Noob Question - About Plex Lifetime Pass - Just Purchased

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Greetings all, I have used an old PC and turned it into a nas/plex server. This is the first time I have used either/both. I do use Linux on my main pc. So I have some understanding of Linux.

I am running TrueNAS 12.2 and Plex Version 1.25.6.5577 on the little server I built.

I installed Plex from the plug-ins page which was the none beta version as it did not need a plex pass. I got the system working, great! Streaming my movies, music and photos all work so again great! I purchased the Plex Lifetime Pass, again great! When I access the server I could and can see Lifetime Pass icon, yes! I then noticed there was an update, I think I just stopped the plex server running and selected update. When it finished it had upgrade to the version shown above. Again great. I can’t re bear if I selected update on the Plex or the Jail. But it updated.
Ok questions time.

Question 1: Plex Pass, should my Plex Pass allow Managed users in my house to access to Lyrics? (Works for my account, ‘can’t load’ error message for all others managed local users). I tried finding a solution but no luck. Should it work? If it should I will post logs.

Question 2: The above installation method I did, am I actually running the Plex Pass Version? Is there a different version I need to install or upgrade or does Plex just unlock the pass feature automatically when you buy it, it seems to have auto unlocked. But maybe this is my issue with question 1, no lyrics for managed users.

Question 3: Hardware Transcoding. My cpu doesn’t support quick sync video and neither does the Nvidia 700 series. My question is Does the TrueNAS / Plex Solution support Hardware transcoding? I don’t want upgrade the cpu or maybe the display card to find out this combo doesn’t support it. I think I would upgrade the motherboard and cpu, probably cheaper? I am not looking for anything fancy or mega fast just the cheapest intel i3 cpu just to have some form of hardware transcoding.

I would be very grateful if I could get and official answer to question 1, if it should work I would then like to figure out how to fix the issue.

Question 4: I have a few audiobooks and wondered what the best way is to added them. There is no Audiobook option when creating a folder so I am unsure which is the best option to select? Can plex pull in meta data for audiobooks even?

We’ll thank you for reading my questions and I look forward to finding out the answers.

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  1. No idea. I can’t seem to get lyrics to work most of the time. I haven’t even looked at it after I got it to work once.

  2. I don’t think there is a separate Plex Pass only build. I think they have the ability to give out a version of the server to anyone on a Plex pass, but I don’t think they actually do it. So I think the regular server install and the plex pass installs are the same.

  • 2b. I do think, though, that unless you pick the Plex Pass build, it won’t “swap” you over to it just by updating and having a Plex Pass.

  1. I use a docker build of Plex, running on an Ubuntu server, and I got HW accel working. I don’t think that any particular Plex build will be unable to access hardware acceleration if you have the hardware, but I don’t know for sure. So my vote is naw, go ahead and upgrade, but maybe wait for confirmation from someone else too.

  2. Audiobook support is pretty lacking in Plex. Make an audio library (the only kind that will find audio files) and point to the audiobooks. But be prepared to do a LOT of fixing, if your metadata isn’t the best. Some of my older audiobooks are from strange sources, so the count of files don’t match those on musicBrainz or other metadata sites. But if you can load it and identify it via musicbrainz, then plex ought to show it as an “album”. If you cannot fill the metadata, then fill the album artist with the book author, and the album name with the book name, and fix it from there. A lot of my books loaded up as like 20 different identically named “books”, which I then had to combine into one album using the Plex interface.

  • 4b. Be aware that there is no way of being able to tell which files of a book you have read, or how far into one file you are. I think the PlexAmp app for mobile supports resuming a file-in-progress, but you need to enable a checkbox in the library creation/edit page to turn this on:
    audio
    audio725×523 35.8 KB
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There are two parts to this: 1) the software; 2) the features.

The Software

If you have a Plex Pass you can download Plex Pass releases from plex.tv, the update button in Plex Media Server settings, etc.

The Plex Pass versions are beta builds. They have features, bug fixes, etc that are not considered release quality. Sometimes previously working features break or do not work as intended while all the kinks get worked out.

Eventually, one of the Plex Pass builds is deemed stable enough to release to the wider audience. It then goes from beta to released status.

You can see this in the release notes. There will be several beta releases, then one is declared available to everyone, and the beta builds start again.


The Features

A Plex Pass enables certain features not available to the non-Plex Pass users. See Plex: Free vs Paid.

When you claim your server, it checks in with plex.tv, sees what license you have, and enables the correct set of features.

If a non-Plex Pass user installs a beta release on their server it will still load, run, etc. They just won’t have access to any Plex Pass features.

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Ah, so the Plex Pass line of builds is really
 a bad name for “beta” releases of the Plex server. The only reason it’s called “Plex Pass” is that you must have the Plex Pass activated on your account before the server is notified of an available update to a beta build.

When I was researching which docker build to get, the site I read sounded like the “Plex Pass” version and the “regular” versions yielded the same version, indicating (to my mind) that Plex wasn’t utilizing the “Plex Pass” build for anything currently. Sorry for the incorrect info.

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I don’t think there’s any „hiding“ of the fact it’s beta releases (sometime with early access features)

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201844613-early-access-beta-releases/

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Thanks for the reply’s they have been very helpful. I have done lots of read since installing TrueNAS and Plex and there is a lot for me to learn, I’m getting there slowly. I did actually read the section about free vs paid but I must not have absorbed the answer lol! But thanks for pointing it out. I have now read it again and bookmarked the page for more reading on other things. So my Lyrics issue is an issue, I will need to post a support request. Thanks everyone for your information. :+1:

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