- #Use mac mini as server for your network how to
- #Use mac mini as server for your network install
- #Use mac mini as server for your network portable
- #Use mac mini as server for your network download
Just get the Plex app for your Apple TV-or iPad, PlayStation, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox, or many smart TVs-and you’ll be able to easily watch all your videos (that don’t have DRM).Įditor’s note: Updated at 1:45 p.m. The Mac mini is a low-power, quiet device, which you could put just about anywhere in your home, as long as it has access to your Wi-Fi network.
While it may sound daunting to set up a media server, with a simple Mac mini, Plex, and a couple of hard drives, you can do so quickly and easily. (It can also manage music, of course I don’t discuss that here.) Your Mac mini with Plex can not only serve videos to your home entertainment system-or to other devices in your house-but if you buy a Plex Pass ($5 a month, $40 a year, or $150 for a lifetime subscription) you get early access to new Plex features, Mobile Sync, Cloud Sync, Camera Upload and a lot more. You access Plex’s settings in a web browser. Then create one or more libraries in Plex’s settings, which you access in your web browser.
#Use mac mini as server for your network how to
Read this article to learn how to name your files, so Plex can find metadata efficiently, and then copy your movies and TV series to the Mac mini, or to its external hard drive.
#Use mac mini as server for your network install
On your Apple TV-and any iOS devices you want to use-you also need to install the Plex app to be able to interact with the server.
#Use mac mini as server for your network download
Once you’ve got your Mac mini set up, you need to download and install Plex, and read their Quick Start guide to get things up and running. Since you’ll need to access the Mac mini in this way from time to time, create a screen sharing alias. I’d recommend getting a video display emulator, or the $3 Resolutionator, so you can switch resolutions, making it easier to work with the device. You can control a Mac without a display using Screen Sharing. You can point, click, and type in the Screen Sharing window, just as you would on a normal display. Just find it in the Shared section of the Finder window sidebar, and click Share Screen to start screen sharing.
#Use mac mini as server for your network portable
With these portable hard drives, it’s a lot easier to transfer lots of data from another Mac instead of transferring files over your Wi-Fi network, you can plug one of the drives into another Mac to copy movies you’ve ripped.Īfter you configure the Sharing settings, the Mac mini doesn’t need a display you can manage it remotely from any Mac. These drives are compact, and only need to be plugged into a USB port no power cables are needed. For about the same price, you can get a 3TB USB 3 WD My Passport portable hard drive (or a 2TB model for less than $100). You can buy a 4TB external USB 3 drive for about $120. You should have one for your media, and another to back up the first drive (and the operating system you can use Time Machine so this runs automatically.) It’s cheaper to get a less expensive Mac mini and use external hard drives. If you buy a current build-to-order Mac mini, you can get a 2TB drive in the most expensive model, but that would cost you $1100. You need to plan ahead as far as storage is concerned.
(Remember, Plex cannot play any DRM-protected videos purchased from the iTunes Store or elsewhere.) My music library, as well as my iTunes Store movies and TV series, are stored on my iMac, but I’ve shunted the rest of my videos to the Mac mini. I only use Plex for videos movies and TV shows that I’ve ripped from DVD or Blu-Ray. You can probably find a similar model used for a few hundred dollars. It has a Thunderbolt port, but it does not have USB 3. I also bought the Mac mini with a 256GB SSD and a second internal drive of 750GB. The 2.7GHz Core i7 is fast enough to transcode video and handle several other tasks at the same time. I’m running a 2011 Mac mini that I tricked out with the fastest available processor when I bought it. For $699, you get a Mac mini with a 2.6GHz processor and 1TB hard drive, which will handle most people’s media collections. But the entry-level model with a 1.4GHz processor is a bit pokey. The current model, starting at $499, includes Thunderbolt and USB 3 connections, and while it doesn’t have the largest (or fastest) hard drive, its 500GB might be enough for your media collection. Its small form factor and quiet operation makes it easy to integrate into a home entertainment system or use as a server stashed away in a corner. The Mac mini is the cheapest Mac you can buy. You can, of course, use that Mac mini for other things, such as using it as a file server, or for Time Machine backups. In this article, I’m going to tell you how you can set up a Mac mini as a dedicated Plex server.
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