Plex Now Playing Plugin

Show what's playing on your Plex Media Server — movies, TV episodes and music — laid out to fit any board.

→ Setup Guide - Signing in with Plex (or pasting a token) and configuration

Overview

The plugin asks your Plex Media Server what is streaming (/status/sessions) and exposes the title, show, season and episode, artist, album, who is watching, and how far along they are. It also exposes three display lines laid out for the board being rendered: long titles wrap over two lines and the rest of the layout moves around them, so the same page works on a Note, a Flagship, or a Note Array.

Template Variables

Display Lines

The display lines are laid out at render time for the width of the board showing them.

Variable	Description	Example
{{plex.line_1}}	Movie title, show, or track	Breaking Bad
{{plex.line_2}}	Title overflow, season/episode, or artist	S05 E14
{{plex.line_3}}	Year, episode title, season/episode, or album	Ozymandias

How the lines are filled:

Playing	Fits one line	Needs two lines
Movie	title / blank / year	title / title / year
Episode	show / season+episode / episode title	show / show / season+episode
Track	track / artist / album	track / track / artist
Nothing	blank / Nothing playing / blank

A third line that doesn't fit the board ends in .... With Plex yellow accents on, the year or season/episode line is framed by two yellow tiles on each side. The variables below always hold the full, untruncated values.

Media

Variable	Description	Example
{{plex.title}}	Title of the movie, episode, or track	Ozymandias
{{plex.year}}	Release year	2013
{{plex.show}}	TV show name (episodes only)	Breaking Bad
{{plex.season_episode}}	Season and episode (episodes only)	S05 E14
{{plex.artist}}	Artist (music only)	Daft Punk
{{plex.album}}	Album (music only)	Discovery
{{plex.media_type}}	Movie, Episode, Track, or Clip	Episode

Playback

Variable	Description	Example
{{plex.state}}	Playing, Paused, Buffering, or Idle (color-coded)	Playing
{{plex.is_playing}}	Whether the featured stream is playing	true
{{plex.user}}	Plex user watching or listening	Alex
{{plex.player}}	Device playing the stream	Living Room TV
{{plex.progress_percent}}	Progress through the item (0-100)	64
{{plex.minutes_left}}	Minutes until the item finishes	18
{{plex.stream_count}}	Number of active streams	2

Sessions

When several streams are active, the featured one (above) is the first that is playing, then buffering, then paused. Every stream is also available as {{plex.sessions.N.field}}, with the fields state, media_type, title, year, show, season_episode, artist, album, user, player, progress_percent and minutes_left.

Example Templates

Note (and Note Arrays)

Center all three lines:

{{plex.line_1}}
{{plex.line_2}}
{{plex.line_3}}

Flagship

{{plex.state}}
{{plex.line_1}}
{{plex.line_2}}
{{plex.line_3}}

{{plex.player}}

Progress

{{plex.line_1}}
{{plex.progress_percent}}% - {{plex.minutes_left}} MIN LEFT

Configuration

Setting	Type	Required	Default	Description
server_url	string	No	-	Plex server address, e.g. http://192.168.1.100:32400. Empty: found through your Plex account
token	string	No	-	An X-Plex-Token to use instead of Sign in with Plex. When set, it wins
server_name	string	No	-	Which server to use when your account has several and server_url is empty
plex_user	string	No	-	Only show these Plex users' streams (comma-separated)
plex_player	string	No	-	Only show streams on these devices (comma-separated), e.g. Living Room TV
show_accents	boolean	No	true	Frame the year or season/episode line with yellow tiles
hold_seconds	integer	No	60	After playback stops, keep showing it this long before "Nothing playing" (0-600, 0 turns it off)
refresh_seconds	integer	No	30	How often to ask Plex what's playing (10-600)
enabled	boolean	No	false	Enable the plugin

PLEX_URL and PLEX_TOKEN environment variables can be used instead of the UI settings.

Sign in with Plex

Requires FiestaBoard 9.11.0 or later. Click Sign in with Plex in the plugin's settings and approve FiestaBoard on Plex's page; nothing to copy. A pasted token (or PLEX_TOKEN) still works and takes priority over the sign-in. If Plex stops accepting the sign-in, the settings ask you to sign in again.

With no server_url, the plugin asks plex.tv for the servers on your account (/api/v2/resources), prefers one you own, and tries its home-network address first, then its remote address, then Plex's relay. This works with a pasted token too.

Features

• Movies, TV episodes, and music
• Display lines that adapt to the board's width: Note, Flagship, and any Note Array
• Long titles wrap across two lines; the rest of the layout moves to make room
• Optional Plex yellow accent tiles
• Filter to some Plex users, some devices, or both (e.g. whatever is playing on the TV the board hangs over)
• Every active stream available as sessions, plus a stream count
• No blank board between episodes: the last stream stays up through Plex's Up Next countdown
• Playback state color-coded: green playing, yellow paused, orange buffering
• Sign in with Plex, or paste a token
• Finds your server through your Plex account, or talks to the address you give it directly

Author

FiestaBoard Team

Inspired by plex-now-playing, a community plugin by Sneakamaila.