Plex at a great discount...but why?

Software
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I heard a lot about Plex but, even though I´ve tried the free tier, it didn’t click.

I have now the chance to get the lifetime plex pass at a great price. Why should I? :grinning:

What are your main use cases? And in the UK, is their TV channels much better then Freeview?

Thanks!

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I was originally on the free tier years ago and went for the monthly Plex Pass when they added offline syncing of media - handy for the commute on public transport. Did that for a while then went for a yearly pass and upgraded to the lifetime pass about 6 months in.

We use it across iPad, iPhone, Mac (using the Plex Media Player app), PS4 and Xbox One devices for video files stored on my NAS. I’ve not looked at using it for music although it does seem to be rather good, including a recent addition to play through Sonos. I don’t have much stored music at home as I stream, or download offline, using Spotify.

You used to need a Plex Pass to use on some mobile devices may years ago but I’m not quite sure whether that is still the case.

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I agree with the previous poster, the offline storage is really useful. I download files every day for my train journey to and from work.

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I’ve used the free tier for years. Photos and videos on my own server. I don’t appreciate that it no longer works without a connection to their server. Not only is that a PITA but I’m concerned with any nefarious access to my computers they might be doing. No interest at all in Plex Pass.

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For me, it’s best use has been home videos, I’ll give you a good example…

  • I use the Plex app on Apple TV which has a lovely interface and is lightning quick.

  • I have a ‘Florida 2017’ category within my Plex server which points at the relevant folder on my Mac so that all my videos from our dream holiday with the kids are available in one place to watch full size on my TV.

  • I have then assigned videos (using metadata) into relevant ‘Collections’ within Plex eg. My daughter meeting Snow White is in the following ‘collections’ - ‘Magic Kingdom’, ‘Magic Moments’, Meetings & Encounters".

  • Finally, I have picked gorgeous cover photos for these various ‘collections’ eg ‘Magic Kingdom’ has a picture of us all in front of the castle. This gives it a real professional look when browsing on Apple TV.

  • This leads to me being able to watch back, for instance, all of our ‘Magic Kingdom’ home videos or maybe, all of the times the kids met the characters, as the videos can all appear in more than one collection.

Funnily enough this is all achievable within the free version of Plex. My biggest advice regarding Plex is to have it as a slow burning project rather than expect it to be the bees knees overnight. It takes a bit of work to get the best from it, but once you have everything the way you want it you don’t look back!

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What was the deal ?

I was a Plex pass user for a long time but I let it expire when the kids moved out as I no longer needed everyone to have their own login. I had paid for the yearly Plex pass and probably should have bought a. lifetime pass but I can’t justify buying it now, but. Might be tempted by a good deal.

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Thank you all for your replies!

It seems that Plex is a great multimedia centre, but just not for my needs.

(Perhaps the below will sound a bit pessimistic but it’s totally the opposite… I really thank you for saving me some money! :grinning:)

  • Music: this is probably one I could see myself using Plex for, but on the other hand I use Spotify quite a lot these days. On top, I can use Plexs’s free tier to stream to my Sonos so I’m fine on this camp
  • Videos: don’t have a DVD library so I’d use it more for personal videos. Although I like @RichardG ‘s idea and have some similar examples I could use if for, I don’t have an Apple TV and don’t share this videos in many different devices to justify the cost
  • photos: This is probably the one I imagine myself using Plex a lot. My photos are backed up in my Synology and I haven’t found a good way to carry them all with me at all times without having them “locally” saved on my devices. Synology’s photo app is not the greatest, and Plex could come to the rescue :thinking:
  • TV replacement: this is another one which was making me considering it. However, I’ve read somewhere that the Plex channels here in the UK are the same as the ones Freeview offers and those I have access to already. Assuming this is correct, again Plex wouldn’t add much value here. Also, it doesn’t seem people are using Plex very heavily on this one

Please let me know if I got this all wrong. If not, thanks for saving me some money :smiley:

@PhilO they’re offering me Plex lifetime pass for its original price $74.99 (think it’s a good deal, but might be wrong). Unfortunately cannot share it as it’s linked to my email address. If you’re looking for good offers try googling for reddit and app, it normally leads you to good valid coupon codes for different apps.

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Thanks, I’ll keep a look out for it on offer.

I did mess up when I set it up originally as I created an Admin account and then a separate account for each member of the family including myself. Since I no longer have a Plex Pass account I’m now limited to only seeing my admin account which unfortunately means all of the history of what I’ve watched has gone. Its definitely not worth buying a plex pass to just to get the history back.

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I’ve been a lifetime Plex Pass user for a couple of years. I first used it for my music collection after giving up on Apple Music match. iTunes kept rearranging my music, replacing cover art, and occasionally deleting songs. Later I purchased an Nvidia Shield, added a 2 channel tuner, and kicked Comcast TV to the curb. Plex DVR does a good job of recording OTA shows while deleting the commercials. It also contains my ripped DVD movie collection. I’ve added a second Cloud Server that is hosted on my Google Drive to save on bandwidth when I’m away from home.