” — my wife couldn’t reliably operate Plex in my absence and would just give up.

Without a doubt the most versatile — albeit inconvenient — way to control Plex is with they keyboard. Having so many keys at your disposal, you can execute any of the hundreds of functions with a single input. However, with no additional means of input, this also fails the “wife test,” because there’s no way in hell she’s going to memorize 20 or 30 different keys or keep a big wireless keyboard on her lap just to watch a TV show or movie. So…what if there were a way to send keystrokes to Plex with the Harmony?

Ah…but there is. It’s called Remote Buddy, it costs money, and it will take a good two hours for you to get oriented, program the Harmony, and configure it to your liking (a tutorial at FunWithComputers really helps — it’s for XBMC, but Plex is nearly the same thing), but once everything’s all properly glued together with Remote Buddy the whole experience finally comes together. Since I setup Remote Buddy, the Mac Mini with Plex passes the “wife test” with flying colors. It was a tedious process, but I’m very happy with the results. Remote Buddy is free to try for 30 days, so you’ve got plenty of time to figure out if you want to use it.

I hope that answers most people’s questions. If you’re wondering about anything else, just post a comment.

24 comments ›
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24 comments

  • Edward December 2nd, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    i’m right along with you on your plex/mac mini htpc journey.

    the movie interface is completely cool, but….

    how are you playing your music in plex? i have all my music on my imac. i have my mac mini itunes using the shared imac itunes library. to call it buggy would be a huge understatement. it rarely even works. i want this thing to work so well, but if the music playback is so sketchy, i can’t keep using it.

  • Matthew December 5th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

    Edward,

    I actually don’t play any music from Plex. We just don’t listen to music in the family room, and my office is right next to the family room so I just play music from my computer. I have heard though that the experience you describe is not uncommon. I know that the Plex people are working on a lot of improvements with the secondary media (photos, music, etc) streaming and integration.

  • Fred January 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm

    I’ve been doing a bunch of research on Mac Mini + Plex, and just wanted to say thanks for the blog posts. Your experiences (most importantly the “wife tests”) are very helpful in deciding what to do!

  • Aargh-a-Knot January 11th, 2009 at 7:21 pm

    Yeah, Plex adds new features that rock, once or twice a month. I love it! I found a great iPhone app to use as a remote control for Plex, called ‘Snatch’. Ok, not the best name, but it works really well. I made a video showing how I use it to control Plex, that I think shows off Plex’s features pretty well. Check it out on my blog, http://aarghaknot.wordpress.com/

    Thanks!

  • Cass January 14th, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    How do you get your TV Shows to show up like that? I added the xml for the way I name my files, but the TV Shows keep showing up under Videos, with only the artwork downloaded, and will not show up under TV Shows at all.

  • Matthew January 15th, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Cass: I didn’t even have to add the XML (I guess I already had them arranged in one of the compatible formats). The one trick is that you have to add a source and explicitly define that source as containing TV shows. There’s more info on that in the Plex wiki.

  • Ole Martin February 15th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    I have Plex running on a MacMini myself. It’s just amazing! But how do you deal with the scraping? Are you renaming every map? Do you manually scrape each movie?

    I want tip :)

  • Matthew February 15th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    I don’t rename anything, the scrapers pick up my TV shows and movies pretty much just as they are. It’s practically effortless.

  • The House of Husar March 9th, 2009 at 3:12 am

    I noticed you have Band of Brothers from the screen shot in your article. I am having a terrible time getting Plex to find the episodes. Can you tell me how you have the files names?

    I am using the following with no luck of Plex scraping the details about each episode.

    Band of Brothers – e0x.mkv

    x is obviously the number set for each file.

    Cheers.

  • The House of Husar March 9th, 2009 at 3:43 am

    I figured it out. I needed to change file names to the following….

    Band of Brothers – s01e0x.mkv

    Cheers.

  • Soakanomx March 10th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

    Im feeling your blog. Apparently the idea of using the Mac Mini as a HTPC has taken off. I have been using one for two years as a streaming music player but are just now getting into video and Plex. I download a lot of video and it seems Plex will be awesome once I learn how to use it.
    If i change the file names of my files and hit search in library mode I should be all good right? so far I can brwose in file mode as the source (my external 1TB – similar setup) but nothing shows up in library mode. Is my file naming the problem?

  • Matthew March 10th, 2009 at 3:24 pm

    Once you have established where your sources are (and defined them to be TV or Movie sources — check the Plex getting started guide for more info about that) just hitting “Update Library” while in TV Shows or Movies should find them, yes.

  • Carson March 15th, 2009 at 5:26 am

    Talk about your noob questions: I love this mac mini concept but I’m still not understanding the most important and basic point.

    That is: Are you, Matthew, and most others using the mac mini as a stand alone media server or are most you using the mac mini just as a front end means of “bridging” another media server (a separate computer located in another room somewhere) to your TV? It seems all you would need is a mac mini and USB external storage so why two computers?

    P.S. I don’t know how anyone could fall for the Apple TV to be honest. When you factor in it’s limitations and headache of hacked workarounds it’s not a fraction of the value of the mini offers. You’re not “saving money” with an Apple TV. It’s just the opposite; you’re paying far too much for what boils down to an iTunes Store extender, in my honest opinion.

  • Matthew March 15th, 2009 at 9:08 am

    Carson: For me, the Mac Mini is just a front end. It streams my shows over my network, because they’re all stored on my main computer. External storage on the Mini would work too, but I already have the storage on my big Mac (2.0 TB worth), so why buy additional hardware that would clutter up my entertainment center? I have to run network cable to my entertainment center anyway for the TiVo and Xbox 360 too. Plus, I let the Mini go to sleep, whereas my main machine is always running anyway. If the Mini was the media server, it would have to be running all the time too so downloads could get saved to it.

    I had the Apple TV briefly but you’re right, it was a royal pain in the butt. The hacks were tenuous and something was always breaking.

  • Carson March 15th, 2009 at 11:45 am

    Thanks kindly for your reply and explanation, Matthew. Much appreciated. So while the mini could be used as a stand alone media server, most enthusiasts probably prefer it as a streamer to pull files from a larger media server. That’s making more sense now given your mention of he mini running all the time, adding unneeded clutter and probably many other factors. That’s what I was hoping to grasp. Thanks.

    I’ve considered the Apple TV, Popcorn hour A-110, Lacie La Cinema and Mini. The Popcorn hour is very tempting but, surprisingly, doesn’t include Gigabit ethernet. Given Apple just updated the mini and TB drives are down to $100 it’s a good time to take the plunge. Twice as expensive as the Apple TV, yes –and worth every cent in time and compatibility issues saved. Great blog, thank you again.

  • Sven April 9th, 2009 at 10:20 am

    I’ve been pondering using a Mic Mini as a media center for years now, and your reviews have answered most of my questions. I just downloaded Plex, and it is fantastic (and free!).

    Just a couple questions:
    Are you using the Mac as your DVD player? Does it provide 480P like a standalone player?

    Are you getting 5.1 channel audio out of the digital out port?

    I’ve heard that iTunes HD movies will not play on non apple external monitors via the new mini DV port equipped macs, but will work on previous generation macs with the standard DVI ports. Any observations there?

    Thanks!

  • Matthew April 9th, 2009 at 10:23 am

    Sven,

    I do not use the Mini as my DVD player (I use my Xbox 360 for that), so I’m not sure about the upconversion. From what I’ve heard, though, I think it does that.

    I do get 5.1 out of the audio port on the Mini. A lot of my high-def .mkv video files have 5.1 audio, and it’s great.

    I don’t have any experience with iTunes HD files, so I can’t answer that.

  • Ian April 11th, 2009 at 6:32 am

    Hi Matthew

    I have just downloaded Plex on my iMac and am in the process of figuring it out. I was interested in hearing that you also have Tivo. Have you integrated Plex and Tivo in any way? I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the time and effort in converting tivo recordings so I am seriously considering mac home theatre setup as a Tivo replacement.
    I have also heard that apple tv is necessary in addition to the mac mini to ensure the screen resolution / aspect ratio’s etc work properly on a lcd tv. You have obviosly managed to set the correct screen settings directly on the mini?

  • Matthew April 11th, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Ian,

    I have not integrated the TiVo and Plex, because (way back when I first tried it) I too found converting from the TiVo to be a giant pain. Instead, I just auto-download the episodes I want to archive permanently from someone who already did the conversion…typically via custom search feeds from tvrss.net ;)

    I don’t know where you heard that the Apple TV is necessary “in addition to” the Mac Mini, but that’s crap. It’s not like you could use them together anyway. Depending on your TV, it can be a bit more of a hassle to get the resolution/display perfect with the Mini, but it can be done. I just had to monkey around in my TV settings a little bit.

  • Luciano April 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am

    Hi Roger,

    (I’m sorry if you get this twice but I guess I posted it in the wrong page on the first time.)

    I would like to thank you for all the tips you have posted, them were very useful for me to take decisions about which way to go. So far I have got a brand new Mac Mini (2.26GHz, 4GB, 120HD) in addition to my Onkyo receiver and my Samsung 42” plasma TV (I’ll be buying an external drive shortly). I have all connections working fine (mini-DVI to HDMI for video and Optical for sound), I’m trying to use Plex (after first read about it here) so 2 days ago I bought a Harmony One remote control but I’m struggling to make it work. If you don’t mind I have few questions about it.

    1) How did you add the Mini as device? I used “Media PC”, “Apple”, “Mac Mini”. Is this even necessary when you are adding Plex as device? I’m kinda confused here.

    2) Does your remote turn on/off the Mini? I was reading about it and I guess the only option is to leave it on and just put it to sleep/wake when you start/stop an activity, is that true?

    3) I couldn’t get the remote to start Plex when I pick the activity. What should I do to archive this?

    I would appreciate if you could explain in details how you did the setup and how your system is working (i.e. Mac Mini is always on and just go to sleep, remote starts Plex, etc.)

    I’m sorry about all these questions but I’m very anxious to have everything working to be able to just enjoy it. :)

    Thanks!!

  • Patrick May 8th, 2009 at 10:34 pm

    Loved plex on my Mini09 for the first few weeks but discoved it couldn’t handle +30Mbps 1080 videos the way I like it (with partially no frame drops).

    So, ended up installing Vista Media Center with CoreAVC and I can testify of a powerhorse HTPC (virtually silent).

    Got the best of both worlds!

  • John D July 26th, 2009 at 11:22 am

    I’ve been working with the Mac Mini as a media center since Dec 2008 for my living room entertainment. The only REAL TV in the house is the bedroom TV on rabbit ears.

    My hardware includes the mini with 1.83GHz CPU & 2GB RAM along with Apple’s BT keyboard & mouse, 1.5TB of external HD, 32″ Toshiba HD TV w/PC conn, a 2.1 PC spkr system, a Logitech Harmony remote and a PLA (Power Line Adapter) network feed from my “computer room” FiOS router. The PLA is about 30% faster than 802.11g wireless and doesn’t experience the slow down when I operate my MW oven.

    My initial media center software was Front Row and MediaCentral. I am now switch hitting btwn Plex and Boxee. Boxee has many more APPS than Plex, BUT Plex has better features for managing HD media, especially SCRAPING and STACKING. Both have their shortcomings, but are under active development. IMO, it’s a horse race to see which one will become the better media center on the Mac. I access Hulu and Netflix with both. I do have a paid subscription to Netflix which costs me a total of $9.50 per month including tax. So, my monthly TV costs are $9.50.

    Boxee has played every video file format I’ve thrown at it including 1080p with maybe a few minor hiccups. Plex has done almost as well, but I encountered a couple .TS files it wouldn’t play. Plex will play .TS files, but there are a couple I have that it will not play. I haven’t tried to figure out why.

    I’ve acquired a playlist that I use with VLC. The playlist has links to CNN, NASA, and other domestic USA TV as well as Russian, Italian, German, English, Swedish, Arab, French, Spanish, South American, China, Thailand, and Vietnamese TV to name a few. In general, the video quality is poor due to the low resolution.

    I’ve used HandBrake to rip my DVD’s to HD.

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