Filed under: Multimedia, Open Source, Snow Leopard
Plex 0.8.3 brings on the Snow Leopard love fest
If you're rocking the Mac mini -- or any other Mac, for that matter --as a media center, then chances are pretty good that you've had some tough times following the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Anticipating such problems, some of us held off upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6. Now the wait is over.Shortly after Elan discussed the details of a workaround for Plex, a new release has been let loose on the web. Plex 0.8.3 was announced earlier this week with improved Snow Leopard compatibility as well as several other fixes and new features. For users of Apple's latest OS, the biggest new feature is probably the integration of the Candelair driver which returns Plex to the days of Apple Remote compatibility.
Other notable improvements and new features include:
- Fixed an issue with MKV playback over the network
- A problem with the media server crashing has been fixed
- Video playlists work again
- A new feature where downmixing 5.1 surround audio to 2.0 stereo audio has multiple dynamic range compression options. In other words, surround audio will not be as "quiet" when played through headphones.
- New handling of quitting/suspending commands that includes a new scheduling feature.
[via Macworld]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joshua Ochs said 3:54PM on 10-28-2009
Upgraded to Snow Leopard on day 1, and had no problems (I didn't hit the well-known remote issue because I use Remote Buddy already, which was unaffected).
However, none of the other problems I've seen were fixed:
- Some Apple Movie Trailers do not play (e.g. Toy Story 3)
- Some plugins do not work with the error "Could not determine input stream" (e.g. Tivo)
- Several movie files I have (and have uploaded with bug reports) either do not play subtitles, do not play at all, or do not play smoothly (which is absurd when the file in question is at least a 6 year old 640x480 Divx).
As far as I'm concerned, this update was a non-event. Nothing changed, and there are certainly *plenty* of bugs to fix.
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SlappyWhite said 4:55PM on 10-28-2009
I would expect better support from an app that costs so damn much.
Paul said 4:04PM on 10-28-2009
I would hold off on updating a Mini HTPC to Snow Leopard if you have a 1080p TV and you ever use Front Row. There are major video playback issues with > 480p video in Front Row, even with newer Minis. It's detailed here - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2132473
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Hobbes said 4:06PM on 10-28-2009
Front Row sucks. Plex rocks!!!! Plex is everything Front Row should have been. Front Row has issues playing pretty much anything.
Give Plex a try. You will never look back.
Scott said 4:06PM on 10-28-2009
Their site link you provided presents a page that lists 0.8.2, not 0.8.3, as the current version.
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Aron Trimble said 4:18PM on 10-28-2009
The link goes to the wiki which always presents the correct link to the current stable release. It looks like the wiki has not been updated to note the new versioning.
I would have provided the link in the article (same as Emilio's, below) but I don't think most people would appreciate a direct download link. At least I wouldn't.
Emilio said 4:13PM on 10-28-2009
Correct link to Plex 8.3 http://www.plexapp.com/plexstable.shtml
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Mendo Dave said 4:22PM on 10-28-2009
I upgraded to Snow Leopard last night, and Plex .83 right after.
No issues, playback is fine, remote is fine. I use the Logitech Harmony 880.
seems quicker, but that could be the new Mini ;-)
Plex does indeed....ROCK!
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Daniel said 7:23PM on 10-28-2009
Could you tell me how you have your harmony configured to work with plex? I tried plex a while back and gave up on it because I had so much trouble getting my harmony to work well with it.
Thanks
Mendo Dave said 7:54PM on 10-28-2009
@daniel
Make sure you tell Plex you're using a Harmony and not the standard Apple remote.
some where in Settings, under System I think.
After I did that it has been fine.
David
Digaos said 1:59AM on 10-29-2009
@Daniel
Check this link: http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Harmony_Support
I set up my harmony one with Plex and it works like a charm.
You can find Plex on Harmony's database and also set customized buttons, including scripts.
Markus said 4:47PM on 10-28-2009
Plex is just plain awesome. However, apart from the non-Plex remote issue, I never had any problems with Plex on SL. Huge ones with SL in general, but none with Plex =)
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