Media streaming and playback capabilities expand on Xbox One, Xbox 360 with Plex

By Will Fulton October 6, 2014

plex brings media xbox — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The online media management and streaming service Plex will bring an official app to Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles. The app will be available for free starting on October 7 for Plex Pass members (or for a one-time fee for non-members) on Xbox One, and shortly thereafter on Xbox 360.

The service provides a slick user interface for all of your music, videos, and photographs, whether stored on a home server, cloud-based app, or some combination thereof. Currently Plex has apps for Chromecast and Roku, but this will mark the first version that’s native to a gaming console, making it even easier to get your Plex-organized content onto your television. The new Xbox apps are focused only on video currently, but the developers promise to integrate photos and music soon.

Related: Chromecast shines even brighter with new Plex features

The arrival on Xbox marks a natural, full circle for the service, which was originally based on the open source code of XBMC, a homebrew media center application that started on Xbox (the first one) before expanding to other platforms.The developers have also taken a page from Netflix and other streaming services by adding in suggested viewing features based on your tastes and habits.

The move to consoles has brought with it a new interface approach that might make its way to Plex’s other platforms. In line with the Xbox interface guidelines, the home screen features a horizontal scrolling design familiar to anyone who has used Xbox Live. Voice and gesture controls through the Kinect have been integrated for ease of use from the couch.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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