I just purchased a Plex Pass to be able to sync stuff offline and for my family users. I understand that for the latter I have to create a Plex Home. In the FAQ of Plex Home is a strange line: “The DLNA server built in to Plex Media Server will be disabled completely.”
I’m a bit worried about that line, because my TV’s don’t have Plex apps and I would not be able to watch movies there anymore. Which is actually the main occupation of my Plex server. Also, that would mean that I now pay for Plex but can’t use it on my TV anymore.
So I guess I misunderstand that line somehow, else it wouldn’t make much sense. Could someone please give me a hint on that matter? I did not create a Plex Home yet, so no harm done yet. But if Plex Pass/Plex Home really turns off DLNA, I would have to refund my purchase, because that would be retarded.
Once you enable Plex Home, the DLNA server will be disabled automatically.
It is just so, because DLNA doesn’t support user authentication at all. So if you are trying to restrict content for children, then they’d be able to circumvent the restrictions by using DLNA clients instead.
I don’t have children in my home, my son is 19 years old (and my wife is even older :)) ).
But if re-enabling is possible, then I’m happy. Thanks for your quick reply.
Btw, if I would use Chromecast (I don’t have one yet), and every family member would use it’s Android phone with the Plex app and it’s own Plex Home user to control it, wouldn’t that solve the problem as well while still keeping the option of different content for each Plex Home user intact?
DLNA is a very basic protocol. It offers none of the extra capabilities in presenting your media Plex does. Why do you think you need to create a Plex Home? You can sign every device in your home into your Plex Pass account and leave your DLNA active. If you install a plex app into your tv/tablet/phone or use a Roku / ChromeCast, you gain all the extra features of having the Plex Pass + the Plex protocol.
While the choice is always yours, you may not realize how much more you have and the flexibility you have using Plex over DLNA.
I agree with @ChuckPa about DLNA. In fact, while it is not exactly a dead protocol, it is approaching zombie status. I believe it should be avoided if at all possible.
DLNA was a good idea but the people working on and developing it failed to expand the feature set to keep up with the needs of media streaming. It is woefully lacking in both features and security and that lack could have been avoided if the developers had decided to put the features in.
DLNA wanted to be the end all for streaming and they wanted it to be available on virtually every platform. They made it so generic that it has ended up tasteless and has little going for it under current streaming environments.
There are TVs and other display devices that have a DLNA client but do not have a Plex client and for those devices I recommend that users get one of the inexpensive devices that have a Plex client and attach that to the display device.
I also do NOT recommend a Chromecast because it requires another device to control it and send videos to it increasing the complexity of using Plex.
I recommend any of a number of devices including Rokus, Fire TVs and Shield TVs. Of thos the Roku is the easiest to use and has the most other apps while the Shield is the most flexible and directly supports the most codecs.
My family (daughter, grandaughters and inlaws) and all my friends save one (he uses Fire TVs) use Rokus although several have secondary devices like Shields or Fires.
Plex is designed for use with its own clients and its performance is vastly inferior via DLNA.
Thanks guys for your very helpful answers. I would be more than happy to abandon DLNA, but both my main TV as well as the connected Sony bluray system don’t have a Plex app. But they have DLNA, so that’s what I ended up with.
I don’t have any experience with external devices that have built-in Plex capabilities. But I guess I will have to look into it then. I live in Germany, and Roku is not a topic here or is available in shops. I actually had never heard about it before I started to use Plex. The only things that are advertised here are Chromecast, Nvidia Shield and Amazon Fire. So I’m a bit confused why you would not recommend Chromecast? What would you do regarding my scenario? You mentioned “inexpensive devices that have a Plex client”. What would that be for example?
About your question why I would want to create a Plex Home: I thought that was the only way to give my family members the capability to sync stuff to their mobile devices while paying for one Plex Pass only?
I do not recommend Chromecast because it requires another device to even work and because of that it has one additional unneeded point of failure when streaming.
Note: In Germany if you get a Roku much of it will not work nut much will. Plex will have no problem but you will not be able to use Netflix directly. Also I do not think Amazon Prime streaming and works and many of the sports app are US/UK only. But Rokus are pretty cheap and very reliable.
The Fire TV and Shield should have no problem and there are many Android TV boxes that would work as well but I would stay clear of the ones that advertise things like Kodi pre-installed.
Another device to consider is the Raspberry PI running PMP or RasPlex. Also there are many small computers that can be attached directly to your TV and controlled by a remote.
Be sure you deal with a seller that offers easy no questions returns (like Amazon) so that if you get a device that you don’t like you can return it and get something else.
You do not need Plex home to sync content, as long as you have Plex pass. Plex home does allow those users to activate the app. You can still use dlna for those non Plex devices, bit that will always use your admin account so if you care about your watched status, don’t use it, or create yourself another account to use when you are watching to teach your actual watched status.
Chromecast are nice devices to use if you already have other Android devices. Not great if you are user to having a physical remote.
@Elijah_Baley: Thanks for your helpful hints. My PMS actually runs very well on a QNAP Linux NAS, so I’m fine with that side of Plex. The NAS has a HDMI port, but using it directly with a TV turned out to be totally useless. Nice pre-sales trick from QNAP. And the PHT delivered with the NAS is outdated and does not work with the current PMS. So I would have to fiddle with OpenPHT and stuff, which I don’t want to do at the moment. But streaming from the NAS Plex is totally fine, so no problem. As said above, my only issue right now is the streaming to devices that don’t have a Plex app.
I think I will give FireTV a try. It’s below 100 bucks and has Ethernet and 4K. Usually I don’t like that Amazon stuff very much, but this one seems not so bad.
@MovieFan.Plex: Thank you very much. That clears up the confusion about Plex Pass/Plex Home/Multiple Users a bit. I don’t care about watched status, so that might actually work for us.
The shortcomings of DLNA are the whole reason I started the process that eventually lead me to Plex. Plex replaces archaic and clunky DLNA solutions. If you’re setting up the Plex experience, there’s no need for DLNA.
I have a brand new “smart” TV but I don’t use any of its stupid apps and instead use a Roku and a Raspberry Pi. You’re far better served by separating your Plex client device from your TV.
Yeah, I can see that now. I was tempted to buy a new “Smart-TV”, but then I realized that there is no guarantee that app store X of vendor Y fully supports the Plex app. It’s always a bit of gambling.
I just purchased a FireTV and had the Plex app running and connecting with my TV and my PMS within minutes. Everything is fine now, I even disabled DLNA in my PMS. I wish I had known this earlier instead of getting lured into “DLNA appliance”, inconsistent Plex TV apps and similar crap.
Thanks for your help guys!
