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Plex Tripling Lifetime Plex Pass Price to $750 in July
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Analog Kid
macrumors G3
What is Plex doing to justify these rates? The iPad downloader is crap, there’s no organization of what you pull down. The DTS audio playback has been broken well over a year. The app itself seems more interested in competing with Netflix than managing my personal library any more.
This is now the leading example of how “subscriptions motivate developers” is bunk.
This is now the leading example of how “subscriptions motivate developers” is bunk.
You don’t have to — it’s for the more advanced features. You can Use Plex for free just fine without Plex Pass.
zilchfox
macrumors 6502
rhett7660
macrumors G5
Interesting. I use the iOS Musicstreamer App for that, but I don't play music when I'm away from home. That could be useful. It would be like my own private Spotify with no fees. Looks like they offer that using iCloud.
MusicStreamer - Stream Music Files From your Network to iOS
Stream your music files from your pc or media drive to your iPhone over WiFi or download your MP3s for offline listening. MusicStreamer - FREE TRIALwww.stratospherix.com
To me, it's still nice to not have to run a server or be tied in to any system or software. These are just mp3 files in a folder, and if Musicstreamer goes away, they can still be accessed in a number of different ways (can currently access them through Finder on my Mac, Roku media player, and GoogleTV media player) though the latter don't offer custom playlists as they are TV interfaces, with the ability to also play music.
Do you have to pay for some type of static dns service to stream music remotely from your home?
This is the funny part, Plex used to be free for streaming outside your network. Then it was put behind the subscription. The subscription, like a lot of folks here, purchased the lifetime subscription when Plex would have their sales. Usually 50%, I believe I paid $50 a long time ago for a lifetime subscription. So when they started putting items behind the subscription, it didn't bother me as I had already paid and was using said items. There are more items with the subscription, just using this one item as the example.
Having an app on your phone, iPad, or computer such as Plexamp, allowed you to stream music and then the Plex app allowed you to stream movies, etc to your devices outside your network. Which is huge as you now have all your media in the palm of your hand.
Creating dynamic playlists based on your music's tags and data allows you to create playlists that are dynamic so when you add new music, based on the music info it will automatically load it into the dynamic playlists. There is also feature in Plexamp called Guest DJ Mode... and between the two (either one, Guest DJ is pretty freaking cool) you pretty much have your own spotify.
Depending on the size of your library, these items are game changers, at least for me, with how I listen to music.
When it comes to movies, I use Infuse on my AppleTV via direct connect to my network folders.
So much DRAMA. It's free in case you didn't know but since you don't, I doubt it was ever really in your future.
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Do you own a business? Let me tell you how it works...you need income every month. No business makes a profit on lifetime subscriptions. This is Plex's way of discontinuing lifetime subscriptions without actually getting rid of them. You want it bad enough, then pay $750. If you don't, then subscribe and Plex has a stream of recurring income. Welcome to the subscription model. It's not desperation, it's profit.
Isn't it the same process viewing content on a tv through Plex vs accessing a shared folder on your router?
How to use Roku Media Player to play your videos, music and photos | Official Roku Support
Use Roku Media Player to view a variety of video, music, and photo formats from a network-attached DLNA media server or USB drive installed in your Roku device.
support.roku.com
Roku Media Player is actually a frontend for Plex... Or for a shared network drive. You open the app and either click sda1 or Plex. I don't see what Plex is giving you that a non-proprietary software with a constantly running server solution doesn't give. Is it artwork and a prettier interface?
With both it is a 2 click process. Click the Media Player App and choose your source (network share or Plex) and there are your files. Either way it's the same process. You scroll down to the name of the file you want to watch and click OK and then it plays. Simple as. No re-encoding either with the network drive.
I can see how Plex can be good for music. But Grandma aint gonna be listening to tunes on her tv!
Which requires PlexPass for remote streaming, so how is anything (meaning, the remote streaming question) better with Infuse?
No, not at all.Isn't it the same process viewing content on a tv through Plex vs accessing a shared folder on your router?
How to use Roku Media Player to play your videos, music and photos | Official Roku Support
Use Roku Media Player to view a variety of video, music, and photo formats from a network-attached DLNA media server or USB drive installed in your Roku device.
Roku Media Player is actually a frontend for Plex... Or for a shared network drive. You open the app and either click sda1 or Plex. I don't see what Plex is giving you that a non-proprietary software with a constantly running server solution doesn't give. Is it artwork and a prettier interface?
With both it is a 2 click process. Click the Media Player App and choose your source (network share or Plex) and there are your files. Either way it's the same process. You scroll down to the name of the file you want to watch and click OK and then it plays. Simple as. No re-encoding either with the network drive.
I can see how Plex can be good for music. But Grandma aint gonna be listening to tunes on her tv!
Please re-read my question: "Tell your grandma, with only an LG TV, how to gain access to all your media and have exactly the same interface and everything else to what you have locally."
In other words, Grandma is 500 miles away on an LG TV of her own and says "So what do I do?". With Plex, key in name/password, and it's done.
How would she access your router? Securely, mind you. 🙂 LG TV can't use Tailscale. How would you do it?
"Local playback" is easy. There are a billion applications for good local playback. The _remote_ playback (and 4k transcoding, and a few other things) is where Plex earns the money.
deckard666
macrumors 65816
For my dad using Plex remotely from my mac it's the subtitles and the myriad of display / fonts / text he can have....plus the ease of use navigating my 8tb media with great title details and even blurring out possible spoilers there....
gigatoaster
macrumors 68000
Of course, if you set up tail scale, then Infuse will have access to your Plex server locally, so no plexpass is then required. That's a characteristic of tail scale, not an infuse feature. I could just as soon credit Safari/Chrome as a playback device. 🙂
Now, share how you'd get that done on Grandma's LG TV.
This is the value add for Plex. Sure, some might not need it if they want to hack around tail scale and then appropriate exit node on their local network, but for everyone else, there's PlexPass.
gigatoaster
macrumors 68000
I don’t use PLEX and only you knows your grandma, not a stranger on internet.
I never liked PLEX and never understood the value add for my use-case: watching movies & TV shows downloaded via Torrent.
My setup is very simple & works flawlessly with a Mac mini M1 & Apple TV. I installed webDAV NAV Server, clicked one button, point to my Torrent folder and that’s it. On Apple TV, I added a share folder using webDAV. It took me 3 minutes.
I never liked PLEX and never understood the value add for my use-case: watching movies & TV shows downloaded via Torrent.
My setup is very simple & works flawlessly with a Mac mini M1 & Apple TV. I installed webDAV NAV Server, clicked one button, point to my Torrent folder and that’s it. On Apple TV, I added a share folder using webDAV. It took me 3 minutes.
Yes, again, for local playback, there are a billion solutions.
For remote playback, short of becoming a network hacker and/or having a router set up with tailscale, it's a completely different story.
That's the value of plex(pass). If you don't play back remotely, none of this will matter to you; just use free plex or any of a million other solutions.
fenderbass146
macrumors 68000
Vinyl music and video phsyical media are apples and oranges...no one is buying laser discs for nostaliga in mass numbers.Not in my house, and not in many others. If anything, it's gotten cheaper than ever to buy movies for <$10 at Wal Mart than rent them for a few hours on some streaming platform.
I don't even have vinyl, but:
Blew my mind when I first heard it a few years ago, but it's true. And even higher today than in 2022.
That said, of course the behavior of the industry is pushing people towards more piracy. I personally will do physical ownership or piracy before streaming or subscriptions.
Plex running under Linux Mint on a micro PC, Plex app running on XBox Series X connected to TV.
More convenient even than using physical disks.
netwalker
macrumors regular
Similar insane price range as the Roon lifetime license that asks $829.99 so that I can hear my own music.
I bough Plex lifetime many years ago. Since then they’ve been adding things I didn’t ask for and am not using. Still using the Plex server but not the client on AppleTV due to frequent technical issues.
I bough Plex lifetime many years ago. Since then they’ve been adding things I didn’t ask for and am not using. Still using the Plex server but not the client on AppleTV due to frequent technical issues.
LogicalApex
macrumors 68000
I own both Plex and Infuse lifetiime setups.
Infuse is great at playing videos. Has Plex beat hands down on that front. But Plex has a better UI (at least IMHO) and it has features that Infuse lacks. So it all depends on how you use the two apps honestly. In my case, I use Infuse connected to my Plex library.
LogicalApex
macrumors 68000
To be fair, that's the story of tech all around. We all do things differently as we're all optimizing for different things. The only right answer is that we're doing what works best for us individually and not imposing our choices on others.
Plex gives you a modern streaming like experience. So that's going to be rich metadata, resume anywhere, skipping intros, remote streaming by you and/or friends, etc.
But not every shares their library with others or cares to have metadata they didn't add and/or any host of reasons.
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.
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.
Cave Man
macrumors 604
Cave Man
macrumors 604
By chance, do you use the webOS version of Jellyfin? If so, how fast is it to load? Plex on webOS is really slow.
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