Official Plex App Now Available for New Apple TV

Sad that ATV has no 24p currently, but 98% of my DVD collection is video source anyway, so that doesn't matter.

What does is that I really like ripping things as ISOs so I get the menus, but Plex doesn't support that. I've tried a few alternate (cheap) solutions and none were satisfactory thus far--full computer is more hassle and expense than I want to bother with, and while the WDTV supports this, in practice it's so buggy as to be completely unusable--it crashes or hangs playback of ISOs constantly.

I believe Kodi has ISO support, so fingers crossed that it will be released for ATV soon. VLC is the other possibility--it works great on the desktop for playback, it just lacks the media manager function.

...and yes, I know I could just make mp4s of everything and serve them from iTunes (or whatever), but I do rather enjoy having the menus for the special features and retro fun (for some of my really, really old DVDs). Also makes fiddling with subtitle and language options easier.
 
Question, does the Plex app allow you to stream shared libraries? Most of the apps don't, (Samsung App, or the plex hacks for the older AppleTVs, they only allow you to stream your own local library.
 
NutFlush920 said:
The whole reason I bought AppleTV was to access my media collection through my MacMini running HomeShare. If I wanted Plex, I would've just bought a Roku. I don't see what everyone is so happy about having Plex on the ATV when HomeShare is free and native across Apples platform.
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Because Plex allows you to use any format (Encodes on the fly), it also downloads trailers and stuff like that. It is so much simpler than trying to format something to work with appleTV.
 
Plex looks great but I'm waiting for Infuse from Firecore. I use their awesome iOS app on my iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Air 2 and it handles everything I throw at. Plus, it looks fantastic.
 
surfingarbo said:
I don't understand. For video on Apple TV, Apple's page says ".264 video up to 1080p, 60 frames per second, High or Main Profile level 4.2 or lower".

As someone who currently uses Plex on a Mac Mini, what is the issue with not having 1080p24 on Apple TV?

(Sorry - I don't know what 1080p24 is). Thanks.
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Briefly, the native frame rate of films is 24 frames per second, a 1080p60 television displays 60 frames per second so the 24 frames of the original film content don't divide equally into the 60 fps the tv is displaying. In order to work around this, some frames from the original content are shown 3 times each while others are only shown twice, a technique known as 3:2 pulldown. This results in a picture that isn't perfectly smooth, and the artifact of the technique is referred to as "judder." A 1080p24 device simply shows each of the original frames once each, for 1/24th of a second, resulting in a smooth "film like" quality preferred by enthusiasts. Hopefully this quick and dirty explanation helps...
 
Chytin said:
Plex looks great but I'm waiting for Infuse from Firecore. I use their awesome iOS app on my iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Air 2 and it handles everything I throw at. Plus, it looks fantastic.
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Infuse is much better than Plex. Extremely simple setup (almost no setup). Pulls metadata, subtitles, organise files into seasons, episodes automatically.
 
I have a stupid question, but I will ask anyway because I haven't found a good answer anywhere.

I have ripped all my DVDs and BDs to iTunes (and purchased few from iTunes Store). Is ability to play media files directly from the Plex server remotely (and not worrying about device compatibility) the main benefit of Plex?

And I assume ability to store files in MKV format and therefore not having to transcode it with Handbrake, etc.?
 
Snakedog said:
Because Plex allows you to use any format (Encodes on the fly), it also downloads trailers and stuff like that. It is so much simpler than trying to format something to work with appleTV.
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I've built my huge collection around AppleTV using MakeMKV, HandBrake, iFlicks, and Subler. No reason to change now. I'll pass on Plex.

Another reason to keep doing what I've been doing is because I can use the same files on my iPhone and iPad without having to stream and burn my data up.
 
NutFlush920 said:
The whole reason I bought AppleTV was to access my media collection through my MacMini running HomeShare. If I wanted Plex, I would've just bought a Roku. I don't see what everyone is so happy about having Plex on the ATV when HomeShare is free and native across Apples platform.
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Plex is cross platform and is easily accessible remotely. It also keeps track of Watch/Unwatched. I have it paired with Sickrage, so my shows are automatically downloaded and put into Plex. Opening flex gives me the latest episode right on hand.
 
NutFlush920 said:
I've built my huge collection around AppleTV using MakeMKV, HandBrake, iFlicks, and Subler. No reason to change now. I'll pass on Plex.

Another reason to keep doing what I've been doing is because I can use the same files on my iPhone and iPad without having to stream and burn my data up.
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If you care at all about being able to organize/Siri search your movies, Apple is not allowing this with Home Sharing. Plex will be building this in as soon as Apple's developer API for Siri search is released.

Edit: I also believe the ability to ask "Who's in this movie?" and the like requires that the media be hooked into Siri - so you'd also lose all of those features by relying on Home Sharing.
 
Zorn said:
If you care at all about being able to organize/Siri search your movies, Apple is not allowing this with Home Sharing. Plex will be building this in as soon as Apple's developer API for Siri search is released.

Edit: I also believe the ability to ask "Who's in this movie?" and the like requires that the media be hooked into Siri - so you'd also lose all of those features by relying on Home Sharing.
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This is one thing I'd like to see but who's to say Apple won't incorporate this in a future update? I'd like the idea of accessing my content outside of home but want to keep and use my own Medadata and cover art. Unless something has changed, Plex to the best of my knowledge doesn't allow that.
 
The blog post is incorrect -- the app is free. There's a $4.99 monthly subscription option for some enhanced functionality -- but 'streaming playback' works just fine without a subscription. Someone should let AppAdvice know as well, as they seem to have cut 'n paste their blurb from here -- it's pretty clearly explained in the email they just sent out as well as the website.
 
Pretty sure this wasn't answered yet, but can you only get this app on the new apple tv? I have 3rd gen can I get this app?
 
dannys1 said:
You could force it with SwitchResX but really 24hz is 100x better than having 3:2 pull down in 50hz or 60hz which is the Apple TV option at the minute
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No you can't. As far as I'm aware you cannot get exactly 23.976hz using Switchres. You can get close, but not exactly, which means there are still skipped frames.

I really don't like dropped/skipped frames, personally. I'd rather 3:2 pulldown than a skipped frame every 41 seconds (running 23.976hz material at 24hz).
 
NutFlush920 said:
This is one thing I'd like to see but who's to say Apple won't incorporate this in a future update? I'd like the idea of accessing my content outside of home but want to keep and use my own Medadata and cover art. Unless something has changed, Plex to the best of my knowledge doesn't allow that.
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Yeah I think you are right, pretty sure they just take care of the art and metadata for you. Just out of curiosity, why? I've personally never seen Plex get the art or the data wrong, I guess unless it's a fan edit or something that isn't a real commercial movie.
 
Zorn said:
Yeah I think you are right, pretty sure they just take care of the art and metadata for you. Just out of curiosity, why? I've personally never seen Plex get the art or the data wrong, I guess unless it's a fan edit or something that isn't a real commercial movie.
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I'm just OCD and like my content a certain way. Worked very hard on my library and am proud of it and don't want to not use it.
 
NutFlush920 said:
I'm just OCD and like my content a certain way. Worked very hard on my library and am proud of it and don't want to not use it.
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Similar to you, I've long used iTunes and Home Sharing, and have my library perfectly set up as I like it. However, I also run a Plex Server on the same machine, pointing at the same files. Therefore, I have the ability to use my same media via non-Apple devices as well. So, best of both worlds.
 
Bottom line for those who are lost while reading about 24p. Don't worry about it if you're not super hardcore. If you are super hardcore, you won't be using a Mac for media playback anyways. I use a 2014 mini as my Plex Media Server (and regular server) and a Haswell Intel NUC running Plex for proper 24p playback/HD audio etc.
 
jdag said:
Similar to you, I've long used iTunes and Home Sharing, and have my library perfectly set up as I like it. However, I also run a Plex Server on the same machine, pointing at the same files. Therefore, I have the ability to use my same media via non-Apple devices as well. So, best of both worlds.
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Plex does not modify metadata or files in any way does it?
 
canyonblue737 said:
Can anyone explain the advantages of Plex vs what I do today... a fully tagged collection of movies I added to iTunes (iFlick 2 for the metadata) that streams to all my Apple TVs?
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If you have everything in iTunes already, I'm not sure if there is an advantage. Part of what it does is convert file formats live (but it needs an app running on a different computer), but if you've already converted the files, you're done.

Gary
 
jayducharme said:
What does Plex do that AirPlay doesn't already do? Currently, I can stream anything I want from my computer to my ATV just by mirroring the display. Does Plex have a separate service apart from iTunes?
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Alex won't take up that computer monitor if you want to use that computer for something else (like computing).

Gary
 
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