Plex has launched an exciting new app for those who prefer the power and flexibility of a personal computer to a small dedicated streaming device. HTPCs were essentially the birth of modern streaming devices. Streaming boxes and dongles like Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Chromecast are essentially little computers that can’t do anything except stream. HTPCs on the other hand are full-powered computers that can be updated with new processors, large hard drives, and everything else that the tinkerer and gamer type loves.
The Plex for HTPC is a new app designed from the ground up to be operated as a TV-based media app instead of a desktop media app like the similar app for PCs and Mac just called “Plex”. While the Plex app can operate on a PC and Mac computer it requires a mouse and keyboard to navigate the menu and program. The HTPC app is made to operate with USB-powered remote controls with arrows. In fact, once launched users can not navigate their screens with a mouse at all, though they can click on options.
The new app is sort of a callback to the Plex Media Center, which was one of Plex’s earliest big-screen apps well before tiny streaming devices and smart TV’s made Plex a ubiquitous name in streaming. The new app offers all of the same bells and whistles that the modern Plex apps do. It features the popular free streaming options, the new Discovery feature (though it does not allow users to launch 3rd party services), Music and of course access to servers both locally stored on the computer or a NAS as well as shared servers. On its blog, Plex called the Plex HTPC app the true spiritual successor to PMP TV mode.
