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.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

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…

Gaming

One of the year’s best reviewed games is coming to Xbox Game Pass

Issac Clarke exploring ruins in Dead Space Remake.

Microsoft revealed the next batch of games coming to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service this October. While no Activision Blizzard games are coming to the service just yet following that acquisition, one of 2023's best-reviewed games is: this year's Dead Space remake.

Dead Space came out in January and is a stunning remake of a 2008 horror classic. The game follows an engineer named Issac Clarke as he searches for his girlfriend Nicole on a gigantic spaceship called the USG Ishimura. It's overrun by disgusting creatures called Necromorphs, though, leading to plenty of horrific situations as Issacs looks for answers on the ship. The original was an atmospheric and tense horror game, and developer EA Motive only enhanced all of that with this remake that updates the game's visuals and makes some other tweaks to bring the experience more in line with future games in its series and other modern horror games.
It's a great choice if you're looking for a new horror game to play this month, so we recommend checking it out when it hits Xbox Game Pass on October 26. It's not the only game coming to the service during the back half of this month, though. Here's the full list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass throughout the rest of October.

Gaming

Best Xbox One deals: How to buy the discontinued console

Xbox One S bundle deals

The Xbox One has been officially discontinued, but that doesn't mean it's unattainable. If you prefer the console over the new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, you can still buy refurbished units from retailers like Amazon. With its expansive library of games that will keep both casual and hardcore players busy for a long time, the Xbox One remains a meaningful purchase, despite Microsoft's rollout of its new generation of consoles. While it struggled against Sony's PlayStation 4 due to a rocky launch in 2013 because of a limited selection of titles and a higher price tag, the Xbox One gracefully recovered. Helping it bounce back were console exclusives from the Halo, Forza, and Gears of War series. If you're planning to buy the Xbox One to enjoy video game deals on these exclusive titles, as well as popular cross-platform games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and Red Dead Redemption 2, we've gathered the best Xbox One deals available online to help you in your search.

Another important characteristic of the Xbox One is its fantastic multimedia capabilities, with the Xbox One S being one of the most affordable 4K media players available on the market. The Xbox One S and the more powerful Xbox One X both boast a 4K Blu-ray player, a feature that isn't found in the PlayStation 4 Pro. For gamers who also want the option to watch their favorite movies and TV shows in crisp 4K from their console, the Xbox One is the machine for you.
Xbox One deals

Gaming

Is Starfield on Xbox One?

Key art for Starfield

Starfield is one of the biggest games of the year and space exploration has never looked so good (especially on a new PC with the correct settings tweaked). Released natively for PC and Xbox Series X, a lot of gamers are going to be left out of Bethesda's latest RPG — it'll never be released on PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch. But there's good news if you're still playing on a last-gen Xbox One. While Starfield isn't being released on the older console directly, there's still a way to play on Xbox One.

There are also a few other ways to play Startfield without an Xbox at all.
How to play Satrfield on Xbox One