Plex changes requiring a pass for all remote play

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Networkn
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#3356016 21-Mar-2025 14:49

Andib:

I would say the majority (not all) of Plex users are using it to watch pirated content, they already don't care about people getting paid so why would this be any different?

That's a good point.

darylblake

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#3356082 21-Mar-2025 15:56

They generally do deals on these on black fridays.

gmball

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#3356083 21-Mar-2025 16:05

I'd suspect their announcement will have the effect of pushing a rush of people to sign up to life time passes who wouldn't have otherwise. Plus they will likely have sales at certain times of the year like they do now. I think the overall impact will probably be more life time pass members, as the incentive with buying now or any sale during the year will be that your avoiding paying USD $250.

Senecio

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#3356087 21-Mar-2025 16:29

Come 29-April you'll be in one camp or the other. You'll either have a Plex pass or you never will. Many people are happy with the free service only using it within their household and not needing hardware transcoding. They will see a spike in revenue for sure but it will dry up pretty quickly after 29-April.

Handle9

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#3356122 21-Mar-2025 19:33

networkn:

What I find galling is the people who complain about the cost of software they use all day every day, are often the same people who are loudest about ensuring they get a payrise regularly, and want the cost of living addressed, not realising it's all a consequence of the same circle of life.

Consumers and employees should act and speak in their own interests. It's not their job to ensure a company is profitable, it's the companies ownership's role to do so.

Consumers and employees are increasingly treated as fodder for corporate interests, it's quite right they should advocate for themselves. Companies act in their own interests and generally don't care much about on the impact on their customers if they can make more money.

If enough consumers stop buying the product then the price will change, that's exactly how free markets are meant to work.

waikariboy

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#3356124 21-Mar-2025 19:42

Shindig:

To the JellyFin.

interested in why?

Balm its gone!

Senecio

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#3356128 21-Mar-2025 19:48

waikariboy:

Shindig:

To the JellyFin.

interested in why?

I'm also interested. If you see value in the product why not stump up the $119USD now for a lifetime pass?

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Tinkerisk

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#3356131 21-Mar-2025 19:58

Yet another reason to keep making jellyfin even better. Self-hosting is king (for me).

- NET: FTTH, OPNsense, 10G backbone, GWN APs, ipPBX
- SRV: 12 RU HA server cluster, 0.1 PB storage on premise
- IoT: thread, zigbee, tasmota, BidCoS, LoRa, WX suite, IR
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waikariboy

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#3356132 21-Mar-2025 19:58

Senecio:

waikariboy:

Shindig:

To the JellyFin.

interested in why?

I'm also interested. If you see value in the product why not stump up the $119USD now for a lifetime pass?

this but also, how much have you spend on your hardware to run plex? Need more space, sure buy HD with a issue, plex pass oh wait....

Balm its gone!

jonherries

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#3356152 21-Mar-2025 22:10

networkn:

jonherries:

I have pplt pass but wonder if they stayed in their lane, they might not need so much cash. There is a lot of weird stuff they do.

This feels like a strange take in many ways, though I sort of see your point.

Growth is acheived by increasing sales. You can do that by increasing your market share or by increasing the range of products you offer. If you only have one product, then I guess adding features (value) is another way to encourage sales to wider audience.

Would you feel better if they didn't add as many new features but in turn just said 'our prices are increasing because our stakeholders want bigger profits'?

Yeah I hear you, I guess I think “growth” is a problem with the world where more customers and more profit is the focus rather than taking care of your current customers.

So perhaps fixing some of the issues I have previously reported in core functionality would be a more useful approach, than the focus on new features (as I just turn most of them off eg. streaming).

Jon

Mehrts

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#3356236 22-Mar-2025 10:41

A few years ago I saw someone mention that you can change the location of where the Plex Pass is purchased, and that to purchase a lifetime subscription was the equivalent of $30NZD if you paid in Turkish Lira.

I was sceptical of it working, but it sure did!

So for those wanting a plex pass lifetime membership, this can be a workaround. Not sure if it's still a thing or not though...

muppet

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#3357167 25-Mar-2025 10:11

Can't wait until the announcement the "lifetime" of a Plex Pass is ~10 years after which you need to purchase another lifetime pass...

xpd

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#3357174 25-Mar-2025 10:56

I'd like to stick with Plex, as its always just worked and done what I wanted..... and I paid for the mobile app. Which is now of no use to me with this change.

I'm trying JellyFin again, but has some limitations which annoy me and its scraping system is not as good as Plex's.

I may just not bother with either and pull the plug on remote streaming..... use VPN to my storage and use VLC.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#3357191 25-Mar-2025 11:55

Mehrts:

A few years ago I saw someone mention that you can change the location of where the Plex Pass is purchased, and that to purchase a lifetime subscription was the equivalent of $30NZD if you paid in Turkish Lira.

Just pay the devs, im sure you get like getting paid for work, so do they.

toejam316

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#3357209 25-Mar-2025 12:50

Can't help but laugh at all the "Well I'll go elsewhere for my needs" people, as if they're not exactly who this change is targeting. If you're not contributing financially to Plex's model, I think they're making it pretty clear they don't want you using their infrastructure. They want the freeloaders to move to Jellyfin/Emby.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

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