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$75 lifetime plex pass offer?

4K views 22 replies 16 participants last post by  aaronwt 
#1 · (Edited)
I just got an email for lifetime plex pass offer that expires October 16th. I've recently used Plex with my bolt for the first time. it works wonderfully for my 1080p remux movies from my plex server on my PC streamed to my TiVo Bolt with free version of plex. I'm trying to see what benefits I would have from upgrading to the Plex pass. I also plan on using the Plex app on my new OLED lg TV in addition to my TiVo bolt to stream movies. I noticed in features of Plex pass I'll get trailers for my movies I guess that's one benefit I might like. Obviously DVR functionality I won't need since I have tivo's. Any of the other Plex pass features good? I see mobile photo auto upload feature. I think the newest update of Windows is supposed to offer this to. Not sure I'd use either but maybe?
some other plex observations:
My Plex server PC power is too low for me to do subtitles so no foreign movies for me with Plex unfortunately since as soon as I turn subtitles on video gets choppy. it's also annoying my TiVo can't wake up my Plex server if it goes to sleep so I have to keep pc withPlex server on 24/7 but at least my low power pc uses very little electricity
 
#12 ·
Plex: Free vs Paid | Plex Support

Plex: Free vs Paid

Plex works by connecting your media, the Plex Media Server, and the various apps for all your devices-browsers, mobile devices, game consoles, streaming devices, home theater PCs-but, what parts are free to use and what parts are paid for?

The basic functionality of Plex is completely free. Some Plex apps require being unlocked (through an in-app purchase or a Plex Pass subscription), and some premium features are restricted to those with an active Plex Pass subscription.

The "Free to Use" Parts: The Server and Apps
There are some details to get into, but the summary of "free" is simple:

  • The media you own is yours. Of course, we don't charge you in any way for that.
  • The Plex Media Server is free to use and includes the Plex Web App.
  • "News" and "Podcast" support are free for all users.
  • All of our non-mobile, public apps are free. These include Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Plex Media Player, Roku, Smart TVs, TiVo, and game consoles (PlayStation and Xbox).
  • Our mobile apps (Android, iOS, Windows, Windows Phone) can be used for free, but have limitations.
    • Until the mobile app is unlocked (through an in-app purchase or a Plex Pass subscription), video and music streamed from a Plex Media Server has a 1 minute limit, and photos will be watermarked.
The "Paid For" Parts: Apps and Plex Pass
There are really two things that are "paid for" within Plex:

  • The Plex Pass subscription includes free use of the paid-for apps as well as other features and benefits:
    • Activate all of our mobile apps (Android, iOS, Windows, Windows Phone) simply by signing into your Plex account within the app.
    • Live TV & DVR: Watch and record over-the-air broadcasts available in your area, using a compatible tuner and digital antenna.
    • Stream trailers and extras (interviews, behind the scenes, etc.) for content in your movie library. Add lyrics from LyricFind to your music libraries to follow along whenever you want.
    • Have geographic (Paris, France or Singapore) and scene-based (landscape, sunset, dog) tags automatically added for your photos and browse your photo library using the tags.
    • Use mobile syncing for offline use, camera upload for wireless syncing of photos, Gracenote music reviews and bios, and the ability to sync select content from your Plex Media Server to multiple cloud providers (to your cloud storage account).
    • Set up a Plex Home for your family to allow easy switching between accounts and restrict what content you share from your server.
    • Get early preview access to new apps and features.
    • And even more!
  • As mentioned above, apps for some devices have in-app purchases that upgrade the app-we call it unlocking the app:
    • Android (mobile), iOS (iPhone and iPad), Windows, and Windows Phone apps have one-time, in-app purchases.
    • Again a Plex Pass subscription will activate these features without additional purchase.
 
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#14 ·
Thanks. That emphasizes even more that there is no benefit for me with plex pass over the free version.
 
#13 ·
oh, and you also get this with plex pass. you have to be signed in with plex pass to see it. it rotates, this is the current "perk":

Perks | Plex
 

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#2 ·
I bought a Plex pass a couple years ago. I can't remember the benefits vs. the free, but I use Plex so heavily that it was a small price to pay for its utility. You can set up multiple servers, so if there are subtitled movies you want to watch, just set up a faster machine as a server for those cases. If you have a gigabit wired LAN, you can keep all the movies on your current Plex server and map a network drive to the faster machine.

I have a WD NAS holding my videos, which has a Plex server, but is too slow to transcode, so I have a second server with drives mapped from the NAS. The second server is my main desktop computer, and is in my home office, the NAS is in the basement, and the TiVo Bolt and TV are in the TV room. Works great. I pick the server for the need.
 
#3 ·
I use a laptop as my plex server. Seems to work great and has a low power consumption.

As far as the $75 offer, I waited until I got my offer then I bought into it. Like @lafos said it is a small price to pay to the developers for the overall product that you can use, for as long as they are in business. So for me its worth it just for that.
 
#6 ·
Multiple clients is the big differentiation between the two. If you only watch on a single device - Kodi is fine. But (as in my house) you might start watching in the Living Room, pick up where you left off in the bedroom (or have people who will also be watching on their personal media devices like tablets or perhaps their laptops), then Plex is better at that task. Kodi fanboi's will quickly point out that multiple client support is possible by setting up a shared library database using MySQL, but this (in my opinion) is a bit of a kludge.
 
#7 ·
Does anyone know if Plex periodically provides this offer? I also received an email with the deal, but not certain I want to pull that trigger right now.
 
#9 ·
I bought a lifetime pass last time it was $75. I wanted to check out the OTA recording capabilities and transfer shows to my phone.

The transfer of files to the phone through plex is painfully slow. What only takes a few minutes to transfer via USB took hours through plex. It may have been transcoding, but this was through a PC with a flagship processor that I purpose built for ripping and transcoding Blu-rays so there should have been no shortage of processing power.

The OTA guide uses Gracenote data, which is good. It had the description for an item that the TiVo had "to be announced" for. There was also a discrepancy on another show. The Plex description was correct and the TiVo data was incorrect. At the time I was test driving it, there was no program grid. The interface wasn't far off from the regular plex library screen (I didn't like it). A program grid has since been added. The recommendations were better that the TiVo. There were some classic sci fi shows airing in the middle of the night that I didn't know about.

Streaming live TV to a Roku stick, the picture wasn't at good as the Tivo mini.
The Roku stick is limited to WiFi, so that might have played a role.

In the end, I stuck with my Roamio OTA and minis because the live picture was clearer and I didn't like the recorded TV shows with commercials getting tossed into my Plex collection of shows ripped from DVDs.

So aside, from trying out those features, I haven't gotten any use out of the Plex pass. At this point it's basically a backup plan if something happens to the Roamio.
 
#10 ·
I bought a lifetime pass last time it was $75. I wanted to check out the OTA recording capabilities and transfer shows to my phone.

The transfer of files to the phone through plex is painfully slow. What only takes a few minutes to transfer via USB took hours through plex. It may have been transcoding, but this was through a PC with a flagship processor that I purpose built for ripping and transcoding Blu-rays so there should have been no shortage of processing power.

The OTA guide uses Gracenote data, which is good. It had the description for an item that the TiVo had "to be announced" for. There was also a discrepancy on another show. The Plex description was correct and the TiVo data was incorrect. At the time I was test driving it, there was no program grid. The interface wasn't far off from the regular plex library screen (I didn't like it). A program grid has since been added. The recommendations were better that the TiVo. There were some classic sci fi shows airing in the middle of the night that I didn't know about.

Streaming live TV to a Roku stick, the picture wasn't at good as the Tivo mini.
The Roku stick is limited to WiFi, so that might have played a role.

In the end, I stuck with my Roamio OTA and minis because the live picture was clearer and I didn't like the recorded TV shows with commercials getting tossed into my Plex collection of shows ripped from DVDs.

So aside, from trying out those features, I haven't gotten any use out of the Plex pass. At this point it's basically a backup plan if something happens to the Roamio.
I did the $75 lifetime offer a year ago. Also to try the OTA recording feature, but also to have managed users.

Roku can't play mpeg 2 natively so Plex has to transcode the live and recorded OTA video in order for the Roku to play it. The Amazon Fire devices can play mpeg 2 natively, so no transcoding. The video doesn't look as good as my TiVo OTA when I tried using Plex with a Roku 4k stick but looks just as good as the TiVo OTA when using the Fire Stick and Fire TV 4K pendants.

I made separate folders for DVR TV and DVR Movies that I have Plex send recording to, so it doesn't mix them in with my regular Plex libraries.
 
#11 ·
I've seen no benefit between the paid version and the free version. The only thing I noticed is that you get quicker access to newer version of Plex. And you can also play trailers before content. Neither of which is of any concern to me. Although I think it also allows for variable bitrate playback?

But I signed up for the paid version for a dollar to try it out. And I'm able to do the same things that I used with the free version.

My main use is playing back my UHD MKV BD 1:1 rips with the direct mode. And playing back recorded TiVo content using direct mode. The free version has worked great doing that.

of course, that being said, if they offered me lifetime for only $75 I might get it. Just so I could take advantage of something they might offer in the future with a Plex pass. But at the current $5 a month price or $40 per year price, it's not worth it to me.
 
#15 ·
Since I don't do anything with Live TV and such, other than activating mobile apps, I didn't find much value to paying the $5/mo.

I did for about a year and have since switched to Emby, which works better for me and my server(QNAP).
 
#16 ·
I have the lifetime Plex subscription and never use it - I did buy a wd mycloud HD at christmas last year and just hooked that up (its a wireless or hardwired HD your choice) that is 4TB for $59 delivered.
It is on sale every christmas it seems - it has a built in DLNA and works fine - we download our TV shows / Movies directly to the public folder and watch from there.
you do need to know your TV decode capabilities - we have 2 Roku tvs that will only play .264 and the newer one plays .264 and .265 mkv files.
so thats kind of a bummer.
anyway back to plex - it sucks thru TiVO and works fine thru Roku. do not know why, could care less, as we just use the former.
no need for a NAS set up, with the cheapy wd mycloud - but may jump that way to have better plex capability in the future?
and I will say it could be outdated hardware that I run my plex server thru an older laptop that should work fine but that may be my TiVO app problem.
 
#17 ·
I have had a lifetime plex pass for a few years. I'm not really glad I have it nor do I regret it in any way.
 
#20 · (Edited)
I just realized that there is one feature I use that is required to have a Plex Pass. To use Hardware acceleration, it requires a Plex pass. I had been using it with UHD content since I got a free month of Plex pass. But once it expires I'll need to see if I notice any difference with it using the software acceleration.

EDIT: hmm... I just turned off the hardware acceleration and it's actually quicker with the UHD content using the software accelerator. For transcoding to 1440P and 1080P.

At least in my setup with an 8th gen core i5 using the on chip INtel GPU.
 
#21 ·
I can confirm deal still works if you were on their email Target list for this offer. I just checked out now.
I wonder if that acceleration would work to make foreign film subtitles work for transcoding on my LIVA mini PC Intel Bay Trail SoC/ 2GB DDR3L I currently use as a Plex server
 
#22 ·
I just realized that there is one feature I use that is required to have a Plex Pass. To use Hardware acceleration, it requires a Plex pass.
Not everyone needs HW transcoding. Especially if the majority of your collection is already in MP4 and already compressed. HW transcoding is useful if:
you have BD rips in their original quality (H.264 or VC-1)
you have DVD rips in the original MPEG-2. (only FireTVs will play that natively)
you need to transcode Hi-Res Surround to AC3 5.1 or AAC.
and you're streaming to internet on phone or tablets​

I wonder if that acceleration would work to make foreign film subtitles work for transcoding on my LIVA mini PC Intel Bay Trail SoC/ 2GB DDR3L I currently use as a Plex server
If they're PGS subtitles from BD, I doubt it. That's really more like a graphic file than plain text.
But VOB subtitles from DVD should work.
 
#23 ·
Not everyone needs HW transcoding. Especially if the majority of your collection is already in MP4 and already compressed. HW transcoding is useful if:
you have BD rips in their original quality (H.264 or VC-1)
you have DVD rips in the original MPEG-2. (only FireTVs will play that natively)
you need to transcode Hi-Res Surround to AC3 5.1 or AAC.
and you're streaming to internet on phone or tablets​

....
I only rip things in their original quality. 1:1 rips(mostly UHD BDs now which use HEVC). And I do stream to all those devices except I don't touch DVDs for ripping(I stopped using DVDs in 2005). But I see that Plex is faster transcoding using the Core i5 8400 CPU in software instead of the hardware accelerator with the on chip INtel GPU.
 
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