Cult of Mac favorite: Plex Media Center

10:44 pm, April 23rd, 2009, Pete Mortensen

In computer software circles, there’s a lot of discussion about the “10-foot UI,” designed for interactions from across a living room. Now that streaming video has truly come into its own, the space has exploded. Apple’s Front Row is a 10-foot app, as is Boxee.

But if you’re a Mac user, especially a Mac mini owner who keeps it hooked up to an HDTV, there’s only one choice: Plex Media Center, a Mac-only offshoot of the Xbox Media Center software. Basically, Plex pulls all of your content — whether on your hard drive, your network, your Tivo — and blends it with everything on the entire Internet, including Hulu, Pandora, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, and The Daily Show, then wraps it in a stunningly beautiful interface that makes it a snap to navigate all of the world’s video and music with arrow keys are a simple remote control. Better still, it’s an open architecture, and people are adding to it like crazy.

It’s been around as Plex since last July, but many of the best features, like the Netflix plug-in, are recent arriving in the last two weeks. What’s maybe most exciting is that Plex has plug-ins that the original XBMC application lacks. The Mac development community is passionate enough to dramatically improve their offering beyond other versions. Heck, it has its own App Store. And it’s 100 percent free, running on all Intel hardware running Leopard.

This is the media operating system of the future. Now, if they’d just release a companion remote application for iPhone, this thing would really take over the planet.

Thanks for the heads-up, Mike. This thing rocks!

Posted by Pete Mortensen in Media, Music, Software | Comment on this article

About the author

Pete Mortensen is the communications lead for growth strategy firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

12 comments

What does this do that boxee doesn’t?

dthree, on April 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 pm

Feature-wise? Nothing. But I love the UI about a million times more.

Pete Mortensen, on April 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 pm

An iPhone app would even be the best way for the devs to make good money off this cool product.

cstar, on April 24th, 2009 at 12:40 am

two updates old in the blog: Evan Schoenberg was kind enough to add support for the IRKeyboardEmu virtual remote, which provides support for his awesome Rowmote app for the iPhone.

jay, on April 24th, 2009 at 1:08 am

I have this program running on my Mac Mini and I must say it’s amazing. First off I still deal with the Overscan issue caused by the OS – but inside Plex I can tell it exactly the dimensions of my screen and no more problem. I never have to leave the Plex App ever. I added Safari to my list of applications in Plex, so If I load Safari to check out the latest cult of mac news, as soon as I quit Safari Plex comes back on the screen It reads all my DVDs, Blu-Ray, avi, wmv, and iTunes files. It even has Hulu, YouTube and most recently added NetFlix to the code. The guy who develops it is very active on the forums and is always helping people make sure the software works.

Two thumbs up!

Justin

Justin Esgar, on April 24th, 2009 at 4:43 am

Does the new Mac Mini work with 1080p movies (H264 .mkv) without stuttering?

Roberto, on April 24th, 2009 at 6:32 am

The free iPhone app XBMControl works great with XBMC.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=303315254&mt=8

As for Plex being the only choice, Boxee is also based on XMBC.

Jeffy, on April 24th, 2009 at 7:02 am

Holy crap, boxee does all that too? Does it still work for Apple TV? Cause if it does I will go and buy one right now.

Church of Apple, on April 24th, 2009 at 7:10 am

As for a remote, just use Rowmote ($0.99). It works with Plex, Boxee, Front Row, DVD Player, Quicktime, you name it. It mimics the regular Apple remote and I use it over Boxee’s own remote.

icedtrip, on April 24th, 2009 at 7:48 am

Guess I’ll have to try it out then, thanks!

dthree, on April 24th, 2009 at 7:57 am

Actually, there is a sort of iPhone remote for Plex (and any other apple-remote compatible app) – Rowmote (www.rowmote.com). I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and it’s pretty nice. It’s basically just an iphone-based apple remote that works over a local wifi network (similar to Apple’s “Remote” app that controls iTunes). It allows you to choose (via the iPhone GUI) an app to control – which then opens automatically – and basically has software buttons representing the apple remote. Very nice. I know there are a couple other apps that do similar things, but I’ve found this app to be very nice and simple, and very compatible with all sorts of apps.

Also, Plex is made of win! And I don’t mean windows! Now if it only better supported drives mounted via Apple File Sharing…

weaterguy, on April 25th, 2009 at 12:15 am

I can testify that Rowmote for the iPhone was the best $.99 I’ve ever spent. It works with so many apps (FrontRow, Plex, Boxee, and many others), it’s so simple, I can use it without looking at the iPhone (like a standalone remote), and Evan is a great developer – he had a small bug fixed very quickly. This is a must have for a Mac-based Media Center.

John, on April 25th, 2009 at 10:55 am