Most orders for IN STOCK items placed by 12PM CST M-F ship SAME DAY. Orders for custom items and prints may take additional time to process.
RasPlex is without a doubt the simplest way to turn any RPi into a super easy to use
RELATED: Make a Raspberry Pi Plex Server
There are numerous ways to get Plex Server content on your TV. Most every streaming media device (Apple TV, Rokuu, etc.) have Plex clients. Gaming consoles like the XBOX and Playstation have clients. Even many Smart TVs have clients these days. The former work well, but are relatively expensive if you don’t plan to game or use them for anything other than Plex.
The Smart TV clients seem to work fine, but generally are missing many features and don’t get updated near as often as RasPlex or gaming consoles do. This is simply because the user base is much smaller on those devices and developers spend more time on the most popular clients. RasPlex is based on a code-branch of Kodi and XBMC. The UI has been developed over years and is quite mature.
Before we get started setting up a
Let’s talk for just a second about these selections.
We chose the
We prefer a remote control that emulates a normal television remote. However, you could certainly use an XBOX or PlayStation controller as a Plex remote. They work great. The simplest solution of course is to just use a nice wireless keyboard. We here at The Geek Pub just don’t like a keyboard setting on the couch, and we don’t like game controllers, when we’re not gaming.
Of course, another great option is the official iOS and Android Plex apps. These have an inbuilt remote for all of your Plex clients across devices.
RELATED: Using an XBOX Controller with a Raspberry Pi
There are two ways to install RasPlex, what we consider the ultimate
Head on over to the RasPlex download page and grab a copy of the installer for your operating system. After the download is complete, insert a blank microSD card into your PC. If its not blank (or your not sure), grab a copy of the official SD card formatter and format your SD card. It’s a good idea to always use this official formatter over the Windows quick format as it is specifically designed for formatting SD cards by the official SD Card Association.
Once your ready, double click the installer we downloaded and the process will begin.
The installer is a little confusing on one point. Under “Select your
For Step 2, click the Download button and select the location you’d like to save the image file to. The best place is most likely your Windows Download folder, but any temporary space should be fine. The file will begin to download. This process is downloading the the actual RasPlex image file.
Finally, in step 3, select the drive letter for your microSD card. In our case, the card is F:\ drive and shows as 59.48GB in size (we’re using a 64GB card just because we had a free one, but its way overkill). Now go ahead and click Write SD card and the process of burning the RasPlex image to your microSD card will begin.
Once the process completes, remove the microSD card from your computer. It’s time to move on to the
With your
On bootup, RasPlex will quickly resize the SD card partition in order to make use of all available space. It will then reboot.
On the welcome screen, just click next.
On the next screen, Rasplex will ask you to select your wireless network. If you plugged your
The next screen will ask you to configure remote access. This will allow you to access your
Next up is an important step if you really want things to look correct on your TV or monitor. It’s the screen calibration section. We highly recommend you do this. This process is very similar to the process used on the XBOX or Playstation where a bunch of boxes are shown and you’re asked to calibrate them to the corners of your screen. This will ensure the entire screen real estate is used and none of the media is clipped from the screen. Once you’re finished, just click next.
Finally, it is time to sign into your Plex account. Enter your Plex.TV credentials and click the next button.
It should only take about 20 seconds and your Plex library should show up and be ready for you to start using. As you can see, I am browsing my Star Trek fan film library. RasPlex shows beautiful artwork, thumbnails, and a very simple to navigate user menu. It really is the best
To test it out I played Star Trek Prelude to Axanar and it looks just stunning. All of the normal controls you’d hope to find are there, along with some advanced settings you won’t find on your “smart” TV. RasPlex even supports stereoscopic 3D movies!
That’s all there is to install RasPlex. It makes a fantastic
If you run into any problems getting RasPlex setup, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help you out!
If you like our content maybe consider upgrading to Premium. You’ll get access to
24 Responses
5
Mike. You have some of the most awesome projects on your site!!!!!
I set this up after reading this and it works! I was about to spend money on an Apple TV, but no need to now! It really is an awesome raspberry pi plex client!!!!! thx for this!
It works! thanks!
You just taught me the most awesome use ever for a PI!!!!!!
5
I tried this and couldn’t get it to work on either an R-Pi 4 or my older 3b+ … won’t boot…and I do not know enough about Linux to determine what’s wrong.
A quick google seems to turn up similar issues from other people, so not sure how to get this working.
If its not booting, its something wrong with how you burned the image to the SD card, or how it was formatted.
Oh. Sorry just saw you said B+… Rasplex has not been updated for the 3B+ or 4. You’ll need a standard 3B until they update the code.
RasPlex will not run on a RPI 4. Can you look into a work around?
Rasplex has an FAQ. Support is coming in a few months.
Hi,
unfortunately it doesn’t work on Pi 3 B+. After write Rasplex to an SDCard and try to boot on Pi I have only rainbow colored screen, and halts.
This is incorrect. I run it on a B+.
It won’t run on a Pi4, screen stays black
Correct. It doesn’t work on 4, as we mentioned.
I have RPI 3B+ and it’s stuck on the rainbow/lightning bolt screen. It doesn’t work. I tried burning it with Etcher or the Rasplex software. Same result. How have you got the thing to boot on 3B+? There must be something to do in the config file. Thanks for helping.
I have an older version running on the 3B+. The current version doesn’t run, but if you load version 1.8.0.0, it should work.
The issue that I have is that RasPlex has not been updated in so long that a lot of the new Plex features are not supported, like Live-TV, DVR, Plex-streaming and Podcasts.
Do i need a plex account in order to use RasPlex? I am running my server since 5 years local only with the Playz app for my TV, wich don’t need an account.
Agreed, It’s a nice piece of software but so old and out of date it’s largely irrelevant if your paying for plex-pass. Fire tv stick now blows it out of the water, which is a shame, because a pi has so much more potential.
I set up RasPlex, But I’m not seeing any content from the Plex Server running on my MacBook Pro upstairs, or a couple of frends’ Libraries I am connected to!
I used Rasplex a long time but it is now outdated. The last update was a long time ago. Synchronization of already watched things seems broken with newer Plex Server releases…. It works still but will die in the near future. I changed to FireTV Sticks which are really great supported.
“Updated near as often” really? RasPlex dev is dead. No new updates since 2017. Don’t get me wrong, still works great on my Rpi2. But don’t expect RPi4 support
Do not use the 1.8.0.148 version because you will get stuck at the rainbow screen. Instead use the 1.8.0.0 version and you will definitely go into the RasPlex screen. ?
1.5