Control
Hi all, Curious what the benefits of using a new Mac mini would be over a 2019 Shield TV Pro for a Plex Server? I use Macs and iPhones but clients for Plex watching in my house are Shields/Apple TV's. Aug 04, 2020 Plex can now make use of GPUs to help with transcoding but Mac Mini GPUs are pretty pants so it wall fallback to the CPU and will use all of the cores it has available. So unless you have an i7 with 6 cores you only have 4 cores available to you. Plex on a 2009 Mac Mini 4 points 3 years ago. I run Plex on a 2008 Mac Mini with Core 2 Duo processor, and it streams just fine. I don't transcode though, and don't stream off my LAN. If I did, my crappy CenturyLink DSL would certainly be the limiting factor. Mac Mini Mediacenter: Plex Client & Media Server When I started my Mac Mini Mediacenter project, one thing was absolutely clear; I wanted, no, needed Plex as my media front end and server. For the ones who don’t know Plex; it’s a very powerful and easy to use media indexer, streamer and transcoder for images, music, videos and more.
Harmony Smart Keyboard can act as a fully functional computer keyboard, many apps will also allow you to use your mobile device for control functions. Listed below are some popular apps in the PLEX Channel Derectory as well as ways to control them using Harmony.
Double Act – Like its predecessor the new Mac mini serves dual roles. In addition to its media server duties it is also our Plex client on our main AV system. Another nice little upgrade from our old setup is the new mini’s built in full size HDMI port with audio, meaning we no longer have to rig up a separate audio input into our amp (see the video below on how the old mini was rigged up.
Netflix
All Harmony products
Direction Pad Navigation will navigate Netflix.
Media Keys such as play, pause and fast forward do not control Netflix.
With Harmony Smart Keyboard
Text entry is possible using Harmony Smart Keyboard or the Harmony app
Mouse/Cursor control is possible using Harmony Smart Keyboard.
Netflix offers these keyboard shortcuts:
- Toggle Play/Pause
- Skip backward 10 seconds
- Skip forward 10 seconds
- Rewind
- Fast-Forward
- Enter full-screen
- Exit full-screen
Hulu
All Harmony products
Direction Pad Navigation will navigate Hulu.
Media Keys such as play, pause and fast forward do not control Hulu.
With Harmony Smart Keyboard
Text entry is possible using Harmony Smart Keyboard or the Harmony app
Mouse/Cursor control is possible using Harmony Smart Keyboard.
Hulu offers these keyboard shortcuts:
- Toggle Play/Pause
- Skip backward 10 seconds
- Skip forward 10 seconds
- Exit full-screen
YouTube
All Harmony products
Direction Pad Navigation will navigate the YouTube app.
Media Keys such as Play, Pause, Stop, Fast-Forward and Rewind commands work. YouTube allows you to navigate between videos using the Skip Forward and Skip backward commands.
With Harmony Smart Keyboard
The YouTube app has an on screen keyboard you navigate using direction keys and does not accept keyboard text entry.
Other apps
The behavior of other apps may vary depending on its design.
For long time Mac users, iTunes became the default media server for all your movies, television shows, music, home videos, and the like. It worked decently enough, but the user really had to take the time to manage file information, metadata, album or movie artwork, and much more.
Plex
A much better solution has gained widespread adoption over the last few years, and that is Plex. Plex does what iTunes does, serving up your content over your network, but it does so much more, and it does it so much better.
Old Mac
Do you have an older Mac sitting around with nothing to do? You have to really watch those old Macs, they get lazy if you don’t tell them what to do! Why not repurpose that Mac to be a Plex media server?
OS X Minimum Requirements
The biggest software requirement for an older Mac to become a Plex media server is that it has to run Mac OS 10.8 or later, otherwise known as Mountain Lion.
If Older Than Mountain Lion, Try Linux
If you have an older Mac that does not run Mac OS 10.8, you could install Linux on the machine and run a Plex media server that way. Ubuntu 10.04 can be run on many older Macs, and will make a fine server. And you know you always wanted to play around with Linux a little, right? Here is your chance!
Meta Heaven
A Plex media server does something really cool that we only wish Apple’s iTunes did: it takes care of all the meta data for you. It will scour the internet to provide movie descriptions, album artwork, keep television series tagged correctly for season and episodes, provide album data for your music, and much more.
Interested in Buying an Old Mac for Cheap?
Storage
Running a large media library via a Plex server is no problem. Simply connect a large external hard drive, or even a RAID, to your Mac, configure Plex to look on that drive, and your all set. Even cooler? Any time you add something new, Plex will update your library automatically at a set interval. (I have mine set to once an hour).
While we all love Apple and Apple products, we also live in a world with numerous other technologies. Smart TVs, Android, Windows, Playstation 3 and 4, the Xbox, Amazon Fire TV, and ROKU (just to name a few). And everything listed above is compatible with running the Plex client software, which is what you will use to enjoy all your content!
Apple TV
The new Apple TV (forth generation) has a Plex client you can download, so if you are an only-Apple technology household, you can still take advantage of the better Plex media server. (One caveat: iTunes purchased content cannot be played via Plex).
Free!
You can download Plex for free. Requirements for a Plex media server can be found here.
Mac Pro
Mac Plex Client
Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1
Mac Pro 3,1
Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 4-Core
Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 8-Core
Mac Pro 5,1 6-Core
Mac Pro 5,1 12-Core
Mac Pro 6,1
iMac
iMac 4,1, 4,2 and 5,2
iMac 5,1 and 6,1
iMac 7,1
iMac 8,1
iMac 9,1
iMac 10,1 and 11,1
iMac 11,2 and 11,3 (i3)
iMac 11,3 (i5/i7) to 12,2
iMac 13,2 14,2 15,1
iMac 17,1
MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro 1,1 and 1,2
MacBook Pro 2,1 and 2,2
MacBook Pro 3,1 and 4,1
MacBook Pro 5,1 to 6,2
MacBook Pro 7,1
MacBook Pro 8,1 to 8,3
MacBook Pro 9,1 and 9,2
MacBook
Plex For Mac Air
MacBook 1,1
MacBook 2,1
MacBook 3,1 to 4,2
MacBook 5,1
MacBook 5,2 (667-Mhz)
MacBook 5,2 (800-Mhz)
MacBook 6,1
MacBook 7,1
Plex For Mac Mini Keyboard
Mac Mini
Plex For Mac Mini Computers
PowerMac 10,1 and 10,2
Mac Mini 1,1
Mac Mini 2,1
Mac Mini 3,1
Mac Mini 4,1
Mac Mini 5,1 to 5,3
Mac Mini 6,1 and 6,2