Plexapp
Encyclopedia
Plex is a partially open-source
freeware
media player
for Intel-based Apple Macintosh
computers. It has a 10-foot user interface
design for the living-room TV. Its source code
was initially forked
from XBMC Media Center on May 21, 2008 which Plex today uses as an application framework platform
for its GUI (Graphical User Interface)
and media player part of their software
. Similar to XBMC and Boxee
, it is an alternative to Apple's Front Row for Mac
, with skinnable
and user-configurable interface.
Plex integrates content from iTunes
and iPhoto
(from the iLife
software suite) as well as allowing the user to manage all video, photos, music, and podcasts from a computer, optical disk, local network, and the Internet using an Apple
or Harmony
remote control. In 2009 the developers added their own "app store" digital distribution
platform called "Plex Online" with a growing list of community driven plugins for online content like Hulu
, Netflix
, and CNN
video that are being distributed via "Plex Media Server" application which runs as a stand-alone software and media management interface.
Plex began as a freeware
hobby project
but since 2010 has evolved into a commercial
software business
that is owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company
, (Plex, Inc.). It is a high tech
company based in the United States
that is responsible for the development of the Plex front-end and back-ends, its client–server model, and all accompanying software under the "Plex" trademark
, as well as the exclusive copyright
of the closed source software/code
parts, both when distributed on its own or when it comes as third-party software component
in products by other manufacturers via a strategic partnership
.
s, the Internet
, and local area network
shares. DVD playback is not yet fully integrated and requires the use of helper applications like Apple's DVD Player.
Through the processing power of modern Mac
computer hardware, Plex is able to decode high-definition video
up to 1080p
. For older Macintosh computers, the software does not support hardware accelerated video decoding; users need a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 processor to decode the majority of 1080p videos encoded with the H.264 codec
. Newer Apple models using Nvidia 9400M/GT320M/GT330M chipsets and Snow Leopard OS 10.6.3 or later benefit from H.264 hardware accelerated video decoding, as most of the decoding process is offloaded to the GPU.
Through its plug-in system, Plex includes features such as YouTube
and Apple
movie trailer support, SHOUTcast
, and more. Most plug-in content (such as Hulu
and Netflix
) is provided via a separate helper program called Plex Media Server, while some use an integrated Python runtime engine
and plugin framework.
code); however the other parts of Plex media center software are open-sourced and distributed under the GNU General Public License
. Plex's open source code
is hosted on GitHub
. Plex media center and media player source code was initially based upon XBMC Media Center, which it uses as its application framework
. The founder of Plex, Elan Feingold, was actually part of the official XBMC development team for a short while, but tensions over direction and philosophy led him to leave the free and open source
XBMC project and create the Plex fork.
, or streaming over SMB/SAMBA/CIFS
shares (Windows File-Sharing), ReplayTV
DVRs
, or UPnP (Universal Plug and Play )
shares and media servers. Plex is designed to take advantage of an Internet connection if available, using the IMDb
to obtain thumbnails and reviews of movies, TheTVDB for TV show thumbnails and metadata
, CDDB
(via FreeDB
) for audio CD track listings, and AMG for album cover images. Plex also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm
. It also has music and video playlists, slideshow
s, a karaoke
function, and many audio visualizers
and screensaver
s. Plex can interpolate ("upconvert") from 480 and 576 standard-resolution videos and display them on 720p, 1080i, or 1080p displays.
Like other XBMC derived media players, Plex uses open source FFmpeg
programs and codec libraries to handle all common multimedia
formats. It can decode these in software and optionally pass-through AC3
/DTS audio from movies directly to S/PDIF
output to an external audio-amplifier
/receiver.
The Video Library, one of the Plex metadata
databases, is a key feature of Plex. It allows for the automatic organization of your video content by information associated with the video files (movies and recorded TV Shows
) themselves. The Library Mode view in Plex allows you to browse your video content by categories such as Genre
, Title, Year, Actors and Directors
.
Plex video-playback uses an video-player "core" which was originally developed in-house by the XBMC developers as a DVD-player
for DVD-Video movies
, including the support of DVD-menus. This video-player "core" support all the FFmpeg
codecs, and in addition the MPEG-2
video codec
, and the audio codecs DTS and AC3.
databases, is another key feature of Plex. It allows for the automatic organization of your music collection by information stored in your music file ID meta tags
, like title, artist, album, genre
and popularity.
For audio playback, Plex includes the audio-player called PAPlayer (Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player) which was originally developed in-house by the XBMC developers. Some of this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly audio frequency resampling
, gapless playback
, crossfading
, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg
Chapter support.
PAPlayer handles a very large variety of audio file-formats.
with the options of panning/zooming
and slideshow
with "Ken Burns Effect
", with the use of CxImage open source library code.
that serves plug-ins that provide online content to Plex, this "app store" allows users to download new plugins directly from Plex's GUI.
Plex has extensibility and integration with online sources for free and subscribe streaming content, many of which are in high definition. The Plex Online "app store" offers content including commercial video, educational programming, and media from individuals and small businesses.
Popular streaming internet content include
of an installed and concurrently-active Plex media center for Mac or Plex Media Server session running on another computer via the iOS touchscreen user interface. It also allows for browsing and streaming your media library to play the files from Plex Media Server remotely on an iPhone
, iPod Touch
, and the iPad
, (transcoding all video, audio and photo files to formats that iOS can read and play). This Plex for iOS app was first approved for the App Store on August 30, 2010, and the Plex app currently costs $4.99 (US).
Several third-party developers have also released other universal remote control apps for iOS that are also compatible with Plex, among many other media center applications.
, Plex uses the SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer)
framework with an OpenGL renderer
for all versions of Plex. Some of the third-party libraries that Plex depends on are also written in the C programming-language
, but are used with a C++ wrapper and loaded via a built-in DLL
loader when used inside Plex.
Plex Media Server and the mobile application is however proprietary
and closed source software.
and closed source Plex Media Server. It allows Plex to seamlessly connect to all to local/online content. iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture content update in Plex seamlessly and in real time, effectively Plex will display a little window cut out of a web browser window that just gives you the video bit. Plug-ins for Plex Media Server work by leveraging a WebKit
based player to display video from online sources, presenting itself as a Safari
web-browser. Many of these sources use streaming sites' native flash and Silverlight players, which the web browser handles the loading of.
Developers can make plugins for Plex Media Server's proprietary plugin architecture using Python and custom XML code, and then submit those plugins for App Store submission.
for its GUI
, using a standard XML
base, making theme
-skinning
and personal customization very accessible. Users can create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via third-party public websites for XBMC skins trading. Among the many alternatives of third-party skins for XBMC, the "xTV" skin most closely matches Apple's own media center interface that is in Front Row and the Apple TV.
Plex currently uses a modified version of the "MediaStream" skin as its default skin, a skin that was originally designed by Team Razorfish for XBMC.
or later. With these minimum requirements, Plex is not as backward compatible as other variations of the XBMC code. This is a list of current software limitations in the Plex code, over and above any inherited from XBMC:
by the developers, meaning they allow anybody to redistribute the Plex media player source code under the conditions of that GPL license. Plex Media Server, the proprietary back-end server that all plugins for Plex are dependent on, is however closed source.
software libraries
, such as LAME
, faad
, faac
, libmpeg2
, and libavcodec
(from the FFmpeg
project). Since these source code libraries are released under free and open source licenses they are legally redistributable. However, some of these compression methods algorithms, such as the popular MP3 format, are in many countries protected by software patents. Absent a license, this could possibly make it illegal in certain countries to distribute compiled versions of Plex which includes support for these formats.
sites like IMDb, TheMovieDB, TheTVDB, freedb
, Allmusic etc.).
in order to support playback of DVD-Video
movies encrypted using the CSS (Content Scramble System)
encryption scheme. The distribution of executable
versions of Plex containing this code could possibly fall afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
in the U.S.
and the EU Copyright Directive in European Union
member countries which have incorporated it into national law, this has however, not been proven to be lawful in any court for an open source project before.
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
media player
Media player
Media player is a term typically used to describe computer software for playing back multimedia files. While many media players can play both audio and video, others focus only on one media type or the other...
for Intel-based Apple Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computers. It has a 10-foot user interface
10-foot user interface
In computing a 10-foot user interface is a software GUI designed for display on a large television with interaction using a regular television-style remote control."10 foot" refers to the fact that the GUI's...
design for the living-room TV. Its source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
was initially forked
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
from XBMC Media Center on May 21, 2008 which Plex today uses as an application framework platform
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
for its GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
and media player part of their software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
. Similar to XBMC and Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
, it is an alternative to Apple's Front Row for Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
, with skinnable
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
and user-configurable interface.
Plex integrates content from iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and iPhoto
IPhoto
iPhoto is a digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. and released with every Macintosh personal computer as part of the iLife suite of digital life management applications...
(from the iLife
ILife
iLife is a suite of software applications developed by Apple for organizing, editing, and publishing photos, movies, and music. The suite comprises five applications: iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb, all of which run on the Mac OS X operating system....
software suite) as well as allowing the user to manage all video, photos, music, and podcasts from a computer, optical disk, local network, and the Internet using an Apple
Apple Remote
The Apple Remote is a remote control made for use with Apple products with infrared capabilities released after October 2005. The device was announced by Steve Jobs on October 12, 2005. The remote is largely based on the interface of the first generation iPod Shuffle and has only six buttons...
or Harmony
Logitech Harmony Remote
Logitech Harmony Remote is a line of universal remote controls manufactured and sold by Logitech. The design of remote control interface is oriented toward the activity the user selects instead of the command-based approach typical of early remote controls...
remote control. In 2009 the developers added their own "app store" digital distribution
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
platform called "Plex Online" with a growing list of community driven plugins for online content like Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
, Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
, and CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
video that are being distributed via "Plex Media Server" application which runs as a stand-alone software and media management interface.
Plex began as a freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
hobby project
Hobby
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...
but since 2010 has evolved into a commercial
Commercial software
Commercial software, or less commonly, payware, is computer software that is produced for sale or that serves commercial purposes.Commercial software is most often proprietary software, but free software packages may also be commercial software....
software business
Software business
This article is about selling software, for information about software made for business: Business software.Software Business is the commercial activity of the software industry, aimed at producing, buying and selling software products or software services...
that is owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
, (Plex, Inc.). It is a high tech
High tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...
company based in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that is responsible for the development of the Plex front-end and back-ends, its client–server model, and all accompanying software under the "Plex" trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
, as well as the exclusive copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
of the closed source software/code
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
parts, both when distributed on its own or when it comes as third-party software component
Third-party software component
In computer programming, a third-party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform...
in products by other manufacturers via a strategic partnership
Strategic partnership
A strategic partnership is a formal alliance between two commercial enterprises, usually formalized by one or more business contracts but falls short of forming a legal partnership or, agency, or corporate affiliate relationship....
.
Overview
Plex supports a wide range of multimedia formats and includes features such as playlists, audio visualizations, slideshows, weather forecasts reporting, and an expanding array of third-party plugins. As a media center, Plex can play most audio and video file formats, as well as display images from many sources, including CD/DVD-ROM drive, USB flash driveUSB flash drive
A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
s, the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and local area network
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
shares. DVD playback is not yet fully integrated and requires the use of helper applications like Apple's DVD Player.
Through the processing power of modern Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computer hardware, Plex is able to decode high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
up to 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
. For older Macintosh computers, the software does not support hardware accelerated video decoding; users need a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 processor to decode the majority of 1080p videos encoded with the H.264 codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
. Newer Apple models using Nvidia 9400M/GT320M/GT330M chipsets and Snow Leopard OS 10.6.3 or later benefit from H.264 hardware accelerated video decoding, as most of the decoding process is offloaded to the GPU.
Through its plug-in system, Plex includes features such as YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
movie trailer support, SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast is cross-platform proprietary software for streaming media over the Internet. The software, developed by Nullsoft , allows digital audio content, primarily in MP3 or HE-AAC format, to be broadcast to and from media player software, enabling the creation of Internet radio "stations"...
, and more. Most plug-in content (such as Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
and Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
) is provided via a separate helper program called Plex Media Server, while some use an integrated Python runtime engine
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
and plugin framework.
Plex Media Server
Plex Media Server is from closed source (contains proprietaryProprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
code); however the other parts of Plex media center software are open-sourced and distributed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
. Plex's open source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
is hosted on GitHub
Github
GitHub is a web-based hosting service for software development projects that use the Git revision control system. GitHub offers both commercial plans and free accounts for open source projects...
. Plex media center and media player source code was initially based upon XBMC Media Center, which it uses as its application framework
Application framework
In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment ....
. The founder of Plex, Elan Feingold, was actually part of the official XBMC development team for a short while, but tensions over direction and philosophy led him to leave the free and open source
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
XBMC project and create the Plex fork.
Audio and video playback
Plex can play files from CD and DVD media using the systems' DVD-ROM drive, from a local hard disk driveHard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
, or streaming over SMB/SAMBA/CIFS
Server Message Block
In computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
shares (Windows File-Sharing), ReplayTV
ReplayTV
ReplayTV is a brand of digital video recorder , a term synonymous with personal video recorder . It is a consumer video device which allows users to capture television programming to internal hard disk storage for later viewing...
DVRs
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
, or UPnP (Universal Plug and Play )
Universal Plug and Play
Universal Plug and Play is a set of networking protocols for primarily residential networks without enterprise class devices that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence...
shares and media servers. Plex is designed to take advantage of an Internet connection if available, using the IMDb
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
to obtain thumbnails and reviews of movies, TheTVDB for TV show thumbnails and metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
, CDDB
CDDB
CDDB, short for Compact Disc Database, is a database for software applications to look up audio CD information over the Internet. This is performed by a client which calculates a unique disc ID and then queries the database. As a result, the client is able to display the artist name, CD title,...
(via FreeDB
Freedb
freedb is a database of compact disc track listings, where all the content is under the GNU General Public License. It was originally based on the now-proprietary CDDB . As of April 24, 2006, the database holds just under 2,000,000 CDs...
) for audio CD track listings, and AMG for album cover images. Plex also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
. It also has music and video playlists, slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
s, a karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
function, and many audio visualizers
Music visualization
Music visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
and screensaver
Screensaver
A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use...
s. Plex can interpolate ("upconvert") from 480 and 576 standard-resolution videos and display them on 720p, 1080i, or 1080p displays.
Like other XBMC derived media players, Plex uses open source FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
programs and codec libraries to handle all common multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
formats. It can decode these in software and optionally pass-through AC3
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
/DTS audio from movies directly to S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
output to an external audio-amplifier
Audio amplifier
An audio amplifier is an electronic amplifier that amplifies low-power audio signals to a level suitable for driving loudspeakers and is the final stage in a typical audio playback chain.The preceding stages in such a chain are low power audio amplifiers which perform tasks like pre-amplification,...
/receiver.
Video playback in detail
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
databases, is a key feature of Plex. It allows for the automatic organization of your video content by information associated with the video files (movies and recorded TV Shows
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
) themselves. The Library Mode view in Plex allows you to browse your video content by categories such as Genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, Title, Year, Actors and Directors
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
.
Plex video-playback uses an video-player "core" which was originally developed in-house by the XBMC developers as a DVD-player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
for DVD-Video movies
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
, including the support of DVD-menus. This video-player "core" support all the FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
codecs, and in addition the MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
video codec
Video codec
A video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. The compression usually employs lossy data compression. Historically, video was stored as an analog signal on magnetic tape...
, and the audio codecs DTS and AC3.
Audio playback in detail
The Music Library, one of the Plex metadataMetadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
databases, is another key feature of Plex. It allows for the automatic organization of your music collection by information stored in your music file ID meta tags
ID3
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
, like title, artist, album, genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
and popularity.
For audio playback, Plex includes the audio-player called PAPlayer (Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player) which was originally developed in-house by the XBMC developers. Some of this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly audio frequency resampling
Resampling
Resampling may refer to:* Resampling , several related audio processes* Resampling , resampling methods in statistics* Resampling , scaling of bitmap images* Sample rate conversion-See also:* Downsampling* Upsampling...
, gapless playback
Gapless playback
Gapless playback is the uninterrupted playback of consecutive audio tracks without intervening silence or clicks at the point of the track change. Gapless playback is common with compact discs, gramophone records, or tapes, but is not always available with other formats that employ compressed...
, crossfading
Fade (audio engineering)
In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. The term can also be used for film cinematography or theater lighting, in much the same way ....
, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
Chapter support.
PAPlayer handles a very large variety of audio file-formats.
Digital picture/image display in detail
Plex handles all common digital picture/image formatsDigital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
with the options of panning/zooming
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
and slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
with "Ken Burns Effect
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
", with the use of CxImage open source library code.
Plex Media Server and Plex Online
In 2009, the developers introduced their "Plex Media Server". This Media Server acts as a back-end/server framework for their own "app store" digital distribution called "Plex Online" that allows Plex media player to act as a front-end/client for it that seamlessly connect to both local and online content sources. iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture content update in Plex seamlessly and in real time. Plex Media Server also connects with "Plex Online" which is a digital distribution service platformPlatform (computing)
A computing platform includes some sort of hardware architecture and a software framework , where the combination allows software, particularly application software, to run...
that serves plug-ins that provide online content to Plex, this "app store" allows users to download new plugins directly from Plex's GUI.
Popular streaming internet content include
- Apple Movie Trailers
- BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
iPlayer - Game Trailers
- HuluHuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
- JoostJoostJoost is an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis . During 2007-8 Joost used peer-to-peer TV technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in late 2008 this was migrated to use a Flash-based Web player instead.Joost began development in 2006...
- Major League BaseballMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
- March MadnessNCAA Men's Division I Basketball ChampionshipThe NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
Basketball - National Public Radio
- NetflixNetflixNetflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
Watch instantly - Pandora PlayerPandora (music service)Pandora Radio is an automated music recommendation service and custodian of the Music Genome Project available only in the United States. The service plays musical selections similar to song suggestions entered by a user...
- PBS online streaming content
- Pitchfork MediaPitchfork MediaPitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
- South ParkSouth ParkSouth Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
- SpotifySpotifySpotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal. Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had...
- SVT PlaySVT PlaySVT Play is the brand used for the video on demand service offered by Sveriges Television, more specifically to the streaming services offered on the SVT website, svt.se, and its counterpart for mobile phones....
(Swedish TV) - The Colbert Report
- The Daily KosDaily KosDaily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...
- The Daily ShowThe Daily ShowThe Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
- The Onion News NetworkThe OnionThe Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
- The White House Updates
- TV4 Play (Swedish TV4)
- YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
Mobile software associated with Plex
Plex for iOS is an application released by the developers of the Plex application for Mac. This Plex for iOS is an app for the Apple Inc. iOS which allows for remote controllingTouchscreen remote control
A touchscreen remote control is a handheld remote control device which uses a touchscreen user interface to replace most of the hard, built-in physical buttons used in normal remote control devices...
of an installed and concurrently-active Plex media center for Mac or Plex Media Server session running on another computer via the iOS touchscreen user interface. It also allows for browsing and streaming your media library to play the files from Plex Media Server remotely on an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
, and the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
, (transcoding all video, audio and photo files to formats that iOS can read and play). This Plex for iOS app was first approved for the App Store on August 30, 2010, and the Plex app currently costs $4.99 (US).
Several third-party developers have also released other universal remote control apps for iOS that are also compatible with Plex, among many other media center applications.
Programming and developing
Plex Media Center for Mac is (just like XBMC) a software application programmed mainly in C++C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
, Plex uses the SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer)
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
framework with an OpenGL renderer
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
for all versions of Plex. Some of the third-party libraries that Plex depends on are also written in the C programming-language
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, but are used with a C++ wrapper and loaded via a built-in DLL
Dynamic-link library
Dynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
loader when used inside Plex.
Plex Media Server and the mobile application is however proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
and closed source software.
Plugins for Plex Media Server
In 2009, the developers introduced the proprietaryProprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
and closed source Plex Media Server. It allows Plex to seamlessly connect to all to local/online content. iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture content update in Plex seamlessly and in real time, effectively Plex will display a little window cut out of a web browser window that just gives you the video bit. Plug-ins for Plex Media Server work by leveraging a WebKit
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
based player to display video from online sources, presenting itself as a Safari
Safari
A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...
web-browser. Many of these sources use streaming sites' native flash and Silverlight players, which the web browser handles the loading of.
Developers can make plugins for Plex Media Server's proprietary plugin architecture using Python and custom XML code, and then submit those plugins for App Store submission.
Skins, skinning, and the skinning-engine
Plex Media Center front-end source code is based on XBMC Media Center which is noted as having a very flexible GUI toolkit and robust frameworkSoftware framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
for its GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
, using a standard XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
base, making theme
Theme (computing)
In computing, a theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system, widget set or window manager....
-skinning
Skinning
Skinning, a gerund from the verb to skin, commonly refers to the act of skin removal.The process is usually done with animals, mainly as preparation of the meat beneath and/or use for the fur...
and personal customization very accessible. Users can create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via third-party public websites for XBMC skins trading. Among the many alternatives of third-party skins for XBMC, the "xTV" skin most closely matches Apple's own media center interface that is in Front Row and the Apple TV.
Plex currently uses a modified version of the "MediaStream" skin as its default skin, a skin that was originally designed by Team Razorfish for XBMC.
Limitations
Plex is designed for recent, Intel-based Mac computers using Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard"Mac OS X v10.5
Mac OS X Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007 as the successor of Tiger , and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a...
or later. With these minimum requirements, Plex is not as backward compatible as other variations of the XBMC code. This is a list of current software limitations in the Plex code, over and above any inherited from XBMC:
- Plex supports hardware accelerated video decoding in iOS devices and Mac computer models with NVidia 9400M/GT320M/GT330M chipsets. Older Macs rely on the system's CPU for all video and audio decoding; which means that users require at least a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 processor to decode 1080p videos encoded with the H.264 codecCodecA codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
even at low-bitrateBit rateIn telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
, and 2 GHz Intel Core 2 processor or better for perfect playback of high-bitrate H.264 videos in native 1080p resolution, such as Blu-ray movies (as they are encoded with level 4.1 profile by standard). - Plex is not supported under PPC (PowerPC)PowerPCPowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
based Mac computersMacintoshThe Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
, (however XBMC is supported on G4PowerPC G4PowerPC G4 is a designation used by Apple Computer to describe a fourth generation of 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors. Apple has applied this name to various processor models from Freescale, a former part of Motorola....
and G5 PPC Macs). - Plex is only supported on Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard"Mac OS X v10.6Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the seventh major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference...
or later as well as Windows XP or later. - Plex (like most XBMC-based applications) cannot currently play some video files protected/encryptedEncryptionIn cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
with DRM (Digital Rights Management)Digital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, such as music and videos (movies and TV Shows) purchased from MSN MusicMSN MusicMSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
nor Audible.comAudible.comAudible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....
. It can, however, play DRM audio/music files purchased from iTunes StoreITunes StoreThe iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
and NetflixNetflixNetflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
watch instantly streaming content. - The ISO 9660ISO 9660ISO 9660, also referred to as CDFS by some hardware and software providers, is a file system standard published by the International Organization for Standardization for optical disc media....
and UDFUniversal Disk FormatUniversal Disk Format is an implementation of the specification known as ISO/IEC 13346 and ECMA-167 and is an open vendor-neutral file system for computer data storage for a broad range of media. In practice, it has been most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, supplanting ISO 9660...
reader classClass (computer science)In object-oriented programming, a class is a construct that is used as a blueprint to create instances of itself – referred to as class instances, class objects, instance objects or simply objects. A class defines constituent members which enable these class instances to have state and behavior...
es currently in Plex's source code do not support reading multisession authored CD/DVD-media. This means that, currently, Plex can only read the first sessions of a multisession burnt CDCD-RA CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....
or DVDDVD-RDVD-R is a DVD recordable format. A DVD-R typically has a storage capacity of 4.71 GB. Pioneer has also developed an 8.5 GB dual layer version, DVD-R DL, which appeared on the market in 2005....
media disc.
Copyright
Plex media center software is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
by the developers, meaning they allow anybody to redistribute the Plex media player source code under the conditions of that GPL license. Plex Media Server, the proprietary back-end server that all plugins for Plex are dependent on, is however closed source.
Patents
For most popular video and audio codecs, Plex includes native support through free and open sourceFree and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
software libraries
Library (computer science)
In computer science, a library is a collection of resources used to develop software. These may include pre-written code and subroutines, classes, values or type specifications....
, such as LAME
LAME
LAME is a free software codec used to encode/compress audio into the lossy MP3 file format.-History:The name LAME is a recursive acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". Around mid-1998, Mike Cheng created LAME 1.0 as a set of modifications against the "8Hz-MP3" encoder source code...
, faad
FAAD
FAAD may refer to:* a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology* Freeware Advanced Audio Decoder, an AAC audio decoder, superseded by new version: FAAD2...
, faac
FAAC
FAAC or Freeware Advanced Audio Coder is a software project which includes the AAC encoder FAAC and decoder FAAD2. It supports MPEG-2 AAC as well as MPEG-4 AAC. It supports several MPEG-4 Audio object types , file formats , multichannel and gapless encoding/decoding and MP4 metadata tags...
, libmpeg2
Libmpeg2
libmpeg2 is a free and open source software library for decoding MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video streams. libmpeg2 is released under the terms of the GNU GPL license.-Legality and software patents:...
, and libavcodec
Libavcodec
libavcodec is a free software/open source LGPL-licensed library of codecs for encoding and decoding video and audio data. Same name but incompatible libraries are provided from both FFmpeg project and Libav project....
(from the FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
project). Since these source code libraries are released under free and open source licenses they are legally redistributable. However, some of these compression methods algorithms, such as the popular MP3 format, are in many countries protected by software patents. Absent a license, this could possibly make it illegal in certain countries to distribute compiled versions of Plex which includes support for these formats.
Web Scraping
Plex has the built-in optional function to automatically download meta data information and artwork online through its scrapers (i.e. web scrapingWeb scraping
Web scraping is a computer software technique of extracting information from websites...
sites like IMDb, TheMovieDB, TheTVDB, freedb
Freedb
freedb is a database of compact disc track listings, where all the content is under the GNU General Public License. It was originally based on the now-proprietary CDDB . As of April 24, 2006, the database holds just under 2,000,000 CDs...
, Allmusic etc.).
Other
Plex also includes libdvdcssLibdvdcss
libdvdcss is a free software library for accessing and unscrambling DVDs encrypted with the Content Scramble System...
in order to support playback of DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
movies encrypted using the CSS (Content Scramble System)
Content Scramble System
Content Scramble System is a Digital Rights Management and encryption system employed on almost all commercially produced DVD-Video discs. CSS utilizes a proprietary 40-bit stream cipher algorithm...
encryption scheme. The distribution of executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
versions of Plex containing this code could possibly fall afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the EU Copyright Directive in European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
member countries which have incorporated it into national law, this has however, not been proven to be lawful in any court for an open source project before.
See also
- FFmpegFFmpegFFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
, the audio and video codec suite that Plex uses for all its audio/video player cores - List of other software video players