Plex teams with Amazon to run its media server from the cloud

[Jos]

Plex is the go-to option for streaming from your own media library to pretty much any device that has a screen or can hook up to one. The service has traditionally required a dedicated, always-on PC to run its server component while a player app on a separate device handles the front end, but now Plex is making itself more accessible to mainstream users via a new online option, called Plex Cloud, delivered in partnership with Amazon Cloud Drive.

Plex Cloud functions just like a regular Plex Media Server except both the server component and media content lives in the cloud. The simplified setup will eliminate some of the hassles that come with using Plex for less-technical users, like maintaining a server at home, keeping the software updated and managing hard disk drives. If your ISP’s upstream speeds are awful you’ll also from better stream quality using Amazon’s servers.

It does, however, require a $59.99 per year subscription to Amazon Drive for unlimited storage, on top of a Plex Pass at an additional $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year. You’ll also need to manually upload the content that you want to keep in the cloud — which you might want to think twice about if your media library comprises pirated media.

For now the new Plex Cloud service is available as an invite-only beta for Plex Pass subscribers. It will eventually include all the features offered by Plex but some not available at launch include camera upload, mobile sync, cloud sync, media optimizer, DLNA and DVR.

Plex says it will be evaluating support for other cloud storage providers over time.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66459-plex-cloud-you-get-rid-always-home-media.html

 

[BSim500]

"It does, however, require a $59.99 per year subscription to Amazon Drive for unlimited storage, on top of a Plex Pass at an additional $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year."

LOL. Obviously completely missing the point of why people used Plex in the first place - to stream your own stuff over a cheap local network, not turn your own local stuff into an expensive remote private streaming service... If you have a slow Internet (but fast LAN) it makes even less sense if it's going to take months to upload a multi-Terabyte collection vs not needing any uploads at all. Likewise that "expensive server PC" is more like a Raspberry Pi 3 or NAS. As for mobile use outside the home (eg, taking several movies on vacation), the cost effective common sense alternative is called "copying them to a cheap 128GB USB / Micro-SD card".

 

[ParadokS]

"It does, however, require a $59.99 per year subscription to Amazon Drive for unlimited storage, on top of a Plex Pass at an additional $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year."

LOL. Obviously completely missing the point of why people used Plex in the first place - to stream your own stuff over a cheap local network, not turn your own local stuff into an expensive remote private streaming service... If you have a slow Internet (but fast LAN) it makes even less sense if it's going to take months to upload a multi-Terabyte collection vs not needing any uploads at all. Likewise that "expensive server PC" is more like a Raspberry Pi 3 or NAS. As for mobile use outside the home (eg, taking several movies on vacation), the cost effective common sense alternative is called "copying them to a cheap 128GB USB / Micro-SD card".

Hear, hear! Although you need something stronger than a pi or nas if you want to stream on the go. In Scandinavia it's common place to have 100mbit upload do bandwidth is not the issue. I was thinking about adding a Intel i7 nuc to my nas to make it more independent of having a desktop pc attached over lan.

 

[lripplinger]

This sentence makes no sense and needs to be edited: "If your ISP’s upstream speeds are awful you’ll also from better stream quality using Amazon’s servers."

 

[risc32]

"It does, however, require a $59.99 per year subscription to Amazon Drive for unlimited storage, on top of a Plex Pass at an additional $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year."

LOL. Obviously completely missing the point of why people used Plex in the first place - to stream your own stuff over a cheap local network, not turn your own local stuff into an expensive remote private streaming service... If you have a slow Internet (but fast LAN) it makes even less sense if it's going to take months to upload a multi-Terabyte collection vs not needing any uploads at all. Likewise that "expensive server PC" is more like a Raspberry Pi 3 or NAS. As for mobile use outside the home (eg, taking several movies on vacation), the cost effective common sense alternative is called "copying them to a cheap 128GB USB / Micro-SD card".

boom.

 

[bobbintb]

"It does, however, require a $59.99 per year subscription to Amazon Drive for unlimited storage, on top of a Plex Pass at an additional $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year."

LOL. Obviously completely missing the point of why people used Plex in the first place - to stream your own stuff over a cheap local network, not turn your own local stuff into an expensive remote private streaming service... If you have a slow Internet (but fast LAN) it makes even less sense if it's going to take months to upload a multi-Terabyte collection vs not needing any uploads at all. Likewise that "expensive server PC" is more like a Raspberry Pi 3 or NAS. As for mobile use outside the home (eg, taking several movies on vacation), the cost effective common sense alternative is called "copying them to a cheap 128GB USB / Micro-SD card".

Plex already will stream from your local media server to mobile and other devices outside of a LAN. That is one of it's key touted feature. All they are doing is expanding upon that further so I think it's a little off the mark to claim they are missing the point of why people use it in the first place. They may be missing the point of why you use it, but you're not their only customer. There are numerous threads in the Plex forum where people are trying to do just this, have their own private Netflix, myself included.

For the people that already pay $60 a year for Amazon Cloud Dive it's not a big deal. Or for people that have a 30TB+ server, $60 a year is well worth the cost of avoiding all the headaches of maintaining a server such as new hard drives every year or two, failing hard drives, other failing hardware, planning for power surges and failures, software upgrades, electricity costs of all that hardware not to mention space, etc, etc. Heck I buy a new hard drive every two years or so and that alone exceeds the $60 a year cost of Amazon Cloud drive, which I've had for a while now anyway.

Just because you fail to see any value for your use case doesn't mean it isn't useful to other and I can assure you, it is.

 

[bobbintb]

The real issue with this is Amazon's copyright policies. Since there is no practical way to distinguish between legitimately purchased content and pirated content, well, that leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the viability of this.