![]() To install and configure your very own Plex Media Server on a Synology NAS, you'll need the following equipment.I love my Plex server. I stream my music basically around the world (I travel regularly). But it took me a while to figure out how to create playlists that automatically update (i.e., “smart playlists”) based on search filters. At home, I use a native music client (e.g., Strawberry or Clementine) to play my music. With how amazing Plex is, I figured the same functionality had to be possible.Ĭlementine, in particular, has excellent smart playlist functionality, allowing me to create a playlist with all of my music in the “Folk” genre or published between 19. ![]() I knew I could simply add songs to a playlist manually, but that seemed cumbersome. I’d rather let the software do it for me. Once I figured it out, I thought I’d make the steps clear for others.Ĭounter-intuitively, the place to start is not in the “Playlists” option on the Plex dashboard, but in the Music panel. Click on the Music pane, not the Playlists pane. You’d think that you would create Playlists in the Playlists area, but you don’t. You create all the Playlists in the Music area. Once you’re viewing your music, you need to look for a drop-down menu. It’s all the way to the left and says “All” with a little arrow next to it. Click on the little arrow next to “All” to drop down the menu. What you want to do is click on “Custom Filter.” That will open this option: Here’s where you create custom filters. ![]() Using that filter option, you can search for, say, all the music in the Genre “Alternative” or “Classic Rock.” Once you’ve entered your search criteria, click the “APPLY” button on the far right and it will apply your search criteria to your music: Once you apply the search criteria, Plex will show you the music that fits the criteria. Now, creating a “Smart Playlist” is just one more step. Look to the right of the window for an icon with four little lines and a plus sign. ![]() I typically name mine based on the search criteria, but you can call them whatever you want: That is the icon for creating a playlist: This is the icon you want for creating a playlist.Ĭlicking that button will open a prompt for you to name the new playlist. Now, with your Smart Playlist created, you’ll be able to see it in the Playlist area. Click on “Playlists” in the left menu and, assuming you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll see your newly created playlist there: All of your playlists are in the Playlists area. get ( "PLEX_TOKEN" ) BASE_URL = f " /* Make tap overlays transparent */ md-card. get ( "PLEX_SERVER" ) PLEX_TOKEN = environ. get ( "MQTT_BROKER" ) PLEX_SERVER = environ. Since I wanted to update Node-RED and everything else in the house already speaks MQTT, the way forward was obvious, and it took me all of 60 lines of Python to build a simple MQTT relay for Plex playback events.Īnd since it’s a 12-factor app deployed on piku, you can even call it a microservice:įrom functools import lru_cache from json import dumps from os import environ from sys import exit from plexapi.base import PlexObject from plexapi.client import PlexClient from rver import PlexServer from time import sleep import as mqtt MQTT_BROKER = environ. With the UI mocked up, I decided to get started on how to actually tap into Plex. For extra polish, I also designed this so that I could set the -grey CSS variable when playback was paused (which, alas, I had to give up on).Set the cover art width to auto (unlike shown) and you will also be able to show movie posters and the like (if you want to).Using the :before pseudo-element can be both friend and foe. ![]() Rotating the cover art 180 o before blurring it and sticking it as a background gives a very nice look (and saves you one HTTP request for another image, etc.).The first part was laying out the UI, which I quickly mocked up in VS Code: Yeah, I have a fair amount of Portuguese music CDs ripped on my Plex server. This meant talking to the Node-RED instance that runs the display, customizing the dashboard to include tailored HTML and CSS and delving a bit into the Plex APIs. The display turns off every few minutes automatically, and it needs to come back on to display the album art.The display defaults to showing my office dashboard, and I can’t just take it over (or waste it on a single purpose).I wanted to have both my Echo Listen or PlexAmp update the display.As it happens, yesterday I came across this neat “Now Playing” desktop display build, and since I have an official 7” Raspberry Pi LCD on my desk for controlling my lights, I decided to do something similar, but to display what’s currently playing on Plex (since I use PlexAmp on my Mac or Windows laptop to listen to my music collection).Īs usual, things got slightly out of hand, because: Today’s a bank holiday, so I decided to spend a little while having fun. 10 min read Building a Now Playing Display. ![]()
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