I turned my Plex library into 24/7 streaming channels with this free app

Whereas a lot of free streaming providers supply lineups of reside TV channels to flip by, all of them have the identical downside: You’re not answerable for the content material, and also you’re continuously interrupted by adverts.

A brand new app known as Bunny Ears TV goals to unravel these issues with assist from Plex Media Server. When you have an Apple TV field and your individual assortment of film or TV recordsdata in Plex, Bunny Ears TV can spin them into dozens of round the clock streaming channels with virtually no effort.

It’s a neat app that mimics the channel browsing of cable utilizing your individual content material, however not like with cable, there aren’t any industrial breaks.

A greater technique to watch free streaming channels

A fast refresher on Plex Media Server: It is a program you possibly can run on a desktop laptop or NAS system, and it’ll stream media recordsdata from that laptop to your telephone, TV, and different units. Plex Media Server is free to make use of, although some options require a Plex Move subscription.

The place do these media recordsdata come from? Plex itself provides an over-the-air DVR characteristic (Plex Move required) that may document native channels from antenna. Past that, you possibly can rip a DVD assortment, document from streaming providers with PlayOn, or use a instrument like YT-DLP to obtain YouTube movies. (I gained’t be naive and fake that folks aren’t placing pirated movies on their Plex servers as properly.)

No matter the place the content material comes from, Bunny Ears TV offers another technique to watch it, separate from Plex’s personal apps. As soon as put in in your Apple TV, it connects to your Plex account and organizes all of your server’s video recordsdata into a group of reside streaming channels.

To start out with, Bunny Ears TV creates as much as 26 reside channels round themes like “popcorn motion pictures,” “sport reveals,” and “chortle observe,” although the precise quantity is dependent upon how a lot appropriate content material is in your Plex library. As soon as the channels are prepared, you’ll see all of them in a giant cable-style grid information, with a video preview within the top-right nook.

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Clicking a channel takes you right into a full-screen view. Flicking up or down on the Apple TV distant’s directional pad from right here will carry up a mini information, so you possibly can see what’s on different channels and shortly change to them with out going again to the total grid.

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Notice that by default, movies will play silently in the primary Bunny Ears TV information, and also you’ll solely hear audio after clicking into the total display screen view. To alter this, head to the Settings menu on the high of the display screen, head to the Information part, and set “Mute Information Preview” to “Off.”

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The Settings menu additionally helps you to disable particular channels, modify video playback settings, and resolve whether or not to play TV episodes randomly or so as.

Sure, there’s an (optionally available) subscription

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The free model of Bunny Ears TV offers 26 reside channels with no adverts or cut-off dates. For $3 monthly or $18 per 12 months, an optionally available Bunny Ears TV+ subscription unlocks further options and features a 14-day trial. (There’s additionally a $30 “Lifetime” possibility, with out the trial.)

Most notably, the subscription offers a whole lot of extra channels round classes like comedy, children programming, and classics, providing you with many extra methods to slice and cube your Plex library. There’s even a package deal of music channels based mostly on the audio recordsdata in your Plex server, which is nice in case you miss the Music Alternative channels on cable.

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The subscription lets you create customized channels as properly. These are based mostly on no matter libraries, playlists, or collections you’ve arrange inside Plex, so that you’ll have to make use of Plex’s internet dashboard to set them up, then add them by the Bunny Ears TV app.

Jared Newman / Foundry

The subscription additionally allows an “Advert Bumpers” characteristic that inserts brief video clips between applications. This mimics the texture of cable’s industrial breaks, however with your individual content material as an alternative of an limitless barrage of Skyrizi adverts. (To make use of this characteristic, you’ll want a playlist of brief movies in Plex, reminiscent of a group of downloaded YouTube movies.)

Lastly, a subscription is required for “DVR Mode,” which helps you to quick ahead, rewind, and bounce again to earlier applications within the information. (The VHS impact whenever you pause is a pleasant contact.)

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A cable expertise with out the cruft

Bunny Ears TV simply launched within the App Retailer after months of beta testing, however it nonetheless has some tough edges.

The most important nuisance is that you need to scroll all the best way to the highest of the information to succeed in the Settings menu. This turns into particularly annoying in case you’re utilizing the paid model and have a whole lot of channels to scroll by. With the ability to bounce to the highest menu bar with the again button would make extra sense and is how most streaming guides work right this moment, however in Bunny Ears TV this simply toggles the full-screen video participant as an alternative.

Talking of the Settings button, I’ve discovered that it typically jumps straight to the subscription menu whenever you click on on it. This occurs even in case you’re already paying, so I think it’s a bug moderately than an intentional darkish sample.

General, although, the channel browsing expertise works properly and is straightforward to make use of. Whereas Bunny Ears TV isn’t the primary try at creating reside channels out of your video assortment, different initiatives reminiscent of DizqueTV and ErsatzTV are way more difficult to arrange. The developer additionally plans to launch iPhone and iPad variations sooner or later.

Free streaming providers reminiscent of The Roku Channel and Pluto TV have re-popularized cable’s channel browsing format as a result of they take the trouble out of deciding what to look at. Bunny Ears TV does the identical for rediscovering forgotten corners of your Plex catalog, and it’s acquired me interested by the right way to inventory my very own assortment with extra content material.

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