Build a Compact, Standalone Plex Media Server and Media Player

Ever consider building a standalone Plex Media Server and be able to play media on the same system? That is what I will set out to do in this guide!

In my home network, I prefer to host Plex Media Server on my Proxmox server and use various clients such as an AppleTV, iPads, and iPhones on my network to view the media.

Protectli recently sent me their V1210 model that is their first model in the V-series product line. Once I realized the CPU supports Intel Quick Sync Video, I thought the V1210 would be a nice usecase for a small, energy efficient media server and player.

The V1210 has the Intel N5105 CPU and 4 GB of soldered RAM (so it is not expandable). While this CPU/RAM configuration limits certain usecases, there are still many projects the V1210 will serve well.

For a desktop PC, 4 GB is not a lot of RAM, but with Linux, the base Operating System uses much less RAM than Microsoft Windows so the minimum requirements are often much lower. I will demonstrate at the end of this guide that 4 GB is enough for the Plex server and media player.

Download Ubuntu and Image USB Drive

First, you will need to download Ubuntu. I will be using Ubuntu for its ease of use especially for those who may not be familiar with Linux.

This example is using the current latest LTS version of 24.04 but other versions should work as well. I prefer to use the LTS (Long Term Support) released because those versions are generally considered more stable but also you will receive updates for many years unlike the non-LTS released.

Visit the Ubuntu download page to download Ubuntu.

I like using Etcher to image the USB drive with the ISO image.

Install Operating System (Ubuntu)

Now you are ready to install Ubuntu. Plug the USB drive into the system.

Press “F11” to open the boot menu.

Select the USB drive to boot. For my USB drive, it is a 64 GB Protectli USB drive.

Select “Try or Install Ubuntu”.

The Ubuntu installer wizard should be displayed. Choose your preferred language. Click “Next”.

Click “Next” if you do not need accessibility features.

Choose the appropriate keyboard layout. Click “Next”.

You can select if you wish to use a wired or WiFi network.

If you choose a wired connection, it defaults to DHCP so there is no settings to change but you can change the wired settings after Ubuntu is finished installing such as setting a static IP address.

If you choose WiFi, the nice thing about using the desktop version of Ubuntu instead of the server version is that it is easier to set the wireless configuration since you do not need to edit any config files. You can choose your wireless network similar to how you would in Microsoft Windows. Click “Next” to continue.

You may choose to update the installer if you are connected to the network in case there are bug fixes or other installer updates. Click “Update now” or “Skip” to continue.

If you chose “Update now”, you will have to click “Close installer” to proceed.

You will be presented with the Ubuntu desktop so you will need to re-open the Ubuntu installer by double clicking “Install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS”.

You will have to start the first part of the installation wizard over again until you reach the screen below. Click “Next” for the “Interactive Installation” since you will not be installing Ubuntu using the automated method.

Since this system will be used as a standalone media player, you can leave it at the “Default selection” since you will not need an office suite on the box. It will save some disk space. Click “Next”.

Depending on the hardware you are using, you may want to select “Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware” option. Also selecting “Download and Install support for additional media formats” might not be a bad idea for a media server. However, most likely, Plex will come with all the media format codecs it supports. Click “Next”.

Assuming you have a dedicated boot disk, you should select “Erase disk and install Ubuntu”. Click “Next”.

For the V1210, you could use the 32 GB of built in eMMC storage for the Operating System and apps and use the NVMe drive purely for storing your media files. Click “Next”.

Enter whatever information you like for your Ubuntu login account. This is a local system account and not a cloud based account.

For a better experience, I recommend unchecking “Require my password to log in” so that your system will open the Plex HTPC app when Ubuntu finishes booting. Click “Next”.

Pick your local timezone and click “Next”.

Click “Install” after reviewing your installation settings.

Ubuntu should begin installing.

Choose “Restart now” to reboot your system. You will need to take out the USB drive when prompted if you have your system boot USB drives first.

Configure Operating System (Ubuntu)

After restarting the system, you will be prompted with a welcome screen. Click “Next”.

You may click “Next” to skip enabling Ubuntu Pro since that is a subscription to get extra security updates.

Select if you wish to help improve Ubuntu by submitting anonymous system data. Click “Next”.

Click “Finish” to close the welcome screen.

Click on the App menu button in the lower left corner and type “power” to bring up the “Power” settings.

You may want to turn off the “Screen Blank” option by setting it to “Never”. The Plex HTPC app has a screen saver so you do not need to worry about screen burn in.

You may also set default behavior for the power button such as “Power off”.

Click on the “Privacy & Security” menu and go to “Screen Lock”.

You can verify that the “Blank Screen Delay” is “Never” and the “Automatic Screen Lock” is turned off. Since the screen blanking option was turned off, it probably would not lock the screen but just in case, it does not hurt to turn it off. This makes for a better experience since you will not have to type a password to get back into the system.

Install Plex Apps

Click on the App menu button in the lower left corner and type “app” to bring up the “App Center” or click on the orange “A” button in the panel which is the “App Center” app.

Search for “plex” to bring up the Plex apps. The plexmediaserver and plex-htpc apps are the apps you will need to install.

After clicking the plexmediaserver app, click the “Install” button.

The button will change to “Open” when it is finished installing.

Go back to the previous page and click the plex-htpc app and then click “Install”.

The “Open” button will be displayed when it is finished installing.

Configure Plex Apps

Both apps will require some configuration, but the Plex HTPC app simply requires linking to the Plex Media Server similar to other media platforms.

Plex Media Server Configuration

You may click on the Plex Media Server app icon or visit https://localhost:32400/manage in your web browser to start configuring Plex.

You will be redirected to https://plex.tv to sign into your Plex account. Note that you will need an account even for the free version of Plex, but as I mentioned earlier you will also need a Plex Pass subscription or lifetime pass to enable hardware transcoding.

Choose your preferred sign in method. I prefer to use an email account instead of depending on other services for sign in.

Enter your credentials. Click “Sign In”.

After entering your credentials, you will be presented with a welcome screen. Click the “Got It!” button.

Enter a name for your Plex server. You may select if you wish to allow access outside of your home. This will require port forwarding on your router in order for this to function properly (Plex does have a proxy that can be used if a direct connection cannot be established but the bandwidth is limited so it is not an ideal way to connect to your Plex server remotely).

Click “Next” to continue.

Click “Add Library” and then “Next” to add your first library. A library is where your media is physically located on your disk as well as some other settings on the metadata used for the media.

Select the type of library you wish to add and enter a “Name” for the library.

You may have multiple libraries of the same type if you wish to group media into separate areas. For instance, I like to put Christmas movies in its own library to keep those separate from my main movie library since those are only viewed once a year near Christmas.

Click on “Add folders” on the left side of the dialog box.

Click on “Browse For Media Folder” in order to select the folder for the new media library.

Once the location is selected, click on the “Add Library” button.

You may add more libraries if you desire. Click “Next” to continue.

Finally, click on “Done” to complete the initial setup.

If you already have media in the folders you used for your libaries, you should see them in the web interface once Plex is done scanning and pulling any matching metadata.

Go to the “Settings” icon at the top or click on account menu icon in the upper right hand corner of the page to choose “Account Settings”. Either way will take you to the “Settings” page.

On the “Transcoder” page, ensure that “Use hardware acceleration when available” is checked as well as “Use hardware accelerated video encoding”. I noticed that when the “Hardware transcoding device” was set to “Auto” by default, it was not hardware transcoding properly (but it is possible I had to restart the stream to get it to transcode). To be certain, you could select “JasperLake [UHD Graphics]” or whatever hardware encoding device you will be using.

Click “Save Changes”.

On the “Network” page, I recommend setting the “LAN Networks” IP address range so that you do not get throttled when viewing local content if you happen to be using your external IP address (via dynamic domain name, for example). You will need to enter the subnet mask rather than the CIDR notation so for all private IP address in the 192.168.x.x range, you would need to enter: 192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0.

If you wish to have offline access to your Plex Media Server (if your Internet is disconnected or you want an offline Plex server after your initial setup), you will need to specify the list of IP addresses that are allowed with authentication. You can use the same list as the “LAN Networks” if you like. This option is more important if you want to have offline access for other clients on your local network than if you are connecting from the same box (since localhost may be allowed without auth by default).

Plex HTPC Configuration

Open the Plex HTPC app by searching for it in the App menu in Ubuntu. You will be presented with a sign in screen. Click “Sign In” to continue.

You may use your phone or web browser to link your Plex HTPC to your Plex Media Server. This is similar to other media streaming apps to make it easier to sign into the app without typing a long username/password.

If you like, you may customize the libraries that are shown on the screen but you do not have to do it at this moment. Click “Continue”.

The Plex “Home” screen is shown and you will be able to view media that is in your libraries or any of the streaming options offered by Plex.

Running Plex HTPC at Startup

The last thing I recommend doing is setting up the Plex HTPC app to run on start up so that your system can be a full blown dedicated media player (and media server!) similar to the Apple TV, etc (except those devices are just clients and not servers).

Click on the App menu button in Ubuntu and search for “Startup Applications”.

Enter a “Name” such as Plex HTPC. The “Command” should simply be plex-htpc which is the name of the snap application. For the “Comment”, you may enter something such as Open Plex HTPC on startup.

Click the “Add” button to finish. Now when you reboot, it should open directly into the Plex HTPC app, which is very convenient for a standalone media player!

Test Hardware Transcoding

You may wish to test hardware transcoding to ensure it is configured properly.

Select a video to play and force it to transcode by selecting a different resolution than the original video or you may disable the “direct play” and “direct stream” options. On the Plex Media Server “Dashboard” page, you should see Transcode (hw) rather than Transcode if hardware transcoding is occurring.

Taking a look at the CPU utilization, you will see that it does not max out the CPU while hardware transcoding, which is great! If hardware transcoding was not working properly, all of the CPU cores would be pegged at 99-100% utilization.

If you are using the V1210, you can also see that 4 GB is actually enough RAM to run the Plex Media Server and Plex HTPC apps and still have 1 GB of RAM to spare!

Where to Buy?

If you are thinking about purchasing the Protectli V1210, you may do so on Protectli’s website or on Amazon via my Amazon affiliate link if you would like to support my efforts! I greatly appreciate it!