Plex is one of the biggest platforms for users to centrally store and distribute their own media library around their network and personal devices. Over the last month or so they’ve brought forward several updates and new offerings to their array of goodies to keep them atop the pack.
Addition of GearVR and Oculus to their VR compatible hardware
Back in January Plex came to market with VR capabilities, specifically the Google Daydream allowing their viewers to watch in VR. It seems they’ve seen a bit of pushback from early VR adopters who are on either Gear VR or the Oculus platforms that initially weren’t supported, but they’ve listened and have now added support for them.
Plex for Sonos is out of Beta and supports high def streaming
Waaaay back in 2016, Sonos put a Plex interface into their beta channel for users who wanted to test it out. That seems so long ago now, that the news of Plex coming to their release channel was a surprise to me. What makes this really exciting is the fact that they’re offering the ability to stream HD audio in the form of FLAC and AAC files to your Sonos – if you’re going to the trouble of storing HD Audio, listening to it is going to be a pleasure moving forward.
Added Podcast functionality in Plex
No you’re not dreaming, Plex have thrown their hat in the already heavily saturated ring of Podcast players. With the clear and present danger of being outed quickly by the already established, Plex has some advantages over them. The fact that Plex users are generally heavily invested in their platform, meaning Plex is unlikely to “go” but other apps may – so they’re on a potential winner there already. They’ve also come to market with a pretty well established set of Features:
- Free, quick and easy – Simple, intuitive set-up, and no subscription required
- Cross-device playback status – A unique feature not offered by others, cross-platform playback lets users listen< to podcasts on a jog and pick up where they left off at their desk
- All your media in one place – On Deck support for Podcasts displays the latest unplayed and partially listened episodes just like other shows, sitting alongside all other media within Plex, from personal photo, music and video collections, to curated news, to live and recorded TV, and more
Information-rich – As you have come to expect, Plex enhances podcasts with metadata, offering more info about the programs and related podcasts - Standard podcast controls – Controls such as forward and back, variable speed playback, and mark as played give you full control over your listening experience
- Easily add personal favorites – If a podcast isn’t already in the Plex catalog you can still add it by adding the feed url and Plex will treat it just as if it were already there, including retrieving rich metadata, related podcasts, search support, and more, making it more advanced than standalone podcast offerings
- Add to My Podcasts – Allows you to automatically add items to On Deck and easily get to your favorite shows
- Multi-device support – Device support at launch includes iOS, Android, Roku, and the Plex web platform with other platforms rolling out soon
They outline the design and thought processes for the addition of Podcasts in their Blog Post.
As a consumer I’m excited to see a major player in the media delivery game continuing to progress and keep their product relevant to the current day.
If you’re a Plex user – Share your experience from the updates with us
