A Sneak Peek At Alexandria
I know, it’s been a bit longer than we had hoped (sorry!), but we are super excited to finally be able to share a first look at what we have been building. Our good friend Raindancing (known around here as “Señora Awesome”) was kind enough to put together a great introductory screencast . Yes, there’s a lot more to show (tip of the iceberg!), and yes, you’ll have many questions, but hey, this is a good start, right?
Hope you all are having a great Wednesday (or Thursday)!
For those of you having trouble seeing the video (or visiting on your iPad, the direct link to the video on Vimeo is here: http://vimeo.com/11880867
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Ok, you’ve got me licking my chops! When can we have it?
… and I was just about to ask how you gonna celebrate 6 month anniversary of Plex .8.5
This looks fantastic …. very very very nicely done. Question, if you create a new media section (ie. Kids Movies), can you just drag the media from one section to the new section, and still have them in both ? Like having a playlist ? Or is each media section its own share ?
And secondly … any idea when this might be launched ? Its looking great.
love love love love love it!!!!!!!
It’s just perfect!
It says, that it scans the resolution. So, can we make a Folder for just HD Movies?
Thanks for the movie!
Wow guys, really. For someone who’s been using it for years, it’s easy to forget how unfriendly the built-in media management really is. This is awesome, and beautifully Macified.
Any idea how long it will take a skinner to edit another skin to accommodate the custom sections? I absolutely love Alaska now.
To: Everyone working on Plex,
You have truly out done yourselves this time.
Plex has always been great, but with this you will secure Plex as simply the best.
I can’t wait!
WIll there be any way to group movie series together, like subfolders within a main movie source, or like in itunes for artists a separate sorting movie title so that movies and sequels are placed together, even if their names don’t follow a scheme (like die hard, evil dead, …)
ho my god, release it, it’s living already, it’s alive, aliiiive…
am i the only one not seeing anything?
nm. that wasweird. took 5 refreshs
Awesome.
Wow! I can’t wait for this. You all keep doing such an amazing job. This is going to make things so much easier…
Amazing! I can’t wait! How do we sign up to be a beta tester?
ooooo neat! can’t wait to try it
i want.
Hi guys looking very good
cant wait for this new version syncing all 5 of my libraries is very tedious!
1 quick question the auto discover feature looks amazing. But is it f configurable?
EG on my Kid’s MAcs I would only what them to see the “Kids Movies” section on there computers.
Awesome. Can’t wait. Looks so good guys. Would love an eta.
Phoaarrr!! Amazing!
Guys, I’ve been anxious of the new library system for a long time now, and it’s great to see some progress on this. My only question/request is that it supports absolute ordering. This is vital for supporting most non-American media. Please tell me that this library system will support absolute ordering, or that it’s not too late to include this feature!
It was mentioned in this post, by Jam, that absolute ordering would be tackled in the new library (http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/1211-anime-library/page__view__findpost__p__33132?s=81197bf1d72dabd03eb7b2ba9f3a0dfe).
Please tell me that this will happen.
I remember submitting a feature request to your trac a long long time ago. I have never seen anything since. Please do this, think of how many Mac users are douchebags, and then think of how many douchebags watch anime. That’s a lot of people who could benefit from this feature! And absolute ordering doesn’t just apply to Japanese cartoons!
OMG!
Elan et al you have truly outdone yourselves. Not only have you redefined how a media manager should work I think you’ve done it in a way nobody had even considered before. Get ready for a phone call from Apple offering a large cheque to buy Plex, it looks astounding!
Wow! It looks great. Can’t wait to see the finished product.
Awesome. Just awesome.
I love it and I want it!
uuuu … thats cool
mom’s voice is adorable 
WOW! Amazing. And my head exploded at the end with the mac mini’s content showing up.
I couldn’t get the embedded file to load, so I grabbed this from the source code:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11880867&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
This…. looks…. amazing! I can’t wait for it (but I’ll have to).
This is so cool guys. I’m wondering – once I scrape all of my movies, will I be able to go into media manager and tell it to auto create a section based off of genre – say Family- that way I don’t have to scout for kids movies as much, or already have all my kids movies in folders?
Again, this just looks fantastic!
amazing!!!! been waiting for this for a long time!! seriously can’t wait to get my hands on it….keep up the awesome work everyone!
Holy crap! Thanks for the screencast, I can’t wait!
Will this require redoing my library to work with the new system, or can i use my existing library? My current set up uses the itunes folder structure from before iTunes 9, and I like it that way… i’m worried that that isn’t going to work anymore, and if that’s the case this is going to be a bit of a headache for me to adjust to. Not saying it won’t be easier once adjusted to… I just want to know if I should start updating my folder structure now.
It looks fantastic and I’m thrilled with the new features! Very well done!
AWESOME! Thats why i switched to Mac. All the programs are made by smart people. Can’t wait to it’s released.
Add me to the list of those who can’t wait for this to go live! Also, with the ability to access networked plex media servers, what is the possibility we will see an iphone ipad companion? I would love to be able to at least browse my library from my iphone to plan a movie night with friends!
Wow. That looks incredible! The Plex team is an amazing group of developers.
This looks wonderful.
For those of us who store our media on a non-OS X machine with SMB sharing, will there be a linux/unix CLI version of the Media Manager? Or can we hand code SMB URLs in to Media Manager on one of our Macs?
In my situation a Linux server hosts all my media files, and my various Macs access them. I also share my Plex userdata folder, so all my Macs are always up to date with the library as well as watched/unwatched files.
@Adam: You can mount the non-OS X machine’s drives via SMB or AFP and then add to PMS.
OMFG, this is so cool. So as long as a drive is mounted media manager will work? I use unraid as my server. When is the beta coming, must have it
That looks awesome, and I cannot wait. I guess the question some of us have though, looking through the comments here, is:
Does there have to be a relationship between sections and folders of media at the file system level? Or can I filter out content from one folder between several sections?
I might want to keep all my movies in one folder of media, but still break them up into different ‘sections’ in Plex, can this be done? Also can two sections contain pointers to a single media file, so that I can have ‘Finding Nemo’ live both in my ‘Kids Movies’ Section and my ‘Animated Movies’ sections, without having to have two copies of it in different source folders?
Just curious, I’m sure all will be revealed soon enough. And it looks great. Thanks.
If we remotely drop new content into our media folder will it still be possible to update the library to scan for this content within the Plex application or will I have to dig out the keyboard and mouse from under the couch (or screen share from my laptop) to initiate the scan from Plex Media Manager? Being able to control Plex completely through its 10 foot interface is a strength not a weakness.
thought the improvement to PLEX are awesome and i can’t wait to deploy it myself… it’s not going to make it in my living room until it has cable/tv integration with an EPG.
lets please stop called PLEX a media “CENTER” …it isn’t !
Absolutely f*****g awesome.
This looks amazing. You guys did a great job. I’m hoping that the media manager is eventually decoupled from the server. That way, I could run the media manager on my laptop and update various plex servers running on mac minis throughout the house. This would prevent me from having to screen share with each mini and could probably allow me to continue using plex on the mini while the server library was being updated.
Bravo!
NICE! Can’t wait for this to go live. I’ve donated “beer money” to the effort, but I think I’ll have to send some more. Fantastic job, you’ve outdone yourself.
Awesome! This is truly amazing! If this was the only change we saw in Plex I’d be pleased! But if this only the “tip of the iceberg,” my excitement level is skyrocketing!
Still haven’t gotten a reply on absolute ordering… Come on guys, this has been a requested feature for a while. I’ve even offered to integrate the code from the current version of XBMC to do absolute scraping myself and it’s been refused. Can I get a response? I’ve been a faithful user for years and willing to contribute for a while now, but I keep getting shot down on a simple feature request. The initial request for this feature was made nearly 2 years ago. It’s not like it’s a ton of extra code. What do I need to do to get this feature pushed into Plex 9? I am more than willing to write the code myself, as I use Plex every day of my life…
Just to add to this: arronjb already shot down the idea of integrating new code from xbmc here (http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/1211-anime-library/page__view__findpost__p__37828) and a halfassed means of doing this has been halfassedly created here (http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/10481-modified-thetvdbcom-scraper-to-add-absolute-order-option-to-plex-083-fix-anime-scraping/). This halfassed option requires renaming files, which completely negates any sort of file structure integrity which may have already have been established for the sheer sake of supporting a hack…
A lot of countries outside of the United States do not use a seasoned ordering system, they instead use an absolute ordering system. The exclusion of this feature prevents a lot of non-US media from being usable in the library system.
Im I the only one who cant get the screencast to load? I can view it for some reason.
I wonder if I can use this to create and update my library on my Mac then copy it over to my XBMC Live running Revo.
Thank you… Thank you.
Thank you.
I am out and about all day and only have my ipad with me, anyway to view the screencast (flash) via an alternate source as from the comments this sounds awesome.
When the video started I thought “Removing the management from Plex? That sounds like a bad idea…”, but then I saw it and thought “Why was the management ever inside Plex?”!
Looks absolutely perfect, spot on, can’t wait to use it!
Elan, after seeing that awesome preview of the Media Manager, and wondering “what can I add to my Game Launcher plug-in” prior to it… I somehow want in on that.
That’s 90% of the “issues” I still have, fixed here: scanning while you can use the files, metadata edition, choosing your ROM folder (and maybe use network shares), etc. If I can somehow add a “games” category in the Media Manager, and still manage to launch MAME/MESS as “applications” during the scanning process without breaking anything, this would be legendary.
So, this begs the question: will it be hard (and possible for me) to add this new category? Including a new way to “play” those files?
Once I get some extra cash, beer money will be on it’s way – you have created some amazing stuff!
@e kronos
Im going to go ahead and make an assumption on this, and say no, you will not be able to have multiple media types in one folder and have the media manager not show it. this seems to be one of the main aims to teh new media manager – that it picks up all media no matter what. unless planned in future releases, there seems no where to set rules on what type of media is in the folder ( to seperate kids movies from other movies etc). The new media manager however does allow you to seperate your movies into say, kids movies and other movies into 2 seperate folders, which on each media type, you can select multiple sources, allowing for a kids movie type with only kids movies, and a all movies type, with both kids movies and other movies as sources, so catching all. for example.
@OwLBoY
Ill go ahead and say no this wont be possible, as the new library seems to be a large re-write i doubt XBMC will be compatible now, or in the future.
BTW im not a tester so cant verify, just an experienced XBMC ( 5+ Years, when it was called XBMP), and Plex (~2 years, when it had no name) user.
Keep up the good work Elan +Crew.
JCnME
I want it now!!!
That’s amazing!!
Thank you very very very very much.
I can’t see a thing. Flash Player 10 installed, using Firefox but no screencast is showing…?
Looks great! I have two questions though.
1) Will there be some sort of import tool that imports all my settings from Plex 8 to 9? I’ve had to re-scan and manually correct my library WAY too often up until now and I’m not so keen on doing it again, even in this much more comfortable interface.
2) Will there be subsections? I’m afraid that if I create “Hitchcock Movies”, “Foreign Movies”, “Bergmann Movies”, “British Movies”, “US Movies”, “James Bond Movies”, “BBC TV Shows”, “HBO TV Shows”, etc… my main screen will become much too cluttered…
en dos palabras impre sionante
if it were possible to know if it thought the integration with EyeTV ?
Thank’s from Basque Country
Any chance somebody could upload this movie to Youtube.
Please!!!
Waaaah, this looks amazing! I hope you still can manage your media from within Plex? Just for a quick edit when I’m on the couch. You never know.
You guys rock and make me wanna see more of that iceberg!
@Gord Thanks for posting the source of the video. I too wasn’t able to see the embedded file (on linux @work).
Many thanks to elan, too! You made the most astonishing piece of software currently residing on my mini
Looks nice, but how about not using flash? Can´t watch this on my iPad…
Freaking Awesome!
Just to add one thing, I would also like to be able to edit the descriptions that are downloaded. Some contain errors, and some contain weird characters, and worse – some are filled with spoilers!
Thanks for the awesome update!
@vinnie
Screencast not working on Firefox, works ok on Safari though.
Absolutely fantastic! Can’t wait.
How about the handling of music? Will that be similar?
Best regards
Jan
Love it, can’t wait for this. Excellent job!
This is what I was waiting for: easy database editing and custom sections. Thanks a lot guys!
PS: Please use Apple friendly video
I just wet my pants.
This is all very exciting
and looking very good.
one question witch I’m sure will be answered when more details are let out.
How does the shared media work with snow leopards built in Wake On Lan features? As one of my biggest annoyences with the current system is that plex won’t wake up remote file stores(smb as this is how xbmc works). So is Plex media center going to be able to do this on it’s shared libararys?
Leaving my mac pro awake all the time is not good for the warming up polar bears or my electricity bill.
Also I’m with other posters here on asking how the ‘platlists’ will work and will there be something maching smart playlists? And to second the comments stating without sub lists or a way of sorting these in Plex the interface is going to get very full and busy very quick.
Keep up the good work guys it’s looking very good.
If you set up a source with a share, will Plex mount it if it’s not mounted already? i.e. after a reboot?
I never did get auto mounting working on my mac, and I love that currently Plex takes care of it for me.
Nice. Looking forward to.
Btw, congrats on being so fast to integrate flattr on your blog. This thing really seems to spread way fast.
If I can administer this on my MacBook Pro and use my mac mini for displaying I will be the happiest camper on earth!
Another note: Is there a “movie boxset” feature in the works for Plex9?
That looks great, I really look forward to it. Especially using this with TV shows.
OMG! I WANT IT NOW! LIKE IN NOW!
Awesome! Can’t wait to try it out
One of the many questions that i have, but i think possibly the most important one is this –
Will the plex media server work over UPnP? Currently, my plex “organising” machine works to serve media around my house via UPnP (to my hacked xbox in the living room, to other people’s computers). Will the plex media server support this? It is a bit of a pain to have to turn plex on every time i want to watch something in the living room, so this would be fantastic to have running in the background, as long as it supports UPnP.
Thanks again for all the work on this guys, i cannot wait for the release!!!
Just what I have been dreaming off! Great job!
If possible can I request a feature for a post 0.9 version? Could you add a “parental control” feature? I would like to set up a “Dad’s horror movies” section that would require a password of some kind. Why? Isn’t it obvious?-)
And the password would be something that you could do with Apple remote – like “volume up, volume down, next, next, back”
Anyone else would want this?
Why I’m requesting this is that I have a 3 year old daughter how although can’t read yet can easily use Plex to watch her favorite movies and tv-shows by remembering the first letters of her favorites. There has been some accidents where instead of Sesame Street she has started the Shining
Here I was thinking that Plex was the perfect media center…and now you’ve gone and raised the bar. Simply amazing guys, can’t thank you enough for all the hard work. Let me know when/where/how to sign up for the alpha/beta/whatev. I WANT IT!
1 question – when can I have it? and give it to me now.
Man, this looks impressive. Can’t wait! One of the main complaints I’ve heard when showing Plex to friends is how un-mac-like the interface is. The new media manager is a welcome addition!
I haven’t heard, do you have a estimated release date?
@Andrew’s question above re: Wake-on-LAN is a great one. I agree that it would be AMAZING if remote Macs could be woken up on-demand. Every few days I go to watch a movie that not stored on my Mac Mini (or one of the external hard drives I have hooked up to it via USB), and I have to run upstairs to turn on my iMac. More often than not I do this when trying to view photos (since my iPhoto library is stored on the iMac). Can this be integrated into Plex Media Server? Or does this functionality only exist at the OS level?
BTW, amazing job! How ungrateful of me to ask for more when you guys have spent so much time and created something fantastic!
This video does not work on Mozilla Firefox. Why don’t you use YouTube instead ?
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!
just one word to say: MORE!
Will be great if the Media Manager is a Universal Binary! I store most of my media on my G5 iMac, but watch it on my MBP, so picking up my iMac’s managed media share over the network would be great!
First, this looks really nice. It also looks like a lot of hard work went into it, and that is much appreciated. That said I’m not sure if i should be excited about .9 or not. I have my library set up already. The main thing I’d like to be able to do group movies together inside movie view. I’d like to have one poster for Harry potter, so when you click on it you see all the different movies. This would be great. I could have one for Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, Star Wars, Star Treck ect. I don’t want all those listed on my home screen. The new sharing options look great, but I was really hoping for some kind of trilogy or series grouping within the movie section.
Looks great! But does this mean that the “update library” option from the Plex menu is gone? If so, will there be another way to update with a remote control?
Also, right now I´m using PlexDBEditor to edit the genres with multiple tags on each movie i.e HD, ACTION, THRILLER so they show up in all three categories, will this still be possible?
Anyways, thank you so much for an exellent job!
Yes, yes, YES!!! Plex nails it again!
“Awesome, fantastic, marvelous!”
Well ok, I agree, the new Media server seems to be a real nice piece of software..
BUT… in 0.8.5 I’m used to copy my new movies through network on the right hard disk/directory in the Finder, sit on the sofa and then do the adding and scrapping stuff all from Plex Client, with Apple Remote only (and plex virtual keyboard if I have to type something)
Alexandria is cool, iTune-like and so on… but it seems MOUSE & CLICK only, and I don’t see how you could handle this beast with a remote.
SO… to run 0.9 if your Plex and Library are on a mini hooked to a TV as mine, you’ll be forced either to mess up with keyboard and mouse plugged to the mini (which is backward evolution in my opinion), or connect through VNC to the mini every time you add something, or install Plex on a 2nd computer just to be able to sync things (if I all understood correctly).
I recognize the hard work of devs and wont criticize too much before final 0.9 will be released (today was just a sneak preview so all can still change), but for now, as someone who like to have everything centralized in 1 device, I don’t see the point.
But for people who have houses with 10 rooms, 10 computers and 10 TVs it is certainly a gigantic leap forward.
I guess I will stay with 0.8.5 unless Alexandria get more remote-friendly. But final 0.9 could make me change my mind, who knows?
Wait and see… (and btw people, stop asking WHEN it will be released or HOW to be in the beta list, just be patient!).
I think the Dev Team are genius and genius need time to work!
Plex has become such a jewel even in 0.8.5, that I am pretty sure Elan already got dozens of proposals from firms who wanted to buy it… and Plex is still free (and will remain free if we believe Elan), so we just have to thank them, without asking deadlines all the time!
Best regards
Can’t see a thing on my damn iphone
By now this Software is becoming too important in my life that I can wait any longer for an upgrade. What is needed to accelerate?
WoW! That’s Amazing! Can we add a Folder for XXX Movies With Password ? It will be a good ideia!
Another thing is, can we see more social things come to plex? Share what i just wathing, follow people, see what they have in his library and etc?
That’s all amazing, thanks for everyone!
Is it just me, or is that a new dock icon hiding in beginning of the video? It could just be me… but I don’t think so.
@JP: Sharp eyes, mate!
@elan Awesome! Looks good elan! I can’t wait for Plex 9! Every time I show Plex to someone I get the same response: “You’re blowing my mind right now!”
Julien Angeli
uhm .. so what lol ?:) you will be able to continue to do that.just create ONE time all the categories you want (kid movies,blablabla) and then just put the files where they have to be.what’s the problem ?:P
I’m always amazed by you guys! keep up the great work!
great stuff guys… really good work! looking forward to it.
If this it the tip of the iceberg, I can’t wait to see the other 90% new cool stuff.
Nice work guys. Can’t wait for Plex 9.
Awesome work guys!!
Niccceeeeeee!!!!
Keep up the good work! We (Holland) love your work and use plex every day! Can’t wait to start using this new version!!!!
Mmm. It’s kinda a good start at trying to deal with the complicated issues related to improving the interface, but I’m not convinced that moving away from the 10 foot interface is entirely the best way to go.
I have my Mac Mini plugged into a television for most of the time, and when it isn’t plugged into the TV, it is connected to a Projector for my home cinema.
I think it is great that other devices can interface into Plex so easily, but returning to the Mac OS simply to manage my files is a major step backwards. What I use plex for the most (the 10 foot interface) seems to be bypassed here.
In all honesty, I can handle the issues with the media finder, I’d much rather be able to list films by genre. In all honesty, if I had a chance of getting it listed by Genre, I would pay money for it.
At the moment, I have almost 400 films on my unit, and it is a real pain in the bum to click through all 400 when looking for something to play. At least with my music I can set up playlists, but not so here. I love the movies setup, and I’d rather just be able to go to movies, select however I want it listed, and break down the listings by Genre. Even if i had to add that Genre data myself.
This new system is great on my laptop…. but rather useless for my TV.
Anyway, thanks for letting me whine.
Excellent work Elan and everyone involved.
The video didn’t work for me in FF 3.5.9 w/Flash 10. But I viewed source and got it from there
I noticed something when scraping Clash of The Titans, in list view it had the year as ‘-1′, is it possible to update the year first before scraping the actual movie? Or leaving it as the current year until the movie is scraped? It seemed to remain at the current year in the poster view until scraped.
Excellent work. Beer money will be on it’s way shortly.
PS: Everyone with all these questions, just relax. You’ll find out the answers once it’s released. Now that the media manager is separate it should provide more flexibility for future features, so if it’s not there already, chances are it’ll be far more likely to be included in future releases.
@dev
ok, let’s see if I understood right..I create the categoried folders ONE TIME in The new Media manager, then copy files in them in Finder, then they would automatically appear in the Plex Client (I guess not scrapped but with just thumbnail), and from Plex I’ll able to scrap/edit infos with Apple Remote as I’m used to with 0.8.5?
If that’s the case, well then forget all what I said before
Everyone, the only time you NEED to be in Plex Media Manager is when you are setting up the sections.
And regarding genres, dont worry, you dont have to set up a section per genre to sort i nicely inside Plex…
Please, don’t complain about stuff you haven’t even tried. This is just a sneak peak and I bet there’s a lot more waiting under the hood. Keep up the good work!
There is a lot more under the hood, and there will be more releases after the first
The first release will certainly not be everything to everyone.
Looks great, I did not see a custom movie poster button though. I use a lot of custom posters and really need that option. Also, this new scraping method seems like it could simplify the process of adding custom fanart. Please, please, please add a way to quickly change the movie posters of the library, I’m thinking like the subtitle folder where any subtitle with the same name as the video file can be selected in Plex.
I have a folder with hundreds of custom posters and I’d love to save myself the hassle of changing each individually.
Well, I think it looks VERY promising!
For someone who is technically competent (I’m an IT Consultant), but who doesn’t have much spare time (I’m an IT Consultant and a part-time Tennis Coach!), I always struggled to get my sources organised, and the new interface for the Media Manager looks much more intuitive, so I am looking forward to that immensely.
As to the way the front end works….I’m sure it will be good when released, but I also know it will get better, and if people’s requests are good and worthwhile, I’m sure they will be incorporated going forward. The development team have shown that they will not stand still, and they are happy to take ideas on board.
Thanks again for a great product guys.
I know many people have asked this in the thread, and I notice none of the development team have given any sort of answer (which as an ex software engineer myself, I understand!) but can you give ANY idea as to when you expect to release a version for us to try? 3 months? 2011? You will NOT be held to it, just an idea.
Cheers, Ronnie.
Very nice! I’ve been wanting this since the first time I started using Plex. I never liked editing data from within Plex itself.
However, I notice that the Movie sections appear in the main menu. Which I find dissapointing, I would rather see them appear within “movies” – and then be able to select a section. Or am I confusing it too much with genres? Is browsing through genres going to be an option, like in iTunes?
Cool stuff guys, keep up the good work!
@JG: There will be quite a few ways to slice and dice the content, including Genres.
Looks beautiful, I thought that Plex was good before but this is going to be great.
Hey… is that a dog I see in the TV section??? Very nice! Can’t wait to try it out. Hey, when are you guys gonna sell this things and make some serious scratch? Seems like the time is drawing near. Just sayin, is all.
I’ve been working in IT for so long now, very rarely does something come along that gets me geniunely excited !!! This looks fantastic. I for one shall be donating to your beer fund, and hope many other will to.
This is awesome… where do I sign
Beer money is out and it will get more when 0.9 is released. I have a bad conscience using such a great piece of software for free when there are commercial solutions with not even half the features.
To the poster of this blog, ever heard of h.264 and html5 ?????????
It’s the future you know, especially for a site that produces a fantastic tool for Apple kit, this video incompatability is a bit of a joke, its it April 1st? , no wait that’s when we were promised a look
@Drh: Yeah, yeah, I’m with you on the Flash bit. Just trying to get the video to you the quickest way I knew how. I’ve edited the post to add a direct link to the video, which should play fine on your iPad since Vimeo rocks.
Hmm, i live in a dorm-kind of setting where i share the internet and my network with 4 other people. If they happen to install Plex do they get access to my library trough the auto-discovery feature? Or is it possible to deny them access?
OMG! I want this sooooo bad…
Great job, you guys!!
/gwen
Love it. Can’t wait to fire it up.
Eric
Will there be a plex media manager for windows? So that it will be possible to manage your films etc from a windows pc en watch it using plex from my mac mini (which has no mouse and keyboard and only runs plex in full-screen
nice job btw!
@ Scott K
Unless I’ve misunderstood some of your post, it seems like you are ‘wishing’ for a feature that already exists in 8.5 … You can view your movies by Genre by clicking the right arrow/button when you have the Movies option hi-lighted in the main menu. This brings up a sub-menu, allowing you to view your movies by Genre, as well as a few other options.
@ drakmah, better yet lets get a web based front end for media manager so we can do it anywhere with anything.
Awesome! Can’t wait!
I’m assuming you hide the ‘Kid’s Movies’ and ‘Mom’s Movies’ from the main menu?
And they will all be listed under the main movies section together as one library?
This would be great to have all my appleTV friendly movies in one folder for itunes to scan and have my other mkv etc movies in a second folder. Letting iTunes see the playable movies for syncing with ipods and iphones but still having all the movies in plex.
I’ve used nfo files to make sure my movies get correctly scraped. Might it be possible for the new manager to just use the nfo to gather the IMDB ID and then scrape new info from wherever so the correct movie is scraped.
I can’t wait! I’m so happy you are improving the UI for adding videos. Now, how about parental controls? Can you add a feature to password protect certain sections?
Fantastic. Ignore those that want to manage their media library from their couch. This is a great step forward for Plex.
@marklight: This is exactly what we do right now
Elan, great job!!!
Do you have an estimated date for the next release???
Thanks.
I am a bit disappointed in the direction Plex appears to be going. I complete agree with James May, and Julien Angeli. I have a keyboard for my iMac that is hidden behind my TV, but I don’t use it often (it’s in a drawer), and would like to keep it that way. I sincerely hope there will be a way to control this through the main Plex application. It seems counter evolutionary to break out functions of a “media center” application and have the management of those functions done with separate interfaces, that require different methods of input.
This seems to be the process to add media: “hold on a second, let me grab my keyboard and mouse, minimize this app, open this other app, add the file, scan it, close app, maximize previous app.” I think that would take more time than using the virtual keyboard and a remote.
Maybe adding the media in the Plex Media Server is “Mac-like” but it is the whole experience that make Apple products so usable, so “Mac-like”. If adding media, and watching media can’t be tied together, then product usability as a whole will suffer.
:wq! Rant
As others have said, I will wait to see what is released.
Jared, you also manage your files thru the Plex interface? Do you have another mac/PC at home that you use?
I thing you must use your computer with keyboard and mouse/touchpad to rip your DVDs and put them in folders, to download (i suppose legally) movies and put them in some folders.
So IMHO, when manage your files, you also make few click in the media server.
Another think is that you have everything automated, folders set up, and you just want to “repair” meta info when the scraper/agend make a mistake and shows wring movie descritions/picture. i suppose that the basic functions like refresh, change thumbarial will be accesible thru the plex apps, because is just few simple commnads send to the media server….
The point is tho have one media server, and access it from various location like from you bed room, living room, kids room…
People are working on this for free, providing it for free, so the minimum we can do is wait for the release an if some features will be missing, we can request to put them back…
But the alexandria is not released yet, do spare the developers your disappointments that you have based on prejudice
Jared: Scanning is done automatically when Plex finds a new file within your section. You only need the keyboard when you’re setting up new sections.
This is really fantastic. Frankly, it’s so polished and ingenuous, I wouldn’t be surprised if a commercial company wants to buy (license?) it.
Plex is essentially what Front Row should have been, and a Mac Mini connected to a large HDTV running it is essentially what a MacTV should have been. Have you looked into integrating with Elgato’s EyeTV? If the UI could be extended to control that, you’d have a MacTV plus TiVO plus some of the aspects of Google’s new TV (obviously without the external API, but that could also be duplicated). I am so impressed with the features, architecture and performance of the software that it almost warrants a company to market it (along with a Mini and TV) as a home theatre solution.
hey guys, fantastic set of new features, absolutely love the direction in which plexapp is going, just can’t wait to download it now. hopefully not too long to wait.
@Add, thanks for the clarification!
Is there going to be anything in this new version for automatically changing the output resolution on your Mac to 24Hz or 60Hz depending on the framerate of the content?
Thank you for making Plex innovative and easy to use, getting rid of my ATV for MacMini w/Plex was the best thing I’ve ever done! I had no doubt that the Team Plex will keep updating this app to be the best media app for your TV! This is great! I can’t wait for the release and the other new features!
Is there a link between this rumor of new mac minis and this suspense around plex nine ?
hahaha
sorry…
@pv_bain: The new Minis are all orange and have a Plex logo on them. OK, not really.
great and no more osx, plex is now an os with a safari 5, tv tuner, a newsgroup reader damned, you went too far with this nine. steve jobs should vote for Elan to lead apple after his reign…
Nice! Looks like somebody has been reading my feature request about an external library/media manager… or just had the same idea… either way, looks great!
Live-TV integration to TVHeadend/HTSP ?
This looks great. Were you guys able to get it to work with any Emulation/game launching? I didn’t see an option to add a “gaming” type folder. Either way, can’t wait until the release
Looks fantastic. Great job!
Love it! When when when when when?? And P.S. will there be an option to edit tv and movie info once scrapped or before scrapping? To maybe add a note about which is your favorite episode, custom plot synopsis, that sort of thing?
Matt > I plan to do a new version of my Game Launcher plug-in when 0.9 is out. Elan told me on the forum it could be possible to add a “Games” category pretty easily, so if I can do it, I’ll most certainly do it.
We’ll see what happens when 0.9 is out.
Hello
just checking in here everyday since 25 march to see if there are some news about release date, could you please give all of us an hint if it going to take days, weeks or months before we can download it.
Thanks in advanced
@jakepe
the same with me
@bbue & jakepe: All I can say is that we’re working very hard with our top priority being this first release.
Much Improved. However, looks like you’ve retained the same scrolling list selection process for Plex. It’s ok but very outdated and not very Mac-like. Reminds me of DOS. It just feels tedious to use.
How about a graphical interface like Boxee? You’ve got them beat on folder management, but they are slaughtering you on interface (in my opinion.)
Excellent guys, if it works really that smooth I might switch back from Boxee! I hope the user interface of plex will improve similarly
Hello Elan
Thank you for time and your answer, but it did not
get me or anybody any wiser
@jakepe
But I’m checking the site even more often now
Can’t wait!!
Solves so many issues for the current setup!
come on guys.. just a timeframe… days ? weeks ? months ??
)
can´t wait anymore…
Shawn Crisp
boxie SUCKS and its interface even more.simplier=better.plex is super simple.
Yeah, I’m with @Wurstwasser.
“Soon” isn’t as descriptive as I’d like.
New MAC MINI released OMG… PLex 9 would be Fantastic on it .
@Ryan date, weeks or month when 9 will release …..
I have the new Mac Mini on order and have moved from want, to need, the new release of Plex. Please, enough teasing, can we please have a scheduled release date. Even if rough, it gives us a timeline to work too.
Only one request, that may already be part of Plex… the ability to choose video format and use Plex to scale the image. I have a 2.35 120″ scope screen and would love to be able to select format from within Plex, when selecting the movie. This could then communicate with my scaler and anamorphic lens sled, and move the lens in and out, as needed. Add in a Plex app for my iPad and bang, I have the perfect integration kit, at a fraction of the price of the big boys.
come on, leave those developpers in peace, they work for free, for us… they will release it soon for sure, let’s bet instead of cry.
ok my bet is july 4th.
Awesome screencast, awesome Plex 9
Looking forward to it 
Boxee interface Sucks, At least you can choose to change your interface & Skins with Plex if you so desire from the included,.
Shawn, If you don’t like Plex’s Skin, Download a Different One from the Many Offered.
Boxee’s interface is a cluster of unneeded clicks to perform simple features, It’s a mess.
Plex 9 Will be a welcome update, Elan and his team do this for free and should be applauded for all the hard work and time they have invested in this project, i would rather wait for a stable version with the blessing of the team then a half baked attempt to push Plex 9 out the door just to curb the inpatient few.
Ok… it’s been a month since the last post. Surely there should be some more news coming down the pipline?
biting fingernails !
When when when? Gimme alpha, gimme beta all good to me !
This looks absolutely amazing!
I think the only way this could possibly be better would be to make the server side multi-platform – all my media files are on a separate server which runs Ubuntu, and it’d be great to have all the files managed there (without having to bother with sharing permissions) and to tap into them with the Flex front end on the Mac.
Of course, that’s just wishful thinking, and would simply be the icing on the proverbial cake of awesomeness that Flex already is.
wow, this looks really really good. PLex is already a great app but this makes it even better because the scraping process was frustrating…..i might even be willing to pay fot it
I’m very much looking forward to Plex 9 patiently. I have a feature request for the 9 series. The ability to link or group multidisk movies/tv shows. I have 4 Chuck Season 1 .iso files. It shows 4 times in my library. I’d like to click chuck then be able to choose disk 1,2,3,or 4 that I’d want to watch. It would also be useful for the 2 disk Lord of the Rings movies.
When will this be released, people been talking about Plex 9 for like a year now..
looks like a fine way to get people using plex… never gonna happen…
scam
is there any chance to get my hands on Plex9, because my new mac mini will arrive next week? please say yes!
Any chance that we can have Bu-ray support on Plex?
Or is this a barrier that Steve Jobs have purposely imposed on Mac OS X?
Tease, tease, tease
When is this going to be released? Why is Plex not answering this question?
It’ll be released when we’re ready to release it.
Well said Elan
This “release” is slowly turning in to be a joke
Is going on fore over 2 month now and still not any information about release date …..
Big Up for Elan and the Plex Team!
That is some crazy incredible work you’ve done there! Amazing!
Can’t wait to test it!
“It’ll be released when we’re ready to release it.”
Perhaps you shouldn’t give previews of an update then have nothing to say or show for it two months later! I personally have invested $600 in a Mac mini to use Plex. While I appreciate all the hard work you guys are doing, you seriously need to do a better job of keeping your users informed and thus satisfied. It doesn’t matter if a program is free if its buggy and lacks proper support. My TV shows haven’t automatically updated in 4 months and currently my Movies fanart doesn’t download!
“It’ll be released when we’re ready to release it.”!!! Thats a rude response to a customer base who is only trying to get more information about your product. As great as Plex is, you do have competition and you may find a smaller user base if you don’t step up your professionalism all-around.
To all the people that are complaining about the release date: calm down!
First of all, if you aren’t a developer then maybe you don’t have any idea how hard it is to pull off a project like this when it is being backed up with real money. To develop a large project on free time while coordinating multiple contributors of code is a task approaching monumental.
And while it might be nice to have real support, maybe you should check out the forums and see if your problem has already been solved. No one forced you to go down the Plex route.
I agree that more timely feedback would be great, however I am quite happy with the current release as it definitely beats paying the bloodsuckers that run my local cable provider. I am sure that I will love the next release that much more, but hey, can’t complain when I am getting it for free, right?
Thanks to all the Plex developers, and I hope you are finding time for a real life whilst juggling a regular job AND providing us with a great piece of code!
Sheesh guys. I think some people need to chillax. I can hardly wait until Plex 9 comes out either, but my world isn’t ending either. Let’s face it, competition or not, Plex 8.5 is still miles apart from the next best and works fine. Plex9 will be ready when it’s ready. Until then, i suggest you man up and get on with…oh i don’t know, the rest of your life? Read a book, see some family, shit, cut the grass mmkay. The whingers are big girls.
A question for devs out there, given how the library will be separated, as a suggestion has anyone thought about creating an i-pad/phone/podtouch app to tie in with Plex9? I’m thinking something that can utilise the scrapped content, that acts sort of like an index of the library and also, as a remote control? Think of it as an interactive guide for your library content. Seeing as how the data has already been scrobbled, it would be cool to see a clean interface, similar to an ibook app, that would let you leaf through your movies, and have additional content that say, you might not want to display on the main display (tv), but would prefer to have in your hands. Like plot synopsis etc. Just a thought.
I sure hope all the people complaining about Plex 9′s release have at least donated to the development team. It’s pretty funny that people bitch like this about something offered to them for free.
I just got Plex set up on my mini and I love it, bugs and all. This is some great free software. Kudos, guys, and I’m looking forward to 9 *whenever* you’re ready to release it.
Wow! You people are a bunch of whiney bitches! I know everyone is anxious, but we are owed NOTHING by the Plex Dev team. The devs working on this are doing so with no reward other than giving us a great product to use. They have absolutely no obligation to a timeline or to the user base. You want it faster? Learn to code and give up your nights and weekends for the next few months and lend a hand.
That said, Plex 9 looks absolutely bad ass and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Great job, Elan and team.
We need another update please!
I just want to see another video like the last one, Part 2
I for one love the idea of having a stand alone Plex Media Server interface for managing your content.
The logical extension to this is that for homes with multiple HTPC’s you can pause on one (i.e. Lounge), and resume on another (i.e. Bedroom).
I would say however that most people on this forum probably have a Mac Mini as a dedicated HTPC but would pretty much guarantee that they also have ANOTHER PC/Mac somewhere in the house.
As the idea of centralizing content in one place really appeals to me (and hopefully others) – I would LOVE to see the Plex Media Server branch out into a separate development fork and have a standalone installation available for both Max OS/X and Windows such that ANY additional PC/Mac in the home can become your central hub for media content – after all it’s far cheaper to stack up a PC/Mac Pro tower with terabytes of storage than it is an iMac / Mac Mini / MacBook etc. etc.
Keep Plex Mac Only – but please consider making Plex Media Server multi-platform.
Would love to get support from others on this forum if you too would like to see this happen so please post below.
Tom, I agree fully re: porting PMS to other platforms.
I’d love to be able to run it on OpenSolaris / Nexenta, which is running on the machine I’m using for storage (5x2TB RAID-Z atm).
@elan – Hey, any chance that you might be able to provide us with an update?
I know that there are a lot of people hassling you guys for a release which much be stressful when you are trying to get things done.
It’s been two months and just a “status update” or “here’s another sneak peak” type communication would help to stay the hounds (myself included) for a little while.
Will donate beer money for another post within the next day or two !
@Callum: I apologize for the lack of communication. There’s not much to say except that we’re making progress, and hope to make the first release soon. Juicy details? We’re feature frozen, and just released an internal alpha to our group of testers, who found bugs in it. We’re busy fixing those bugs, and if the next release works as well as we want it to, we’ll let you play with it
@Callum: I’m sure donations would certainly not make the process any slower….$20 USD paypal-ed for your continued work on such a great piece of software.
I would like to see PMS run on unRAID
Headstash: I am sure a lot more people would give up some weekends and do some coding if the development was more open. I could help out (if my abilities permit me) on getting the PMS ported to various platforms, but where is the source? Yeah, that’s right, I am not _allowed_ to due to license restrictions imposed. I wonder what Plex would look like if ffmpeg, XBMC etc would have chosen the same restrictive license and development model…
Imagine how awesome it would be if there was a clean separation between client and server, and they were handled as two different projects. Then the PMS could be used as a foundation in other media players as the organizing backbone (XBMC would be the first beneficiary I can imagine). Then you could have people writing their own playback clients and organization/management tools. One could almost say that it would nurture an open source community, benefiting a larger number of people than it is today.
Having said that, I am grateful for all the energy and effort that is being put into this project by the current development staff.
Wow some whiny bitches posting – hilarious! Anywho pretty exciting stuff – looks like you guys put a lot of work/thought into this, can hardly wait to try it out
* * * FEATURE REQUESTS * * *
Plex is awesome.., but to put it over the top, it would be super kool to allow the use of collections. From the video it looks as though she was about to do it, selecting individual movies into the Kids Movies section, but instead was forced to select a folder =(.
Please allow us to build a “collections” section under the “Movies” menu. I want to be able to easily browse Hitchcock films, 80′s films, Classic Monster movies, James Bond, etc.
And just like when you click by genre under the movie section and it lists all the genres, when you click by collection it will list all the collections you created. This would be a super kool addition! =D
Another thing that would be a sick addition, allow “random” sorting. Some of us with big collections find it hard to “browse”. Especially when you have over 800 movies. An example of this usage could be to have a “featured” section under the Movies menu that randomly chooses 20 movies or something for display? Allow us to set a refresh time in the settings, say every 3 hours, daily, every few days, etc. That way movies will appear that we may have otherwise over looked while skimming our huge libraries. Seriously, when you have a collection this big it is very difficult and time consuming to “browse”, you have to already know what your looking for! Please add!!! =D
Thanks!!!!
Omg, I can’t believe some of the people here, especially the reply @ June 26th, 2010 2:30 pm. The nerve, let these guys what they do best and enjoy what they’re doing.
Plex crew, you are doing a great job, I hope you keep it up. I’m looking forward to your new release but in the meantime I’m using the current Plex with great joy. Keep it up, love you guys for producing such a great program.
damned my bet was wrong… anyway i have bet that france was gonna win the world cup,
i have to stop betting.
and post
no ?
Plex 9 is gonna be great!
Wish it was launch day….
So looking forward to this release, hopefully it will come sooner rather than later…
hey elan and team, just like everyone else, I cannot effing wait for plex nine. I am beyond psyched as is my girlfriend (she loves plex too!). since it’s been almost a month since the video, how about another or maybe just a written post. I’m not asking for a release date, just want more details to chew on.
ignore the haters above, its free software after all, i can’t understand how people can be so inconsiderate sometimes. plex 9 is gonna be amazing, (patiently) looking forward to it.
Still waiting patiently…. want to order a new Mac Mini to play with this.
Wondering if Plex team thinks this can be hacked on to the Boxee unit which is coming out in November? Or maybe the Plex guys are making their own secret deals to bring a unit to market — which I would totally buy over Boxee.
BTW, if a little news app can be integrated into Plex – like this: http://glowdart.com/
that would be awsome.
Hello
This was posted 24 march ( nearly 4 month) from Elan, could any of those testers please confirm these statments ?
This, in summary, is Alexandria. I’m sure the first question will be “When can I have it?” We are quite far along with development, and we have released early builds to a select group of testers, who have been extremely helpful with their feedback and help. I’m using it full-time on my Mini, and used it to watch the latest episode of Lost last night. There are, of course, many things to clean up, fix, and add, but it won’t be too long now before we open up the testing to more people.
Thanks again for your patience. I’ll write more soon, and cover lots more of the details of Alexandria. Until then, I’ll leave you with some quotes from the first group of testers:
“Setting up sources is MUCH MUCH MUCH easier!!”
“NIIIIICEEEEE!!!!”
“This is going to be soooo good!!”
“ho-ly sh*t! I can read and understand this!”
“PC users are going to want a Mac. This is way ahead of XBMC now”
“This is just … WOW!!!”
“That is fantastic! Exactly what we need.”
“This looks amazing…exactly what is missing”
“You guys, this is f**king amazing”
“Whacking sources before used to be such a pain in the ass. Now it’s no big deal.”
“Wow, this is really nice”
I was wondering why are there not any testers who writes anything on this blog about Plex 9 ?
Been almost 2 months since the video teaser…. are you close enough to even tell us what MONTH it might be available? Quarter? Year?????
another plex fanboy waiting eagerly…!!!
luv from india
Ok, maybe there’s no news on Plex, but how’s Barky?
Vaporware ????
Maybe as a token gesture when 9 is ready for release the plex guys can give 9 to all the people who donated two weeks earlier than the rest of the public. This would show all the people who donated that the plex guys appreciate their support and will encourage others to donate as well.
I guess if money was the main reason for plex, it wouldn’t have been free, so i think the team is training themselves on those versions, but a day or an other plex will not be free anymore but we’ll have a 1.0, from my side, I am definitely ready to pay for plex. I will donate for sure as soon as 9 is released.
now new mini is installed, everything is setup, it just miss plex to be in service, until then i stay with my old mini that begin to be very slow.
come on guys, there is no hurry,Elan and others keep up the good work, i prefer to have a stable version on my new mini than a buggy release too early.
but as others said i think people just want some news (even for some new plug ins) because this blog is so silent since 2 months compare to the past.
on the other side, no news is probably a sign that you are working hard… no news, good news !?
@pv_bain: We’re working very hard, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Plex = awesome
Eagerly awaiting the new version! I just updated from a mid-07 to a mid-10 mac mini and the performance boost is great, wouldn’t mind the new software on this thing soon too
I really like the idea fo decentralizing the media library, but It seems like a bad design choice to have media from two different sources show up under two different headings. Like Computer 1: TV Shows and Computer 2: TV Shows. When I sit down at my TV I don’t care where the media comes from, I just want it to be easy to find, I don’t want to have to remember that The Matrix is on Computer 1 and Matrix Revolutions is on Computer 2. They should just both be under Movies.
@Sean: The idea is that you’d do this “joining” of media on the server-side. You can pull in your TV shows from Computer 1 and Computer 2 (even remotely, over the network), and then end up with a cohesive database of TV shows. Or not. It’s totally up to you.
I have a question, or 2
as no one seems to take the Alaska skin after that “someone” left the code, after all this hard and good work, will it be included anyway in plex nine, and will the skins be by default included in plex nine, without having to “hack” a little the software ?
will there maybe be more skins ? or just take Alaska as the default skin Elan, this is the best
you should do a survey ! ho no, concentrate on 9, I’ll figure out where to do one… 
EDIT : the poll is in the skin section of the forum
Elan, will we have a chance to see Plex 9 before the end of year ?
@elan
Thanks for freely providing the world with something that you clearly felt was missing and would solve a few software inadequacies. You could have kept this to yourself or made a little short term money but to your credit and our benefit you do what too few in our culture have the guts for.
Alas, while I greatly appreciate the effort, I’ve so far been unable to use Plex due to its yellow colour tint issue which is quite off-putting, especially when VLC or quicktime do the job perfectly (though without the Plex finish).
So while everyone patiently waits for the first fix in 8 months, I cannot help being concerned that this fundamental flaw will be ignored or bumped to the next version – and heaven knows when that would be.
Sorry if I’m being obtuse, but all the fancy media management is for nothing if it cannot perform what most of us want out of home cinema – the faithful replay of our favourite films.
I hope you can confirm that the delays in Plex 9 reaching the wild are due to the thorough clean-out of this and all such bugs.
There’s definitely a big fat donation on its way when this software finally becomes an option..
Will all of the new tweaks be supported by the 4850 on the 27″ iMac?
Hopefully it will be released in August…
What the F man? Just release the damn beta so we can test and give feedback. My boss is busting my balls to set it up at his mansion. So just give me something anything.!!!!!
I hope the media server is everything I dream of. I have alot of mp4/m4v with meta tags begging for a real frontend to play them in ac3! Come on Plex!
Hi,
I’m a long time XBMC user, just got a mini and decided to go Plex! mostly because of the preview above, I like your ideas and fresh thinking!
keep up the great work and hope to have 9 soon.
I spent the last days with rescraping my library. Considering Murphys Law there should be a release very soon
Guaaau, waiting for this new release, jus want to thanks to all the developer team, and of course if you want a beta-tester for free… That’s me
Damn, that looks awsome!
Only two questions: When will ?
Plex 9 be available?
and
Will there be a Mac (or at least Windows) Version of the Media Manager, so that I’ll be able to store Media on my Linux-Server?
Ups, sorry, the question meant Linux, not Mac. Will the Mediamanager be available for Lnux?
It is really a pity that such an outstanding app does not have support for international characters (i.e. Greek).
Oh well, we’ll have to wait and see.
Keep up with the good job you’re doing.
Constantinos.
Hi guys just wondering when the release date for Alexandria is going to be? I’ve been checking in at least a couple of time a week to check up but no such luck.
CHEERS!!!!
Cannot wait! Love plex!
hmm, my birthday came and went and my birthday wish of Plex 9 didn’t happen. /sadface
Sorry if I missed this, but do we have BluRay support in 9? – that is, reading straight from disc. Love your work BTW…..awesome!
Any updates on Plex 9 I downloaded a copy yesterday of 8.5 and have fallen in love with it already, butr from the looks of the preview it looks like .9 is going to be incredible.
Hi guys,
you are doing a great job on Plex. Best media center software i’ve ever used. Can’t wait to see Plex 9.
Hey there! I love Plex. You have a great product and it works awesome. I love that I can play Dolby Digital and AC3 audio without any problems most of the time. I have a Mac Mini and getting digital output is very iffy at best. The only place I can get it on a consistant basis is with Plex. I leave the Mini on all the time and sometimes it will mess up the video and audio to where it plays a 2X all the time in Plex and the only way to fix it is to restart.I don’t know if there is a fix to this. I would also like to see an auto update of the Library. I know it adds new content but it does not remove old content that has been deleted. I hope that comes to Plex 9. I am really looking forward to it since it is the best media server on the Mac hands down. You guys are awesome.
@ Michael
If you want to clean your library on update you CAN do that in this version.. Just go to the Advanced settings in your controller bar Plex -> Advanced Settings and then go to library..
Hope this will help you.
P.S.
Elan your doing a great job, the thing is that not everybody know how much code work is behind everything and to get it Just right takes alot of effort.! Good luck mate!
@Michael, @Thierry,
Just be careful with that auto delete thingy…if your files are on the local hard drive you won’t have a problem, but if you are pulling in your files in via network (or even external hard drive), there is a potential for path names to get screwy and then Plex very happily auto deletes your library! It’s not Plex’s fault, it’s Mac OS and the way it names external volumes. Trust me – I’ve been through this MULTIPLE times. It is safest to boot up your system, start Plex, make sure a file from each of your network/external sources is available in Plex, then clean your library through the Preferences menu.
Elan and the gang,
Fantastic work, can’t wait for Plex 9.
Good job!, looking forward to it : )
constantine: have you changed font? thai characters works fine,
so i’m sure greek characters would work too.
but the default font is latin only.
We have a mutual friend, Marty W. , who suggested I should contact you get involved in your usability vetting of Plex .9. Am a veteran of the many attempts others have made at the 10 ft experience and am enthused by your approach to .9 “Alexandria”. Let me know if you’re interested. You guys are onto something…
@Phil
I created a startup script that first mounts your drives, updates the skins and after that all it runs plex. between that it also checks if the folders are there.. never got the problem again that it auto deletes..
Just watched the video again. All I can say is wow. Looks great.
GO TEAM PLEX!!
I keep popping back here every fortnight, no news yet but I’m just as excited as ever!
Keep up the good work and we’ll all be very happy when 9 appears. I’m off to donate now, sry it won’t be as much as you guys deserve
But have a beer anyhow!
-D-
The new version of Plex simply looks amazing!
Looking forward to try the new Media Manager
@Thierry:
would you share your script with us? maybe post it to the forum?
thx
@ Flow, *
Well, Allright.. will make it more uniform before I share it.. so check the forum in a couple days
Chadio
AWESOME WORK!!! Do you have an idea when plex 9 will launch? In 2010?
looks like it will never come out :/
people been talking about this for ages now….
It looks AWESOME. The hard work and tons of hours … WOW. Thanks for the bait … can you give us a good guess at least in months ? It would be so kind and helpful (in advance to budget plans for everyone’s multimedia environment … direly need to offer my wife an indication …)
GREAT JOB !
I don’t mean to bitch or anything, but guys, this is starting to feel like the Duke Nukem Forever of home media centers.
I know we’re in no position to complain – it’s not like we’ve paid for this wonderful service you’ve provided – but the updates are more like taunts now, little *dares* to get excited. And worst of all, on our end, it feels like development is stagnating.
Updates have come to a near stand-still, and third parties and the forum are beginning to trickle their workflow as the new version of Plex is perpetually “just around the corner” and should fix any problems that we’re having *now*.
I don’t demand more or anything, but I do suggest it.
Who will come out first, PS3 Gran Turismo 5 os PLEX 9 ???
I totally agree with Shaun.
@Phil
here it is: http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/15455-automated-bootup-script/
@elan Thanks for a great product! I’m really looking forward to the new version. One thing i don’t understand is why you dont’t open source the 0.9 release? I think there are plenty of developers willing to contribute to a PLEX.
Alright, second peek posted via Twitter: http://vimeo.com/14025665
Looking good, looking good.
http://vimeo.com/14025665
New video! Now I’m REALLY DROOLING! GIMME GIMME!
I don’t really care when this launches, I’m just glad people are working and continually updating it. A great free product which boggles my mind. I think I love you guys.
hey guys,if u need italian or russian translation,contact me,ill be happy to help.
Plex9 is sold to AppleTV for their new hardware release in Jan 2011
Hey guys,
I just watched the new sneak peek of alexandria plex .9 and I have to say I’m really impressed. I cant wait to get this set up across all of the mac hardware in the house.
I’ve been a user of plex for a while now and everyone that comes round wants to know about it and wants me to set it up for them. Word of mouth is certainly doing well here in Essex, UK.
Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing that download page going live.
Fingers crossed it’ll be in August!
One last thing…. Will Last FM 2.0 be fully integrated into the latest version? That feature rocks!
Just wanted to say I just watch sneeky peeky number 2 and I am now stoked for the release. Please keep up the good work.
Look out for a nice paypal donation at the end of the month (pay day).
Hey man, if you need a person for the translation Español to Spanish, I’m here.
I need the new version lol, you made the announcement on my birthday and I waiting three months, throw it do not be mean:)
If you need a French translation – bilingual English/French here & happy to help, just let me know.
If you need a translation into German, just ask. I´d be happy to do so ;D
Need a translation/interpretation into German?
I´d be happy to do that for you. Plex is awesome
This looks great. However, if I am in Plex viewing my movies and I want to make a change, I now have to quit Plex and fire up Media Manager?
Currently I can just hold down the menu button on my remote and make changes, but now I’ll have to quit and go through an entirely different process to make an update, and then go back in to Plex?
I can see the benefit of a better management tool, but the beauty of Plex is that the entire thing can be organised within the application, perfect for people like me who only use their Mac connected to a TV.
The old functions are still in there, from what I understand
Why can’t be given a release date ? why is there never any mention what so ever of a release date ? why has it been forever to get released ?
APPLE HAVE BOUGHT PLEX 2001 will see the new Apple TV running a moded PLEX.
Ask yourself why it hasn’t been released yet.
@Tony, it will be released tomorrow. Then when tomorrow comes you will be asking why it hasn’t been released yet, because its not ready yet, so shut the hell up and stop asking. They will release it when they think its ready.
It would be great if the automatic media flagging would differentiate between PAL and NTSC when it labels media ‘SD’.
Also it would be great if Frame Rate was automatically flagged along side Resolution and the Codecs.
But it looks great
Awesome! But, will it be possible to update media library from the Plex app itself?
@A. Navarro
Just listen carefully to the sneakpeak and you’ll get you awnser
I’ve been using Mediaportal, XBMC etc and never bothered to read about Boxee/XBMC because I thought they were just ports, and because I don’t have a Mac.
Well, I read ‘Road to Alexandria’ which was linked somewhere else and now I hate all of you
Hats off to the Plex devs, I had no idea it was this advanced and all I can say is I am for the 1st time considering getting a Mac mini.
I also wish that you guys would port this stuff back into XBMC but I realize that may be impossible due to technical issues (tied too closely to OSX) or philosophical differences.
Crispy:
Plex contributors shouldn’t have to port anything to XBMC, that’s the job of XBMC developers. However, with current license restrictions imposed by the Plex team, it is not possible to freely port new features like the Media Manager for use with XBMC. It wouldn’t surprise me if large parts of Plex started to get rewritten, and put under more restrictive licenses. Now the media manager is closed, and the next two parts are skinning/menu system and the video player. Looking in the forums it seems that a rewrite of the video player is already under way.
Having said all that, the developers are free to release their new code in any license they wish, and they have been doing a great job at putting out quality code so far.
(devs, why not do a GPL pledge? When you raise for example 5k USD in donations you will release the media manager under GPL. Nobody knows why you are closing things, and I can just assume it is some long term vision on cashing in on all the hard work, something I am sure everyone can relate to….)
hey I’ve heard that elan will release 9 when there will be 100 post saying I want Plex !
go on guys!
ok I get out…
again
Love the media flagging. Would be great if there would be flags for the different languages provided by the media-file.
I want Plex!
I want Plex!
I hope the new version is coming soon. The skin developers are downing nothing at the moment because of the coming off the new version. The program plex is great!!!
Keep-on doning this nice job.
Elan You are downing a nice job a can’t hardly wait!!!
@sling: There are a number of skinners working on Plex/Nine skins at the moment, including the very talented maverick and reddragon.
@FritzFilter: Media flagging for languages shouldn’t be that hard (we’re already collecting the data), just not displayed in the first release.
@e kronos: Good idea on the NTSC/PAL flagging. We’re actually keeping and allowing for frame rate flags, the skinners just chose not to display them in the main list (getting crowded!) “Give me white space or give me death!” they yelled, and then mumbled something about negative space under their breath.
@Michael et. al. We’ll definitely be requesting help with the translations after we get the first release out. Thanks for the kind offers!
Nice job guys! I’ve been using PLEX for a while and this is a great leap forward. Rather than showing the various Movie/TV/Music categories on the opening screen, it might be better to go into the Movie, TV, or Music section and then show the various sections. For example, after going into Movies, we could see Kids Movies, Comedies, Dramas, Suspense, etc. Also, any Parental Control features in PLEX 9? It would be nice to be able to either lockup or not display non-kid-friendly content. Just my two cents. PLEX is truly one of the best pieces of software I’ve used. Thank you so much for all your hard work and dedication!!
Plex is great. Elan thanx for the reply. I’ am using the skin Alaska and satisfied.
Here you ave another volunteer foro translation into spanish.
Is there any idea on when will be having a release party ?
Will dynamic compression be supported? Or will we, users of plex hooked to a stereo tv, need to be constantly modifying volume to hear dialogs and not get deaf with explosions?