Tech Talks
A Small View on Plex And The Plex Pass
A Few Thoughts on The Experience
Nowadays, having a media server is a relatively common thing. Over the years, I used Plex on and off, when I felt like it, or as I found cable TV uninteresting at times. For the most part, I’d use it on my PC or laptop.
Once I built a dedicated server, I needed something that would allow me to stream my media from different devices, TV, phone, media player.
Of course, I knew what Plex was capable of, and I liked the product, so I made myself a Plex media server.
How’s The Experience Been
I initially used it to stream TV content and organize my media files. It was great for what I was using it for on my TV. The free version worked as well, and I was a happy user.
It wasn’t long until I wanted to have access from my phone. I installed the Android app and started watching. After 1 minute, it would stop, and it was actually annoying. I first believed there was something wrong, but there wasn’t. I needed a Plex Pass. So, I needed to pay to get more.
I wasn’t overly excited at that moment. I didn’t really want to pay for another service. I like free and open-source apps(who doesn’t). It got me thinking if it was worth it. I was busy with other stuff for a while, so I didn’t take any action for a few weeks.
When I got some free time and analyzed all the benefits, a few stood out. I could remove the limitations from my mobile apps and have fully managed accounts for my family. There’s also DVR recording, lyrics finder, and early access to various other things, but I didn’t care so much for those.
There’s also the fact that I could support the developers so they can further improve the app, so why not give it a try for a few months.
The Plex Pass
For 5€ a month, or 40€ a year, I think it is worth it, especially if you have your entire family using it. It will depend on your usage. Give the free version a try first, and then decide if you need more from it. If you do, you can easily buy a subscription.
I’m still thinking of the lifetime pass, which is 120€.
Having a Plex server with a Plex Pass subscription, along with one or two other streaming services such as Netflix or Disney+ will undoubtedly make you cancel your cable TV. You will effectively pay the same money for it. Unless you are keeping it for specific channels in your country, it will not be worth it.
You will have both Live TV and more content than you could ever consume. All you need is time.
For your TV shows, you also have the option to Skip Intros, which I discovered later on and I think is a very cool feature. Hardware transcoding is handy if you have a lot of movies that you stream. Each to their own.
The experience with it has been very good overall. There are small issues that can pop up now and then. Most get fixed at some point, or I discover a setting needs to be different somewhere.
As an example, I discovered that for one of the users it transcodes the video instead of direct playing it. All the settings seem correct, so I still need to do further checks to figure out what’s wrong or not set up accordingly.
Conclusion
Plex is a great tool for media enthusiasts. If for nothing else, you can easily manage your photos and personal videos. However, once you start using it, you will discover it can do so much more, and you might be tempted to go after the Plex Pass.
Do you use Plex or any other type of media server?
