Poster Display for Plex

Why this exists

If you've ever wanted a dedicated "now playing" poster display next to your home theater (or just a rotating digital art frame fed by your own Plex library), today's options are surprisingly limited.

devMikeFrancis/digital-movie-poster is a great open-source project, but it needs a dedicated computer or Raspberry Pi wired to the TV.
PosterBox is a polished commercial app, but it doesn't run on Roku — leaving every Roku TV owner without a native option.

Most of us already have a Roku stick or a Roku TV sitting in the living room. This project fills that gap: install the channel, point it at your Plex server, and the TV does the rest. No extra hardware, no second device, no PC running in the background.

Features

Live now-playing poster

Polls Plex every 15 seconds for the current session and shows the artwork. TV episodes get the series poster with a small episode thumbnail overlay.

Random carousel mode

Cycle randomly through your whole Plex library every 30 seconds. Pause, advance, or filter by content rating — or hide individual items with a Plex label.

Four view modes

Landscape Fit, Landscape Fill, Portrait Fit, Portrait Fill. Mount the TV vertically and the channel auto-rotates content to fit, with a flip option for either mount direction.

Theater-style "Now Playing" border

Optional marquee frame with retro lights, gold trim, and a dynamic "NOW PLAYING" sign showing the actual show or movie name.

Customizable poster matte

Toggle a thick black gallery-style matte around the portrait poster. Pairs nicely with vertical wall mounts.

Progress bar color picker

Pick from a 12-color palette — Orange, Red, Amber, Yellow, Lime, Green, Teal, Cyan, Blue, Indigo, Purple, or Pink.

Info overlay with live clock

Toggleable status strip with content-rating icon, title, year, progress bar, current and total runtime, and a wall clock.

Auto Plex discovery

First-time setup scans your local network for Plex Media Servers using GDM, so you can pick from a list instead of typing an IP.

Smooth transitions

Pick between Abrupt, Fade, or Slide animations for poster changes — applies in both carousel and live now-playing modes.

How to install

The channel isn't in the Roku Store yet, so you'll sideload it in Developer Mode. Takes about five minutes.

Enable Developer Mode on your Roku. On your Roku remote press: Home × 3, Up × 2, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right. Follow the prompts to set a developer username/password and note your Roku's IP address.
Grab the sideload zip. From the GitHub repo, clone the project and run ./package.sh, or download a pre-built poster-display-for-plex.zip from the latest release.
Upload the zip. Open http://<your-roku-ip> in a browser, sign in with the developer credentials you set, and use the Upload button to install the zip.
Launch and configure. The channel appears on your Roku home screen. On first launch, press OK on the visible Settings button. The app scans your network for Plex servers — pick yours and enter your Plex token. How to find your token →
Start playing something. Within ~15 seconds the poster appears on the TV. Press * or Left on the remote any time to open the Settings menu.

Hardware support

Works on any Roku TV directly, or on any television connected to a Roku streaming stick or box. Designed for 1080p output; the channel renders crisply on 4K Roku devices too.

Mount the TV in landscape or vertically — the channel rotates content to fit either orientation, with a flip option for left-mount or right-mount portrait setups.