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Remember when streaming used to be a much more affordable alternative to cable? Now it seems every month another major streaming service announces new price hikes, password-sharing crackdowns, or quietly removes one of your favorite TV shows. In an increasingly digital-only landscape, how do you make sure you don't lose your favorite media due to licensing issues?
Owning your own media reduces the risk of losing access to your favorites when they jump from one service to another. But that doesn't mean you need to make room for physical Blu-rays or DVDs. If you still prefer the convenience of streaming over physical media, like I do, building and maintaining a home media library with Plex lets you set up a server to stream your movies and shows. Compared with alternatives like Jellyfin, I found Plex to be one of the easiest options to set up. You’ll just need a computer or NAS with solid processing power, several terabytes of storage, and a good internet connection. Here's how I did it.
Select Your Hardware
To set up a Plex server, you'll first need the physical server. The specifics of the form factor don’t matter as long as the hardware meets Plex's requirements. Technically, you can get a server running on a PC, MacBook, mini PC, Linux device, Nvidia Shield, and even Netgear Nighthawk X10 router, so it’s not like the requirements are daunting. At a minimum, you’ll want an Intel Core i3 processor, at least 4GB of RAM, and Windows 10 or newer or macOS 10.13 High Sierra or newer.
For storage, I would generally recommend securing several terabytes of storage—maybe 2TB, at a minimum—if you plan on streaming a lot of 4K HDR content. However, the RAM crisis will likely make it difficult to track down enough memory at an affordable rate. Unless you have something lying around at home, you might just need to settle for less overall storage for now while leaving room for adding more in the future.
In my case, I set up Plex on my desktop PC. Just keep in mind that if there are other users streaming your content, you’ll need to leave the PC on and connected to the internet at all times. This can be set up from the power settings menu. It’s also worth noting that when one person starts streaming 4K content, it can impact the performance of your online games if they're running simultaneously, so do some work to manage your bandwidth.
If you dislike the idea of keeping your computer on at all times, another option is to get a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device. Unlike a PC, which may need to be restarted or powered down periodically, these low-power network storage devices can be left running indefinitely. They're ideal if you want to share content with many users in different locations and time zones. Plus, it’ll prevent shared users from impacting your gaming performance.
Keep in mind, however, that this can get expensive, since most NAS devices can cost several hundred dollars and still don't include the storage drives. If you're ready to do some tinkering, a Raspberry Pi makes a great makeshift NAS device, which is a cheaper way to test the concept as a file-sharing device before spending big.
Install Plex Media Server
Once you've chosen the physical server, you'll need to set up the software that goes with it. First, create a free Plex account to manage and share your content library. Next, install the Plex Media Server software from the company's website. It can be downloaded for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD, as well as NAS devices from Synology, Seagate, Netgear, TerraMaster, and others.
The Plex Media Server is just background software and doesn't have a graphical user interface, but it does need to be running to support content streaming. Instead, you'll access the media library and watch content through the Plex app. This can either be the plex.tv website or the desktop and smart TV app for your device of choice.
Set Up Your Libraries
Once the Plex app has launched, you should see a home page that will show the various Plex services and collections available. To get your libraries set up, you’ll need to create a file system and direct Plex to it, but it’s all reasonably straightforward. By default, you’ll see Home, Live TV, Movies & Shows, Discover, Watchlist, Music, Rentals, and Downloads.
Any libraries created and added will appear at the bottom, but you can also pin them for easier access. To make a library, click Settings and select the correct Plex Media Server if you have servers running on more than one device; in my case, it’s my PC. Scroll down to the Manage section and click Libraries > Add Library. This should open a selection window where you can pick the library type, including Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photos, and Other Videos.
Name the library, select the language, and click Next. Now, hit Browse for Media Folders and direct Plex to the location of the media files. You can also enter the path manually if that’s easier. Files can be placed in any folder, but Plex recommends against having it in a root drive like C:/ since it can cause problems. In my case, I let my libraries live in the Downloads folder for easy access, and I created two subfolders to store my content: Movies and TV Shows
Whenever you need to add new content to the server, just move it into the relevant folder and navigate to Libraries > Scan Library Files to make it populate on the media player. You can also do this easily from the home page by clicking the three-dot menu next to the collection and hitting Scan Library Files.
If you want Plex to do this automatically, enable Scan my library automatically under Settings > Library. You can also enable a specific interval of time for the scan to occur, ranging from hourly or daily to as frequently as every 15 minutes.
The best thing about Plex, in my opinion, is that it also automatically pulls the metadata for all your TV shows and movies, providing descriptions, posters, subtitle and language options, and even audience scores.
Share Content With Friends and Family
Once you set up the libraries, you can share content with others. Before continuing, I recommend having the person you’re trying to share with also create a Plex account. To start sharing content, open Settings and scroll down to Manage Library Access under your account name. Click the Grant Library Access button and enter the person's Plex username or email. Select the libraries to which you want to grant them access, then hit Continue and start sharing.
As the administrator, you can restrict what Libraries are shared with guests, which is handy for any private content you’d rather keep to yourself. To see where people are logging in from, go to the Settings > Authorized Devices page for an overview of every device accessing your Plex server and when it was last accessed. For any unfamiliar devices, click the red X to revoke access.
Install and Configure Plex on Multiple Devices
The Plex app is supported on a wide range of devices, including TVs, phones, tablets, smart home devices like those from Amazon and Sonos, streaming devices, gaming consoles, and desktops. Installing the Plex app on these devices will make it easy to access your libraries directly on the device, as long as the media server is running.
Plex has its own premium options that hide some features behind a paywall. If you want to stream media from any device, in any location, you'll need a Remote Watch Pass ($2.99 per month). To download content for offline viewing, you'll need Plex Pass ($6.99 per month). It comes with some nice quality-of-life features, but I don't think it's necessary for most users.
