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I picked up a Lifetime PlexPass back when they were $75. Best purchase I've made in a long time. It's still worth it, even at twice the price. I use Plex almost every day, and the media syncing is fantastic for when I'm going to be out of reasonably-priced data range (ie, flying, rural areas, etc).

Do I have to connect my content to a computer that is 24hrs online or can I just store it on a USB drive and stick it into my router?

I don't have a PC that is always online for remote access
 
Do I have to connect my content to a computer that is 24hrs online or can I just store it on a USB drive and stick it into my router?

I don't have a PC that is always online for remote access

Yeah you need to have a computer that is on if you want to access. Also depending on the file type this may need to be quite powerful if the client needs a transcoded file (likely if going over the Internet).
 
Yeah you need to have a computer that is on if you want to access. Also depending on the file type this may need to be quite powerful if the client needs a transcoded file (likely if going over the Internet).
Quite powerful is subjective these days.

An example would be...

Qnap quad core celeron NAS will transcode multi 1080p streams

Qnap core i3 NAS will transcode 4K.
 
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Quite powerful is subjective these days.

An example would be...

Qnap quad core celeron NAS will transcode multi 1080p streams

Qnap core i3 NAS will transcode 4K.

I guess, but you could build a considerably better NAS for a lot less than the asking price of the Qnap.
 
Wow... so much love for Plex in here. Makes me feel like I'm missing something. Then I remember the hell I went through trying to install it, get it running, and the worse time I had uninstalling it.


Yup, I had the same experience. Back in the day, it use to work, but now there's a lot of connectivity issues with iOS. It's a bit of a mess IMO.
 
I tried watching Star Wars from my Mac mini to ps4 using plex over gigabit Ethernet and it was glitchy. I ran it directly from the Mac mini using Mac media player and it was fine. I don't know what was the fault. Direct play back still seems better for me. I have a Mac mini and a ps4 hooked up to my 1080p projector.
 
I was close to buy the lifetime subscription once until they suddenly within a week after looking at it raised the prices by around 100% ...

Together with the weak Australian dollar after a while it was around 160% more since I first looked into it.
I would love to pay a bit for the software (but not that amount or an subscription). Ah well ... the free version is nice enough.
 
Plex is pretty sweet. I'm running it on an old pentium 4 Linux box and it transcodes without a problem to all my devices. Never had a plex pass because sync is the only feature I think I'd use. What's the feature that got you to get a Plex pass?
 
The install was completely unsuccessful, and uninstalling was even worse. <snip> I just can't see why its such an attraction.
Sorry you had such a negative experience. You are the first person I've heard of that had problems. Even installing Plex Server on my Linux machine was a breeze. If you need help uninstalling, PM me and I can tell you where all the files are located so you can cleanly uninstall. (No, I don't work for Plex, I'm just a fan and a Mac user.)

It's attractive to me to be able to host movies and TV shows in one place and play it anywhere -- Roku boxes around the house, PS3/PS4 systems, ALL my iDevices, and the ability to cache shows locally on the iDevice. This allows me to play my kid's favorite shows in restaurants that have no WiFi/4G signal, or watch a movie on the airplane.
 
It's attractive to me to be able to host movies and TV shows in one place and play it anywhere -- Roku boxes around the house, PS3/PS4 systems, ALL my iDevices, and the ability to cache shows locally on the iDevice. This allows me to play my kid's favorite shows in restaurants that have no WiFi/4G signal, or watch a movie on the airplane.

I guess the range of devices you have would make a universal host more attractive. My house is one hundred percent Apple technology, so Plex really has nothing to offer me over iTunes Home Sharing.

... and you've got a PM, btw.
 
Sorry you had such a negative experience. You are the first person I've heard of that had problems. Even installing Plex Server on my Linux machine was a breeze. If you need help uninstalling, PM me and I can tell you where all the files are located so you can cleanly uninstall. (No, I don't work for Plex, I'm just a fan and a Mac user.)

It's attractive to me to be able to host movies and TV shows in one place and play it anywhere -- Roku boxes around the house, PS3/PS4 systems, ALL my iDevices, and the ability to cache shows locally on the iDevice. This allows me to play my kid's favorite shows in restaurants that have no WiFi/4G signal, or watch a movie on the airplane.


the basic app is very attractive to me, to provide as you say streaming all round the house, plus the cataloging stuff, downloading the covers, giving summaries, remembering what you've watched etc.....


i have paid some small costs, the android and iOS apps but the membership is too much for me, given that there are many cheater just as good ways to copy movies for offline viewing.
 
What do you guys use as Plex Media Servers? Plex looks great, but the thought of having to maintain a decently-spec'd computer or NAS is off-putting. With Infuse on Apple TV, I can just keep everything on my Wi-Fi hard drive and not have to worry about leaving my MacBook running as a server.

It doesn't take much. I was running mine off an extra 2008 Macbook until a couple months ago, when I bought a refurbished Dell Optiplex 580 on sale for $80 (Search on tanga.com; I think the deal is still running).
You could run it as-is as a Windows box, but I installed Ubuntu and stuck my 3 TB external drive inside it, too. Smooth as butter!
 
What do you guys use as Plex Media Servers? Plex looks great, but the thought of having to maintain a decently-spec'd computer or NAS is off-putting. With Infuse on Apple TV, I can just keep everything on my Wi-Fi hard drive and not have to worry about leaving my MacBook running as a server.

Could you explain your setup a bit? I looked at the Infuse website and though it was heavy on features, it didn't explain implementation. Especially how they can offer a version for the ATV2, which I thought couldn't take apps without being hacked.
 
Could you explain your setup a bit? I looked at the Infuse website and though it was heavy on features, it didn't explain implementation. Especially how they can offer a version for the ATV2, which I thought couldn't take apps without being hacked.
I believe Infuse for the ATV2 is limited to jailbroken devices. I've never used that version, so I can't really speak to it.

I use Infuse Pro ($9.99 app purchase) on a new 4th-gen Apple TV. I have a 3TB hard drive connected via USB to my Linksys EA7500 router. When I initially set up Infuse, it automatically detected the hard drive on my network. All I had to do was enter my router password and choose my "Movies" and "TV Shows" folders as favorites to automatically appear on the main screen. Infuse plays all of my files seamlessly, especially after the latest update which fixed a lot of playback issues. I have mostly 1080p .MKV files ripped from my Blu-ray collection. Infuse does all of the decoding on the Apple TV, so I don't have to worry about running a dedicated server.

The development team is actively involved with its users and implements new features based on community feedback. If you're looking for an alternative to Plex, definitely check out Infuse! :)
 
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