I am told that for some reason Plex has an air of legitimacy about it. I don’t know where that idea comes from, but supposedly it does. That means that Plex has managed to get an app on a lot of platforms, including low-end smart TVs, and even the new Apple TV. They were never legitimate enough to have an app on the last generation of devices with the closed ecosystem of cookie-cutter Apple endorsed apps.
Plex has two components, a media server that is deployed to a server or NAS (including cheaper ARM based NAS units) and a client that runs on a TV, a phone or tablet, or a set top box such as a Roku or Apple TV.
I stayed away from Plex for the longest time because I hated the idea of transcoding the content I was watching. I still had my Boxee Box plugged into my TV after I got the Roku because the video quality from the Boxee exceeded anything else I had plugged into an HDMI port.
The Plex Media Server
At the heart of the Plex solution is the PMS. It indexes media from folders and retrieves metadata, theme music, and cover art, which are displayed in the client. The PMS is also able to transcode source video into a wide variety of formats suitable for different clients. The transcoding function can be very CPU intensive and doesn’t work well on ARM-based NAS units. The Plex client will support what they call Direct Play on a number of devices, which is playing the content without any transcoding. At this point your format support depends heavily on the client. Chromecast devices have a wider format support than the clients baked into some smart TVs, but are well behind Roku devices.
The Plex Client
Plex have developed a client for a large number of platforms. Its air of legitimacy has seen them deploy a client with many smart TVs. The client has a dashboard of recently add content, and the next episode for shows you are watching. So it will display the next episode of something from years ago next to the most recent addition. It is easy to navigate with a remote on the TV, or on a phone or tablet. Codec support is entirely dependent on the platform that the client is running on. The Chromecast support is great, but it may need to transcode some video to get it to play, same for the apps built for lower powered smart TVs.
Plex Channels
Plex Channels is a component of the PMS. Developers write plugins for the PMS to access other streaming content, such as BBC iPlayer, or Vimeo. Plex Channels are then integrated with the PMS and Plex Client ecosystem, meaning that content can be controlled through ratings, and played on any device with a Plex Client, even if there isn’t a native application for that device.
Content
So where does the content for Plex come from? Plex itself doesn’t download or stream any content (Plex Channels aside). The PMS simply indexes a folder of videos on the server. At the start I said I don’t know where the air of legitimacy comes from. Plex is amazing at indexing content that was acquired through means that don’t include remuneration for the content creators.
Video Quality: 4.5 stars.
Plex is entirely dependant on the content you pull from other sources, however the video quality of that content can be extremely high. When transcoding content, for a Chromecast for example, the video quality remains extremely good. The Plex client on many platforms is capable of playing high bitrate h.264 streams.
Audio Quality: 4.5 stars.
Plex is more than capable of playing 5.1 audio through most devices, Roku and Apple TV included.
Device Support: 4.5 stars.
Plex have taken a similar stance to Netflix, trying to develop a client for as many platforms as possible. Up until the release of the new Apple TV with ‘genuine’ App Store support there had not been a Plex client for the Apple TV. It was possible to use the Plex Client on an iOS device, and then send the stream over to a TV using AirPlay.
There is a Plex client for Android, Roku, Apple TV, many smart TV platforms, HTML5 capable web browsers, and the feature set is very consistent.
With the release of the new Apple TV and the first native Apple TV client I wasn’t sure how Plex was going to manage the limited codec and file support, turns out they managed it well. The Apple TV is capable of playing the standard codecs found in MKV files (AC3, h.264) even if it doesn’t understand the MKV file itself. Plex handles this by “transcoding” the audio and video streams using a “copy” codec (ie, the streams aren’t processed) breaking them out of the MKV and into a stream the device can play. This also doesn’t require significant processing power on the PMS, making it suitable for ARM-based NAS devices.
User Experience: 4.5 stars.
Plex does a remarkable job of keeping track of where I am up to across multiple series and in individual episodes. It surfaces content that is most relevant to me based on viewing habits - if only from the content available locally.
Mobile devices (phones and tablets, including Windows tablets) can use a sync function to copy content to local storage for offline viewing. This content can be transcoded to keep the file sizes down. The watched status is then updated on the PMS when the mobile device syncs again. This is fantastic when travelling, and a massive advantage over the rest of the purely streaming platforms.
Overall Value: Unmeasurable.
To use the Plex Media Server and a Plex Client costs nothing. They do offer a Plex Pass, where features are unlocked first for paying customers (such as Chromecast support), but those features eventually filter down into the free tier.
The only question is the content. Without content Plex offers no value at all. Plex also offers no native content. The content must be acquired from somewhere and then feed into Plex.
For people with a slow Internet connection (most of Australia) streaming content from Netflix or Stand can be a real stretch. There is a reason iView looks as poor as it does, they are aiming at about 1.5 - 2 megabit/s at the most. For these people streaming is not an option, and they need to download their content. It may take them 1 to 2 hours to download a 22 minute episode. For those people who have no other option Plex provides a fantastic platform for aggregating and organising their media.
The content played in Plex doesn’t respect geolocks. Plex doesn’t care if you are signed up for a cable plan allowing you to then sign up for online streaming (Seriously AMC, HBO did it, why haven’t you?). Plex doesn’t delete episodes a couple of weeks after they air, forcing you to watch them or miss out. Plex is like Jannet from accounting, it doesn’t give a fuck (that is a hilarious reference to Last Week Tonight, and you should laugh).
Using Plex to frontend a collection of pirated material is arguably the best user experience there is, and offers fantastic value considering the content is free, as long as you aren’t caught out and downloaded Dallas Buyers Club that one time.
If there was a service that cost lots of money and allowed me to download DRM-free versions of TV shows and movies I’d sign up for it without thinking. I want to pay for content. I don’t want to steal. I pay for Netflix, Hulu, Stan, iTunes. I pay for all that I can, but there are still some things I can’t pay for. They won’t take my money. I don’t have to pay, I have the required understanding to get almost any content without paying for it, but I want to pay. I want to support the creators, just don’t make it hard for me to do so.