$ show iBaa/PlexConnect
PlexConnect is a deprecated Python 2 application that enables Apple TV 2 and 3 to act as Plex clients by intercepting DNS requests for the Trailers app and serving a custom XML-based UI that displays content from a Plex Media Server. The architecture consists of a standalone DNS server (DNSServer.py) and an HTTP/HTTPS web server (WebServer.py) running as separate processes. The core innovation is a custom XML template engine (XMLConverter.py) that transforms Plex API responses into Apple TV-compatible XML using commands like COPY, CUT, VAL, and EVAL. The project also includes JavaScript for the Apple TV UI, subtitle conversion (Subtitle.py), and on-demand fanart generation (PILBackgrounds.py). While the code demonstrates non-trivial engineering for its era, it is tightly coupled to Python 2, outdated Apple TV firmware, and lacks modern security practices. The repository has not been updated since 2015 and is no longer maintained.
The LLM identified 5 files worth highlighting for reuse:
A custom XML template engine that transforms source XML (Plex Media Server responses) into target XML (Apple TV UI) using embedded template commands. Supports iteration (COPY), conditional inclusion (CUT), value insertion (VAL), expression evaluation (EVAL), URL construction (URL), and image URL processing (IMAGEURL). This is a reusable pattern for any project requiring bidirectional or schema-mapped XML conversion with minimal code changes.
A standalone DNS server that intercepts queries for a specific domain (default trailers.apple.com) and returns a custom IP address. Implements a full UDP DNS server using dnslib, with query logging and selective forwarding. Can be extracted and reused for any DNS hijacking scenario (e.g., ad-blocking, local development) with minimal modification.
A Python module providing a clean interface for discovering Plex Media Servers via GDM (multicast), authenticating with MyPlex, fetching library metadata, and generating transcoding URLs for video and audio. The class structure and method signatures are well-organized and could serve as a reusable library for any Python application needing to interact with Plex Media Server.
A self-contained utility that parses SRT subtitle files and converts them to a timestamped JSON structure compatible with Apple TV's subtitle rendering. The code is simple, well-commented, and can be extracted and reused in any project requiring SRT parsing and transformation to a JSON format.
An image processing module that downloads fanart images from Plex, applies blur and resize operations, overlays a gradient, and caches the results. Demonstrates a pattern for on-demand image generation with file-based caching. The logic is self-contained and can be adapted for other applications needing similar background image processing.