We’re back with more awesome Plex news, in the form of two brand new ways to run your Plex Media Server from our good friends at Western Digital! We’ve gone ahead and taken you live on location to experience them…
Ah, summer! [1] The call of the wild. The open road. The wind blowing through your hair as you crack that weird little vent window on your Airstream [2] and gasp for air. The kids in the back alternate between a nerve-racking chorus of “are we there yet?” and a ruthless game of chicken with your data plan. But what if there were a tiny wireless device on which you could load up to 3TB of your favorite media, chuck in your hipster North Face adventure duffel, and serve it up anywhere you go? Enter the WD My Passport Wireless Pro: the first fully self-contained, battery-powered, portable Plex Media Server device. It acts as a self-contained WiFi hotspot, which means it works without any additional networking needed. Throw those windows wide, put the pedal to the metal, and give your data plan a break. Whether you’re camping in the wilderness, or in a jumbo jet at 40,000 feet, you’ll never be without your massive media collection again!
Or–in an alternate reality–maybe you’re gearing up for your dream vacation: a live-aboard diving trip in Palau: nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see. Your PADI cert is current, your GoPro [3] is primed and ready, and you’re about to take in some of the best undersea life this planet has to offer. Now there’s no way you’re going to fit the awesomeness of this trip on a few flash cards, but thankfully you brought along your WD My Passport Wireless Pro. Every afternoon during the après-dive, you transfer the footage [4] over, and everyone streams it to their Plex apps, eyed glued to their screens, ignoring the magnificent sunset. And every night you all catch up on Archer while you’re floating in the middle of the Pacific. It’s heaven.
All good things must come to an end, and eventually you run out of either episodes of Archer or money, and return home. Thankfully Western Digital has got your back here too, with a brand new My Cloud Pro device (with either 2 or 4 drive bays). This thing is a crazy powerhouse, with a hardware accelerated video processor which can transcode up to four 1080p streams at once. The Passport Wireless Pro, on the other hand, cannot transcode, and needs media to be in a compatible format (it can Direct Stream).
Whatever path you find yourself on this summer, it’s pretty clear that Western Digital and Plex have you covered. Stream on!
To order, head to the My Passport Wireless Pro or the My Cloud Pro Series shopping pages. For more info, visit our support article.
[1] Northern hemisphere only (will we ever live that one down?). Your mileage may vary. WD NAS’ don’t care which way the water spirals down the drain.
[2] We realize Airstream don’t have weird little vent windows these days… just go with it.
[3] HERO4 Black… only the best…
[4] The purchase of a Passport Wireless device does not guarantee a close encounter with a manta ray, but it definitely doesn’t hurt.