Is Plex Pass worth the cost?

Street · 17 Jun 2020 at 13:50

PiKe said:
Subscribe for 1 month, let it expire, wait 3 months for a 37% off code, costs less than £60 for a lifetime sub then.

Plex pass also gives you the option to limit remote streaming bandwidth, you can also specify your upload speed so that the 'streaming brain' can adjust bitrates on the fly.

They have also just added the skip into functionality which again is only available via plex pass.

I was going to give that a go to see if I got a code, but out of the blue they emailed me one today! They sent me one ages ago but I didn't take it up and I've not had one in a couple years.

unrealrocks · 18 Jun 2020 at 18:48

I couldn't live without Plex Pass as I now use a HDHomeRun and Plex to do live TV throughout my house - the only exclusion is I have a freesat box for getting RTE for free Formula1.

One quirk I found which is a little annoying is PlexPass allows the primary account to to mobile offline sync, but people you share with outside of your household would need their own Plex Pass. However if you add them as part of your household they can just share your Plex Pass ... not a problem but a little annoying as all their usernames appear in the list when opening the Apple TV or Android TV app

Semple · 18 Jun 2020 at 19:03

I think i purchased Plex a year or 2 ago now. Have been using it for about 5 years now, and decided to keep my eyes open for an offer and take the punt. Figured if i'd used it for 3 years already, then i was likely to continue doing so. Which makes buying the lifetime pass absolutely worth it.

jpaul · 19 Jun 2020 at 14:48

unrealrocks said:
as I now use a HDHomeRun

isn't it courtesy of the HDHomeRun software that you get mpeg2 deinterlacing license (not in plex) to use on the server, which is essential if you want live tv distribution ?
and, if you want to archive recordings you typically deinterlace and transcode to h265 overnight, offline.

Looking further at the plex hardware decoding, unless you are streaming to outside your home, and need to reduce the bandwidth, most phones/tv support a wide range of codecs, now, so shouldn't need a transcode.
I have free plex, I had seen some media files, where the audio codec didn't work on the tv (aac-he), or where the media needed to be re-packaged, which still has to be done in software afaik.

unrealrocks · 19 Jun 2020 at 22:02

jpaul said:
isn't it courtesy of the HDHomeRun software that you get mpeg2 deinterlacing license (not in plex) to use on the server, which is essential if you want live tv distribution ?
and, if you want to archive recordings you typically deinterlace and transcode to h265 overnight, offline.

Looking further at the plex hardware decoding, unless you are streaming to outside your home, and need to reduce the bandwidth, most phones/tv support a wide range of codecs, now, so shouldn't need a transcode.
I have free plex, I had seen some media files, where the audio codec didn't work on the tv (aac-he), or where the media needed to be re-packaged, which still has to be done in software afaik.

What you say is correct, however HDHomerun doesn't supply an Apple TV app, also if you want a DVR you need to use some sort of third party solution. This is where Plex Pass allows you to use Plex's DVR and playback live TV through Apple TV (via transcoding). Also I spend quite a bit of time in France so it's nice to have the option for UK TV channels

If you literally just want to play back live TV on say a mobile device the native app for HDHR is excellent.