Streaming your media to your TV with Plex
I searched around and didn't see this mentioned here and I just wanted to share this as it has been super helpful for me.
I have a XBox 360 and a PS3 and have had a huge amount of issues streaming media from my iMac to these consoles. Either they were super laggy or just didn't work well. As I am sure a number of you know, it's a pain to play high quality MKVs on these consoles and more of a hassle to have to download and copy your AVIs to jump drives to watch on your TV. Well, I found a way to get this done and work awesome. Granted this doesn't work with either the 360 or PS3 (that I am aware of, anyway). If you have a Roku player (doesn't matter which one), you can add the Plex channel to it and run the Plex Media Server on your PC or Mac and stream them to your TV with great quality. Plex transcodes (I think that is the correct terminology) and plays all your media including the MKVs. I can't tell any degradation in quality, though I'm sure that it will happen on occasion.
Some more info:
Plex on Roku info: http://elan.plexapp.com/2011/05/03/plex-on-the-roku/
Plex Media Server: http://www.plexapp.com/getplex/
Plex Main Page: http://www.plexapp.com/
In addition to streaming to your TV there is also a iPhone app that allows you to stream from your home PC to your iPhone. The app is $4.99 where the rest of the setup is free. I don't have any affiliation with these people, but rather am just super happy with the functionality that it has.
To set it up on your Roku:
1. Download the Plex Media Server on you PC/Mac.
2. Go to you Roku account via Roku.com and add a private channel with the code "Plex" (sans quotation marks). If it doesn't appear right away, just have the Roku box look for a update and it will find the channel.
3. Set up the Media Library with folders of your choosing (i.e. TV Shows, Movies)
4. On the Roku, go into the Plex channel and in the setting select "Search for Media Servers." It should find it for you quickly.
5. That's it. Watch and enjoy!
As a bonus, when you set up your media folders, you don't need to change the file names or organize them off in folders. Plex uses the TV Database and automatically fetches all the info for you, including cover art, summaries, etc. and sections all your files into neat folders, much like a Netflix interface. Hope that helps someone . Please let me know if you need any help. I'm not that technical, but might be able to help.
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