Follow this step-by-step guide to stream media from your PC to your Wii U using the Plex Media Server. Things You Need A high-speed internet connection.

A computer running Windows (XP SP3 or later), Mac OS X (Snow Leopard or higher), Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, or CentOS), or something called FreeBSD.

A wireless router and a Wii U configured to use it.

01 of 05 Install Software and Register a Plex Account Plex Inc. Download the Plex Media Server to your computer from https://plex.tv/downloads, then install it. Go to https://plex.tv. Click Sign Up and register.

02 of 05 Configure Plex Media Server Plex, Inc. Start Plex on your computer if it’s not already running. Open the media manager. If you’re using Windows, start Plex, then find the Plex icon in the bottom right part of the taskbar (a yellow arrow on a black background), right-click it, then click on Media Manager. If you’re using a Mac, click on Launchpad to access the Plex icon, then run it. The Media Manager will open up in your default browser; Plex does pretty much everything through the browser. The first time you start the media manager, you will be sent to a set up wizard which will allow you to name your server and set up your library. Whether you use the wizard or set up your libraries later by clicking on add a section in the main page’s My Library box, you will be asked to choose whether this section is for “Movies,” “TV Shows,” “Music,” “Photos,” or “Home Movies.” This will determine what files show in that library section. Even if you have a single folder containing all your media, your Movies folder will only find and show movies, your TV Shows folder will only find and show TV series, etc. If the Plex media scanner doesn’t recognize the naming convention (usually, for example, TV series need to be named something like “Go.on.S01E05.HDTV”) then it won’t list the video in that section. The Home Movies category, on the other hand, shows all videos in all folders specified, regardless of title; so a Home Movies section creates an easy way to access videos you don’t want to bother renaming. After you choose a category, add one or more folders that contain your media. If you’re using Windows, be warned that the “browse folders” interface won’t show “My Documents” on the top level; you need to know how to navigate the Windows file folder structure to find the file you want. Alternatively, you can just create a media folder in the C: root drive. After adding sections, Plex will scan the folders and add the appropriate media to each section, attaching descriptions and images and other details. This can take a while, so wait until there’s something in your library before you go on to the next step.

03 of 05 Go to Plex With Your Wii U Browser Plex, Inc. Make sure the Plex Media Server is running on your computer. Also make sure you have signed into the Plex Media Server at least once using your myPlex account, which will add it to the servers linked to that account. Turn on your Wii U and open up the Wii U Internet browser. Go to https://plex.tv. Sign in. It should go right to your server, assuming you only have one. If it doesn't, just click Launch at the top.

04 of 05 Browse Plex Browse Plex. Plex. Inc. Now it’s time to watch something. Go to one of your media sections and you’ll see a list of shows. There are three categories: “All” means everything in that section, “On Deck” means things you’ve already started watching, and “Recently Added” means just that. When “All” is selected you’ll see a black bar to the right that when clicked on gives you access to filters. For example, you can display TV Shows by Show or Episode. In Show, you have to drill down for an individual episode (choose the show, then the season, then the episode) whereas in Episode you click on an episode and can immediately play it. You can filter and sort in a variety of ways. When you choose a video, you’ll see some information, including the type of audio encoding. AAC audio seems to work best; other audio formats seem to run a little more sluggish. At first, only AAC would work on Plex but that's been fixed. Once you find your video, you can change the audio track or turn on subtitles if you wish. Then just click on play and watch it. The first time you play a video it might give you a choice of speeds to stream it at. I chose the highest speed it offered, and that worked just fine.