I just used iFlicks and it updates my videos into iTunes and adds metadata. Does this in 2-3 mins. No need to pay monthly/yearly with Plex
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Hands-On With the New Plex App for the Apple TV
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Two huge benefits of Plex are the ability to transcode multiple file formats in the fly (no benefit to you because you've already encoded your files to play inside iTunes) and the beautiful representation and organization of all of your media (also no benefit to you because iTunes does that too).
The biggest benefit of Plex to me was the ability to get my media off my laptop but still be able to access that media anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Plex does this amazingly well on a huge variety of client devices. With iTunes you're limited to downloading only those movies and TV shows you purchased from Apple, or ones that you've stored locally.
Not exactly. Home sharing works fine if your media files are formatted the Apple way. If you have other formats, like MKV, AVI, FLV, OGG, etc -- home sharing won't play them. Plex plays pretty much anything, regardless of the limitations of iTunes. If the AppleTV can play them natively, Plex streams to your box using 'Direct Play'; if not, Plex sends a transcoded stream -- without you having to do anything except enjoy. Media descriptions and artwork are automatically downloaded so that your media files have a polished look when you're browsing through your library. If your media has corresponding IDX/SUB, SRT, or encoded subtitles -- Plex will let you turn them on/off. If you don't, but want subtitles -- Plex will check Subtitles.org and, if available, download them.
A Plex Pass subscription further enhances Plex functionality, allowing you to do things like create multiple logins for your Plex account and administer who has access to different media files, or download media files to your different devices for offline playback.
Without a paid subscription, the server and client apps are free, simple to set up, and definitely worth a look.
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Anyone have feedback on the other plain ol' DLNA media players on the ATV store? Plex indexed all my stuff wrong, not sure I have the patience to go in and fix it all. I'm fine with apps like nPlayer on my iPad to navigate nested folders on my server.
To be most accurate Plex requires certain file naming conventions to be followed: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/categories/200028098-Media-Preparation
Plex is great! I use a raspberry pi 2 as my media server but I do not transcode. It can only handle transcoding standard def
I have tried plex a few times and have not been able to fully get it going. Also will plex play movies bought through iTunes.
$150 is a bit steep for the limited functionality it offers and without a way of really knowing whether there will be a Plex Pass Plus later. I'd have much preferred a paid download. I'd pay $50 every $18-$24 months to keep the app up to date. I know that doesn't sound much different from an annual subscription but philosophically it feels different to me.
I haven't looked into it in depth-- are the passes per user, per client, or per server?
How do you make sure they are encoded so that they can direct play them?
Which program should I use? And what output format?
Gary
I use the "Normal" setting on Handbrake, which has served me well so far. YMMV.
Actually Plex goes online and downloads movie posters, background pictures and movie information from themoviedb and thetvdb sites depending on whats in the folder and does that for all the movies in the folder you choose to share.
Out of the 1800 odd movies i had to manually fix about 30 or so which isn't bad at all and that only usually happened if the movie had the same name as another but didn't have the year of the movie in the folder name so it was an easy fix. The Tv series folder was much the same but goes into even more detail by showing the tv series poster and background pic like the movies but then it goes and adds a description of each episode in all the seasons of that tv series which is great for going through previous eps and watching the ones that sound interesting to you.
I run the plex media server on my snyology DS1515+ and after adding my movie folder and tv folder and waiting for the indexing was complete I have to say I've been nothing but impressed with it. Haven't noticed much if any slow down while loading stuff with everything hooked up to a gigabit switch. Im sort of fussy with how my files are organised and prefer plex to look after all the poster and information compared to the air video for a simple file browser interface. Plex may not be for everyone but for me having all the posters and information about every movie and tv episode is worth its weight in gold. Offline viewing on that air video is a very nice feature though but for that I just use AV Player HD.
One last thing what do you mean it made a mess of your folder. Did it have wrong info for the movies or something else.
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1. Easier to manage and much smoother handling of non standard stuff.
2. Supports auto file tagging and adding.
3. Transcodes to remote devices (even on remote networks)
4. Wide support for devices other than Apple.
5. Nice automation features for things like subtitles
6. Way easier to find content with a large library (advanced filtering options.
I would not recommend Air Video HD unless you do not care about artwork and grouping of TV shows. If you care about how the media looks than Air Video HD will not be a great solution for you. I have had Plex for a couple of years and tried Air Video HD just to see how it was. Plex is a more advanced and developed software media solution than Air Video HD. Good Luck
The benefit using Plex would be on the Movie and TV Show side. Plex is able to auto index your library and provide movie posters and group tv shows. In addition, you can access your movies outside your network while on the go. I don't believe iTunes has any of the above features. -cheers
I've got a Synology DS1815+ running plex. Haven't had time to try it with Apple TV. Just installed plex on the NAS. Was just streaming to a Mac mini running kodi before. Going to try plex but sad it doesn't support DTS, DTS-HD and TrueHD. Maybe one day! 
I would rather use app like nplayer when its available on app store. Plex has certain merits in that it automatically downloads posters, and relevant info. But it does not utilize any cpu power of apple tv. You must have your server fully running when transcoding.
However, apps like nplayer utilizes apple tv native cpu and does not require high cpu on serverside. If library organize feature is not important and your server cpu is not powerful enough, then nplayer or vlc app will be the answer
However, apps like nplayer utilizes apple tv native cpu and does not require high cpu on serverside. If library organize feature is not important and your server cpu is not powerful enough, then nplayer or vlc app will be the answer
I use Air Video with my phone and it's perfect. It's probably what I'll use on the Apple TV.
I have a synology 411j and plex couldn't convert half the movies because the nas isn't powerful enough....
plex just created a mess. Synologys own solution is better it seems (which is also a mess as it can only play a limited number of file types) Yeah... I have so many files and have no idea how to transcode them. It will take a huge time copying file to computer, encode one by one and then put them back
If you prefer to use iTunes and Home Sharing to watch videos on Apple TV you can. There are apps that take your videos, add metadata and artwork and put them in iTunes. The advantage is that they are watchable on Apple TV and automatically sync to your iPhone and iPad as well. I have been using VideoDrive for this purpose, and it works really well.