Works nice, but how does it actually work?

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
1

Hello.

I installed the the new Xbox app and connected it to my local home server and the result was very impressive. Looked and worked very well.

 

However, I was quite surprised to all the extra steps one has to do now in contrast to other apps you provided in the past and I could not find any explanations about why and what happens in detail under the covers here. Is there some technical documentation that explains the specific protocols?

 

The iPad app for example just worked without any server registration. I pay, install, run and it finds the server in my local network. I never ever would want to access my files outside of local home network and all the Plex Pass features you advertise seem around this and stuff I do not need.  So I was quite surprised that I now had to first register an account and then even register my server with you without any explanations why this is needed if I wanted to only stream locally.  Many questions popped into my head:

 

- Why do you need my birthdate and what do you do with it?

- What data is exactly exchanged between my server and your site and what do you do with it? Who can read that data?

- Is it part of your business model to scan my content and sell it to advertisers (a la gmail)?

 

And then for the Xbox app:

- I can understand that you want an account to check entitlement for the Plex subscription, which I am happy to pay (but again why do you need my birthdate if you do not provide any age restricted content yourself and my credit card already proves that I am an adult), but why does it need a registration of my server?

- Is that because the Xbox APIs do not allow you to scan and communicate with devices on the local network?

- If that is the case is my content streamed over the internet eating away my Comcast data usage limits (uploading and downloading my own files)?

- Is that content encrypted? What methods do you use and how are keys created? Who else can access the stream and media catalog data?

 

Sorry for all these questions, but browsing through your blog, forum, and FAQs I could not see answers to these as I feel obvious questions. I love your server and iPad app, but again all my use cases are in the local network and do not like telling third parties about my infrastructure and opening ports for them. Perhaps you could offer a special Flex Pass for local network users. 

 

Thanks for any answers and best regards,

Peter. 

 

2

i would be interested to know about if this plex for xbox one is meant to work off local network connection...... ... my setup has been PMS on macbook.....files stored on a standard Nas drive (no internal PMS) then LG app that pics up on all of my files without me having to register my device on the plex website.     I understand the benefits of registering my server on the plex website for universal access on the go........however would i be right in thinking that if this is the only way to get my xbox to find it would the behaviour be that......my PMS on macbook would technically send my files from my nas drive up to the cloud, To then be redownloaded back from the cloud to my xbox one......  if that is the case i can see this being a major problem a lot of people as the strain that would have on my macbook already looks like it is causing the images to stutter and buffer.   So much quicker if this is kept to local network.

Please can someone advise on if anything im saying seems like nonsense?  or am i just going to have to revert to not using the new xbox one app and keep with me LG tv app that handles PMS on macbook sooo much better.

3

I know one of the reasons they are moving towards this account method is to make future features like parental controls easier to implement. It also allows experience inside and outside the home to be relatively similar. If you’re only connecting inside the house via the old way and one day you wanted to try streaming on a vacation, you’d have learn a new way of doing things. This account method makes the experience universal. The registering of the device via the short code is, as far as I know, just a simpler way to “login” to your account on the app, PHT uses the same method. They’ve talked about this in the blog in the past, and I believe it is their plan to move all platforms to this method of connecting with your account.

4

If your local the connection to your server is local and so are the streams from it. Only the authentication is over there web

5

Hello.

I installed the the new Xbox app and connected it to my local home server and the result was very impressive. Looked and worked very well.

However, I was quite surprised to all the extra steps one has to do now in contrast to other apps you provided in the past and I could not find any explanations about why and what happens in detail under the covers here. Is there some technical documentation that explains the specific protocols?

The iPad app for example just worked without any server registration. I pay, install, run and it finds the server in my local network. I never ever would want to access my files outside of local home network and all the Plex Pass features you advertise seem around this and stuff I do not need.  So I was quite surprised that I now had to first register an account and then even register my server with you without any explanations why this is needed if I wanted to only stream locally.  Many questions popped into my head:

- Why do you need my birthdate and what do you do with it?

- What data is exactly exchanged between my server and your site and what do you do with it? Who can read that data?

- Is it part of your business model to scan my content and sell it to advertisers (a la gmail)?

And then for the Xbox app:

- I can understand that you want an account to check entitlement for the Plex subscription, which I am happy to pay (but again why do you need my birthdate if you do not provide any age restricted content yourself and my credit card already proves that I am an adult), but why does it need a registration of my server?

- Is that because the Xbox APIs do not allow you to scan and communicate with devices on the local network?

- If that is the case is my content streamed over the internet eating away my Comcast data usage limits (uploading and downloading my own files)?

- Is that content encrypted? What methods do you use and how are keys created? Who else can access the stream and media catalog data?

Sorry for all these questions, but browsing through your blog, forum, and FAQs I could not see answers to these as I feel obvious questions. I love your server and iPad app, but again all my use cases are in the local network and do not like telling third parties about my infrastructure and opening ports for them. Perhaps you could offer a special Flex Pass for local network users. 

Thanks for any answers and best regards,

Peter. 

Birthdays = a COPPA requirement so that Plex can ensure they are legally compliant.

The XBOX APIs do not allow multicast/broadcast scanning so have no way to find the server without referring to something central  - data transfer stays local.

everything else you are is pretty much covered in the privacy policy linked from the homepage.

6

Thanks a lot, everyone.

So if it can stream data directly from my server to my Xbox, doesn’t that means they know each other? If yes, then is there any other way than the Xbox using the server’s local IP address? If yes, then why can’t I just enter the server’s IP address in the Plex app?


I understand jocean’s explanation (thanks for that), but wouldn’t you feel better as customer if you could rather do that than signing up to a central server if you have no remote use cases? The user experience of creating an account, connecting my server and then registering my app is way worth than a simple enter your server’s name or IP address dialog.


Best regards,

Peter.

7

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