Help me Choose Plex!

General Discussions Plex Features
1

Hello Plex Customers-

Let me start off by saying I love Plex and I think it is an awesome thing to have.

I have been using Plex for a couple of years now and I am thinking about cutting the cord and using the features it offers but I need your help. I have looked all around the internet and I like the features it offers but I still need some help.

Live TV: what is the best digital tuner I need to buy? I have seen videos where I can use my house as a big antenna. I say that because I get poor reception with one of those over the air hdtv antennas. At best I get 5 channels and I they aren’t exciting to watch.

Pricing: If I like the full featured experience I will buy the lifetime plan BUT is there a way where I can do a trial run to see if it is truly what I would like to purchase?

Other than the digital tuner is there any other hardware that I need to get?

Thanks,
Rob G.

2

Sign up for a monthly pass ($4.99) and cancel if you don’t like how it works out for you.

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3

Don’t know anything about turning your whole house into an antenna
 if you figure it out, let me know!

Most people seem to run with the HD Homerun line of tuners from Silicon Dust. I currently have two
 but you’re at the mercy of the signal you receive in your area. You’ll need a good outdoor antenna, I would think?

Pricing: Go month by month to try it out and see if you like it. You’ll get some extras on your existing library, as well as the DVR funcitonality. I already had lifetime before DVR was introduced, so it was a nice bonus for me.

4

So it looks like I have to pay for a different service to get Live TV added to my Plex TV service???

5

Live TV / DVR is a feature requiring a Plex Pass. Plex Pass can be purchased three different ways: monthly, yearly, or lifetime (one-time payment).

I don’t understand how that go turned into “pay for a different service”.

6

That is why I am confused. Part of the Requirement for Plex Pass with Live TV is for a digital tuner. The person above mentioned the SiliconDust HDHomeRun but what I am seeing from that is that that it requires a subscription to use their Live TV service. See why I am confused? If Plex Pass comes with that service then don’t all I need is some kind of antenna that is digital?

7

Silicon Dust offers hardware (digital tuners) and services (e.g. their own LIve TV and DVR service).

You can use their service or Plex’s service but there’s no need to use both.

Silicon Dust’s hardware/digital tuners will also work with Plex and are a one-time purchase.

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8

hd homerun sells tuner boxes that can tune in channels OTA (ie local channels from your antenna) and they also have a ‘premium’ service which is like netflix or slingtv or direc tv now, or any other ‘streaming’ services.

silicon dust is actually the company, hd homerun is the brand of tuners they sell.

Once you buy the hd homerun tuner box and connect your antenna and plug the box into your home network, you can access the tuner box in several ways;

  • you can directly access the HDHR tuner by webpage direct to the box
  • you can use HDHR software on your pc (which connects to your tuner box) and gives you a fancy interface for live tv and optional dvr service
  • you can use other 3rd party software to access tuner box and either watch live tv and/or provide their own dvr service

plex does the last option, it connects to the tuner box and lets you watch live tv from any plex client, and you can configure the dvr to record the live channels to your plex library

so, buying the hdhr box gets you free ota local tv with no other costs

if you want the other stuff, either the hd hr dvr software, or the hd hr ‘premium’ streaming service, that costs money to the hd hr people (not part of plex)

or with plex pass + tuner box you have live tv + drv, all integrated with your other media on plex

FWIW I have not heard of a house antenna, I would suggest you buy a real antenna and either put it in your attic or have it installed outside your house, if you want the best local channel performance.

Personally I use the hd homerun quatro (it has 4 tuners, so I can watch or record up to 4 different channels at the same time.

I also have the $30 antenna linked below hanging in my attic, which works great for me and my area.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DNJZ58M/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

9

Well that explains a lot. HAHA, Now I understand the difference. So with that being said, how do I determine what is the best antenna I should try in my area


And as for the tuner box what would you recommend I get?

Thank you,
Rob Gross

10

I don’t really think there are huge differences between tv antennas, although I am sure that some may be optimized for long range (narrow field pointed in a particular direction) and some may be optimized for a wide field or omni directional, but have less range.

So the type of antenna is directly dependent on your physical location and the locations of the stations you wish to receive.

Generally, in a big city with multiple stations in all directions you probably want some kind of omnidirectional antenna.

If you are out in the suburbs or rural, you may want a long range antenna to point to the nearest big city or area with the greatest number of stations you want to receive.

You will really need to research any further details on your area on your own.

I live in the outer burbs relative to my local stations so most of them are all in the same general direction so I went with a longer range type antenna.

the type of box also depends on your needs, but I would recommend the quattro by default since it has enough tuners for multiple channels and recordings.

also, you can buy additional tuner boxes and connect them all to plex, if you needed more simultaneous live or dvr channels.

there are also other tuner boxes of different sizes and prices, and it may be possible to find a used one on ebay or craigslist if your budget is super tight.

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11

Hello again-

So I was doing some research on Antennas. Because I live in a crappy area the most channels I would get would be like 2. So if I am buying the plex Live TV service, why do I need an antenna and the box for only 2 channels?

Please help my non experienced brain with this!

Thanks,
Rob G.

12

well, you probably would not then.

plex does not provide any channels or content, other than the free ‘news’, ‘podcasts’ and ‘web shows’.

with only 2 local channels available, the only reason you may want to buy the hd homerun is to utilize their ‘premium tv’ streaming service, which works with plex and plex dvr.

otherwise, the only content that plex uses is content YOU provide (ie rip your own movies/tv).

13

So the point of the antenna and tuner would be to utilize the live tv feature but with my current living area I wouldn’t get more than what the antenna would pick up?

14

correct.

I will say in your situation so few local channels, that you might want to consider subscribing to the hd homerun premium service, you can get ‘streaming live’ tv from HDHR (paying them monthly), get a bunch of channels that you can either watch live or record them to your plex library.

This is more than you can do for something like netflix or hulu or direct tv now, or sling tv. None of those services work through plex, and none of them let you DVR their content so you have a local copy.

Whether that is worth something will depend on if any of the channels that HDHR premium service provides are useful to you.

That said, there is no guarantee that the HDHR will continue, as I believe several big media companies are suing the HDHR upstream provider (not hdrh themselves).

But in the meantime, you could use the service to view and record content to save for your media library.

15

Okay now with all that here is my next concern. I have been using freenas and from there installing multiple plugins, using different email addresses to have different viewing accounts.

My Daughter
My Wife
Myself

Without the lifetime plex subscription I wouldn’t be able to utlize that function either. For that reason is it workth the 120?

16

the server itself is logged into a single account (which is your admin account).

with multiple users you can do it two ways;

  • regular sharing - each user has their own plex account, you invite each user to your server, each user gets their own play history and you can limit each user to what libraries you want them to view (ie you can have an adult library and not share it with your children).
  • family/managed sharing (requires plex pass) - you create managed user profiles, then each user logs in with your admin email and choose from the profiles (similar to how netflix has multiple profiles). Unless you put a PIN code on a profile, then any other profile can log into any profile (plex does not know is who because they all share your admin email).

you can also add other plex accounts to your family, then you get the benefit of not having to pay for the mobile apps unlock, and they get their own plex account.

all users that are part of the home/managed users will be listed on the user profile selection though, so it is a good idea to assign PIN codes to each (adult) account.

There is a whole series of articles and info all this @ https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/plex-media-server/users-plex-home-and-friends-management/

17

But that is only accessible using the plex pass not the plex free, correct?

18

the managed home function is plex pass yes.

the regular shared users are not (ie each user has their own plex account, and each has to pay to unlock the mobile app if they use it).

(smart) tv and media streamer apps typically are already unlocked, so if you are not using mobile apps then there should be no cost.

19

With each seperate account, I would need to install 3 different plex servers? Versus if I just get the plex pass then all I have to do is manage 3 different profiles with one account?

20

no no no

edit: plex is TWO parts.

  • the server (which indexes your content and streams it out to the clients),
  • and the client (ie the mobile app, or smart tv app, or a web browser)

you can have many clients (and users) connect to one server

the server has 1 account (yours or whoever the admin is)

if you want separate play history and settings, then each user needs a separate account (or be part of your admin user home users)

you can have a plex account without any server, you just won’t get any content other than the free plex content (news/podcasts/webshows), until that user gets invited to a server.

so admin = you = the server account
wife = her own email = her own plex account
child = own email = own plex account

you invite wife and child emails to your server (see the link provided above)
wife/child log into their client (ie mobile or smart tv or pc web page) and access the content you have stored on your server.

or using that home/managed user, (again plex pass only) you can just use the 1 admin email account, and create the managed users profiles (no other email needed)

you would need to login to each client with YOUR email, then choose the appropriate profile within that plex client