I have been playing around with Plex lately, and I think that it is finally mature enough to be a real replacement for Front Row for me, and that is saying a lot since I love Front Row.

I think what finally did it for me was the IMDB, TVDB integration that allows you to get metadata for all the content you have in your library. This might not be a big deal for some people, but I really like having this info at my fingertips. The default skin is sexy as well... a little busy, but sexy.

The reason for this article

Right, so now to the reason for this entry. The user docs are decent over at the Plex site, but they don't make it explicit as to how and when to do things. For instance, the getting started docs tell you first how to add a source to Plex. That's great.

However they don't tell you what you need to do to get your metadata for that source until a couple of sections later. A section you read after you have added a source. A source that once added, can't be updated to have the metadata set.

So here's the workflow

First go ahead and add your source to Plex. If you are like me and have one ginormous HD that contains all of your content, then you need to manually type in the path. And remember don't escape the path or Plex will puke:

Yes: /Volumes/My HD/tvshows/

No: /Volumes/My\ HD/tvshows/

GIve your new source a name, TV Shows for the above example, and before you hit okay, click on "Set Content" which will allow you to scrape the metadata for your source, in this case TVDB.

If you don't do things in this order, from what I can find, you're pretty much screwed. Since I can't find any easy way to remove a source once it has been added, you have to either edit a .plist file, or blow away the Plex folder in:

~/Library/Application Settings/

This will reset Plex and allow you to add your sources again.

Other than this gripe, which is relatively small, Plex is a pretty fantastic program. I am really enjoying using it. If you have any Plex tips or tricks, leave them in the comments, or link to them please!