One of challenges people face when deciding if they want to cut the cord is how to replicate what they have with cable TV with regards to content and ease of use. I have been using Plex for over 2 years and consider it my go to channel for a lot of my content. Paired with my Roku 3 boxes for my TV’s, I have it all. An inexpensive indoor TV antenna give me live TV all day thus I don’t miss anything from cable.
For those of you who live in areas that a TV antenna doesn’t get you live TV, there is always Sling TV through the internet.
So why do I like Plex so much? I have over 120 Roku channels that has great content like Crackle, Internet Archives, Tubi TV and more. I like the old TV shows and movies from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s and the Roku does a great job giving it all to you. But when you add the Plex channel, you get a whole other list of channels that Roku may not have. There are channels like “Filmon, Let me Watch This & Ice Films” that have tons of movies that you didn’t even know existed. I am talking about really good movies, not something that didn’t even make it to DVD. I have over 20 Plex channels which I usually go to when I switch on my Roku box and watch TV.
Plex comes in two components, the server which can run on an old PC or laptop and apps for Android, IOS and Roku. The Plex server +is free. The apps are $5. Well worth the money. If you do a search for Plex on the internet you will find tons of information about all of the ways you can hook up and watch your content from anywhere, including your home movies and pictures. It takes a little effort to use all of Plex’s capabilities, but to start, just load the channels portion of Plex.
There are also unofficial Plex channels that offer more great content. The three channels I spoke about earlier are unsupported (unofficial) channels and work great. There are a number of ways to add channels to Plex. With the official ones, you can go to the Plex app on your Roku, or to the Plex web interface on your PC where the server is running. With unsupported channels (www.totalhtpc.com/plex-unsupported-appstore) you download the channel you want directly from the web (Github has a ton) and copy them to the Plex plugins directory. To get to the Plex plugins directory, right click on the Plex icon in the system tray and select “open plex plugins directory”. Copy your channel file to the directory and you are all set.
By the way some Plex channel file names like “unsupported library bundle-master” need to be renamed to “unsupported library bundle” without the master word in the name.
Good luck and have fun.
Homemediaguy
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