Kanema with your Plex server

Kanema plays the films and series on your own Plex Media Server, on Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. It’s an IPTV player first, so your Plex library sits in the same app as your live channels and TV guide. It reads your film and TV libraries and plays them; the rest of Plex stays in Plex’s own apps.

Coming soon to the App Store

Adding a media server on Apple TV, Which server?: three cards, Plex, which signs in with a code at plex.tv/link, and Jellyfin and Emby, which take an address, a username and a password. Beside the TV, an Apple TV 4K and its Siri Remote. — Demo playlist: the films are Blender open movies (credits) and the channels are made up. Kanema comes with nothing to watch.

Sign in with a code

Choose Add a playlist, pick a media server, then Plex. Kanema shows a code: go to plex.tv/link on your phone or computer and type it in. You sign in on Plex’s own site, so your Plex password never reaches Kanema.

Then pick the server. Servers shared with you are listed beside your own. If your Plex account has Home profiles, choose one and type its PIN if it has one. You can switch profile later from the playlist’s settings.

Adding a Plex server on an iPad held sideways: Plex, Jellyfin and Emby to choose from, a four-letter code to enter at plex.tv/link on any phone or computer, Waiting for the code, and a note that your Plex password never reaches Kanema.

What Kanema reads from Plex

Your server’s film and TV show libraries, each as a category under Films or Series, newest first, with posters, plots and running times. Where you got to and what you’ve watched come from Plex and go back to it: mark something as watched in Kanema and it’s marked on your server too, and Kanema tells the server what’s playing while you watch.

Music and photo libraries aren’t read, and neither is Plex’s own Live TV or anything Plex streams from its own service. Live channels in Kanema come from an IPTV playlist, or from an HDHomeRun tuner or a Tvheadend server on your home network.

How it plays

Kanema plays each file from your server as it is, without asking Plex to convert it: VLC opens nearly anything a library holds. Choose Apple’s own player in Settings and the files it can open play there, with HDR10 and Dolby Vision; for the rest, Plex repackages the stream for Apple’s player without converting the picture. On Apple Vision Pro, Kanema always plays through VLC.

A film’s page shows 4K, HDR10, Dolby Vision and Atmos when Plex’s media information says so. With Kanema Pro, Skip intro and Skip credits appear where Plex has marked them.

At home and away

Kanema tries your server’s home addresses first, then its remote ones, and Plex’s relay last. If the server’s address changes, Kanema finds it again through plex.tv.

Plex’s own rules for playing away from home still apply. When Plex wants a Plex Pass or a Remote Watch Pass before it sends a file, Kanema tells you so rather than failing without a word.

On the Mac and everywhere else

Adding Plex looks the same on every device: on a Mac it’s File › Add Playlist, then Plex, Jellyfin or Emby. A Plex server counts as a playlist. The free version holds one, so Plex on its own is free; Kanema Pro lets you keep Plex beside an IPTV playlist or another server, and syncs them to your other devices through iCloud.

Kanema isn’t made by Plex and isn’t connected to it.

Free and Pro, feature by feature

Adding a server on a MacBook Air: Plex, Jellyfin and Emby to choose from, a Sign in with Plex button, and a note that Kanema signs in through plex.tv, so your Plex password never reaches it.

It doesn’t come with channels

Kanema plays the playlist you add from your own provider, and nothing else. Only add services you’re entitled to use.