AsifSaddique 836
Silver Level Poster
Does plex work if PC is locked? or does it have to be unlocked?
NAS Bay (purchase advice )
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SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
It's a server so it's continually active.
AsifSaddique 836
Silver Level Poster
My old wd cloud NAS drive works with vlc and kodi without a PC via network, I thought Plex would be able to do that but looks like the server needs to be run on pc for Plex.
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
Plex is a media server. It's software. Software can't run without being open. Same as your NAS drive, the NAS drive is useless withou Kodi running to access it.
Yeah, you're getting completely mixed up here. It's a very difficult concept to articulate without understanding the key principles of the technologies.
VLC and Kodi access the media directly. They they transcode locally.
Plex accesses the media at the server side, transcodes on the server and then beams to the client (which can also be on the server machine). It operates as a parent/child.
The Plex server can be online, if you pay the subscription, or it can be local on the server.
If you consider your mobile phone as the end device. Here are 2 scenarios:
VLC/Kodi playback - Mobile phone connected to network, access network share (NAS Drive) streams file to mobile, transcodes on mobile (if required) and plays on screen.
Plex Playback - Mobile connects to network, accesses Plex Server also on network, request from client to server to play file, server accesses network share and transcodes file (if required), server then streams the transcoded video to the client and plays on the screen.
If the Plex server is switched off, it won't work. It'll work fine under locked screen etc though. It'll even wake the system from sleep.
AsifSaddique 836
Silver Level Poster
Interested thank you.
AsifSaddique 836
Silver Level Poster
‘The Plex server can be online, if you pay the subscription, or it can be local on the server.’
Sorry I’m probably being thick but you mentioned this above , does this mean it is possible to play your files/movies online without having to have plex server on your pc if you pay sub .
Sorry I’m probably being thick but you mentioned this above , does this mean it is possible to play your files/movies online without having to have plex server on your pc if you pay sub .
If you have a server, or server ability, connected to your router... yes.
I can't access in work but hopefully this link gives you some info. If it's no good, I'll have a look when I get in for some insight.
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
The server is the source, that always has to be online because that's where the files are being accessed from. But you can access Plex through any device from over the internet, from a mobile, laptop, anything at all really.
Remote Access | Plex Support
Enable access to your Plex Media Server from outside your local network so that you can reach it when away...
support.plex.tv
But the server needs to be online of course to be able to connect as it's where the data is stored that you're accessing through the Plex server