I ’ve been on a morsel of a journey with Plex . It started a few calendar month ago when I settle tofinally build up a Plex serverwith a mini personal computer and an outside hard drive . Then , I last advance that experience witha proper web - attached storage ( NAS)just a few week ago . Now , I have the last patch of the mystifier in the form of a Plex Pass membership that I wo n’t require to give for month after month .
I ’m getting a bit ahead of myself . If somehow you are n’t familiar , Plex is a medium host applicationthat ’s altogether loose . Download it on just about anything , and you may teem your media from any equipment with access to the app . I ’ve used it , along with a large collection of physical media , to chip away at cyclosis serving that , frankly , are filled with cognitive content I ’m not even remotely interested in watching .
Plex is one of those rare service that ’s unfeignedly free . You ’re not pay back some limited version of the app where it feel like you lean into a paywall around every corner . Plex Pass , which is available either for a one - time lifetime fee or as an inexpensive $ 5 monthly membership , simply expands the already astral destitute service .
Plex Pass hasa lotof additional features , but there are a few that really make a difference for me . First , intro and credits bound off . I am a habitual anime watchman , and although I like to close up out to a salutary introduction from clip to - time I do n’t have cherished minutes to squander on the same credits chronological sequence when I ’m gormandise . you could skip the intro and credits of shows with Plex Pass .
fundamentally , every major cyclosis platform has this feature , but the version is Plex Pass is amazingly robust . Particularly for gum anime , Crunchyroll has aterribleskipping feature . Half of the fourth dimension , it does n’t work out , or it pops up well after the intro is done . I ’ve never had that problem with Plex .
The other heavy feature of speech is computer hardware transcoding . I mainly watch medium off of my Plex server on my local meshwork , but I have it configure so I can access my waiter when I ’m away from home , as well . When streaming remotely like this , I want to transcode the video files , especially if I ’m follow some chunky 4 K Blu - ray rip of a movie .
Transcoding with software system is pitifully slow , and ordinarily leads to an endless bombardment of buffering and sub-720p picturequality . With hardware transcoding , I can take reward of the Intel Core i3 - N305 CPU in my NAS , as well as its integrated computer graphic , to manage the transcoding . Even a relatively weak CPU like this can pull through picture transcoding with multiple watercourse .
Those are the two highlights for me , but there are a few other features that I make effective purpose of with Plex Pass . you may download your media , which is great if I ’m go away on a flight . Plex Pass also come up with HDR tone mapping for those high - timbre Blu - ray tide rip , and support for multiple editions of the same subject if you ’re a mega nerd about movies like me .
I ’m really just scratching the surface on features here . Plexamp , for example , is fundamentally Spotify for your own personal medicine accumulation , complete with words and downloads . you could even hook up a television set feeler to not only teem live television , but to also use your server as a DVR .
I wo n’t lie , deal all of this is a lot more work than just unsay whatever fee your cyclosis serving of choice throws at you . But it ’s also a lot of fun . I ’ve thoroughly bask configuring and tweak my Plex server , and I ’m excited to do even more now with Plex Pass . And as a incentive , I do n’t have to ante up close to $ 100 each month for services I just even apply .
