this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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cross-posted from: https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639

I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That's it folks. I've been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.

They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.

I'll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I've been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it's time to make it production ready.

Edit: I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying “Just buy a plex pass” are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.

And for the thousandth person who wants to say the same things to me:

  • YES I know I'm unaffected as a Plex Pass owner.
  • My users were immediately angry at it, which made me angry. Our users don't understand what plex pass is, and they shouldn't have to, that's why I had it. The fact that they were pinged even though it should have kept working is horribly sloppy
  • Plex is still removing functionality. I don't care that "People should pay their fair share". If Plex wants to put every new feature behind a paywall, that's completely okay. They are removing functionality.
    • "But they have cloud costs". Remote streaming is negligible to them. It's a dynamic DNS service. Plex client logs in, asks where server is, plex cloud responds with the IP and port of where server is located. That's it.
    • "Good luck finding another remote streaming" - Again, Plex just opens up an IP and port. Jellyfin also just opens up an IP and port (Hold on jellyfin folks I know, security, that's a separate conversation). All "remote streaming" is is their dynamic dns. Literal pennies to them. Know what actually is costing them money? Hosting all of that ad-supported "free" content that they're probably losing money on.

In short, I don't care how you justify it. Plex is doing something shitty. They're removing functionality that has been free for years. I'm not responding to any more of your comments repeating the same arguments over and over.

(page 7) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 days ago (5 children)

My bad, this is all because I finally decided to purchase a lifetime pass.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The Remote Watch Pass is only needed if neither you nor the server owner have a Plex pass: https://support.plex.tv/articles/requirements-for-remote-playback-of-personal-media/

When using an affected platform to stream personal video content remotely from a Plex Media Server, then one of the following needs to be true:

  1. The admin account for the Plex Media Server has an active Plex Pass (which also allows remote playback for any other user streaming from that server)
  2. Your account has an active Plex Pass
  3. Your account has an active Remote Watch Pass

The remote playback restrictions do not apply to streaming music content to Plexamp or photos to our Plex Photos app.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (18 children)

I see some posts taking about jellyfin and tailscale and I find it interesting that it's not mentioned tailscale is a private company. Why are they not being held to the same standard as Plex? How long before it becomes enshittified? I saw they have a free plan but give it time until they realize the number of users in the free tier are large enough to monetize.

edit: I'm prepared to be down voted but mark this and see where it ends up at.

Edit2: and I'm not defending Plex. I agree it's a shitty move.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

LOL, aren't there at least a half dozen open source alternatives for Plex?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

It was announced some time ago. I started using Tailscale because of that

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

What was the appeal of Plex anyway?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

The wife / parent appeal of simplicity.

Otherwise just use JellyFin.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Local media streaming Is the appeal?

Now if you're asking why use Plex vs Jellyfin, for me jellyfin has more issues with high bitrate 4K HDR content and subtitles for my situation.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It has been a few years since I last used Plex but I always liked their interface, their tech stack is fairly modern, they have apps for pretty much every device, their title matching for content works really well and there was not much wrong with it back in the day other than it lacking local authentication.

I switched over long ago when they started pushing streaming services to my users that I couldn't deactivate server side.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I ran Emby for a while before switching to Jellyfin. Still running it today.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

I'm done with Plex - They won't get my recommendations. My holdoff buying PlexPass were the little bugs that always mattered - Pausing for more than a few minutes HARD locked up the stream, the stream had to re-init to load subtitles, and then the MAJOR issue with "What files is Plex NOT seeing" and other indexing issues. I paid for my Android app, happily. But now, telling me I can't stream my own media, after paying for the app? Y'all can F right off with that. I'll be finally setting up Jellyfin ASAP.

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