Nowadays, there are many means available on the Internet and can be purchased with high quality and very high speed. TV shows can be downloaded on same on the night they aired, DVD versions of films could be found as soon as they were sent to a film festival, and affordable equipment has allowed independent creators to take their own work to the next level.
Note: The Technology Guide does not recommend meddling with piracy, and what you do with your computer is your responsibility.
Let’s say you already have a variety of media on your computer and an external hard drive, ranging from high-quality .mkv files to more typical .avi files. You’re a little jealous when you see Windows Media Center on your friend’s TV at home, and you wish that as a Mac user you had something more important than Front Row to handle your media.
Well, you don’t need to worry anymore because we’ve got Plex which, as they say, is the complete communication solution for OS X and iOS users.
See how to get started with this tool and use it to turn your Mac into a powerful media center.
Step 1. Download Plex. It’s free! ???? Install it.
Step 2. When setting up Plex, it will ask the location for your media files. It’s not too late to organize them all into a common folder, typically the Movies folder. I recommend putting all your movies in a subfolder of that folder, because using the normal OS X Movies folder as your Plex folder means your iMovie videos will appear in Plex.
Some weird cache files also show up in Plex, and I find them aesthetically displeasing at best, worse, inconvenient. It won’t kill you, but it can drive you crazy. ????
If you don’t have a set folder yet, you can create it now or just go to Media Manager later and skip this step for now.
Do the same for your TV shows at the next prompt.
If you want to add another folder after this step, look up the Menu bar and select the Plex icon. From the drop-down menu, select Media Manager. You can add new folders from here.
Once you have new media, you don’t have to worry about manually updating Plex’s library. Just put it in a folder somewhere and Plex will recognize it.
Step 3. Plex will scan your library with IMDB and TVDB and collect metadata. This is what I find most interesting about Plex – it downloads information about movies and TV shows, including theme music, synopsis, cast info, and even wallpapers, and renders its own interface.
For example, when you hover over a certain episode of Entourage, you’ll hear the Entourage opening song begin to play and the image of Vince and the boys fade away from the usual Plex theme.
Step 4. Navigating through Plex may take some getting used to if this is your first time using the media center program. Media centers like Plex and Front Row lack pointers, so navigating through it is often a matter of using the arrows. The “Esc” key is used to return to the previous menu, and the right arrow can be used to toggle certain options.
Step 5. Get the Plugin by navigating to the Plex Online option. I’m stuck in the Great White North called Canada, so I can’t access certain channels. This is where Plex really expands itself – by collecting more media online and integrating it with its great interface, Plex allows you to find more media right within the program.
I found TED to be more than just entertainment during my time using Plex. The quality is perfectly acceptable even on my 1080p screen. For Netflix users, Plex has finally integrated Netflix into its programming.
Step 6. Don’t be afraid to use an external hard drive with Plex; when you add it to the library for the first time, Plex scans it like a regular batch of files. When removing the external hard drive, all entries are deleted accordingly, which means there aren’t any nasty ‘lost files’ issues.
Also, if you have the HD version of a movie or a copy, Plex will put it under the same name. When you select a movie, it will let you choose between the Standard Quality version or the HD version.
I find Plex definitely useful when I attach an external monitor and it always remembers where I stopped watching movies. It’s these little things that add to the overall experience, and if you’re looking for an organizer for your media, I recommend looking into Plex.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
