Plex users are in for another treat. 3rd party developer Frank Bauer (Ambertation) has launched KLEXi, a gorgeous, full-featured iOS client for Plex Media Server. Frank, the talented author of KLEXi, contacted us about six months ago and expressed an interest in writing an iOS app based on our nascent API, says Elan of the Plex team. Since then, Frank has been hard at work developing this impressive product as well as reporting and fixing bugs in the Plex Media Server.

The end result fulfills some of the functionality users felt the official Plex for iOS left out–namely “download and play” where users can download (and transcode) videos to their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to play offline. Among other features are:

• External Play: Watch your videos on an external screen (Requires a VGA to UniversalDock Connector)
• Parental Controls: Restrict access (browsing and playback) for Movies and TV-Shows based on the content rating provided by the Plex Media Server (When using the parental controls, make sure everything works as expected before giving the device to your kids. You should never let kids use KLEXi unattended)
• Wake & Go: Wake up sleeping Machines in your local network
• Shake & Surprise: Shake your device while in shelf-view and KLEXi will pick a random item for you

KLEXi is available in the App Store for $5.99 USD. Want to see it in action first? Well, check out a video demo after the break.

Yesterday, Plex announced that it was selected to be integrated into LG’s 2011 offerings Netcast TVs and Blu-ray Players. What it specifically looked like and how it worked were still gray area. A few videos from the IFA 2010 trade show have surfaced filling the gap.

A couple things are to be learned from the videos. The Plex experience is actually an app within Netcast called Netcast Media Link which has a “Powered by PLEX” emblem on the top-right of the interface. Oh.. It did crash (see 2nd video) so it’s not perfect (yet). As mentioned in the previous article, a Plex version for Windows will be coming in two months according to the LG spokesperson.

Exciting news in the realm of media centers. Plex announced today that LG Electronics has chosen to integrate the Plex platform into their 2011 lineup of internet connected, Netcast enabled TVs and Blu-Ray players. The Plex integration will be a cloud version of Plex providing access to online content. For those running Plex Media Server, it’ll obviously allow playback of this content as well.

Hojun Nam, Director of LCD TV R&D at LG Electronics says that after considering many alternative solutions, LG Electronics chose to utilize Plex’s media server platform technology as a part of its next generation NetCast™ enabled home entertainment products because of the breadth of available applications and content and the ease of developing new services.

They ‘get’ where TV is going, and I have to make a confession – the first time I saw their Plex interface, talking to a remote Plex Media Server and flawlessly streaming content, I had to pretend I had something in my eye, says Elan from the Plex team.

To me, nothing spells “maturity” more than acknowledgement and partnerships with hardware manufacturers. By switching to a client/server architecture rather than a massive, all-in-one product, the Plex team has enabled Plex to easily be used in this capacity along with it’s iOS app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Plex is also coming to more platforms. A Windows version of Plex is also due on the horizon later this year as well as some Android products (undoubtedly also Google TV) coming soon making Plex the most cross-platform/device media center out today.

This is a beautiful moment for open source media centers. Congrats, Plex team.

Update: We Got Served shared a few videos from IFA 2010 showing the Plex integration. The integration of Plex is actually an app within Netcast called Netcast Media Link which is powered by Plex.

Press Release

PLEX TO ENABLE NEXT GENERATION OF NETCAST™ CONNECTED TV’S

San Francisco, CA & Berlin, Germany (IFA) – September 3, 2010 – Today, Plex (www.plexapp.com), a leading software provider of an open platform for media management and consumption, announced the availability of the newest version of Plex, the first open, three-screen media platform (PC, TV and mobile) designed to simplify and improve the way people experience personal, commercial and streaming content sources across a range of connected devices. Additionally, Plex revealed that LG Electronics will be integrating the Plex platform technology into its 2011 Netcast™ enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray devices, making media and applications accessible through a range of products.

“After considering many alternative solutions, LG Electronics chose to utilize Plex’s media server platform technology as a part of its next generation NetCast™ enabled home entertainment products because of the breadth of available applications and content and the ease of developing new services,” said Hojun Nam, Director of LCD TV R&D at LG Electronics. “Plex’s capabilities offer our customers’ additional methods of displaying their content on LG’s next generation TVs and that is exciting to us.”

With its rapidly expanding open platform, Plex is the first and only truly comprehensive digital media management solution that spans both personal and online content. The solution’s simple-to-use and intuitive user interface allows consumers to search, navigate, consume, store and sync digital content from multiple platforms and devices. It requires no additional hardware or technology knowledge, ensuring even the most novice user will easily be able to access their favorite TV programs, movies, photos and more – no matter where they are or what device they want to access it with.

“Plex was developed to provide a simple solution for navigating an increasingly complex digital media landscape. As our access to a greater variety of high-quality content continues to grow and we create more of our own content, it is clear that we need a new way to enjoy and provide a consistent experience across the expanding universe of disparate content sources,” said Cayce Ullman, CEO and co-founder, Plex. “Plex enables LG to more easily offer a wide variety of content sources to consumers using the NetCast™ services.”

Compatibility with mainstream mobile devices, such as iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone products, and soon to be announced Android based products including mobile phones and tablets, ensures that the Plex solution is the industry’s first truly integrated three-screen media platform, allowing a seamless experience across devices and media sources. Plex’s mobile compatibility also allows users access to their content from anywhere, making content consumption and management seamless across all device types – whenever and wherever users prefer.

“We’ve been working hard to build this killer platform, and we have an amazing community who has enabled access to over one hundred online content sources to date” noted Elan Feingold, CTO and co-founder, Plex. “It’s exciting that this content will now be available in a seamless manner on LG’s 2011 NetCast™ enabled TVs and Blu-ray players.”

Third-party developers and owners of content have the ability to develop Plex plug-ins, which will then be available to all Plex users across all devices. Currently, there are nearly 200 plug-ins available through Plex’s service including iTunes, Netflix, CNN, Revision3, YouTube, and many others. Plex for OS X is downloadable for free, with a Windows version to be available later this year. For more information, please visit www.plexapp.com.

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About Plex:

Plex was founded in 2009 by several technology veterans looking to fulfill the promise of a seamless digital media lifestyle. Plex Media Center, the flagship product, is an easy-to-use software solution that allows consumers to access digital media from a wide variety of sources. The Plex platform also enables content providers to make their content easily available across a range of devices. For more information, please visit www.plexapp.com.

More information for developers can be found at http://dev.plexapp.com.

Image credit: CrunchGear

While most of you have been aware and awaiting the release of Plex/Nine media center tomorrow, you probably didn’t know that the Plex team was holding out on you. You knew about the new Plex Media Manager, the media flagging, the gorgeous skins, and other changes, but there is a bit more. Along with tomorrows release comes Plex App for iOS devices. Plex App is a brand new mobile app for iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad that not only allows you to control Plex/Nine but also streams your content from Plex to your iOS device. You have a mini Plex media center in the palm of your hands.

The Plex team has given an exclusive hands-on to CrunchGear which you can view on video after the break. I think it’s safe to say that Plex is officially the multimedia software for Mac OS X–putting its foot on the neck of everything else out there. I need a Mac.

Plex users are patiently awaiting Plex/Nine which brings new features that enhance the Plex experience such as the Media Manager. The wait is (almost) over. According to the Plex team, it looks like they’re just days away from launching Plex/Nine which will be on 9/1.

Last time the Plex team shared a preview of the upcoming version of Plex/Nine codename Alexandria which showed off Plex Media Manager. Not long ago, they also shared a status update and video showing some of the changes such ass renaming the app store link to Plex Online and adding automatic media flagging which shows resolution, audio codec, video codec, movie studio logo and TV channel logo on videos.

We’ve have made huge progress in the past few weeks and just have a few things left to cover and we’ll be ready for a public release. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work hard to deliver the best media center experience around! Thank you! In the meantime, we’ve got another great screencast of Plex/Nine made by our good friend Raindaincing.

via Plex/Nine Second Peek on Vimeo.

Thanks to the hard work of Ryan of the Plex team the latest Plex binary is now integrated with the VDA framework, providing high definition GPU decoding in Plex for devices with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M. To reap the fruits of Ryan’s labor, just download the binary and install it into Plex.app/Contents/MacOS.

Download: Link
Source: Plex