Getting one of the new Media PCs to consolidate all your media needs sound like a great idea. But if you have a MacBook Pro (MBP) – even an early rev A version like mine, all you need is Plex and you already have a Media PC ready to go.
First, props to Techgoondu friend Chris who gave me a heads up to Plex. Plex is a media center software based on XBMC Media Center. I have yet to try XBMC but it apparently is Mac, Linux, Windows and XBox compatible, unlike Plex which will only work with Intel Macs running Leopard – but there should be quite a few of you Techgoondu readers out there who are running that, at least according to our logs.
So after the usual download and install routine, I hooked everything up and voila, there was I, using my Apple Remote to navigate through my media files and playing them back on the LCD TV.
So what does Plex actually do? In a nuthsell, Plex helps you navigate through your Mac to play your videos and music, as well as show your photos.
Plex also lets you install “applications” that lets you stream stuff like Apple Movie Trailers, YouTube, Joost and a host of other sites. A tip here – to enable you to install these applications that let you stream stuff off third party websites, you’ve first gotta go into the “Configure the system>Skin>Home” settings to unhide the Applications menu. I had to spend a bit of time hunting this down.
And it has a weather application that displays a weather forecast. Perhaps not so relevant in Singapore – let me guess – hot and showers over a few areas tomorrow?
That said, there’s a little additional hardware that I needed to make it all work.
- A DVI to HDMI cable to hook the Mac up to the LCD TV
- A simple audio cable with a 3.5mm phono jack on one end and RCA jacks on the other to hook it up to an old little stereo set. You could of course go the digital route.
Forget about Front Row, Apple’s built-in software. Plex rocks. And it’s free. Now if they only work recording features into Plex.
limbeer – I’m glad you took took up my suggestion to try Plex. It’s actually a fork of the Mac port of XBMC, and works pretty much equivalently, but with a different interface approach. As limbeer mentioned, both handily put Apple’s Front Row software (bundled with all Macs except Mac Pros) to shame. Plex/XBMC is even better than commercial alternatives, and in the case of the Mac, a really nice touch is integration with the Apple Remote. I’d prefer integration with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and need to find time to figure out if Plex already supports that.
Superman – I guess Plex is roughly equivalent in functionality to Windows Media Center, but with much wider codec support. The key difference would be the lack of interoperability between the two. For example, if you want to stream content from a Mac to a Windows Media Extender like an Xbox 360, you have to use another programme like Connect 360 from Nullriver to fool the Xbox into thinking you’re streaming from a Windows machine. The good thing about Connect 360 though is wide codec support, and transcoding on-the-fly to the Xbox.
Alfred – Power of open source software indeed! Multi-platform support rocks too (for XBMC).
From what I have seen with XBMC, this should be the bomb too. It’s not just the way it pulls info from the Net, but how nicely the stuff, e.g. movie trailers, are presented. Power of free software!
Truth is I haven’t gotten my hands on any Media Center PCs on Windows but from what has been described – yeah. But I think the beauty of Plex is with the plug-ins that let folks develop apps that let you open various streams in Plex.
What would be neat is a recording function.
Cool. So Plex is the apple version of Media Center in Windows?