Plex Video Store (Purchase Movies, Shows)

Feature Suggestions
1

I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen this feature request anywhere, but...

 

  • Plex is one thing that works on every device I own. It's reliable and where there's no native app I can watch with a web browser. Even Amazon Instant doesn't work that well.
  • Plex is the one place where I would feel comfortable buying digital video - and there's no store front. Now, I understand getting a movie studio to buy in to yet another digital service sounds near impossible - but I think it's worth a shot:

 

Steam has virtually changed the digital landscape for PC Games and Plex is in the place to do the same for Movies and 'TV' Series. Some people don't want to Netflix - some people want to purchase and own their library and watch it on any device regardless of internet connection.

 

Here's a goal: Get at least one major studio to release a top-billed movie to Plex at the same time as the Blu-Ray release just to test digital sales. Something like the Hunger Games, the Hobbit, or Avengers 2 etc. A revenue model where studios earn directly off digital sales, compete straight with Pirating/Netflix, and only give ~30% or whatever to Plex as a store fee sounds pretty bangin',

 

Yes, I know the legal limbo to be played to even get something like this working requires absurdly expensive lawyers and the luck to even get a studio on the phone. Yes, I know that the phrase "DRM-free" is toxic to Hollywood. Yes, I know that even starting this conversation immediately makes Plex a legal target. Yes, I know that the infrastructure to deliver a sale-able end user experience is mind-boggling...

 

    and yes... I know Plex Passholders are scared of what that could mean for Plex and their current experience with it.

 

But you know what? This market isn't going to remain open forever, and in my opinion Plex is in the best position to make a move. For now, leaving everything untouched but adding a store tab to download videos to your Plex Server would be amazing. Heck, if I have to, I'll load up one of the media boxes I've built and demo it for New Line Cinema's CEO* if that will get this ball rolling. This is the future guys and gals, and this is the perfect timing to start making it a reality.

 

*If anyone can get me in, I'll totes buy the plane tickets and do it.

 

PS I'm sure Plex guys have already talked about this - get your community involved! You may be surprised how many people would go for an easy to use storefront over the hassle of pirating when everything "just works". I know I'd be willing to throw down $10 to reserve a copy of The Hobbit on the Plex Store, assuming a guaranteed refund if negotiations break down and you can't get the studio to buy in.

2

Bump for great justice.

3

Nice idea but I cannot ever see this happening with Plex leading the charge.  Maybe if someone like Netflix started allowed their users to download a Netflix released film/show (for a one-time fee) locally so they would not have to stream it over the internet, maybe you could get other studios to start doing the same.  It would need someone with bigger pockets than Plex to start the revolution.

4

My vote would be to include a store for purchases but integrate with UltraViolet (https://www.myuv.com/) to make that happen. Most blu-rays already have UV Digital copy included, so no longer would we spend our time ripping our own media, we can just download it and keep it locally because it would all be authenticated via UV. 

This would be amazing because I already have a rather large UV library due to all the blu-rays I own....

Just my thought on this...

1 Like
5

I wouldn't mind this (especially if offering a higher-quality video/audio stream than currently provided by other sources), but I would also just like a method of pulling some DRM'd sources (Google Play Movies, VUDU, Amazon, Netflix, etc.) into the existing ecosystem. Obviously not an easy task else it would already be done.

6

I'm not sure Plex would be interested in the licensing issues this would entail.  Amazon Prime and other services like this are doing some pretty stringent licensing requirements.  Their videos are incorporating some form of DRM preventing you copying from device to device.  Plex likely would also have to incorporate this copyright protection, which would eliminate sharing to other users. 

Over-all, this would open the doors for all sorts of lawsuits for pirated versions of movies, etc...  Those users that haven't ripped every file in their libraries are going to be at risk of legal action.

7

You guys want something like this:
http://www.kaleidescape.com/store/
for http://www.kaleidescape.com/media center

If they could/would support UltraViolet as an “option” for movies protected by it then this would be semi-easy to do as they could partner with Flixter or some of the other distributors digital rights distributors (even if only an affiliate). I have no idea how hard it would be to support UV however.

Also I have no idea if you could process these DRM files to transcode them or not. So while it could be possible to direct play them on transcoding would probably not be an option. Probably not the best fit overall for Plex.

Carlo

8

I've been following the Kaleidescape Alto product pretty closely and it would be amazing if someone were able to come up with a similar service that ran on commodity hardware. It would kick ass to no end if Plex became a UV store front and could also unify the library interface so that all of the local and cloud media could be presented together. I would also love to see DMA integration as well.

1 Like
9

Bump. This is a nice idea

1 Like
10

I would love to see something like this implemented, but in a way that we can get DRM free files. I have 0 interest in another DRM laden store, and I feel most Plex users will be the same way. If I could get DRM free movies from Plex though I would empty my wallet at that. Hell I’d pay a premium over physical media to have DRM free files that I could do with what I please, but I highly doubt this is ever going to be a possibility. This is also the only way that you don’t open your server up to the eyes of Plex. Someone early proposed a similar issue.

1 Like
11

Definitely really interested in this!