Based in rural Minnesota, Brian Burgess worked in IT for 10 years before finding his passion for writing about consumer technology.
Brian earned his degree in computer and network technology in 2000. He held various IT positions, including help desk support, router installations for IBM, database administration, and other associate network administration roles.
He's been a personal technology journalist for 18 years and has written thousands of articles about Microsoft products and services, Android, iOS, streaming, and more. He has written for notable tech sites including XDA, InformationWeek, How-To Geek, Byte, groovyPost, and others.
When he is away from the keyboard, you will hear him playing guitar, working outdoors, and watching Star Trek.
I've used Plex since the 2010s, and over the years, the platform has added several new features. I noticed some and was excited to start using them right away. However, some cool features slipped under the radar. Once I started digging into lesser-known Plex features, I discovered several I'd ignored for a long time.
These abilities didn't get much fanfare, or I missed them. Now that I'm acclimated to these features, I plan to use them to improve my self-hosted (and free streaming TV) media experience.
Live TV
Connecting an HD Antenna via a tuner
This isn't a hidden feature; it is clearly labeled in the UI, but I didn't know how well it worked until I tried it. When I think of self-hosted media platforms, I think of ripping my Blu-ray discs and serving my movies and shows throughout the house. I don't think much about live TV and overlooked the feature for years.
It's mainly because of my location and the poor OTA reception I get. But once I decided that paying $90/month for livestreaming TV was too much for one NFL game a week, I looked into a cheap tuner and a digital antenna. I at least wanted local channels that carry my local team's games on screens throughout my house.
Connecting the tuner to my router and letting Plex discover it was a cinch. Plus, Plex Pass (which I complain about a lot) provides a built-in program guide that populates automatically. It's easier than Jellyfin, which requires a separate XMLTV guide source and additional configuration. I can also use the section to create my own self-hosted media channels for a TV-like streaming experience. Combining Tunarr or ErsatzTV channels with free over-the-air stations in the guide is a fun, unique way to watch television on Plex.
Universal search
Discover content from a single UI the easy way
When I stream my own media on Plex via my Nvidia Shield Pro, or stream other content, I often want to find something related. I use the Apple TV a lot too, and have a bad habit of using its own stand-alone search function. On the Shield TV Pro or another device, I use its search feature to look for shows. However, I don't have to leave Plex to find content because it includes universal search.
Streaming content has become so fragmented that it's hard to know where everything lives. Universal search lets me discover the shows I want to watch and tells me which service has them. After a query, it also displays where I can purchase a digital version of a movie or show I want to watch. It won't make headlines, and most Plex users already know about it. However, it helps me break the bad content-search habits I learned from years of using Apple TV, and it lets me spend more time in Plex and less elsewhere.
Building collections
A better way to organize my growing media library
Like most self-hosters, my media library keeps growing weekly. So much so that I ran out of storage and resurrected an old server to add more space. An overlooked feature that lets me better organize my movies and shows is adding existing content to collections. It groups my titles without moving the files into separate libraries for each category or franchise.
For instance, I have all the John Wick films on my Plex server. I can easily add them all to a collection for easier access. I open my media library and select the movie posters. Then I select Add to > Add to Collection, and name it. I can also add other content to the collection later. I can do this with more than movies; I use collections to manually curate collections of TV shows, music videos, and more. I can organize content into categories like Westerns, Dramas, Fantasy, and others.
Once I curate collections, I can search them, which makes finding my large collection of shows much simpler. I can use the feature to organize any content I self-host on my Plex server better. The controls let me reduce clutter by hiding content and using the smart collections feature to organize it automatically. For large libraries, this is a helpful, underused Plex resource.
Rediscover Plex features for better media
Plex is an amazing tool for viewing self-hosted media throughout the house. I've used its straightforward capabilities for years, but many under-the-surface features are worth exploring if you haven't already. Some features are behind Plex Pass, like live TV enhancements and remote viewing, but you can try it for a month.
Still, you may have missed other features, like collections or the benefits of live TV with an HD antenna and a cheap tuner. Free Plex companion apps can also improve the server experience. What are some of your favorites?
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- Free, $6.99/month, $250/lifetime