On online video side, social media center Boxee is a clear competitor, but for some reason I found Plex’s user interface a lot more calmer and fitted better to my living room.mymediaexperience. iTunes music files are all supported which has been my issue with other media centers expect FrontRow. This has been downside with FrontRow as I have not been able to access widely to online video. Another benefit is the support to online media such as Youtube, Hulu, Netflix and many more. Upon media playback the driver will launch Plex on the device, wait for it to startup and then start playback.

Plex also supports remote controls and iPhone apps like RowMote.Another useful functionality is that the podcast only shows video files in the Videos section, so I do not need to separate music and other audio programs from the music. This is good for dedicated Plex systems where you might want to send playback of content from your mobile device or tablet to your TV. Unfortunately, navigating with mouse was not so comfortable at first, but after modifying mouse scroll sensitivity and custom buttons, MX Air mouse felt good to use. Compared to FrontRow, Plex supports mouse which is important as I use Logitech MX Air mouse to control my media center.

This means that I can save frequently used sections or locations as my favorites for quick and easy access.The look and feel is a mixture between Apple’s FrontRow and XBMC Media Center, but it has a few advantages over them. Streaming over the home network worked well on the first try.Favorites section is another useful functionality that I have not discovered in other media center software. Adding network hard drive was also easier than in other media centers. However my Plex server is running on Mac OS X 10.8.4 and although the files add to the server without issue, when I try to play them they play sound but no video. These files will play perfectly when launched within Windows Media Player on a PC. However, I discovered that my movies and TV shows in iTunes library where not automatically available, but I needed to browse the folders separately to make them available.Support for different media file formats is very good and it should play with ease most files you have on your computer. WMV files running on a Mac Plex Server I have a number of media files which are in WMV format. Pictures section also handles iPhoto and Aperture libraries automatically. Here are the highlights why this media center software made particularly good first impression.The library functionality seems to integrate very well with my existing iTunes library making podcasts and music instantly available. I recently discovered Plex Media Center which looks extreme potential to take the prime slot on my Mac Mini’s desktop.

Plex media player os x