Watch Your Plex Library in Virtual Reality With Gear VR
Plex is one of the best ways to store and stream all of your movies and TV shows in your home or apartment, but movie night is still a little tedious if you’re watching on a dirty old laptop or small TV. Now you can experience Plex on a huge screen from the comfort of your couch thanks to the new virtual reality app for Samsung Gear VR.
Plex VR was originally launched earlier this year for the Google Daydream headset, but is now available for the Samsung headset as well. Gear VR works with any high-end Galaxy smartphone : Samsung Galaxy S9, S9 +, Note8, S8, S8 +, S7, S7 edge, Note5, S6 edge +, S6, S6 edge, A8, A8 +)
While you don’t need the fancy Gear VR Remote to watch your Plex collection in VR, it’ll make things a little easier. If you have a smartphone and a Gear VR headset, you’re halfway there; In terms of software, you will also need the Plex VR app and Plex Media Server version 1.8.1 or later.
Download the Plex VR app and sign in to your account. If that works, you should see a virtual menu with all your movies and TV shows. All you have to do is look at one of them, select it and hit the orange play button to start watching.
Plex VR also offers several different viewing environments. There is a trendy virtual apartment with a huge flat-screen TV, a non-distracting void in outer space, and a classic car cinema. (The latter option is only available if you pay for the Plex Pass, which costs $ 4.99 per month or $ 39.99 per year.)
You can also use Plex VR to watch any 3D or 360-degree videos stored on your Plex server. First, you need to change their filenames a bit, adding “3D-SBS” or “3D-OU” (depending on the file format ) for 3D video and “Proj-360” or “Proj-180” for 360. -degree or 180-degree videos. The new filename should look something like “Trippy Sphere – Proj-360.mp4”.
The only downside to watching VR videos is that Plex VR is still missing some key features. The app doesn’t support subtitles yet, and you can’t access your saved photos or music. Also missing is the Watch Together feature (already available for Daydream), which allows you to virtually invite four friends to join you and chat via voice chat. Don’t worry though – Plex says this feature should be ready for the Gear VR in the next few weeks.