Download Plex Media Server 1.18.1.1973

Plex has released version 1.18.1.1973 of Plex Media Server. This version was previously available to holders of the paid PlexPass, but can now be downloaded by anyone. Plex Media Server is a media server for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and various NAS devices. The software can serve content to clients on the same machine within the local network or over the Internet. Client software is available for the aforementioned operating systems, but content can also be viewed on, for example, iOS, Android, Google TV and Chromecast.

The program includes its own software store where plug-ins can be exchanged. Via these plug-ins, content from various streaming services can be viewed, among other things. In addition, there is PlexPass, a paid service that gives earlier access to new versions in addition to a discount on ‘Premium features’. The changelog since version 1.16.5.1554 looks like this:

Plex Media Server 1.17.0.1709 (Beta update)

New:

• (Transcoder) Update to current upstream ffmpeg
• (Transcoder) Support for hardware transcoding on Linux with Intel 9th-gen processors
• (Transcoder) Support for VC-1 hardware decoding on supported platforms
• (Transcoder) Support for hardware decoding on Linux with Nvidia GPUs
• (Transcoder) Support for zero-copy hardware transcoding on Linux with Nvidia GPUs
• (Transcoder) Support for zero-copy hardware transcoding or interlaced media

Fixes:

• (DVR) Comskip was not available in recording options on FreeBSD.
• (DVR) Enhanced Plex Media Server’s performance by skipping reads of previously processed XMLTV guide data. (# 9846)
• (Transcoder) The server could become unresponsive after certain precisely-timed client interactions.
• Corrects Live TV playback error when tuning to channel that contains space (s) in it.
• (Transcoder) The server could use large amounts of CPU time when converting subtitles (# 10478)

Note: Hardware transcoding with Nvidia GPUs now requires driver v418.30 or newer.

Plex Media Server 1.17.0.1841 is now available to everyone

Fixes:

• (EPG) On Windows, XMLTV guide would fail to refresh (# 10624)

Plex Media Server 1.18.0.1846 (PlexPass users / Beta update channel)

Starting with this Plex Media Server release, we’re introducing new and improved features for music libraries: better matching, improved metadata, better artwork, and more! There are no longer “basic” vs “premium” music libraries; there is just a single type of music library. Plex Pass subscribers will continue having access to premium music-related features (automatic lyrics, Sweet Fades, loudness leveling, visualizers, etc.) just like before.
Visit our Upgrading Plex Music Libraries forum topic to get started!

New:

• (Library) Brand new music scanner and metadata system! More details here.
• (BIF) Improved performance when generating media indexes (# 10455)
• (DVR) Now supports team and sport tags in XMLTV guide data (# 6272).
• (Library) Add an “Unmatched” filter.
• (Library) Allow artist / album title override during fix match.
• (Library) Improved music library preferences.
• (Library) Magic shuffle heuristics now employed in many more scenarios (eg smart playlists).
• (Library) Maximum number of On Deck items is now a preference.
• (Library) Mood now works for artists and albums, and add new style tag.
• (Library) Support for reading OGG tags.
• (Transcoder) Support for zero-copy hardware transcoding on Windows with Intel GPUs
• (Web) Updated to 4.8.3

Fixes:

• (Companion) Some companion apps would not be available to control from the Web player (# 10522)
• (Diagnostics) Attempts to download logs from WD MyCloud would fail
• (DVR) Rarely would crash while extending a rolling subscription (# 10535)
• (EPG) Change to daily full guide refresh instead of incremental refreshes multiple times a day. (# 9403)
• (EPG) On Windows, XMLTV guide would fail to refresh (# 10624).
• (Library) An issue on macOS where media with non-ASCII characters could be removed and added during scans.
• (Library) Disable popular tracks for Various Artists.
• (Library) Ignore a few more prefix characters when generating sort titles.
• (Library) In some cases, cast members could be shown in the wrong order.
• (Library) More fields are read from music file tags during refresh.
• (Library) Newer locations are now scanned before older ones.
• (Library) Refreshing Various Artists now refreshes all its albums.
• (Library) Slight speedup for database writes.
• (Music) Albums added from TIDAL would not match correctly with the new Plex Music libraries.
• (Networking) The server could become inaccessible when IPv6 is configured on Android (# 10426)
• (Transcoder) Fixed H263 hardware decoding (# 10580)
• (Transcoder) Hardware encoding wasn’t used in some situations when hardware decoding was unavailable for HEVC Main 10 (# 7897)
• (Transcoder) Hardware transcoding could fail on input with ATSC closed captions on Windows systems with Intel GPUs (# 8509) (# 9840) (# 10517)
• (Transcoder) Individual subtitle lines could fail to display in some clients when there are no subtitle lines for a long period afterwards
• (Transcoder) Individual subtitle lines could randomly fail to appear in certain clients
• (Transcoder) Playback could fail after a long period between subtitle lines in certain circumstances (# 10582)
• (Transcoder) Reduced the amount of I / O load when streaming subtitles
• (Transcoder) Some packets could be randomly skipped in certain clients, resulting in a “skipping” effect (# 10401)
• (Transcoder) Subtitles could vanish after a random period after seeking in certain clients (# 10573)
• (Transcoder) Transcoding HEVC Main 10 content could fail on hardware without built-in support (# 10590)
• A rare crash during scanning.
• Fix for empty / missing “Shows you might like” hub. (# 10375)
• Long-standing issue which could lead to lack of recommended media in some cases.
• The blob database was not cleaned up during periodic maintenance.
• When analyzing tracks, menu item would never re-enable (# 8477)
• When fixing match for an album, the year could disappear temporarily.

Plex Media Server 1.18.0.1892 (PlexPass users / Beta update channel)

Notice – This Beta build has been removed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

New:

• (Web) Updated to 4.8.4

Fixes:

• (Butler) Fix periodic metadata refresh to work with Plex Music libraries; corrected broken EPG refresh (# 10676). (Library) Disallow scan of Plex Music libraries while offline (# 10637).
• (DVR) Recordings with an apostrophe in them would no longer record after 1.18.0 (# 10673).
• (CoreExperience) Only include playlists that match the contentDirectoryID filter (# 10599).

Plex Media Server 1.18.0.1906 (PlexPass users / Beta update channel)

Fixes:

• (NAS) Permissions issues resulting in failures to start
• (Butler) Failures to complete all tasks when a music library exists

Plex Media Server 1.18.0.1913 (PlexPass users / Beta update channel)

Fixes:

• (Library) Music could fail to scan when added to a new or upgraded music library on Nvidia SHIELD devices.
• (NAS) Permissions issues resulting in failures to start

Plex Media Server 1.18.0.1944 (Beta update channel)

Fixes:

• (LiveTV) A regression in 1.18.0 could cause pixellation / stuttering in LiveTV / DVR playback

Plex Media Server 1.18.1.1973 (Beta update channel)

New:

• (Localization) Updated translations
• Add an HDR filter for movies (# 9652)
• Improve detection of udevadm on newer debian-based distros.
• Set the DLNA server feature to be turned off by default. It can be manually re-enabled if required in Plex Web’s server settings (# 10530)
• (Linux) Improved quality and performance of hardware transcoding on Linux systems with 8th-generation or later GPUs
• (Linux) Improved automatic detection of Intel GPUs on systems that also have other graphics

Fixes:

• (Library) Some portrait videos could return the incorrect resolution value (# 10586)
• (Linux) An internal system directory could be displayed unexpectedly in the directory browser on certain NAS platforms (# 10630)
• (Transcoder) Hardware transcoding could fail on systems with recent systemd versions (# 10723)
• (Transcoder) Fixed hardware decoding or VC1
• (Transcoder) Output streams could be corrupted in certain cases (# 10709)
• (Metadata) Improved reliability of music lookups

Plex Media Server 1.18.1.1973 is now available to everyone