Guide · Plex Easy
The Plex cards
Theatrium has six cards that read from your Plex server — from a poster shelf you can play, to who is streaming right now. Here is each one and what it shows.
Before you start. These cards need Plex connected in Settings › Connection. Add any of them the usual way — see Dashboard cards — and each has its own setup for which library or window it reads.
The pictures below are representative layouts, not photographs; your own posters and figures fill them in.
Video on the dashboard is in beta. Playing films and shows in their cards is new and still being refined, so expect the odd glitch. Please send anything you find to hello@theatrium.info, or the other channels in the footer — it genuinely helps.
Plex Player
Browse and play from one library, right on the dashboard.
- Muted by default. Video starts silent, so a dashboard left on never surprises the room with sound. Unmute it from the sound button on the card whenever you want to listen.
- Full screen when you want it. The full-screen button on the card takes the same video edge to edge; the Menu button on the Siri Remote brings it back to the dashboard.
- The controls are on the card. Play, sound and full screen all live on the card itself, so you never leave the dashboard to work them.
Plex Server
How hard your Plex server is working.
CPU, memory, storage and network for the machine running Plex, as dials or line graphs (your choice in setup), with the server’s name and version underneath. The at-a-glance answer to “is the server healthy” without opening a browser.
Plex Now Streaming
Who is watching what, this moment.
Every active stream: the title, who is watching, whether it is a direct play or a transcode, and how far through they are — with the total number of streams and bandwidth at the foot. When nothing is playing it says so plainly rather than sitting empty.
Library Stats
The size and shape of your collection.
Each library with its item count and how much disk it uses, and when it was last scanned. A library mid-scan says “Scanning” rather than showing a stale count.
Plex Activity
What the server is busy doing.
Scans and transcodes in progress, each with a title and a progress bar. Useful when a new file is not showing up yet, or when you want to know why the server is working hard.
Plex Top Charts
Your most-watched, at a glance.
A leaderboard — most-watched titles (with their posters), top viewers, or busiest libraries — over a window you choose. The bar beside each row shows the shape of the list at a glance, and the poster tells you what a title is faster than its name.
All six, at a glance
- Plex Player — a poster shelf from one library, playable in place.
- Plex Server — CPU, memory, storage and network for the server.
- Plex Now Streaming — who is watching what, right now.
- Library Stats — item counts, sizes and last scan.
- Plex Activity — scans and transcodes in progress.
- Plex Top Charts — most-watched, top viewers, busiest libraries.