Smart TVs are smart enough to stream 4K movies and TV shows from Over the Top or OTT platforms. However, if you have high-quality 4K ripped movies or TV shows you want to watch, it may not play. Even if it manages to play, you might have issues with the audio.

We used an 8-year-old retired laptop that was lying around with a 100Mbps LAN port and converted it to a media server. And guess what, the 4K movies played flawlessly with surround sound audio on a TV over a Wi-Fi network.

Here's how you can achieve the same results by installing Plex Media Server on your old laptop or PC.

Why Choose Plex Media Server?

The great thing about Plex is that the app is available on all platforms, such as Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Fire TV, Apple TV, PlayStation, Xbox, and Android Smart TVs allowing you to stream movies or TV shows on all your devices without any hiccups.

So if you have a laptop lying around that you do not use anymore, you can use it to build your own media server for streaming high-quality movies and TV shows on your devices.

You can also use this Plex Media Server as local cloud storage to store and access your photos, videos, and other data.

Things You Will Need

1. An old laptop or PC with 2GB or higher RAM
2. A USB flash drive (2 GB at least)
3. A LAN cable to connect the laptop to your router or switch

Steps to Build Plex Media Server

Follow these steps to install and set up a Plex Media Server for high-quality movie streaming over your local network.

Step 1: Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Drive

First, download the Ubuntu Server installation image from the official website. You need to select Option 2 - Manual server installation option to go to the download page.

Download: Ubuntu Server

Also, download Rufus if you are using Windows. You may use balenaEtcher on macOS.

Download: Rufus (Free)

Download: balenaEtcher (Free)

Connect a USB drive to your Windows PC or your laptop and launch Rufus. Select the USB drive and then click Select to browse the Ubuntu Server ISO.

Click Start and then select Yes to confirm. Make sure the USB drive is empty as this will erase everything stored on it.

Step 2: Install Linux Server on a Laptop

After creating the bootable media, connect the USB drive to your old laptop that you want to convert into Plex Media Server. Also, connect the LAN cable to your laptop at this stage.

Turn on the laptop and start pressing the boot option key, usually the F12 or Del key, to view the boot options menu. The key may vary based on your laptop model manufacturer.

From the boot options, choose the USB drive and press Enter. Choose your language and then hit Enter. Finally, select Continue without updating and click Done.

On the keyboard layout selection, select Done unless you want to change or select a different keyboard layout.

On the next screen, choose your network adapter. Make sure to select Ethernet. It should display an IP address.

Keep the proxy address blank and select Done. Again, keep the Ubuntu mirror link default and click Done. Now choose your disk, unselect the LVM group option, and click Done > Continue.

Give your server a name, and enter a username and password. Note down the credentials somewhere safe.

Choose Install OpenSSH Server and that's it, the Ubuntu Server installation will begin.

After the installation, you will get an option to reboot. Select Reboot Now and remove the USB drive.

Step 3: Install Plex Media Server

To install Plex Media Server on the laptop, reboot the laptop and enter your username and password to log in. Once logged in, type the following commands to update the server packages. Make sure the LAN cable is connected to your laptop.

        sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
    

Enter Y when asked.

Once updated, check your device's IP address by running the following command:

        ip a
    

Note down the IP and then go to your Windows PC and install the PuTTY client. Mac users can use Terminal for SSH access or install an SSH client for Mac.

Download: PuTTY

Launch PuTTY or any other SSH client and enter the IP address in the Hostname field, 22 in Port, and click Open.

Click Accept if you are connecting to the server for the first time. Then enter your username and password to log in.

Once logged in, we can now download and install the Plex Media Server by executing the following commands one by one:

        wget https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-media-server-new/1.25.3.5409-f11334058/debian/plexmediaserver_1.25.3.5409-f11334058_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_1.25.3.5409-f11334058_amd64.deb
    

You can copy and paste the commands in the SSH terminal using right-click and execute them by hitting the Enter key. This will install the Plex Media Server on your Ubuntu Server.

Step 4: Set Up and Configure Plex Media Server

Now you need to enable the Plex Media Server to start at boot by running the following commands in the terminal:

        sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver.service
    

Restart the Plex Media Server service.

        sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service
    

To ensure Plex Media Server is running, run the following command:

        sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver.service
    

Once verified, we can access the Plex Media Server at its IP address on the 32400 port. So, if your server's IP is 192.168.1.100, you can access the server at 192.168.1.100:32400/web.

Additional Recommended Settings

To stop the laptop from sleeping or suspending on closing the lid, you must make changes in the logind.conf file. Open the Terminal or SSH client to access the server and then execute the following commands:

        sudo nano /etc/systemd/logind.conf
    

Look for the following lines and edit them:

        HandleSuspendKey=ignore
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore
    

Press Ctrl + X, type y, and then press Enter. This will save the changes. Here's how to save and quit a file if you're using Vim.

Once done, restart the system-logind service by using the following command:

        sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind
    

Now let's add movies, TV shows, and other multimedia content to our Plex Media Server.

Step 5: Add Movies and TV Shows for Streaming

You may now transfer movies, TV shows, photos, videos, etc. on your Plex Media Server by using any FTP client, such as FileZilla on your Windows or Transmit on your Mac.

In FileZilla or Transmit app, use the IP address of your Plex Media Server, and enter the username, password, and 22 in the Port to connect to the Plex Media Server.

Once connected, create folders, such as movies, TV shows, etc.

Then drag and drop movies from your PC to these folders. It will transfer the selected movie or TV show to the Plex Media Server folder.

You may also use a USB drive to transfer content using the mv or cp command or use an external drive to store and stream movies via Plex Media.

After transferring the file, open the web browser on your PC and go to ipaddress:32400/web. Click Got It and give your Plex Media Server a name. Click Next to continue.

Click Add Library. Select if you want to add Movies, TV Shows, Pictures, Music, Pictures, or Other Videos, and hit Next. Click Browse Media for Folder and select the folders you created in FileZilla, Transmit, or any other FTP client app, such as /home/username/Movies for Movies. Click Add.

Select the Add Library option. This will add the library to your Plex Media Server. Similarly, you can create more folders and organize your library on Plex Media Server for streaming. Here's a detailed guide to Plex for adding media and much more.

Once done, click Next > Done.

You can now sign in or create a Plex account to claim the server and stream the content on various devices.

There are a few additional settings you can do with Plex Media Server to ensure uninterrupted streaming, such as auto-login at boot, adding and automounting external USB storage drives on boot to stream movies from external storage devices to your Plex server, etc.

Stream Your Favorite Shows or Movies in Original Quality

You can now install the Plex app on your favorite streaming device, such as a smart TV, and then log in using the same user account to start streaming the movies, TV shows, music, pictures, or any other video content stored on the server. All your content is displayed in a beautiful user interface with all meta-information, all thanks to Plex!