Plex - Bytesized Hosting Wiki

Name: Plex

Website: http://plex.tv

Added on: 10th of June 2014

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Table of Contents

• Description
  • Version management
  • Changelog
• Read this first
  • Getting Started
  • Installing plugins
  • Secure connections
• Tips and tricks
  • Upgrading Plex server
  • Content not showing up
  • Naming conventions
  • Unmatched channel
  • Automatic subtitle downloading
  • Music
  • Server sharing with friends
• Problems and how to solve them
  • Plex server can't be reached anymore
  • Convertion failed. A required codec could not be found or could not be installed.
  • Solving stuttering playback
  • I have 50Mbit+ connection why is it still suttering!?
  • Binding to Plex account

Description

Plex organizes video, music and photos from personal media libraries and streams them to smart TVs, streaming boxes and mobile devices. Every Bytesized Streambox comes with Plex hosting build in.

Version management

Plex gets updated to the latest when ever a push to the unofficial Plex repository is detected. You can upgrade via the upgrading on your Box page.

Changelog

10th of March 2015

Enabled plugin access.

28th of August 2014

A couple of changes have been made to the default installation.

• DLNA is now disabled by default.
• Filesystem changes will now trigger a partial scan on the folders that changed.
• Setup default encoding to prefer speed over quality.

19th of July 2014

Plex now also looks in the media directory in your home folder for new content. This folder is being used by FileBot to symlink your content once it's been extracted and moved. Because symlinks are not detected by Plex the rescan rate has been reduced to 15 minutes. This means Plex will look for new content every 15 minutes.

21st of July 2014

Plex now has local network discovery disabled by default and will try to make a sensible friendly name with the server name in it.

Read this first

I wrote a complete guide to Plex on Bytesized, please read it before starting your journey.

Getting Started

First off it's recommended you create a plex.tv account. That way you will be able to access your Plex server from any IP. So before you install Plex on your box go to the Plex website and register.

Once you have done so go to the Box you want to install Plex on and press "Install application". Now in order to login to Plex it will need your IP address. It should show you a guestimation of what your IP should be but this could be wrong so verify it and then fill it in the input box.

Next follow the "Binding to Plex account" tip to make sure you will be able to reach the server from any IP.

Installing plugins

You can install custom plugins by enabling plugin access. Do note that this feature is fully unsupported by Bytesized. This means that you are on your own configuring and setting up plug-ins. Bytesized cannot guarantee that a custom plugin won't interfere with regular Plex operations.

After enabling plugin access via the Plex app actions menuEnable plugin access you now have access to the Plugins folder that comes with Plex. The path for this folder is ~/.docker-conf/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins

You can install plugins in this folder. More info can be found on the Plex site.

Secure connections

• Secure connections will only be enabled when you properly claim your Plex server to your Plex account.
• Once you have enabled secure connections connecting directly to your server using the Bytesized hostname and the given port will only work if you specify https instead of http.
• The certificate will not be 100% valid when connecting through the Bytesized hostname and port when secure connections are enabled. It will only work if you navigate through https://app.plex.tv
• At this time Android, Roku (Preview app), the web app, Windows, and Plex Home Theater all use secured connections when available.
• When using one of the supported applications the stream itself will be secured as well, not just the communication between client and server.

Tips and tricks

Upgrading Plex server

The upgrade is not available at the same time as Plex releases the new version. It can take a few days. Please check it a couple of days after the official release. To upgrade simply go to your box dashboard and press "Actions" next to Plex and select "Upgrade version". Ensure you don't have any active FUSE mounts (rclone/plexdrive) when you do this: It will fail.

Content not showing up

First off try refreshing your Library, you can do this by going to your Library and press the "Update Library" button.

Ensure that the Library folders are set to /data/media/Movies and /data/media/TV Shows.

Your files not showing up even after refreshing your TV Shows or Movies libraries? Content from Deluge and rTorrent should automatically show up. If it doesn't perhaps it could not be identified. Use the "Unmatched" channel to see if it is there. If it is, try renaming the files so Plex might have more success.

If you are downloading via an other application you might want to move your content to either ~/media/TV Shows or ~/media/Movies depending on the content.

If you have Deluge installed you can also run Filebot manually on your content downloaded via other sources.

python ~/.config/deluge/filebot.py nothing . ~/path/to/content

Or via a wrapper called filebotify ~/path/to/content

Naming conventions

To have an optimal Plex experience it's recommended you name your content accordingly. Otherwise Plex might not recognise it. Please read the Media Preparation Guide for tips on how to name your media.

Unmatched channel

There is one channel preinstalled that will show you content that Plex did see but couldn't match. This might help you find content you need to rename.

Automatic subtitle downloading

Filebot downloads subtitles on each file that gets identified but sometimes those are not available yet. Plex has the option to check for subtitles on each refresh of your Library. To set it up follow the following instructions.

• Login to your Plex servers and go to settings
• Navigate to Server > Agents > TV Shows > TheTVDB
• Flag OpenSubtitles.org and click the little settings icon.
• Register an account at http://OpenSubtitles.org and fill in your details.
• Now refresh your library and it should download any new subtitles if finds.

Music

By default we only set up Movies and Series, but Plex can handle music media as well. You can create your own folders by logging in and pressing the 'plus' sign on the left hand side.

Server sharing with friends

You can share your Plex server with any friends that also use Plex. To do so login to Plex.tv go to "servers" and press "Share" on the server you want to share.

Just fill in a email or username and your server will be shared.

Problems and how to solve them

Plex server can't be reached anymore

See this dedicated page about getting your Plex server back online.

Convertion failed. A required codec could not be found or could not be installed.

To fix this please upgrade Plex by going to your box's dashboard, press "Actions" next to the Plex app and choose "Upgrade". Once upgraded the problem should be gone :)

Solving stuttering playback / Buffering / Slow speed problem

First ensure you are not transcoding. Check our transcoding wiki to learn more about transcoding and direct playing. If you absolutely need to transcode then read on.

Depending on your connection and location in the world you may want to play around with the transcoding quality.

Login to your Plex webui and go to settings->web->player. Now you probably want to change the remote quality and play around with a setting that plays back without buffering too much. Increasing the quality will be heavier for your connection so make sure you find a good ratio.

If you don't use the web-interface you can set the quality in the setting menu for the app you are using.

Rerouting might also help solve the issues.

I have 50Mbit+ connection why is it still suttering!?

Sadly your bandwidth is only a small part of it. Much more important is your distance to the server and the quality of your connection to the server. It's the same as with FTP connections. The greater the latency, the slower it will be because your connection waits for ACK packages. Degrading the quality lower the required latency and thus improves playback.

Binding to Plex account

If you have a tablet, phone or other Plex ready device or you want to use your Plex from different IPs make sure you associate your Bytesized Plex server to your Plex account so you can use it regardless of your IP.

You can do this by following these steps:

• Login to your Bytesized Plex web-interface
• Go to Settings->Server and press 'Remote Access'
• Press sign-in and login using your Plex.tv account

Now you can log-in with your Plex.tv account on any device and Plex@BySH should show up there automatically.