Plex: The Front Row alternative

OS X's Front Row interface is a fine choice for watching movies or TV episodes you've purchased at the iTunes Store. But if you want to play media from sources other than the iTunes Store, Front Row isn't much use. There's an alternative solution: a free, open-source media center application called Plex. Though still in beta as of this writing (and suffering from some prerelease instability), Plex is extremely flexible and customizable--a great media player for geeks.

Plex versus Front Row

There are plenty of reasons to consider using Plex instead of Front Row. Among the more compelling:

-- Plex can play back a wider range of video and audio file formats than Front Row, including AVI, MPEG files you've downloaded via BitTorrent, FLV Flash files you've downloaded from YouTube, and Ogg Vorbis audio files.

-- Plex can play media streamed from shared network drives. That means you could host your video collection on an old Mac or Windows PC stashed somewhere out of the way, and still watch it on the Mac in your living room, office, or bedroom.

-- Plex can play large video files that are split up and packed into archives--such as RAR or ZIP files you might download from Usenet--without requiring that you extract them first.

-- Plex works with universal-remote controls, such as Logitech's Harmony controllers, as well as the Apple Remote.

-- Plex has some handy informational widgets--a news ticker, a weather forecast, and system information--built in.

-- Plex is more customizable than Front Row: you can add plug-in scripts to get features like YouTube integration, and install a custom skin to update its look-and-feel.

All that said, Plex isn't perfect. It can't play purchases from the iTunes Store. Its handling of photos from iPhoto is less than smooth. And the Apple TV can't play videos from your Plex libraries.

Those caveats aside, if you want to play videos you didn't get from the iTunes Store, Plex works great.

What You'll Need

To run Plex, you'll need an Intel-based Mac running Leopard. (The software does not run on PowerPC models or on Tiger.) You can use Plex either at your desk with a mouse and keyboard, or on a Mac-connected TV.

Plex can stream media from any other Mac (or Windows PC) on your home network, so the video files themselves can reside on any shared drive in the house. But the Mac running the Plex software itself still needs to be connected to the TV. (A Mac mini or a MacBook is best; you won't want an iMac or Mac Pro next to your TV.) And if you want to control Plex remotely from the couch, that Mac will have to be in the line of sight from your seat; next to the television is the best spot.

Finally, you'll need to download the latest release of Plex. Mount the Plex disk image, and then drag and drop Plex into your Applications folder.

Navigating Plex

When you first launch Plex, you'll come to its home screen, which includes the main menu; from there, you can select from Videos, Music, Pictures, Weather, and Scripts. You can use the mouse or your keyboard's up- and down-arrow keys to select any menu item.

For more Mac news, visit Macworld. Story copyright Mac Publishing, LLC.