1. On the Raspberry Pi, open a browser and visit the Plex Media Server download page .
2. Click on the dropdown and select the version you want to download, in this case, Linux. Click Choose Distribution, then select the correct version for your Linux distribution. I’m using the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS, so I chose the Armv8 download. If you are adapting this how-to to run on an Intel- or AMD-based machine, select the 32- or 64-bit version for your architecture.
3. Open a terminal and install the downloaded Plex package, which will be in your Downloads folder. Wait for the installation to complete.
sudo dpkg -i <> 4. Add the user plex to the Pi user group. This will give Plex access to drives and other devices.
sudo usermod -aG pi plex 5. Get the IP address of your Raspberry Pi via the terminal. The -I is a capital i.
hostname -I 6. On another device, on the same network, open a web browser and go to the IP address of your Plex server, followed by port 32400 and then /web. Here is what my URL looked like.
http://192.168.0.192:32400/web/ 7. Start the Plex setup process and then name your server. I used PlexServer.
8. Create a library of movies, this will point to the location of the USB drive that has all of your media.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) 9. Click Done to finish the installation.
Plex’s user interface is familiar to anyone who has used a streaming service. It is designed to get the media to us without any issues. In the free version that we are using, it also gets the advertisements right to your eyeballs. There are plenty of free streams to watch, but we’re really here for our content. Let's take a look around the user interface and get to know Plex.
2. Filters: Filter the content to show trending, what friends are watching, and activity.
3. Settings: Advanced settings for your Plex server. This includes user accounts, libraries, and we can even cast our Plex viewing to a compatible device.
4. Libraries: The mounted USB disk full of our movies is linked to from here. Clicking the link will open the drive and our content library.
5. Content: This section changes as the user navigates the content. Here we can see the advertised content.
If we click on the library (4), then the screen changes to show the content on the drive hosting the library. As you can see, my library is pretty light, as this is a test setup.
Les Pounder Social Links Navigation Les Pounder is an associate editor at Tom's Hardware. He is a creative technologist and for seven years has created projects to educate and inspire minds both young and old. He has worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to write and deliver their teacher training program "Picademy".
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/service-providers/streaming/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/service-providers/streaming/how-to-use-plex-and-a-spare-computer-to-build-a-streaming-movie-service#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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