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Plex Tripling Lifetime Plex Pass Price to $750 in July

LIVEFRMNYC said:
I paid $60 for mines years ago.

The only real noticeable benefit for me is the use of Dashboard, which is useful for me.

I can't imagine paying $700+ for a lifetime pass. 🤯.
I would pay $150 tops.
Click to expand...

I don't even know if I would do $150 at this point with other free options out there such as Jellyfin... Don't get me wrong, I love my Plex setup... but if they change their minds on the whole "lifetime" thing or start pushing more ads and stuff that I can't disable, I will start looking. To be fair, I am already looking at Jellyfin for my movies... Music is still with Plexamp.
 
rhett7660 said:
I don't even know if I would do $150 at this point with other free options out there such as Jellyfin... Don't get me wrong, I love my Plex setup... but if they change their minds on the whole "lifetime" thing or start pushing more ads and stuff that I can't disable, I will start looking. To be fair, I am already looking at Jellyfin for my movies... Music is still with Plexamp.
Click to expand...
What ads in Plex can you not disable? I see no ads, but I don’t use Plex’s media, I only playback my own; is that the only difference, and why you are seeing ads?

My issue with JF is remote viewing. It’s that simple. If they could integrate SSO infrastructure I’d give it another go; I’ve got the package fully deployed and ready to spin up again anytime…
 
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image.png

https://pixelbrite.site

Save your money, something better is about to drop.
TL;DR Native Apple TV, iOS and macOS apps. (Native as in native, not another janky web app :coughplexocughcough)

Not only can you stream remotely, the native apps utilize a QUIC connection that survives wifi/cellular handoffs. You don't even need to configure port forwarding.
 
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Kar98 said:
If I WANTED to be limited to one ecosystem, I could have gone all out with Apple Music and TV.
Click to expand...
Software can be additive; pointing it at your filesystem doesn't take anything else away.

The server and web app run on any platform [and utilize hardware acceleration, if available].
I have not yet implemented a native Android client yet, but I intend to do so. I can only do so much in a day. And this is macrumors.com.
 
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jmonster said:
Software can be additive; pointing it at your filesystem doesn't take anything else away.

The server and web app run on any platform [and utilize hardware acceleration, if available].
I have not yet implemented a native Android client yet, but I intend to do so. I can only do so much in a day. And this is macrumors.com.
Click to expand...
Costs?
Server requirements?
Client requirements?
Testing? Availability?
 
jmonster said:
Software can be additive; pointing it at your filesystem doesn't take anything else away.

The server and web app run on any platform [and utilize hardware acceleration, if available].
I have not yet implemented a native Android client yet, but I intend to do so. I can only do so much in a day. And this is macrumors.com.
Click to expand...
My reply sounded a lot harsher than it was meant to be. My apologies. Any indy project is better than giving into the giants.
 
foo2 said:
Costs?
Server requirements?
Client requirements?
Testing? Availability?
Click to expand...
  • Free with premium features to come later. For example, automatic captioning (via audio transcription running in real-time while you watch the video) ... things like that.
  • Remote streaming is included; gatekeeping that is silly.
  • Server access works over http.
  • Browser support is any browser that supports HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
  • Native Apple support is iOS 16, macOS 13.3, and tvOS 17
  • Server access also works over a direct QUIC connection maintained between the client and the server. (This connection survives cellular/wifi handoffs. In contrast, I have to force quite the Plexamp music anytime I leave home because it can't reconcile the network change.)
  • Server: My personal instance is idle using 95MB of ram right now. It's a compiled app with hardware acceleration (nvidia, apple silicon, etc).
  • Client: Browser: Video playback streams to the browser via HLS. Any browser supporting HLS should work.
  • If anyone reports a device that Plex runs on and this cannot, that is a bug, and I will fix it.
If you're interested in early access just let me know.
It's not live yet because I want things to be polished. There will be a live demo and such so you can explore the web app without installing anything.
 
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jmonster said:
  • Free with premium features to come later. For example, automatic captioning (via audio transcription running in real-time while you watch the video) ... things like that.
  • Remote streaming is included; gatekeeping that is silly.
  • Server access works over http.
  • Browser support is any browser that supports HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
  • Native Apple support is iOS 16, macOS 13.3, and tvOS 17
  • Server access also works over a direct QUIC connection maintained between the client and the server. (This connection survives cellular/wifi handoffs. In contrast, I have to force quite the Plexamp music anytime I leave home because it can't reconcile the network change.)
  • Server: My personal instance is idle using 95MB of ram right now. It's a compiled app with hardware acceleration (nvidia, apple silicon, etc).
  • Client: Browser: Video playback streams to the browser via HLS. Any browser supporting HLS should work.
  • If anyone reports a device that Plex runs on and this cannot, that is a bug, and I will fix it.
If you're interested in early access just let me know.
It's not live yet because I want things to be polished. There will be a live demo and such so you can explore the web app without installing anything.
Click to expand...
My Plex server (with Infuse frontend) resides on my Synology NAS and streams to my Apple TV's. How would that work running your software, especially for remote viewing?
 
kevin12 said:
Infuse is just a frontend, it has no need to integrate with Tailscale.

Just create a Tailscale exit node that’s on the same network as your Plex backend and advertise your local subnet with it.

Connect to Tailscale, select your new exit node, open Infuse and watch media just like you would locally.
Click to expand...
I made my Apple TV my Exit Node. When I tried to set up a subnet via Tailscale, it wouldn't work and I don't know why.
 
I really like Plex and bought a "Lifetime" Plex pass for $79 several years ago. I will not buy a second "Lifetime" pass. Never. If Plex tries to screw me, I'll switch to Jellyfin.

Perhaps Plex could operate more affordably if it'd discontinue the free channels it recently added. You know, the channels that are the same as the free channels on all the other platforms - the ones riddled with commercial after commercial - the ones that nobody watches.
 
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Apple_Robert said:
My Plex server (with Infuse frontend) resides on my Synology NAS and streams to my Apple TV's. How would that work running your software, especially for remote viewing?
Click to expand...
I'm coming from Infuse+Plex myself.

There will be a Plex migration that bootstraps your Pixel Brite server and copies file matches, watch history, etc. Or you can point it at a folder of files and it'll automatically match them itself.

Installation is a single binary and it's database. So if you don't like it, it's easy to delete.

You can access your server over http/https, but the native apps (and server) maintain a direct connection that survives cellular/wifi handoffs. This makes it trivial to access your library remotely without fussing with networking. (It's similar to how Tailscale works, but doesn't use Tailscale)

Pixel Brite defaults to original/full quality, but you can set it to 'Auto' and it'll drop to the best quality it can sustain on your network.

There is also SFTP and Samba/SMB support (and Google and iCloud and local folders). You could thus skip the Pixel Brite server altogether (with trade offs). It also works as a document viewer, so it can replace VLC opening arbitrary video files on your mac.

Sharing is also a thing. My UX for that is to aggregate all the content into one combined library view, but I'll make it optional if there is a desire to keep them separated. Accounts are on a per-server basis -- this has been intentionally designed to emphasize it's YOUR server/data/etc and I can't access it.

Did I mention Dolby Vision? 🫣
 
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jmonster said:
  • Free with premium features to come later. For example, automatic captioning (via audio transcription running in real-time while you watch the video) ... things like that.
  • Remote streaming is included; gatekeeping that is silly.
  • Server access works over http.
  • Browser support is any browser that supports HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
  • Native Apple support is iOS 16, macOS 13.3, and tvOS 17
  • Server access also works over a direct QUIC connection maintained between the client and the server. (This connection survives cellular/wifi handoffs. In contrast, I have to force quite the Plexamp music anytime I leave home because it can't reconcile the network change.)
  • Server: My personal instance is idle using 95MB of ram right now. It's a compiled app with hardware acceleration (nvidia, apple silicon, etc).
  • Client: Browser: Video playback streams to the browser via HLS. Any browser supporting HLS should work.
  • If anyone reports a device that Plex runs on and this cannot, that is a bug, and I will fix it.
If you're interested in early access just let me know.
It's not live yet because I want things to be polished. There will be a live demo and such so you can explore the web app without installing anything.
Click to expand...
I'm interested in early access, specifically docker for server (Intel QSV) and AppleTV 4k on client side.

Plex migration (side by side running both for the time being I imagine) sounds great.
 
jmonster said:
You can access your server over http/https, but the native apps (and server) maintain a direct connection that survives cellular/wifi handoffs. This makes it trivial to access your library remotely without fussing with networking. (It's similar to how Tailscale works, but doesn't use Tailscale)

Pixel Brite defaults to original/full quality, but you can set it to 'Auto' and it'll drop to the best quality it can sustain on your network. This is something that Infuse doesn't offer.

There is also SFTP and Samba/SMB support (and Google and iCloud and local folders). You could thus skip the Pixel Brite server altogether (with trade offs). It also works as a document viewer, so it can replace VLC opening arbitrary video files on your mac.

Sharing is also a thing. My UX for that is to aggregate all the content into one combined library view, but I'll make it optional if there is a desire to keep them separated.
Click to expand...
So if grandma's on her AppleTV in another state, how would she connect to my PixelBrite server exactly?
 
Will there be early bird discounts offered for premium / pro version? Will pricing be similar to that of Infuse? I am definitely intrigued with this Pixelbrite option. A lot of big claims being made.
 
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jmonster said:
I'm coming from Infuse+Plex myself.

There will be a Plex migration that bootstraps your Pixel Brite server and copies file matches, watch history, etc. Or you can point it at a folder of files and it'll automatically match them itself.

Installation is a single binary and it's database. So if you don't like it, it's easy to delete.

You can access your server over http/https, but the native apps (and server) maintain a direct connection that survives cellular/wifi handoffs. This makes it trivial to access your library remotely without fussing with networking. (It's similar to how Tailscale works, but doesn't use Tailscale)

Pixel Brite defaults to original/full quality, but you can set it to 'Auto' and it'll drop to the best quality it can sustain on your network.

There is also SFTP and Samba/SMB support (and Google and iCloud and local folders). You could thus skip the Pixel Brite server altogether (with trade offs). It also works as a document viewer, so it can replace VLC opening arbitrary video files on your mac.

Sharing is also a thing. My UX for that is to aggregate all the content into one combined library view, but I'll make it optional if there is a desire to keep them separated. Accounts are on a per-server basis -- this has been intentionally designed to emphasize it's YOUR server/data/etc and I can't access it.

Did I mention Dolby Vision? 🫣
Click to expand...
This is very interesting. Is it a fork of something else or did you write all this code yourself?
 
foo2 said:
So if grandma's on her AppleTV in another state, how would she connect to my PixelBrite server exactly?
Click to expand...

If grandma has an iPhone,
  • she installs the iOS app on her phone
  • You send her an invitation via text, email, whatever medium you choose. This invitation encodes the necessary information to connect back to your server. It's a single use invite.
  • That link opens the pixelbrite app ony our device and automatically complete the peering process. Her device will be able to connect to your server. She's half-way in -- it's the equivalent of you accessing your server on localhost:6262
  • Now she'll either login to an existing Pixel Brite account on your server, or create a new one
  • via iCloud syncing, her AppleTV will peer + authenticate with the pixel brite server and _just work_ as well
If she doesn't have an iPhone, she'll have to wait for me to implement another AppleTV flow 😀

I realize one size doesn't fit all, you don't necessarily want all your devices in sync, -- this is just where it is today. We (community) can prioritize these features together if there's interest
 
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jmonster said:
If grandma has an iPhone,
  • she installs the iOS app on her phone
  • You send her an invitation via text, email, whatever medium you choose. This invitation encodes the necessary information to connect back to your server. It's a single use invite.
  • That link opens the pixelbrite app ony our device and automatically complete the peering process. Her device will be able to connect to your server. She's half-way in -- it's the equivalent of you accessing your server on localhost:6262
  • Now she'll either login to an existing Pixel Brite account on your server, or create a new one
  • via iCloud syncing, her AppleTV will peer + authenticate with the pixel brite server and _just work_ as well
If she doesn't have an iPhone, she'll have to wait for me to implement another AppleTV flow 😀

I realize one size doesn't fit all, you don't necessarily want all your devices in sync, -- this is just where it is today. We (community) can prioritize these features together if there's interest
Click to expand...
What are the network (firewall, ports open, etc.) requirements for this?
 
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