As a Plex Pass user for 3 years, I can definitely shed a bit of wisdom to those looking to purchase with a hearty… Don’t.
I switched from XMBC to Plex a while back because Plex offered the ability to stream my content outside the local network (XBMC didn’t)
I was so happy to migrate my database over to Plex… (at that point using an itunes-type library I switched to one using Plexconnect [I think]) to get plex to multiple tv’s in the household plus a family member across the continent.
As a PC user, who had a computer that not only ran the server, but was also my htpc it worked great! I had an htpc setup and a server for my family.
Then the purge came. Plex made an announcement… they were moving from the XBMC code, to their own. But don’t worry all the features you’d be used to in the current product… Plex Home Theater, would become the newly named Plex Media Player.
TWO YEARS LATER
We haven’t seen any real (read: outside bug fixing) improvement into the default use-case (server+htpc+user trying to use htpc) in fact, its gotten much worse in terms of use.
Last fall the Plex team basically gave up and just turned the PMP product into a fancy web browser…?.. Idk what they were trying to do… but…
They gave up.
Before that, they focused on cloud storage! (failed) and then the DVR market (… congrats you handful of people!) and now Alexa… ugh
(IMO) Plex only uses new members as their way of gauging change… those of us that have already paid a lifetime membership… they don’t listen to us anymore, they only want you, a new customer, and I urge you to evaluate all options to you, and if you feel this is still the only option, go ahead and buy, but be vocal… we can’t let one of our favorite/most used software become the stupid beast it’s become(ing).
Most everyone here knows that I have been a strong critic of Plex and their choices over the last year or so. However I do NOT agree that people should avoid the purchase of a Plex Pass because of some bad (even horrendous) choices made by the company.
I consider my Plex Pass one of the best home entertainment purchases I have ever made even though I really use almost none of the Plex Pass features.
Even at its current price Plex Pass lifetime is cheap and well worth the cost.
My only real complaint was mentioned in the above post and that is the apparent dismissal and ignoring of the concerns of many people with a Plex Pass. However it is clear that Plex ignores the non-Plex Pass people just as thoroughly as they do the ones with Plex Pass. In their ignoring Plex is totally nondiscriminatory; they are a equal opportunity ignorer.
I have looked around in some detail at the other choices for media organizers/players and I see that those companies are about equally oblivious to what their customers really want and/or need. They all, in different ways, seem to exist in their own isolated little world where anything that does not fit their preconceived notions of what the users need are simply not included in the perceived reality.
Plex is, by far, the best of the lot and should be supported strongly but that does not mean that they are perfect and I am sure that I and others will continue to point out when the new clothes fail to cover the ugly nakedness of the king’s body. And I am equally sure that at least some of our missives will result in Plex at least adorning themselves with a fig leaf or three from time to time for modesty’s sake to hide at least part of the naked truth.
So people should buy Plex Passes to support Plex but they should also have no illusions about what a Plex Pass does. It supports Plex it does nothing else and in reality grants no special privileges except for giving one access to “special” forums where we can be ignored by a much higher class of people.
I basically agree with everything you’ve mention but do disagree about advocating people to avoid buying plex. At this point, as a customer, my vote, my voice, my opinion, matters diddly squat to the Plex developers. BUT they do care about getting more subscribers (its a way to then get advertising, or purchasing power over a startup) in which case, the new, non-plex-pass members have more of a say than you or I do… (I believe) the potential customer could use their potential-buying voice louder than we (plex users) can. At least there’s a chance the board (… idk is there a board to this thing now?) will realize they’re not gaining new users at the rate they were before, and will maybe… just maybe… start to develop a product we want again.
Then the purge came. Plex made an announcement… they were moving from the XBMC code, to their own. But don’t worry all the features you’d be used to in the current product… Plex Home Theater, would become the newly named Plex Media Player.
You know you can still use OpenPHT if you prefer it over PMP, right?
Last fall the Plex team basically gave up and just turned the PMP product into a fancy web browser…?.. Idk what they were trying to do… but…
Uh? That’s the most silly and widespread misunderstanding since the public release of PMP. Where on earth people got this idea that PMP is now a web browser beats me.
@Elijah_Baley said:
So people should buy Plex Passes to support Plex but they should also have no illusions about what a Plex Pass does.
Also it’s good to specify that people threatening that they’ll stop paying Plex Pass, or publicly regretting they ever played Plex Pass are going to have zero impact on Plex and especially on all the users that are here to help other Plex users
A family member purchased a Plex Pass lifetime by mistake last week, then after not being able to get Plex-DVR working called me to find out why. I told her she should have called me first (no ‘compatible’ tuner - a ‘detail’ carefully buried in all the hype she fell for), but we explored all the benefits a Plex Pass would provide above what we were already doing without it and we discovered the ONLY thing that would be nice would be those free apps (that we as a family can’t stomach, hate, loathe, find unacceptable hazards to navigation through the media that belongs to US).
We calculated that she’d need to purchase 20 devices that Plex wasn’t giving away apps for and she could break even. We, as a family, can only use Roku 3s due to RARflix only being available for Rokus so the chances of being able to use those ‘free and hated’ apps are pretty slim. She felt a bit foolish. I will rub that in at some future time when she’s not feeling bad about it.
When Plex starts putting user concerns above their own grand plan - whatever that is - more non-Plex Passers (like ‘most’ of our family - except for the unfortunate and premature purchaser) would gleefully support Plex. Plex has decided ‘The Mexican Stand-Off’ is a better bidness model in that I, as a user, can love Plex for what it is and love everything Plex decides is right for me and decide to support Plex because they can do no wrong - or I can watch my hind end so the door doesn’t hit it on the way out. Plex doesn’t seem too concerned which path I (or thousands of other users who feel a little left out of the process) choose.
When Plex improves user relations - thousands of user’s willingness to support Plex will also improve. Until then it’s ‘The Mexican Stand-Off’ - a barricade situation only Plex can change. Trench Warfare. The ball has stopped rolling around in Plex’s court. It’s up to Plex to make the next move.
I say Buy if you want to support Plex. Or, if you really like one of the added features PlexPass offers.
On a side note… Funny story… My friend was paying for the monthly subscription then canceled 7 months later. After which, he was mad that he had to buy the Plex app for Android. Guess he thought the subscription paid for the app outright. Nope. Your membership is leasing the apps for free.
Anyway, we need not associate paying and customer support together… A lot of confusion comes from it…
Anyway, we need not associate paying and customer support together… A lot of confusion comes from it…
You’re telling me Plex has customer support? Really? No, really?
Yep. It is right here. To get quite good reliable and quite quick support all one need to do is provide good information about the problem and include details about the setup involved and what is being tried and the exact nature of the problem. Sometimes logs are needed but Plex has now provided and easy and almost painless way to get the logs so even that hassle has been reduced.
Customer support, for problems, is not really one of Plex’s weaknesses. They are much better that almost every company I deal with. Their main weakness, in my opinion, is that they do not communicate well with their user base it that they do not think their user base is smart enough to have any good ideas that do not fit in with their preconceived ideas.
I agree, there are companies with “proper technical support” with tickets and tracking of issues etc but all they can answer is “sorry your OS is not supported” or something along that line.
Their main weakness, in my opinion, is that they do not communicate well with their user base it that they do not think their user base is smart enough to have any good ideas that do not fit in with their preconceived ideas.
I more or less agree with this too, but this is probably because we see them as Kodi users see the Kodi team (or some other open source developer group), while they see us as apple sees its customers. I mean, Plex is not a group of open source developers providing a software to their loyal user base, they act like a company building an appliance and trying their best to give their users (all users, not just people that are tech savvy enough to roam the forums) what they think is the best experience. You don’t expect Bosch to change the handle of their steam irons because it doesn’t fit your hands or the way you iron
