Plex (software)

Plex

Developer(s)	Plex, Inc.
Stable release	Server: 1.3.3.3148-b38628e ()
Development status	Active
Operating system	Server: Windows 7 and later, OS X Mountain Lion and later, Linux, FreeBSD 9 and later, Synology Disk Manager 5 and later, Netgear, QNAP, unRAID, Drobo, ASUStor, Thecus, Seagate, Western Digital. Player: Roku Amazon Fire TV, Android, Android TV, Apple TV (4th), Chromecast, iOS 8.1 or later, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Roku, webOS, Tizen, Windows Vista and later, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and later.
Platform	x86, ARM
Size	Server: 90-105 Mio (compressed, depending on the platform)
Available in	Server: 43 languages
List of languages Server: Afrikaans (South Africa), Arabic, Bulgarian (Bulgaria), Burmese, Catalan (Andorra), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian (Croatia), Czech (Czech Republic), Danish, Dutch, Dutch (Belgium), English, English (Australia), Estonian (Estonia), Finnish, French, German, Greek languages, Hebrew, Hungarian (Hungary), Icelandic (Iceland), Italian, Japanese (Japan), Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay (macrolanguage), Norwegian, Polish (Poland), Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian (Slovenia), Spanish, Spanish (Latin America and the Caribbean), Swedish, Tamil, Thai (Thailand), Turkish (Turkey), Ukrainian
Type	Server: Media server Player: Media player
License	Server: Freemium Player: Freemium , GPLv2
Alexa rank	1,829 (June 2016[update])
Website	www.plex.tv

1.3.3.3148-b38628e ()

Plex is a client-server media player system and software suite comprising two main components.

A premium version of the service, called Plex Pass, is also available and offers advanced features like synchronization with mobile devices, access to cloud storage providers, up to date and high quality metadata and matchings for music, multi-users mode, parental controls, access to high quality trailers and extras, wireless synchronization from mobile devices to the server, access to discounts on partner products and early access.

Plex began as a freeware hobby project in December 2007 when the developer Elan Feingold was looking for a media centre application for his Apple Mac, better than Front Row. Elan came out of the desire to get the XBMC code running on a more powerful machine that could handle higher resolution media than the devices on which XBMC was usually running. According to him, the perfect platform seemed to be the Mac, especially with the form factor of the Mac Mini.

At that time, XBMC spin-offs were legion and were created by developers to solve a specific problem. In this situation, the reason was because XBMC was not available for Mac OS X yet. Fervent user of managed programming languages like Java and C#, and after some debate with a coworker with regard to managed languages vs unmanaged ones like C++, Feingold decided to port a massive C++ project as a challenge. He downloaded the XBMC code, a project written in C++, and attempted to build it on the Mac for the first time in December 2007. This started the port to the Mac OS X platform.

Around the same time two software executives who had recently sold their previous company to Cisco, Cayce Ullman and Scott Olechowski, were also looking to port XBMC to OSX. They noticed Feingold's progress on the port via the XBMC forums. At the time Feingold worked as a contract programmer, Ullman and Olechowski reached out to Feingold and offered to both help on the project and partially fund Feingold so that he could dedicate more hours to the project. Feingold, Olechowksi and Ullman were officially a team by January 2008, and ultimately it would be the three of them that were the founders who incorporated Plex, Inc. in December 2009.