Is PLEX the All-time Best Free Streaming Service?

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Craig does a deep dive on Plex, the free streaming service that lets you not only stream live and on-demand TV shows and movies, but also let's you upload your own media so that you can watch it on the big screen. Plex is basically a combination of Tubi, Pluto TV, and your own custom streaming service.
Get Plex here: www.reviews.org/go/plex/tv/pl...
0:00 - What is Plex?
2:14 - How to add your media to Plex
4:15 - Live TV and on-demand shows and movies
5:32 - Web shows, podcasts, and music
6:40 - What do I like about Plex?
8:10 - Is Plex Premium worth it?
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Craig on Twitter: / tlpcraig
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[@goldcd]

Just to elaborate on a few of the points touched on (as I think they're pretty sweet). The DVR functionality requires something on your network like a Silicon Dust Homerun (plug aerial into one side, it streams out the video onto your network). Plex picks up on this and gives you standard TV guide, series record, TV pause etc. Everything that say a Tivo would - but mixes this in with your own files. Handles transcoding of files - if you've got a 4K film on your server with Atmos sound - but watching it say on your phone it lets you stream it a lower resolution with stereo sound. Useful if you're out and about and paying for your data usage. Sync to phone has some intelligence in it. Say you're watching a series, you can set it up to sync and transcode just the next 5 unwatched episodes to your phone. If you had episodes 1-5 on your phone, then you watched 1 & 2 one night, you'll find 3-7 are stored on your phone - no streaming required. Plex server doesn't have to run on a PC. A relatively cheap way of having it "always on" is to use an nVidia Shield - it's an awesome streaming client, but plug in some USB drives and it's a plex media server. If you're willing to spend a bit more, Plex runs really well from a NAS (Intel based ones support hardware transcoding). If you're an eye-patch-wearer - then radarr & sonarr are very handy apps you can also run on your PC or NAS to auto-magically build your media library.

[@twocan277]

thank you for mentioning the eye-patch-wearing option

[@silviopoggi8193]

Hey Lorne, to answer your question Not sure I can offer many meaningful insights but my reasons for the lifetime pass are pretty simple and boil down to two: We live in a rural area where there is no cable nor internet service other than satellite. We tried several of the satellite dish program services as well but didn’t like the packages and wound up erecting a high end TV antenna on a tower that allows us to get over the air programming from somewhere. After adding a 4 tuner Homerun to our system, I found the DVR app (with the auto commercial skip) worth the lifetime pass all on its own and the live TV is pretty awesome. Different age groups, different channel users The second reason is a personal one - I believe that if I’m using some service created by other’s hard work, I should compensate them… I really appreciate the constant upgrading and additional services added at no additional cost.

[@silviopoggi8193]

I purchased the lifetime pass several years ago and have found the service to be awesome. I use virtually every aspect of the service and really appreciate that the Plex team is constantly upgrading and adding to the app. If you have live television that you wish to record, the skip commercials feature is amazing. We have a multi generational home and being able to record Mom's over the air "stuff" and play back without commercials is fantastic. One of the best purchases I have made!

[@lornestein7248]

Hi Silvio. I've been using Plex for a month or so now and love it sooo much!! I have a huge TV/Movie/MP3 collection and to play it all anywhere, from any device is mind blowing, amazing!! The question I have is.. Why pay for it if it's working perfectly for free?? I'm also considering a lifetime pass. Any insight would be most appreciated.

[@ostapbender5791]

@@lornestein7248 Me too. I still don't get why do I need Pass If I don't need DVR, and most I watch is stream from Internet.

[@daveborchard2019]

@@lornestein7248 The main reason to get an unlimited lifetime Plex pass is the DVR function. Most people watch broadcast or cable programming. If you have the DVR function, you can fast forward through the commercial blocks through annoying commercials that waste your time. I’ve been fast forwarding through TV commercials for decades. If you watched sports games, you could fast forward through breaks in the games, when the players are standing around doing nothing. That can save a lot of your time watching sports games, that’s wasted waiting for the sports players to do something. You could also rewind to re-watch plays again. You can also pause the video to go to the bathroom. When you use the DVR function, then the broadcast and cable programs are available to watch on your schedule. You don’t have to adjust your personal schedule to match with the broadcast schedule. If two programs that you want to watch are scheduled at the same time, you don’t have to choose one program over the other program. You can watch both programs, delayed, without wasting your time watching the commercials, not just with Plex, but with SageTV, and VCRs before the DVRs.

[@irishguy200007]

Will this pass remove the ads while watching movies on this app??

[@irishguy200007]

Will the pass remove ads when watching their movies on this app. I would rather pay per month than to watch ads ever 10 minutes during a movie.

[@JamesJimmyMcGill]

Bought a lifetime Plex pass a handful of months ago and I am absolutely loving it. I have a Roku set up on my television so I can workout and do work in our family's living room. Very nice stuff.

[@goldcd]

I bought lifetime many years ago - one of those few purchases you feel you was an absolute steal

[@biggboy20032003]

I'm confused I thought Plex was a free service

[@goldcd]

@@biggboy20032003 Basic features are free. Some additional ones either require you to pay a small amount per month, or buy a lifetime membership

[@paulolson]

I've barely touched the surface of Plex and, wow, this was THE BEST overall explanation I have come across. No wonder Craig Is Always Right. Very, very good job, sir.

[@ReviewsOrg]

Glad it was helpful!

[@joeklamut6267]

I’m new to the streaming world. I totally enjoy your videos and tips. I find your instructions very easy to follow. Your opinions are usually right also. I’m a new subscriber to your channel and want to say thank you and keep them coming Merry Christmas Craig 🎄

[@frankov_83]

All the Music stuff works on your own music as well. Sweet Fades is life changing 😁

[@tonyvalenti6614]

Great review! Plex is the best media server out there. Definitely worth the Premium Lifetime. You can catch it on sale throughout the year. Often around $70-$80. One thing I think was worth mentioning is Plex’s transcoding on the fly. The ability to have a high resolution video transcode down for a slower mobile device is great. In addition the ability to access your library remotely, even over cellular is awesome. Lastly one other nice thing is your Home Screen is customizable. You can delete things that you are not interested in seeing. I agree, you have nothing to lose by trying it free. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@wildlesbians]

Plex is pretty good. Free streaming sites are constantly popping up. I use pluto, IMDB, tubi, roku, peacock. Tubi and peacock no longer work with my computer, but no worries, plenty of other sites popping up all the time. Free, Free....free free!

[@Richie016]

Organizing content and library at one place, PLEX is an incredible way to stream on TV or PC.

[@garion464]

Found Plex back in 2016 and bought a WD PR4100 NAS server. Ripped every DVD & BD we owned and it works Great! Very easy to setup and maintain b/c PLEX maintains BIN files you d/l for every update.

[@grownman284]

What ripper did you use?

[@fyuckya505]

​@grownman284 DVD fab it even breakthrough piracy codes and drm protection allowing you to rip your DVD/ Blu-ray that the media industry trys to screw you with.

[@LivingMidnight]

I tried a few things on my Nas before Plex but Plex just worked so much better, quicker and simpler than my other attempts. Love it.

[@ayo50]

How have you made your background layout blue? I didn't know you could do this??

[@kevinintheusa8984]

I set up a 20 tb server then got Plex Lifetime Pass and everything is working great. I watch TV shows that I burned on to my LAN from DVD sets so I can watch all kinds of stuff like Stargate, Star Trek, Justified, Longmire, and many, many others. We also watch from our vacation home when we go to the beach. My only complaint in over 4 years of use has been that our Plex got corrupted somehow and I had to go on to my LAN and delete Plex and reinstall it which cause some headaches with short cuts. I am also using a TerraMaster server which I now wish I had gotten a Synology.

[@dimeloya2234]

This is why a Plex Backup Come in Handy.. Don't Know what you use for a Server But let me tell you what i use,, This is my easy way to Backup Plex Server (Everything) I use windows 10 In order to Backup everything including Windows settings & all programs.. I Use - AOMEI Backupper Pro!! It Realy works!! Put Remeber it just for the same Computer that you Just made that Backup.. Now there is another Software i Use.. it's Call - EaseUS Todo PCTrans Pro!! It Realy works!! with this Software I am able to just save the Plex hole program & save it on a USB Drive... Then I go & Install the EaseUS Todo PCTrans Pro on the New Computer then Tranfer My Plex from my USB Drive!! It Realy works

[@lymarie1974]

Just found Plex on my Roku, so happy to find the ovation channel again. 💞 Also found wonderful German content, which I have never had. So a new language to learn.

[@juliegunter2703]

My first time seeing your video and it definitely won't be my last. You have good information and explain the subjects great.

[@ileneo1964]

Glad I stumbled upon your video; this is awesome and I'll be ripping my own media within Plex. I've subscribed and look forward to more videos!

[@scottluther2091]

Make sure to get a blu-ray drive capable of ripping 4K content and you can use that as well

[@thegood9]

Have you covered the best Blu-Ray ripper that can preserve 4k/UHD?

[@crinzeldavis]

Nothing better than Plex. I have a Plex Linux Server with all my Jazz music, and all my Videos.

[@sreekumarnair07]

Hi can u suggest me a good plex media player. Or can I customize a higher end pc with high volume of HDD and install plex sw

[@ervinrodriguez2065]

Thank you for such a thorough explanation of what PLEX is and how to use it,kudos brother👍P.S. am a new subscriber looking forward to more videos on streaming apps

[@desiganpillay5614]

I love PLEX. Been using it for years now.

[@anthonydefr]

I know this is kinda a weird question but can you put your Google movie's over there just to have them in one app?

[@DuckingAround58]

Once added are my own movies streamed from my PC or from my Plex account?

[@ChimpRiot]

I think you can add any podcast to Plex with URLs. I did it with Bill Burr's podcast that wasn't listed in Plex.

[@felix_five]

Does plex work with macs?

[@gerardo0898]

great review. love it! great tone of voice.

[@HerewardDundasTaylor]

Is there an advantage in using a VPN woith your Plex account iof living outside the USA?

[@akashs1317]

Bro, what is plex for android activation??? Is this applicable for Firestick too? Plex for Firestick activation?? Is anything like that? So we can't watch our stuffs in firetv unless we activate the plex?

[@Don-ii4vm]

I love Plex and use a tablet to watch a fair bit. The main problems I have with plex on the tablet. - If I fall asleep watching plex, it can play several episodes. While it does pause between episodes on the computer, there doesnt seem to be an option for this on plex tablet version. - You cant swipe left \ right on the episodes. If i've got a couple episodes ahead, I have to get back to the season menu that lists all the episodes. Scroll down to find the episode I want. It just seems clunky.

[@starmc26]

Audio sync would be nice, like VLC player has.

[@mariodeschenes7774]

As always, really nice video. One thing I am not sure is if Plex does provide access to your private collection of media over the Internet ?

[@sbradshaw1886]

Yes it does. It doesn't require any manual port forwarding - your router should use uPNP

[@stevefrompa7181]

Plex pass also pulls up lyrics in my music library.

[@heretoforeunknown]

Definitely. But I have to wonder how they make the requisite profit to keep the service going.

[@sanjithechef]

an interview with Jim Butcher, nice! Dresden Files seems great, I'm only 2 books in lol

[@DanceCamSmith]

Can you stream any TV show like house of the dragon on plex pass or do I have to have sky go or now tv

[@CrashCarson14]

How does the free stuff look? Audio? Tubi is streamed at 720p but looks pretty good. Other free apps stream at 1080p or 480p but look like garbage. Compression and streaming bitrate make a difference

[@simon5005]

What if your personal videos are on a Flash/USB Stick and also backed up in Google Drive? Can these still be uploaded to Plex in some way? Thanks!!!

[@mtfam6]

does the live TV have local channels????

[@LightbornCastles]

How do I rip my blu ray discs? Is there a top program for that process??

[@TrackerRoo]

MakeMKV is what I use to rip disks. It does bluray

[@tiptoe2323]

Is it possible to pause and save to a playlist? Thanks

[@allenmcmillan9037]

Is there a limit to the number of share accounts?

[@williamharris6301]

I just installed Plex on my firestick. Don't mind the adds too much, but they often get stuck and don't come out of the loop. Very annoying. Have to get out which causes the movie to restart despite hitting the continue.

[@Torulv]

Thanks! Doesn't it also let you search content in all the premium payed services and let you make watch-list? And to see what is trending on across all services? Guess I could just install it and find out

[@loulopez554]

Hands down best review yet,many thanks.

[@dalilaflores1631]

Great review, downloaded & installed! 😃 📺

[@StephenMason-rq9mz]

Can we record the content to watch later?

[@camerongeorge4246]

How did youtube videos show up on plex? Like did you have to name it or anything?

[@stankopantic4081]

Hi, I am trying to stream movie from desktop windows app to LG C1 webOs TV and it is working just fine, but if I select my speakers as audio device from the list, audio does not switch to speakers but keeps running trough TV speakers. I am wondering if this option is available when streaming? Switching audio devices works if I play movie directly to PC. Thank you.

[@jamesbucsis6296]

Question. There is resellers of plex. Are these any good

[@benji888578]

So does premium remove ads? I assume not since you didn’t mention it. Might like for DVR capability, but, that’s all I’d use it for if you can’t get rid of ads.

[@chriscummings1279]

Yes it doe's no ads

[@akashs1317]

Bruh, can we add/upload a movie from pc to plex and watch it in big screen(firestick) without any cost???

[@betoschwantes2868]

does anyone know if there's more TV channels, like news stuff, added in the premium version currently?

[@CRAZYHORSE19682003]

I have a Fire TV, I installed the Plex App. It sees my home Media Server but it gives me an error when trying to play any videos . Any suggestions?

[@BobbyCoolBreeze]

So with premium services I can watch others content on their servers? Do I have to set up my own server? Is there UHD content with hdr dv and Atmos?

[@tonyk3887]

Does it have classic TV shows like, The Munsters, The Odd Couple?

[@rakaorion]

Tried Plex, but videos does not show on my PC, I can hear only the sound. Could not find a fix on their website.

[@dathyr1]

Thank you for your video on PLEX. I also really enjoy PLEX. I did go the one step farther and joined the Premium for 5 dollars a month. Why, to setup up the local live antenna TV and DVR server which I called MEDIA(a folder). This sets up another section which in my main MEDIA folder has My Videos, My Music, My Pictures, and TV shows. Similar to the free setup with the addition to adding the TV shows. You cant setup this live DVR server and live TV channels without doing the Premium. I can now watch and record any of my local TV channels through PLEX. There is some physical items you need to this which they explain or watch other you tube videos about setup PLEX servers. I have been recording a classic TV show lately I havent seen for a long time and I can take the recorded episodes and edit them, knock out the commercials, and save them to My Videos or Ext Hard Drive for later use. The quality comes out very good. So that is why I did the Premium PLEX.

[@gubbu1975]

Official Plex Guru and cord cutter of 3 years reporting.... I can attest that Plex has changed my life. well over 10000 movies 20000 songs and ALL of the documents I have ever saved over a lifetime in my personal collection which are accessible from anywhere all the time.... Dont even know how i lived before Plex..... free/live tv are just bells and whistles for me, but I understand very vital for most users... Adding my own iptv to Plex is the last frontier, and i know coming very soon, at that point, PLEX will officially be the top app, period.

[@chriscummings1279]

That's happening already iptv and plex

[@losnamerales3403]

I've been hearing about this app with most of the tech I've recently bought late last year the Nvidia Shield 2021, the Beelink GT King and the Beelink Sei8 mini PC.. now just to work out how I'm gonna network all of them

[@gowthamk5392]

Where to get Blu ray content online!?! With atmos inpur!?

[@zacharyowenmartin8247]

I didn't know this wasn't mainstream yet, I've been using it since it was actually good with plugins lol

[@paulnubreu6887]

Plex was once great.

[@ssmith3536]

Your review was very helpful as I’m new to PLEX. The comments are very helpful as well. Looking forward to exploring more content from your channel. Thank you!

[@CallingALLmarks]

Tubi is awesome

[@irishguy200007]

Can I pay a subscription to get rid of the ads on this while watching a movie?

[@Herman-qw5dw]

great video good information .

[@majmarkbrown7816]

I love Plex and use it extensively.

[@Carolinakid1984]

Don't get me wrong I've been loving Plex but I'm tired of the 4k buffering on my Fire Cube. Network isn't an issue so I don't understand what is going on

[@mikewinburn]

sooooo you just rip DVDs or Blurays to your drive/server? Curious, how about a video on how you do this? Why do you need to stitch them together after ripping? Plex might be right for me. I've been trying for years to minize my collection storage space (i have over 4,000 titles btwn VCD,DVD,Bluray, 4kBlu...etc...) but apart from Kaleidescape, it seemed cost prohibitive. I'd only be interested in using it for my own library.

[@scottluther2091]

Yes, just rip any DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray to a drive that PLex will have access to and you can play it from there. You do not need to stitch any files together if you use MakeMKV to do it, as it just outputs it to 1 file. For more info, just search YT and watch the results: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2GxiXacl92detU

[@mikewinburn]

@@scottluther2091 - outstanding info. Thank you

[@abjo20]

What rip software do you use for your video?

[@theresapimentacointheglove8760]

I use MakeMKV. It's super simple, works with DVD's and Blu-Ray discs, and does exactly what I want; which is copy the Video and HD audio and puts them both in the MKV container (it doesn't convert anything). A lot of people are obsessed with converting the BD/DVD to other formats, but to me that doesn't make any since; what's the point of Blu-Ray if you're going to compress it down? Plus it's quicker, it doesn't bog your computer down for hours when you convert the video.

[@ReviewsOrg]

☝☝☝☝☝

[@supertec2023]

I've been using leawo Blu-ray ripper

[@scottluther2091]

I also use MakeMKV for my HD and 4K blu-rays!

[@scottluther2091]

@@theresapimentacointheglove8760 Exactly! Don't convert it!

[@rajendrabiswas]

its incredible to see free movies

[@rossfindlay24]

how did you RIP blu-rays ?

[@Quizzical106]

One little thing - 2:14 how to add movies, you didn't say how to get to that add-movies dialog box

[@Meltzerthestutteringmuppet]

Thxs dude for the Review

[@juggernaut8647]

Do plex have sports?

[@billloveless6869]

How do you delete content? Thanks. I do loveit!

[@abdelkiki]

Thank you for this video

[@ChrisHolman]

My home screen does not look like that, yes it is up to date. I'm using Roku streaming stick, is that why my home screen is different? I do not see where I can add my own movies....

[@dreamkiller898]

You need to run plex off of a pc

[@JadeArcade]

Plex is wonderful! Love it! However, what am I supposed to do when it will not detect my hard drives no matter what I've tried to fix it, making it just another live TV program? I've tried all the solutions and nothing works. Is there anything other than Plex that does the same thing as Plex? What can I do?

[@trace336]

Are you using Plex media player or Plex media server? If you want to use your own media you have to create a server first.

[@JadeArcade]

@@trace336 I'm using the server. It was previously on Linux Mint but for some reason the only thing that it works properly on and detects the hard drives the way used to is on Ubuntu. One day it just stopped working with Linux Mint. It read the directory structures in a very screwed-up fashion. Everything is working now but I don't understand why this operating system works better than anything else and everything else just doesn't work at all. When it wasn't working it was reading the directory structures with forward slashes and "040" for separators instead of the spaces in the directory names. I tried manually entering the address in and all sorts of things that just didn't work. Now thankfully it does work but I would love to know why it just suddenly stopped working before.

[@nickperkins8477]

Plex is awesome!! Solid content with a lot of variety.

[@billfoody2830]

How long you work for them?

[@daveborchard2019]

The premium version of Plex allows you to watch live over the air TV using the Plex stream around your home to different devices. Is it possible to watch a live over the air TV program using your Plex server and a playback device at a distant location, in another state?

[@xxxdpgxxxx1389]

What did you find out

[@daveborchard2019]

@@xxxdpgxxxx1389 I haven’t tried that yet. I’ll see if I can have an in-law try using my Plex system from another state. I don’t know how much bandwidth each hour of streaming would consume. The in-law’s Internet provider has a monthly data cap of about 1,200 gigs per month. When we lived in that state, we exceeded that data cap twice. If you exceed the data cap over two months, then they charge you a lot extra. We don’t have a data cap where we live. The data cap could make a difference if you stream a lot. I’m not a big sports fan. But my brother in law is a big sports fan. If you were a big sports fan, that could be a way to watch sports from an out of market area, without paying a lot extra. Some games are simply not available to stream from out of market areas. So, maybe Plex could solve that problem streaming sports games from out of market areas.

[@xxxdpgxxxx1389]

@@daveborchard2019 well I really wanted to see if I could stream live from my phone if I’m away say at work.

[@triggb71]

I don't know what happened with my Plex setup but for some reason when I use Plex to stream my own videos the quality is no longer in HD but instead it's in SD quality even though I have the settings on HD. My internet speed is great so I don't know what's happening. I did get a new router around the time that this started but I don't see how that could be the problem. Also the problem started around the time I updated their software in March or April. I thought that was the problem so I reinstalled an older version and the problem with playback quality of my own videos persists. If someone can help me with this problem I would appreciate it very much.

[@savingstumps]

try portforwarding plex in your router.

[@Popupkiller]

You shouldn't need to stich any chapters from a bluray. You just rip it and, take the largest file in the folder. that should be the complete movie.

[@bobkinney2430]

Plex is the ultimate!

[@robertdseals1]

I love it, use it everyday for my own content (don't have internet that is good enough to stream). My only downside is the amount of times it "reboots". But, it's not too annoying.

[@kimberlygould5659]

Do you have good cellular service and unlimited cellular??? I may have a solution for you that I found regarding streaming😊

[@robertdseals1]

@@kimberlygould5659 No. We live in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Colorado. So, I record the shows using "Playon" then download them when I get to work (free wifi). Then, play them on plex at home. :) Thanks for asking.

[@Texg1rl_]

Thank you

[@TheIgorSnowden]

There are some solid choices of programming that's outside of the mainstream and the content that is shared on most of the big apps. Examples: Action starring Jay Mohr, S.W.A.T., Charlie's Angels, etc

[@AHB23Gtag]

Guys I need help with Plex when I try to watch one Sheldon it doesn’t show the watch button.

[@VideoProcConverter]

Excellent!

[@terencemolloy9450]

Does Plex automatically get covers for your movie, music etc?

[@chuckmackley7646]

Yes - assuming you mean Posters for movies and album covers for audio.

[@terencemolloy9450]

@@chuckmackley7646 Yep.. Thanks

[@miladg5999]

why would people want to add their own content server to plex...if they already own the content at home? Plz help me understand this

[@averixx06]

My YT recommendations are kinda fucked rn for some reason, so idk why this is here, but I’d recommend Plex. It’s where I keep every movie I’ve ever rented, and it’s been pretty good.

[@JohnCran]

I've gotten the Plex bug after getting a shield tv Pro. A couple of things I'm a bit disappointed with 1. There is no native way to access you tube and iView (I'm Australian) in Plex so I have to leave Plex to watch them. 2. Whilst Plex is updating content the UI bogs down a little. Also instructions on set up and use are a bit flakey. For example what they say about naming files says to use Tmdb and don't tell you to use tvdb for TV shows. And I'm still to find out the best way to handle tv shows that aren't on either of the dbs. I know they are tv shows cause I recorded them off the air. I tried Kobi but it's UI is really second rate. So I'll stick with Plex.

[@lornestein7248]

Hi John, Anytime I download a TV show that's a documentary or 1-offs like Friends reunion, I drop them into a folder called Misc. Video (Other Video Category) Not into my TV folder or Movie folder. Plex scrubs the internet for the titles in the TV or Movie categories. If it can't find it, they don't show up. So simply make a new new folder under the (Other Video) category. They will & do show up. Hope that helps..

[@KristopherStidd]

I love plex 🙂😍

[@shackdaddy7106]

Excellent video. Could you or one of your coworkers do a video to show how to set up Plex as a over the air DVR?

[@scottluther2091]

You will need a TV tuner such as the HD Home Run for it to work with it.

[@WhiteSiroi]

thank you

[@pcmedic2828]

Is it just me or does the app seem slow switching between content?

[@menahdiab1089]

Is there a Korean translation?

[@lindadigiovanni9434]

Interesting video

[@santiagosantiago6576]

Buenos días yo tengo un oled LG y cuando lo instalo Plex no me deja poner las películas en español por que lo tengo que hacer de un ordenador desdes ya muchas gracias saludos cordiales