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Plex Media Player for Mac Now a Free Download for All Users
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I snagged a lifetime Plex Pass at a decent price years back and when Plex Media Player came out I tried to love it, but it turns out that the dumbed-down iOS style app doesn't work as well on the desktop - I had come to enjoy the flexibility of Plex Home Theatre too much.
So off to OpenPHT I went and have not looked back.
But even that isn't perfect. It's still not great with a mouse and searching and finding media in a large library is a bit of a pain. Still something I use and love.
So off to OpenPHT I went and have not looked back.
But even that isn't perfect. It's still not great with a mouse and searching and finding media in a large library is a bit of a pain. Still something I use and love.
It's development was killed off - it was obviously left to download as otherwise they'd be no alternative as PMP was Plex Pass only. But it hasn't be updated for 2 years.
there was actually just a "Plex" app previously to PHT, which was the last time it was "re-written from the ground up" - i still have that as its the only version I can make work with the Crystal HD card I put in my '07 mac mini. still works like a champ.
but i find it kind of funny that the Plex team has needed to "re-write" the app from the ground up... again....
Hopefully this will help clear up some confusion. You have three options now:
Plex Media Player - This is the official replacement for Plex Home Theater that was built from the ground up.
OpenPHT - This is the community supported fork of Plex Home Theater.
Plex add-on for Kodi - For those who want to use Kodi, Plex now has an official add-on that's available for Plex Pass members.
Plex Media Player - This is the official replacement for Plex Home Theater that was built from the ground up.
OpenPHT - This is the community supported fork of Plex Home Theater.
Plex add-on for Kodi - For those who want to use Kodi, Plex now has an official add-on that's available for Plex Pass members.
Totally agree i have been using Plex since 2007 when it was first made available by the developer who basically ported XBMC to the Mac. PHT has not really been around that long and yes there was a separate client prior to PHT.
Yep. This happened sometime this past year on my TV set as well. Very disconcerting.
That was one major reason I didn't like Plex. I couldn't see the reason why I needed to log in to some outside computer in order to use my own media on my own devices. Then I found that it gave Plex access to my photo library even though I had specifically turned off the photo library in the original setup. That library was loaded with a lot of production stills that could possibly get me in serious trouble if they get into the wrong hands due to non-disclosure.
The lousy thing never worked right, so I deleted it. I followed the instructions at Plex as well as what was posted here in other Plex threads. A few months later, so many good reports were posted on how well Plex was working I decided to try it again. Surprisingly, it skipped the setup and went right to working as if I'd never deleted it. According to everyone I spoke with in various forums, I didn't miss a single file when I deleted everything. So where did that setup info get hidden?
So, we have a program that can't be completely deleted, that requires you to log in to a cloud service in order to use your own media on your own devices. Who really designed this thing? The NSA?
I deleted it all, again, and spent a lot of time scouring my system, and found a few hidden files which I also deleted. Then I installed Infuse from Firecore and was very pleased with it. It works brilliantly on my aTV4.
Before I found Infuse I tried Kodi. I spent a great deal of time setting it up, downloading plugins, looking for a skin I liked (Confluence just hurts my brain). I think it is a good idea and it has a tremendous potential but in its present state using it is too cumbersome. I don't know how it is now, but when I tried it last year there was no real guide for an optimized setup, just links to various YT quasi-instructional videos and the high s/n talkback content underneath them. It seems most people default towards downloading other peoples' builds rather than trying to learn the setup. It kind of reminded me of the early Hackintosh days before people like TonyMacX86 came along - plenty of bits and pieces available everywhere but no real plan.