Media management service Plex has announced that its Plex Media Player app is now free to everyone. Previously only available to Pass subscribers, the Plex app for Mac is a home theater-style media browser and player for content stored in personal media libraries.

Plex Media Player (which is distinct from the Plex Media Server client app) now features a fullscreen desktop interface where it integrates online files and metadata to present users' media, including artwork and, optionally, movie subtitles. In the latest update, the Player also allows users to queue up movies and music.

plex-media-player-tv-macbook-1600x958

Maybe you pine for stuff like Plex Media Player’s silky smooth playback, complex subtitle rendering, and lightning fast seeking on your desktop. Maybe you have a lower-powered NAS server that doesn’t like to transcode. Or maybe you’d just like to rock out to some FLAC while you work. Until today, your only option was to find some place to stash a little baby Media Player window and muddle through the TV UI to queue up your background music of choice.

Well, no more: we’ve harnessed our incredibly powerful Web app and wrapped it up inside our lovely Plex Media Player shell to give you a full-fledged “desktop mode” experience right out of the box. With Plex Media Player running in a window, you can now use your mouse and keyboard as nature intended, and switching to the TV UI is as easy as going full-screen.

In addition to making Plex Media Player a free download, Plex also announced the long-awaited Plex for Kodi add-on. Kodi is a fully extensible, community driven software media center with wide support for playing a range of media content. Exclusively for Plex Pass members, the Plex add-on brings users' Plex-processed media libraries to the Kodi interface for the first time.

You can download Plex Media Player on this page by clicking the 'Get an app' button (third option).

Post updated for clarification.

Tag: Plex

Top Rated Comments

dannys1 Avatar
dannys1
100 months ago
Huh? I have always had the free player (Plex Home Theater)...Confused by this.
PHT was killed off about a year ago to be replaced by PMP (this) which has been in beta since then (for plex pass only). It's totally rewritten from the ground up and future proofed.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
St0rMl0rD Avatar
St0rMl0rD
100 months ago
Huh? I have always had the free player (Plex Home Theater)...Confused by this.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lionel77 Avatar
lionel77
100 months ago
Plex Media Player is still missing a ton of Plex Home Theater's features and settings. Fortunately, there is an open source fork of Plex Home Theater called OpenPHT (https://forums.plex.tv/categories/openpht), which improves upon the now retired Plex Home Theater.

I switched to OpenPHT a few months ago and have been very happy with it since.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
timmyh Avatar
timmyh
100 months ago
Sorry guys. To clarify, the Plex Media Server has always been free for Mac users. It's a background client for serving media to your other devices, but it also lets you play media from Plex within a browser.

Plex Media Player is a different thing - a standalone media center app, as described above. You can download it from this page, by clicking on 'Download a Plex app': https://www.plex.tv/downloads/

Confusing, I know!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
corfio Avatar
corfio
100 months ago
I used to love Plex. Loved how it works seamlessly between my server/desktop/phone/tablet. But after I found out how people behind the Great Wall of China using the internet, I gradually phased out the Plex setup and start doing the same thing. Now I have a Mac Mini with 8TB HD connected to my TV doing nothing.
Can you please elaborate a little more? What do you use instead of Plex then? I have found that Plex works seamlessly and mostly flawlessly for average streaming needs.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
YegorH Avatar
YegorH
100 months ago
I still don't like the PMP, prefer Plex Home Theater, the development of which was dropped by Plex, but fortunately it continues to exist, check out OpenPHT.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
Read Full Article • 136 comments
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Read Full Article • 129 comments
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
Read Full Article • 493 comments
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
Read Full Article • 66 comments
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...
Read Full Article • 38 comments
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...
Read Full Article • 133 comments