Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April
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I fucking hope to god they don't go full enshittification and decide to revoke the lifetime licenses.
Even with Plex pass they were really pushing their paid content. Much happier with Jellyfin, and it was very easy to switch.
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This is a huge problem. The blueray remux might be 80 gigs. Most children’s devices will already be filled with other crap.
I run ffmpeg on my phone. Alternately, I could shrink the file on my server and then download it without much trouble. You’re in a vanishingly small subset of users who know enough to care about file-size and know what can be done about it, but can’t be bothered to do it themselves.
I was avoiding suggesting getting more storage, but it sounds like in your case, keeping a 720p x265 version of each file(~1gb per movie) on-hand would cost you nothing.
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Nah. Cool that you think that, though. The moment they started charging for what was a free service, they lost me. I have gigabit internet. The only reason i used their service to begin with was ease of use.
Hot take but maybe everything doesn't need to be an infinitely expanding business. Just imagine for a second that it's fine for something to just break even, pay for the few mainteners salaries and not expand the business at all ever. I know that I just uttered the cardinal evil under capitalism but fucking seriously. The primary userbase of plex is pirates. The whole incentive is not having to pay for a streaming service. Charging money for it is just torpedoing your entire userbase. The entire appeal of Plex was it not charging money.
So, you've got option. You can just roll your own, or go to jellyfin.
I'm one of the first people to complain about the incessant need to grow 20% a year to appease shareholders and how unsustainable that is. But I also realize as I said, stuff cost money and "just breaking even" will also grow in cost every year with everything else, so... Even in that perfect world you were describing, there would be an increase in cost applied to that project.
Much like I am sure you expect at the very least a cost of living raise each year. I'm also guessing you're glad your paycheck to bills ratio isn't what it was 20y ago. (or I can say, that for me that is true). I'm pretty happy my discretionary money is more now than it was then. I bet those developers also want that same thing.
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Glad I bought the Plex Pass like 13 years ago. While I understand everyone seems to think everything should be free, I'm sure your boss wishes you worked for free too, but the world doesn't work that way.
I'm OK supporting products I use , and Plex is an example of this for me. It was a well spend $75 in 2013
Your view unfortunately doesn't show you how shitty the unpaid experience has become. XBMC used to be a good product. Since becoming Plex, now we have:
- no local hardware accel
- no HDR
- panels that look like local videos that trick you into switching to a paid app
- rearranged home screen after some updates
- no downloads on remote devices
- and now I'll lose the ability to share streaming with my kid, who lives many cities away
If this were clear from the outset , no one would be upset. But pulling back features Plex at one time promised "forever" (remote streaming), is complete rug-pull bullshit.
You can enjoy that warm and fuzzy reverse-fomo feeling now, but you should know that they'll start limiting your paid experience eventually.
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We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
So I have a lifetime pass. But my family members have their own accounts. Will they be able to watch from their house to my server now or will they need to pay? Cause if that’s so guess I’m switching to jellyfin and teaching them how to work it.
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We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
Time to move to Jellyfin for the rest of their users?
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I run ffmpeg on my phone. Alternately, I could shrink the file on my server and then download it without much trouble. You're in a vanishingly small subset of users who know enough to care about file-size and know what can be done about it, but can't be bothered to do it themselves.
It's honestly kind of silly to suggest that only technically minded users care about file sizes. We're lucky enough to even know why the file is so big. My regular friends will just complain that it won't fit, blame jellyfin, and then go back to Netflix.
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Very, apparently.
They use UPnP and NAT-PMP1 to have clients directly stream the media from users' own self-hosted servers. It costs them almost nothing in bandwidth to do that.
To be fair, they didn't say that they needed more resources for remote streaming
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hmm that's concerning. we really need a roku/chromecast equivalent that isnt some proprietary mess (home assistant is finally getting into those with voice assistant units)
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If you don't like the price there's always jellyfin.
Got to say that I have been very happy with it.
Yeah I switched 2-3 years ago because so many features were paywalled and on jellyfin I can at least use plugins
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Yeah I switched 2-3 years ago because so many features were paywalled and on jellyfin I can at least use plugins
I switched when I had an internet outage and couldn’t log into Plex locally to watch my own media. Very happy with Jellyfin since then.
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It's honestly kind of silly to suggest that only technically minded users care about file sizes. We're lucky enough to even know why the file is so big. My regular friends will just complain that it won't fit, blame jellyfin, and then go back to Netflix.
Your regular friends are constantly using your Plex server to download files for offline viewing, eh?
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The self-hosted servers use UPnP and NAT-PMP to automatically forward the port used for media streaming.
They actually also can relay. I’ve been stuck in an apartment with managed internet and no NAT or UPnP and my media streams over plex relay instead.
This is also useful for countries and communities that are double natted
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It's very relevant, it directly speaks to how they'll behave themselves closed where they can make crap decisions even easier.
Plex for all its issues, at least was upfront most who jumped on the Plex train did so with the knowledge that it might enshittify and honestly it's not as bad as it could be
A bunch of us who started on the Emby train did so under the pretense that at worst we might have to deal with a paid subscription or support contract type of deal.
That was a lie, I was there 10 years ago when it went down, that's when I pivoted to Plex full time (I had been running both for like a year at that point)
Where they can make crap decisions even easier
Easier than… what? They haven’t made any yet. Every single thing you say seems to be predicated on some imagined scenario that hasn’t happened. It sounds like you’re bitter about internal drama that in 10 years, an entire decade, has resulted in exactly zero negative repercussions for the end user. I would not call that “relevant”.
10 years you’ve been shaking your fist at the clouds yelling “Just wait, you’ll see, they’ll start entitling any day now, just you wait” and in 10 years time that hasn’t happened. Maybe it’s time to free yourself of this grudge.
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We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
Huh, I was somewhat excited about the elimination of the playback limit for mobile apps (we are in 2025 ffs!) and then re-read that this will be only applicable for the subpar preview version once it is released... Which doesn't fucking has the watch together feature lmao.
The only good news in a nutshell is that I am still a Plex Pass Lifetime User, so in a nutshell I don't get good news lol.
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They aren't, all their server does is handle the login authentication afaik, and then streaming happens directly from the server to the user.
They actually also can relay. I’ve been stuck in an apartment with managed internet and no NAT or UPnP and my media streams over plex relay instead.
This is also useful for countries and communities that are double natted
Lots of people in this thread are confusing direct streaming and plex relay as the same thing
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"A subscription"
Its the same Plex pass subscription for people who don't want to read a clickbait article.
That is not really covering the topic for everyone, this only covers the article for ppl who are paying already for the pass.
Not seeing how this is clickbait. The title sums it up on point.
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So I have a lifetime pass. But my family members have their own accounts. Will they be able to watch from their house to my server now or will they need to pay? Cause if that’s so guess I’m switching to jellyfin and teaching them how to work it.
To stream remotely starting on April 29, 2025, you will need a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass subscription on your account or the admin of the Plex Media Server from which you stream will need a Plex Pass subscription on their account.
Everyone using your server should be fine.
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We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
Bro what
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Your regular friends are constantly using your Plex server to download files for offline viewing, eh?
Yes? Is that odd to you? If jellyfin supported it then that would be one less reason against switching which would be a good thing, wouldn't you think? If you advocate for using jellyfin then shouldn't you want such basic features to be supported for those who want to use them?
Even though I still use Plex full time, I very much want Jellyfin to succeed (I run it and offer it to everyone I share with), and so I want Jellyfin to be usable for people of all skill levels. I can't get my parents to use an app that requires them to know anything about file sizes or codec compatibility or converting anything. That is why Plex is as successful as they are.
If you're satisfied with Jellyfin lacking certain features, that's your perogative. But I don't think it's that hard to empathize with someone wanting more feature parity, especially if the motivation is to make Jellyfin accessible to more people and increase adoption.
