Plex Media Server is an elegant solution to the problem of easily accessing your digital media. Our Video Editor Greg Burke recently posted a review of his introduction to the Plex Media Server. Download Plex. Plex is packed with features designed to make your media experience easy and enjoyable.
Developer(s) | Plex, Inc. |
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Operating system |
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Platform | x86, ARM |
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Available in | languages |
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Alexa rank | 1,468 (September 2019)[2] |
Website | www.plex.tv |
Plex is a client-servermedia player system and software suite comprising two main components. The Plex Media Server desktop application runs on Windows, macOS and Linux-compatibles including some types of NAS devices. The server desktop application organizes video, audio, and photos from a user's collections and from online services, enabling the players to access and stream the contents. There are also official clients available for mobile devices, smart TVs, and streaming boxes, a web app, and Plex Home Theater (no longer maintained), as well as many third-party alternatives.
Plex sells a premium service called Plex Pass, with features like synchronization with mobile devices, cloud storage integration, metadata and matchings for music, support for multiple users, parental controls, live TV and DVR, trailers and extras and cross-selling offers.
- 1Background
Background[edit]
Plex began as a freeware hobby project in December 2007 when developer Elan Feingold created a media center application for his Apple Mac. He decided to port the media player XBMC (now known as Kodi) to Mac OS X.[3] Around the same time, Cayce Ullman and Scott Olechowski—software executives who had recently sold their previous company to Cisco—were also looking to port XBMC to OSX, and noticed Feingold's progress via XBMC online forums. They contacted him and offered support and help with funding. Feingold, Olechowski and Ullman formed as a team in January 2008 and founded Plex, Inc. in December 2009.[citation needed]
The team released early versions of the port, which they called 'OSXBMC'.[4] Their purposes were to bring to the project a complete integration to the Mac.[3]
Fork[edit]
The developers worked on the XBMC project until May 21, 2008. Due to different goals and vision from the XBMC team, they shortly forked the code to become Plex, and published it on GitHub. The code was kept roughly in sync with the Linux code.[5]
The new name was announced on July 8, 2008. Ullman came up with the name Plex² or Plex Square, due to the unavailability of plex.com, and the availability of plex2.com. Feingold suggested Plex² was too unwieldy and the single word, Plex, was ultimately chosen because the 'plex' suffix evokes 'comprising a number of parts'.[6] The team began to work on a media center component to aggregate not only local content but also to bring together web-based multimedia services. The new library system was redeveloped from scratch.[4][7] The CenterStage UI group, a team aiming at improving the home theater PC UI interface, teamed with Plex to develop the idea further.[8][9][4] To make the project viable, the team looked to bring the Plex experience to other devices, without the need for users to dedicate another computer as a HTPC.[3][10]
In December 2009, the project evolved into a commercialsoftware business owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company, Plex, Inc., a U.S.-based high tech firm that is responsible for the development of the Plex Media Server and media player app front- and back-ends, its client–server model, all accompanying software under the Plex brand name, as well as the exclusive, copyrighted, proprietary parts, whether distributed on its own or as a third-party software component in products manufactured via a strategic partnership. Elan Feingold, Scott Olechowski and Cayce Ullman were the three founders, with Ullman and Feingold taking on full-time roles as the CEO and CTO, respectively.[11][12]
At that time, Plex had 130 apps, the most popular of which were Apple Movies Trailers, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, MTV Music Videos, BBC iPlayer and Vimeo. In an interview for TechCrunch, Feingold declared Plex apps had been downloaded about 1 million times.[4][13]
In 2011, Ullman resigned as CEO and left the company.[14][15] Keith Valory became the new CEO in February 2013.[16][17]
In 2014, Plex raised $10 million from the venture capital firmKleiner Perkins. In an interview at CES 2014, Scott Olechowski, Plex Chief Product Officer, added that Plex was considering eventually adding paid music downloads, or teaming up with a music subscription service, to give users a chance to grow their music library. These partnerships, like the one with VEVO, were costly for Plex, which led to fundraising from Kleiner Perkins.[18]
As of July 2016, Plex has 65 employees.[19]
Relationships with content companies[edit]
Plex initially developed applications for services such as Hulu and Netflix. In response, Hulu deployed 'counter-measures' by creating changes deliberately to prevent Plex from parsing their HTML. Hulu and Netflix services are no longer officially available with Plex.[citation needed]
Plex's relationships with content companies are not completely adversarial. Some companies[which?] contacted Feingold[which?] to add their content to Plex, including music streaming service Spotify.[citation needed]
Plex Media Server[edit]
Plex Media Server (sometimes called PMS or PMS Software[20]) is the back-end media server component of Plex. It organizes audio and visual content from personal media libraries and streams it to their player counterparts, either on the same machine, the same local area network, or over the Internet. It can run on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, NAS devices, or on Nvidia Shield TV.[21]
The device can acquire content from sources such as iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture.[22][23][24] The music library is another of the Plex metadata databases. This library allows for the automatic organization of a music collection by information stored in the ID3 or M4A tags,[25][26] such as title, artist, album, genre, year, and popularity.[27] Plex Pass users also have the ability to access the whole music video catalog from VEVO.[28]
Player apps[edit]
Plex Web App: Users can manage their libraries, server settings, and watch content from this browser-based interface
An example of the TV Episode interface on Plex. Includes fan-art background
Player apps are Plex's front-end allowing the user to manage and play music, photos, videos and online content from a local or remote computer running Plex Media Server.
- Plex Web App – Plex released a web UI for all users on November 16, 2012.[29]
- Plex Media Player – Plex Media Player, announced on October 20, 2015, uses hardware acceleration for a consistent user interface across all devices.[30] While Plex Media Player is reported to be open source and its code available on GitHub as GPLv2,[31] not all of the software is actually open source; only the host parts of the application can be contributed.[30] Plex Media Player is compatible with Windows 7 and upwards, OS X Mavericks and upwards, embedded platforms like the Raspberry Pi 2 and Intel NUC,[32][33] with some Linux compatibility.[34][35]
- Plex Home Theater (discontinued) – Previously known as Plex Media Center, Plex Home Theater[36] is a front-end media player that was the software component used for Plex's back-end server component. On October 28, 2011, support for Windows was announced for Plex Home Theater, which brought integration with Windows Media Center.[12] In October 2015, Plex Home Theater was discontinued in favor of the Plex Media Player.[37] It is still distributed as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL), with source code on GitHub.[38]
Plex also released apps to run on other platforms and devices:
- Amazon Fire TV – Plex announced an application for the Amazon Fire TV, the same day it launched on April 2, 2014.[39]
- Android – On February 16, 2011, Plex announced its Android application.[40] On June 25, 2014, support for the Android TV platform was announced.[41]
- Apple TV – With the fourth generation of Apple TV, third-party developers could write their own applications, removing the main limitations of previous models.[42]
- Chromecast – On March 13, 2014, Plex announced free support of Chromecast in its iOS and Android applications.[43]
- iOS – An iOS application was released on August 30, 2010 and provided a way to use iOS devices to remotely control a Plex Media Server and view media.[44]
- LG – On September 2, 2010, Plex announced a partnership with LG to integrate the software component into LG 2011 NetCast-enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray devices.[10][14][45] Only NetCast models from 2013 and models running webOS were supported.[46]
- Opera TV – An app for Opera TV was announced on December 12, 2014.[47]
- PlayStation – Plex announced their apps for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on December 17, 2014.
- Roku – On May 3, 2011, Plex announced a client app on the Roku, available by installing the Plex private channel.
- Samsung – On August 3, 2012, Plex announced support for Samsung TV and Blu-ray players.[48][49]
- Sonos – On July 20, 2016, Plex announced product support for Sonos devices.[50][51][52]
- TiVo – TiVO DVRs have a Plex app from software version 20.4.7a or higher.[53]
- VIZIO – On October 15, 2014, Plex announced a partnership with VIZIO in order to have rights to release a Plex application on their devices.[54]
- Windows – On March 30, 2012, Plex announced the availability of Plex for Windows Phone.[55] On December 4, 2012, Plex announced a client application for Windows 8 using the new Metro interface.
- Xbox – On October 5, 2014, applications for Xbox 360 and Xbox One were announced, supporting voice and gesture control of the devices.
Privacy[edit]
On July 2, 2015, Plex revealed the machine hosting its blog and forums had been compromised. Personal information such as IP addresses, forum private messages, email addresses, and hashed and salted passwords had been accessed. This access was gained via a 0-day vulnerability in their forums software.[56] Following this intrusion, Plex migrated its forums to Vanilla Forums to reduce the burdens of sysadmin maintenance and security.
In 2017, Plex announced a new privacy policy by which it was no longer possible for Plex users to prevent their user data from being collected.[57] However, in a later privacy policy update, Plex CEO Keith Valory stated the company would generalize the playback data and offer users the ability to opt out of sending more specific playback information.[58]
See also[edit]
- Emby, a partially open-source alternative to Plex
- RasPlex, porting of Plex for OpenELEC on ARM architecture for Raspberry Pi
References[edit]
- ^'PlexMediaServer Translations - Get Localization'. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
- ^'plex.tv Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic - Alexa'. www.alexa.com. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
- ^ abc'Interview with the OSXBMC Developers – Automated Home'. April 29, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^ abcd'CrunchGear Interview: We talk to the lead developer of Plex Media Center for Mac OS X: It was doing Boxee-like stuff before Boxee was cool'. January 15, 2010. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
- ^'XBMC for Mac forked for a separate project called PLEX (formerly known as 'OSXBMC')'. May 23, 2008. Archived from the original on August 21, 2009. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
- ^'Announcing Plex – Plex'. July 5, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^'Getting to know you better – Plex'. July 9, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^'CenterStage Splash Announcement'. July 14, 2008. Archived from the original on July 14, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2016.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- ^'We're teaming up with CenterStage – Plex'. July 13, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^ ab'Plex and the Future of Television – Plex'. September 2, 2010.
- ^'Happy Holidays from Plex! – Plex'. December 24, 2010. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^ ab'Laika Revealed – Plex'. October 28, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^Anderson, Kevin (2009-10-07). 'Thinking inside the box'. Guardian.
- ^ ab'Plex to Enable Next Generation of NetCast™ Connected TVs'. September 3, 2010. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Cayce Ullman – LinkedIn'. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^Tobias Hieta [@tobiashiet] (July 26, 2016). '@wget42 also our CEO is Keith Valory since a few years' (Tweet). Retrieved July 26, 2016 – via Twitter.
- ^'Keith Valory – LinkedIn'. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Gigaom – After raising $10 million, Plex gets ready to take on iTunes'. January 1, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'About Plex – Media Server – Media Streaming Server'. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Plex Terms of Service – Plex Media Server'. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
- ^'Best Media Streaming Devices - Live streaming apps powered by Plex'.
- ^'Plex 7 Adds iTunes and iPhoto Support and More'. November 11, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Plex media center adds Aperture support, continues to shine – 9to5Mac'. November 25, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Frankly my trailer, I don't give a playlist – Plex'. July 31, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Identifying Music Media Using Embedded Metadata – Plex'. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'What metadata can an m4a file hold and how do I get at it?'. August 25, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Adding Music Media From Folders – Plex'. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Plex Music Goes to Eleven! – Plex'. April 30, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'A Plex/Web Update – Plex'. November 16, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ^ ab'Is Plex Media Player open source? – Plex'. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
- ^'plexinc/plex-media-player: Next generation Plex Desktop/Embedded Client'. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
- ^'Plex Media Player Overview – Plex'. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'What are the supported platforms for Plex Media Player? – Plex'. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Building on Linux'. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Plex Media Player builds for Linux? : PleX'. October 24, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Plex desktop app rebranded as Plex Home Theater'. December 24, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^Ravenscraft, Eric. 'Plex Media Player Replaces Plex Home Theater, Looks Awesome'. Lifehacker. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
- ^'Introducing the Plex Media Player – Plex'. October 20, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
- ^'Plex is available on Amazon's new Fire TV! – Plex'. April 2, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Upcoming price increase for NEW Plex Pass subscriptions – Plex'. September 22, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Plex on the brand new Android TV! – Plex'. June 25, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Let it snow...lyrics for all your music! – Plex'. December 23, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Chromecast free for everyone, and great new features for iOS! – Plex'. March 13, 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^'Exclusive Hands-On With Plex/Nine For Mac OS X & Plex App For iOS Devices – TechCrunch'. August 30, 2010. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Plex announces partnership with LG, pledges to beat Boxee Box and Apple TV for free'. September 3, 2010. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ^'Which Smart TV models are supported? – Plex'. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ^'Opera TV Store Spotlight: Plex'. December 12, 2014. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
- ^'Welcoming Plex on Samsung – Plex'. August 3, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ^'Plex for Samsung [licensed for non-commercial use only] / Home'. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ^'Plex and Sonos: Better Together & Plex'. July 20, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^'Requirements for using Plex for Sonos – Plex'. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^'How to Join the Public Beta — Plex Forums'. July 6, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^'Plex: App Information'. June 8, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Plex and VIZIO! – Plex'. October 15, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Plex for Windows Phone – Plex'. March 30, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ^'Security Notice: Forum User Password Resets – Plex'. July 2, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^'Privacy Policy Update Notice – Plex'. August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
- ^'Privacy Policy Changes'. Plex. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plex_(software)&oldid=917381131'
We might be in the era of cloud streaming and subscription services, but media ownership (both digital and physical) is still alive and well. That said, being able to consolidate and stream your collection of movies, music, and other media from one place is far more convenient than having a fragmented library across multiple hard drives, devices, and stacks of physical copies.
That’s where having a Plex media server comes in handy. Plex has been around for a while, but if you’re unfamiliar, the service can turn just about any device with enough power and storage into a network-connected media server that you can access remotely. You can even share access with friends and family to create your own private media network.
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That may sound like a complicated project, but if you have the right tools, it’s actually quite easy. We’ve put together this guide to help with major steps and decisions involved. We’ll be focusing the three aspects of your media server setup: the server device, your media files, and the various apps and add-ons available to customize your experience.
Picking a server device
There are a surprising number of devices that will work as a Plex media server, but picking the right one for your envisioned setup will require more consideration than simply plugging an external hard drive into your PC and calling it good.
Ideally, your server will be turned on and connected to your home network 24/7, so look for devices/components designed to be always-on (we detail several below). Similarly, you’ll need to think about horsepower. For those looking to extend access to multiple users, you’ll need beefier equipment since more people accessing the server requires more processing power and network bandwidth. This becomes especially crucial if you plan on streaming 4K UHD and HDR video content or Hi-Fi audio files. However, more power will require both more expensive devices/parts, but also require more power draw in order to run. On the other hand, you may not want to have a super-powerful device as your server.
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As for network demands, we recommend you always connect your server to your home network via Ethernet, when possible. If you’re connecting over WiFi, you’ll need to use at least an 802.11n router, or ideally and 802.11ac router.
For more information on Plex server requirements, refer to Plex’s support page.
NAS
Networked-attached storage (NAS) is your simplest option hardware-wise, but also the weakest. The smaller horsepower has its benefits though, since NASs have low power consumption requirements and can stay on 24/7. If you buy a pre-made NAS, there will be minimal setup involved, though you can build your own if you want more control over the process. The tradeoff is that DIY NAS servers require more complicated software setup since they do not have graphical user interfaces by default, while the off-the-shelf devices often have the software pre-installed.
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Mini PC
While more expensive than a NAS, buying or building a mini PC is the next easiest option, and is probably the median “sweet spot” between cost, power, and ease of use for most people. For pre-made options, there are tons of NUC builds available online, while those who are comfortable building their own could look into projects using a Raspberry Pi.
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Tower PC
Whether you buy a pre-built PC or build a beefy high-end rig yourself, this is going to be the most expensive option and will require the largest power draw. However, this is going to be best for multi-user support and transcoding large files (like 4K video or Hi-Fi audio).
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You also don’t have to build a new PC. It is technically possible to use your current PC, or even an old one you have sitting around. Just remember that the server needs to be on and connected to the network to be accessible, and that system resources will be taken up by media playback. Because of this, we’d only recommend using your everyday PC if you’re the only person who will be accessing the files and can ensure the PC will be on when you want to connect remotely.
Plex supports Windows, macOS, and Linux PCs.
Other devices
Since Plex’s media server software can be run on a plethora of devices and operating systems, there are a handful of other devices that can be configured to be a PMS despite that not being its primary use case.
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For example, in our testing, we used an Nvidia Shield Pro as our server. There are some limitations to using the Shield, but it was the most accessible option for us since the Plex media server software comes pre-installed on the Shield Pro, and its 500GBs of internal storage can hold an appreciable portion of any media library on its own.
The Plex download page includes a full list of the supported operating systems and devices.
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Picking a hard drive
The second part of the server build is selecting the hard drive you’ll be storing your media on. A few of the options above can use internal HDDs as the media drive, but we recommend using an external, NAS-certified HDD with USB 3.0 support, its own housing, and—if possible—its own power supply.
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We used a 500GB external drive coupled with the Nvidia Shield Pro’s internal 500GB storage, for a 1TB server, and had more than enough space for a large music collection and a dozen or so Blu-ray quality movies, but you could easily core a hard drive with four or five times as much storage.
Setting up the server
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- Prepare your server device. If you’re building your own, be sure to follow the guides linked above, which will take you through any hardware assembly or software installation required, and help you connect your server to your network. If you’re using a pre-built device, set it up like you would any other PC, turn it on, and follow the first-use instructions.
- Once you’ve connected your server to your home network, download and Install plex media server for your device from Plex’s downloads page. If you’re using an Android/Android TV device as your media server, you can snag the Plex Media Server Android beta software from Google.
- Make a Plex account if you haven’t already (the Android version of Plex uses your Google account).
- Install the Plex app on the device(s) you’ll be accessing the server from. This is a different application from the media server software and is how you’ll connect to your server and watch your media. It’s available on numerous Smart TVs, Roku and other streaming boxes, plus Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and various other devices.
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Transferring media
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With the server set up, now it’s time to move your music, pictures, videos, and any other media onto the server. If you’re using an external HDD as the media drive and the media you’re looking to move is on a PC, simply plug in the HDD and move the files manually. You can also move the files wirelessly from one device to another by using an FTP client.
If you’re looking to back up your physical media collections, you can rip audio CDs using virtually any desktop CD or DVD drive, and you can rip movies as long as you have the correct software and a DVD or Blu-ray drive on your PC. MakeMKV is an excellent choice for ripping movies.
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Other guides may recommend using applications like BitTorrent clients or similar software to download media, but this can be a legal quagmire if you’re not careful, so be smart, courteous, and legal here. Follow the copyright laws of your region and don’t go pirating or distributing content illegally. In the next section, we’ll point out several legal (and in some cases free) ways to watch and record content and bolster your server’s library.
Apps, add-ons, and extra Plex features
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All Plex users have free access to several cool features that can pad out your library and consolidate other apps/services to make your server an all-in-one streaming solution.
New and Web TV
Plex provides users with free live and curated news streams from various sources, including ABC, AP, Reuters, and more. In addition to this free news content, Plex also includes a free curated library of popular Web series from outlets like Pitchfork and the New Yorker.
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![Hardware Hardware](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125542474/795835049.jpg)
Podcasts
Instead of using your smartphone’s storage to download podcasts, you can download, store, and stream podcasts from your Plex server. Users can search for and subscribe to shows directly in the Plex app, and the software will auto-update and download the latest episodes when they’re available.
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VR mode
If you have a compatible VR headset, you can watch or listen to all your media in VR mode.
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Plex Pass and free OTA TV
Plex’s basic server functions are free, but the service offers a premium Plex Pass membership that adds tons of perks like metrics tracking and bandwidth stats, better metadata matching for your files, and perks like discounts towards Tidal music subscriptions. Luckily, the Plex Pass subscription is quite affordable compared to other media services and offers a flexible trio of pricing options: either $4.99 monthly, $39.99 annually, or a one-time $119.99 purchase for lifetime access. (Plex also offers a free 30-day trial, if you’re curious).
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Plex Pass users can also snatch free HDTV signal right from the atmosphere using an HD OTA antenna. You’ll even be able to record shows as they air. Plex’s interface will even auto-fill-in programming information to create a guide/schedule. We used a Mohu ReLeaf and an HD Home Run to create a makeshift multi-user TV service out of our Plex server without needing cable or a web TV service.
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You’re not going to get the breadth of channels, on-demand content, or extra features of cable TV or OTT live TV services like Sling TV, but local channels, sports, and even a handful of cable channels will likely be available in your area. You can check out what channels are available using this handy online tool.