The plex setup requires you make a connection with another device like a laptop or tablet. Then we signed into our plex account and finished configuring the server. The process consisted of signing into our Google account and then upgrading the firmware. We copied the movies that we had onto a 3TB Western Digital hard drive ($115), connected that to the Shield, connected ethernet, and power and started the process. We also created a video of the process that helps in conveying this information. There are plenty of resources available online for that so we decided to document our process to give you an indication of the effort required.
For more info on Plex go to their website at Plex.TV. Plus there are mobile apps for access both inside and outside the home. If you have other TVs you can add an AppleTV, Roku, or FireTV and you’ll have access to your media on every TV in your home. Take the Shield, you can buy the stripped down model for $199 and add an external hard drive for say another $50 and you have server and client that you can connect to your HDTV in about 30 minutes. Not a big deal, but what if you want a simple solution. In Ara’s setup he has the Plex Server running on his Mac mini and he uses the AppleTVs as clients.
But for completeness the shield does offer android games and entertainment apps like Netflix (4K HDR supported), Hulu, Pandora, Youtube 4K and others.Ī big advantage the Shield has over other setups is that it can be both the server and client. We will strictly be focusing on the entertainment aspect of the shield and specifically Plex. The Shield is an Android TV based set-top box targeted for both home entertainment and gaming. On the hardware side is the Nvidia Shield ( Buy Now $199 ).
The full list is available on their site.
With the PlexPass you get: Offline Access, Music Enhancements including lyrics, trailers and extras, and early access to new features and updates just to name a few. Although the free version of Plex is quite capable, you’ll want to buy the Plex pass ($4.99/ month, $39.99/year, and $149.99/lifetime) to really get you the Kaleidescape killer. The players can either be the Plex Apps available for mobile devices, smart TVs, and streaming boxes, or the web UI of the Plex Media Server called Plex Web App. The Plex Media Server organizes your content and streams it to the Plex Player.
Plex is a free client-server media player system and software suite comprising two main components. We did do a review of Plex in January of this year. By the way, this is not a full discussion on Plex or a full review of the shield. Our discussion consists of two parts, the hardware (in this case the Nvidia Shield) and the software Plex. The XBMC (now known as Kodi) software was ported to many platforms with variants that included Media Portal, Tofu, and what we are going to talk about today, Plex. On the open source side was Xbox Media Center (XBMC) which turned your xbox into a media center.
You still needed to buy a PC that had the server side. There was Windows Media center which at one point had third party manufacturers building hardware with the player software installed. Over the years there have been many media center products come and go and we have tried many of them. It had a great user interface with best looking experience. Back then there was a product that did exactly what we wanted but it cost upwards of $50,000! The Kaleidescape was THE video server we all wanted. Since close to the beginning of our podcast, a video server has been high on the HT Guys list of gear that everyone should have in their setups.
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