Plex Pass - Do You REALLY Need to Pay for Plex?

The Best PLEX NAS Of 2023/2024 - A Buyers Guide - nascompares.com/2023/12/22/th...
(Entry Level 4K Plex NAS) Synology DS224+ $299
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(Best All Round Value) Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 AS6704T $499+
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(Best 8K Plex NAS) QNAP TVS-h874 $2000-2500-3000
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(Honourable Mention) Terramaster F2-424/F4-424/F4-424 PRO
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Video Chapters
00:00 - The Start
00:16 - The Purpose of this video
01:20 - Plex Free Client Apps
02:04 - You Can DEFINITELY watch your media for FREE
03:56 - Important Note About Plex Client Apps
05:08 - Plex Free and Live TV Streaming?
06:00 - Is Using Plex Free Worth It?
06:18 - Plex Free and Diagnostic/Dashboard Stats
06:33 - Plex FREE and Transcoding + Conversions?
08:19 - Plex Pass Pricing
09:03 - Quality of Life Advantages to Plex Pass?
13:37 - Plex Labs and What Is Included?
17:06 - Transcoding and Conversion. Do You Need Them?
21:48 - Verdict and Conclusion
23:22 - Need Help With Your Plex Media Server?
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QNAP TVS-h874 4K HEVC PLEX NAS TESTS • QNAP TVS-h874 4K HEVC ...
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[@corican]

I bought a lifetime pass and have been very satisfied with it so far.

[@davidrussell9662]

I bought not because I needed Plex premium feature but because I wanted to support Plex. The Plex people have families to feed as well. It is excellent and if it were to fail we would all miss it terribly.

[@nascompares]

I respect your honesty man!

[@richmax13]

Great Video!! I been watching ur content for years!! I'm still on a synology 918+ , waiting for them to release a new nas with onboard graphics!!!

[@sebastianschneider4345]

Finally a well thought out explanation about all arguments. I was struggling weather to buy or not. You made things clearer for me, thanks!

[@TorrentFiend10]

I've never needed Plex pass for around 10 years as a user now. I can watch and listen to all my media inside and outside my home anytime with virtually no issues...... At least none other than the normal playback bugs Plex still has (fast forwarding, rewind lockups and playback failures).

[@rudyruiz9521]

I purchased a pass because I liked the program and think it is the right thing to do. I did try it out before purchase.

[@wdianim]

Community, what software do you guys use/recommend to easily convert your personal discs collection to digital video files? I mean, with an good UI with preset settings. Thank you very much! Cheers!

[@KarlMeyer]

I desperately miss the days when Plex had meaningful updates. Remember when they announced audiobook support 2 years ago? Still not a released feature. They seem massively mismanaged. They keep firing their employees, massive bugs like HW tone mapping keep breaking. The only thing stopping me from jumping ship to Jellyfin is the SSL security when port forwarding.

[@FunctionGermany]

you can use a reverse proxy to easily have all your traffic encrypted if you own a domain. alternatively you can create a self-signed certificate and install it on the devices you want to access jellyfin from, then you don't need to buy a domain, but a domain is cheap and convenient.

[@Lorondos]

Snap, the updates are kind of minor now and they seem more focused on things that sit around Plex like Live TV or DVR.

[@PointlessGameBugs]

When you put Jellyfin behind a reverse proxy like caddy, traefik or nginx proxy manager than you don’t have to worry about it at all. HTTPS will be enable through these with Let’s Encrypt certificates. Running fine for me. So this shouldn’t hold you back to make the switch

[@mauricechong809]

If you use IOS devices, try out infuse. No transcoding but the playback is good on recent ios devices.

[@Morne_Smith]

Yes, I pay for it as I want them to further develop and improve the system! I have an older DVD collection, and digital movies from Apple, and Disney. I prefer digital versions as it gives you the freedom on watching your content how you want from where you want! There is a-lot of value add in Plex…it is worth paying. PS: I am a lifetime supporter.

[@Penofhell]

How would you compare what you get as s paying Plex customer versus Jellyfin ?

[@Ant_Stark]

Good job you paid them and in return you got subscription services added xD

[@Iliescuvalentin]

I paid the one time price. I like the option for extras that are indexed with the movie and i use plex amp a lot.

[@Luiscofield.]

I have a Synology 920+ NAS, and when i want to watch my series/videos outside my house, it is almost impossible to see a video smoothly... Does the Plex Pass help with this?

[@giswala]

sir, very informative vedio🙏

[@TokenTech]

I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure if you use something like Tailscale on both the Plex server and the device you’re watching on (most likely a phone or laptop) Plex will think you’re local not remote and allow you to stream where ever you are even for free

[@nosurname9652]

Does Plex still have its authentication via Plex servers or anything changed? I mean: no internet due to any reason = ups nothing working despite local network is ok.

[@CS-zk6ni]

So when you purchase a plex pass the ads go away?

[@whya2ndaccount]

Pretty sure a Plex Pass does not exclude you from their ads throughout a film (i.e. pay money, still get ads). Also we have a DS1821+ (no graphics card) and watch media on a 4K TV, so no hardware transcoding.

[@WhoDeanyUnchained]

I got a lifetime plex plass about 5 years ago and have no regrets 😎

[@FunctionGermany]

jellyfin for the jellywin

[@alexclifford2485]

Jellywin! I use jellyfin with tailscale and we can watch our media anywhere on any device. Plex have been doing some sketchy things and have Vampire Capitalists to answer to so is rather invest in an open source ecosystem.

[@FunctionGermany]

@@alexclifford2485 tailscale is neat but i'm sharing my jellyfin service with my friends and don't wanna make them use a VPN, so i've configured caddy to block non-private IPs to all services except the ones i want to be public (e.g. jellyfin) as well as using crowdsec and very strict geoblocking on my opnsense router. so far no suspicious activity on any of my services 👍

[@nascompares]

"Jellyfin for the Jellywin" might be the best thing I have ever read. Thank you for perking me up man!

[@zairman]

Tried Jellyfin. Didn't like it, and it has a lot to do to catch up to Plex.

[@zyghom]

you don't need to pay for Plex - you can enjoy free of charge Jellyfin

[@user-fr3hy9uh6y]

Yes, my main use of plex is for a home DVR, so I use a paid version. Because I use it at home, I do not use the app. From android, just open your browser and log into the server.

[@Kromaswow]

If you are watching this channel you should be savvy enough to get Jellyfin running. Rather use that.

[@nascompares]

True, but cost aside, you have to admit that Plex is remarkably use friendly (especially on the client tool side)

[@Kromaswow]

@@nascompares Oh I agree 100%. However Ease of use does not outweigh security and privacy. They are the reason last pass got hacked last year and the whole opt out mail list of what you are watching to all your friends made me finally switch and I own a lifetime plex pass.

[@fernandoblazin]

@@nascompares but not open-source

[@kendrakirai]

Short answer that I've come up with from experience; No, unless you have some very specific needs, like live transcoding HDR condent to SDR or setting up managed accounts versus everyone using their own.

[@nlrz313]

or supporting their work.

[@plebius]

Everything you mentioned there is covered for free using jellyfish/Jellyfin. Which is open source. Based on the same XBMC protocol that Plex came out of. Creation of accounts, transcoding etc.

[@Chris-mr8ef]

Not all smart tvs support jellyfin unfortunately

[@kendrakirai]

@Chris-mr8ef jellyfin isn't supported by a LOT of the stuff you can get Plex on as a client. PS4, Xbox 360(Though I'm surprised Plex is on that too), appleTV last I looked...I've got a Plex client on everything I own that has the ability to play video except my Nintendo Switch. This sheer breadth of compatibility may not be an important factor to *most* people, but will be to *someone*.

[@IM.leg1]

So I defunetly want to know more about the future videos you mentioned like the captions/subs etc. I would be more interested in that for Emby, but hopefully the Plex vids help pay for the work you put into an emby video.

[@plebius]

Open subs is what you are looking for.

[@IM.leg1]

Wont the water get in?@@plebius

[@darudesandstorm7002]

so you have to pay to watch more than 1 minute of your own media thats stored on your own nas if you stream it to your own android phone? am i understanding that correctly?

[@dohadeer8242]

Yes, unless you either have a Pass or pay the app fee indiviudeally for each device. Doesn't seem to necessary for TVs here though, they just sync with your account through a code, but I don't know if that's just the design or because I both own app licences and also have a Pass.

[@hypnotico7051]

I bought it mainly so I could download my media to my tablet and phone. I know there are ways I could do it for free but at this point in my life I'm willing to spend a couple bucks for major conveniences.

[@ghostedsuicide]

u dont need pass to do that. did it the other night and i dont have the pass

[@drkdncr]

I only just paid for the one month option, I have a DS423+ and a DS224+. Without Plex Pass, I was unable to utilise the integrated GPU for transcoding. I am however having difficulty streaming content to my overseas friends, they constantly get buffering on transcoded content, I am unsure if that is because I do not have a NVMe or an ISP issue?

[@plebius]

May I ask, are the videos in 4k. If so it could be bandwidth issues. It could happen anywhere along the connection. I would say no to the nvme as you would have encountered that issue to if that was the case. You could get them to trace back where their connection is going. There could be a bottle neck at some point along the journey. Might not be your ISP at fault but theirs or some switch along the way.

[@nascompares]

Additionally, was the convent HEVC, or using DTS audio and being played on devices that did not support it (therefore necessitating conversion)?

[@dohadeer8242]

Probably more likely a bandwidth issue tbh, I have had similar issues even domestically from time to time and it always traced back to data throughput issues when I was resolving it.

[@drkdncr]

@@nascomparesIt was converting to HEVC, didn't observe DTS audio however. So far it looks to be only occurring with 4K content, standard 1080p streams work fine.

[@drkdncr]

@@dohadeer8242 I changed the Internet Streaming to 8Mbps for Remote. Will see how that goes. I don't have issues locally with playback, I am yet to test myself remotely though. I am only relying on my other friends feedback.

[@CarlRyds]

I wish Synology would invest more in DS Video to compete with Plex.

[@alexbinder]

I paid 75USD back in 2014 for Plex, no brainer for me to continue as long as the features I use work.

[@nascompares]

BARGAIN ALERT!

[@mvp_kryptonite]

Plex I’m happy to support the devs

[@garyrichards6079]

You might wanna mention , Because ppl use plex to get away from using TV services like the BBC an SKY in the UK with there own media if they use the " LIVE " TV option in plex you may need a TV license still !! ....

[@simonsonjh]

Free Plex is still not near as good as Kodi.

[@johngalt8708]

A gpu is a type of hardware...

[@8bitbender495]

Do You REALLY Need to Pay for Plex? = yes

[@plebius]

Nope, you could use jellyfish/Jellyfin. Open source alternative that runs on anything and will do everything you want.

[@8bitbender495]

@@plebius i have lifetime plex

[@mindenesvegyes8512]

No.

[@plebius]

Nobody should be ve using it. Adverts, mines you data etc. Jellyfin open source, runs on anything windows, linux, raspberry pi etc. Has all the functionality, none of the drawbacks

[@ryanw8664]

Doesn’t have port forwarding SSL

[@plebius]

@@ryanw8664 yes you can, you have to get a SSL certificate, which are free to get online. Port forwarding can also be easily done

[@plebius]

@@ryanw8664 they also don't charge for android apps etc

[@plebius]

@@ryanw8664 yes you can. I also don't know why some one is deleting the message where I explained it.

[@plebius]

Again someone deleted the message, luckily I am recording this.

[@blender_wiki]

Entertainment isn't a need. Discussion closed.🤷🏿‍♀️

[@nascompares]

Everyone, run... It's the fun police!

[@gb9254]

boring...