Plex Media Center

I like these hot-fixes few for a different reasons; first and foremost, it’s an easy way for us to get new code into your hands in the quickest possible way. Second of all, it’s a great way to get feedback from you before we roll another official release, which will offer itself via auto-update.

So if you’re feeling brave, take them for a spin, and if you’re not, please wait for the official release. One comment we received was something along the lines of “Please don’t make hot-fix releases, just make official releases” and I think that’s missing the point a bit. It’s not an either/or sort of thing, and by all means, if you want to wait for the auto-update via Sparkle, please do so.

But if you live on the edge, regularly swim with sharks, or fly to Pamplona for the running of the bulls, try the latest hotter-fix release here. It fixes the following issues:

• FIX: Occasional crash on start.
• FIX: Issue with TV/Movie search/updates hanging.
• FIX: A rare issue where the server would get stuck exiting, and required a reboot (which seems like an OS X issue).
• FIX: GUI weirdness using the new asynchronous “fix match” dialog.

As with the last one, drop the new application into ~/Library/Application Support/Plex and replace the existing one. Look at the string after the version number to make sure you’re running the latest code, and let us know how it works for you! As long as this version doesn’t have any more regressions, we’ll roll it into an official release shortly.

[edit: updated with new slightly hotter fix that contains a resolution for the Plex crash setting posters]

We’re happy to be able to offer you a hot-fix for the Plex Media Server which fixes a number of issues. We’re also working on the next version of the iOS app, which fixes a good handful of bugs, and we hope to have it ready for submission to Apple early next week.

This hot-fix is very easy to install:

1. Download the new Plex Media Server and unzip
2. Quit Plex Media Server
3. Drag new version of the application to ~/Library/Application Support/Plex, overwriting the old one
4. Restart by double clicking on the application

We’ve slipped in a few new things, by popular demand:

• NEW: We’ve made searching for matches asynchronous, so no more rude spinning beachballs of doom, and you can cancel a running search.



• NEW: We’ve added an option for the Plex Media Server to send back additional higher bit-rate streams when transcoding over 3G (besides the 64kbps stream that’s always there). This will result in higher quality video, if your network can handle it, but it can also result in occasional pausing when the player “shifts” between streams.

• NEW: You can now optimize your database. This is especially useful if you’ve added and removed lots of content. This can take a while, and I realize there’s no fancy spinny progress indicator, so just be patient and let it work, and do it when the media server is idle.



We’ve also fixed a number of bugs, including:

• FIX: Crash on start when your computer didn’t have a name.
• FIX: Videos stopping randomly in the middle of play (sorry!).
• FIX: iTunes/iLife plug-ins mysteriously disappearing (should be fixed).
• FIX: The scanner/media analysis had its ffmpeg updated to 0.6.x, and a few other related bugs have been fixed, which should fix lots of crashes while scanning.
• FIX: We fixed a .BUP/.IFO ordering issue which could cause a crash when playing a VIDEO_TS movie. You’ll need to remove and add the section to fix the ordering (but you won’t lose view state/progress doing so).
• FIX: A buffer overflow issue reported by d1dn0t, which also caused crashes when navigating into some plug-ins.
• FIX: Adding library sections from the command line wasn’t working (thanks, Atrus!).
• FIX: The library would occasionally refresh continually.
• FIX: Crash of the iOS app near the end of a video (thanks to Mike P for the report and media sample, and to Frank for fixing).
• FIX: Agents are now allowed to set a title in the update function for movies.

Many thanks to all of you who have helped us in the forums and over Twitter! It’s really great to have such an awesome community willing to help out as much as you are.