Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Sl00k@programming.dev⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.plex.tv/blog/important-2025-plex-updates/

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.

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gdog05@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
jellyfin.org

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- merthyr1831@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Before now I was on the sunk cost fallacy of not wanting to teach my extended family how to use Jellyfin instead of plex but after this I’m already mid-way through setting up a Jellyfin docker container on my server and I only found out an hour ago
  
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- keyez@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’ve been testing out jellyfin for the last couple months but it doesn’t really fill the void of this specific feature that’s being locked behind a pay wall. If anyone has good recommendations for securely and reliably hosting jellyfin behind SSL and auth with email password resets where I don’t have to worry about it as much as Plex.
  
  I use jellyfin locally but for a handful of remote clients I have I may well block off their access they’re not going to be able to figure out my hand spun services and wall of text.
  
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  - LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Forget the Auth, use VPN profiles as access controls. Give them to trusted folks.
    
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  - curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Authentik + jellyfin SSO plugin?
    
    I haven’t tried it out personally, but I use authentik, for that you can just create a password policy, then add a new stage for identification (just make sure to add the email field), and an email stage, then create a flow.
    
    More work on your end than paying someone else obviously.
    
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- KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Jellyfin is still way behind Plex in general performance but I keep a VM of it running and updated, for when the day comes that Plex is absolutely worthless.
  
  Which at this rate, is, well, we’re getting there.
  
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- obinice@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Alas my TV (LG WebOS 2) doesn’t have an application for Jellyfin, or I’d have switched years ago :-(
  
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  - gdog05@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Is there an emby app available or Kodi? The base of Jellyfin should work in either. Plug and play as far as I’m aware with maybe some issues for certain versions.
    
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- Limonene@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Jellyfin depends on proprietary Microsoft .NET, even on Linux.
  
  It’s still better than Plex and Emby, which are fully proprietary, and have no source code. But I will stick with sshfs with kodi, and nginx plus mpv for now.
  
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  - Smash@lemmy.self-hosted.site ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Except, it isn’t, .NET Core is an open source framework by the .NET Foundation
    
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Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m not pirating a bunch of shows just to pay Plex for the privilege of watching it.

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- tehWrapper@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Also remember to give them your credit card, name and address for the privilege of pirating the content.
  
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  - douglasg14b@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Even better, it’s now a nice database of who companies and governments can go after when they want or need to!
    
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- Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  lmao me either
  
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- SirSamuel@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Jellyfin ftw
  
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RonnyZittledong@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I have a lifetime plex pass so this does not really affect me but I expect the trend of degrading experience to continue. I would have switched to Jellyfin a long time ago but I am dreading contacting everyone I share with and getting them migrated.

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- fishpen0@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  [deleted]
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  - evulhotdog@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    You can use Cloudflare Tunnel as well.
    
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phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Hellooooo jellyfin!

Only use open source software

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- lillo@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Jellyfin + Tailscale, the perfect combination.
  
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- orize@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Jellyfin is figgin Great 😃👍
  
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- Quique@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They do not have chromecast support. (Atleat the last time i checked) Thats a deal breaker for me, would live to use it.
  
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  - phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    … I’m using Chromecast and Google TV, though Chromecast isn’t very good, really, and Google TV stared showing commercials every now and then since a while ago, so that too will be on its way out.
    
    But yeah, they’re supported
    
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  - Bronzie@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I run Jellyfin on Chromecast with Google TV every day, it works super well.
    
    Unless you mean casting from your phone, then I don’t know.
    
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  - dantheclamman@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    IIRC it has it. Not if you’re behind VPN or a tunnel. Only over HTTPS.
    
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inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you don’t like the price there’s always jellyfin.

Got to say that I have been very happy with it.

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- ghost@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Jellyfin is just so much better, imo. Much cleaner, less stuff that I don’t actually need.
  
  I’m a plex pass lifetime owner, but I don’t regret switching to Jellyfin one bit.
  
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- ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Does Jellyfin do remote streaming?
  
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  - inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yes.
    
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  - Sarmyth@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    With the caviat that you have tailscale enabled on both devices. This prevents it from being used on a roku outside your home but you could access it remotely from your computer/phone/tablet.
    
    It is significantly harder than Plex, currently. There are improvements happening all the time though.
    
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  - Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If you can set it up? Yup.
    Behind CGNAT? Maybe you need to set up a relay or something to circumvent it.
    
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- tfw_no_toiletpaper@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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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  - HorseFD@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I switched when I had a power outage and couldn’t log into Plex locally to watch my own media. Very happy with Jellyfin since then.
    
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- GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  [deleted]
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  - rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    does jellyfin have a roku app?
    
    Yes, it streams pretty well, it has some UX issues, but it will let you get off plex as it stands right now with most of your needs covered.
    
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  - nick_99@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It works, but isn’t nearly as user friendly.
    
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  - Jazsta@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yes. I use mine daily and it works great
    
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  - Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    You should ditch Roku amyway considering the posts I have seen here on lemmy.
    
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PhAzE@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
As a plex pass lifetime user, this doesn’t change anything for me.

I am, however, blown away that the price went from $75 CDN to $350 CDN over the last 10 years!! That’s just insane!

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- Mendicant_Bias@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’m not sure where you’re getting that from, the article literally states the price hasn’t changed in 10 years, and still hasn’t, but it finally will on the 29th of April.
  
  This tracks with my experience as it’s probably been 10 years since I bought the lifetime pass and here in the UK it’s often on sale for basically the same price (about £75 if I recall).
  
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  - PhAzE@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Well, it was $75 CDN when i bought in 2012, it’s $150-170 CDN now, and going up to $249 USD which converts to $358 CDN, so I’m assumong they’ll round down to $350 or up to $360 CDN.
    
    The conversion from USD to CDN kills it for us sadly. It’s just such a huge jump this time. More than double on this bump.
    
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- tomkatt@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They have sales, and it’s not really worth paying the “MSRP” price. My wife got Plex Pass for $80 back in 2023, and I got it late last year for $90.
  
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quack@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Can’t say I have a huge issue with this - Plex isn’t FOSS and the infrastructure to make this happen isn’t free. Other options are available if you don’t want to pay the fee.

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- Tilgare@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  But what infrastructure does this feature require? I’m direct connecting to my own personal server with perhaps credential handling and a handshake handled by Plex servers to connect. None of the media is passing through their servers - or it shouldn’t be if it is.
  
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  - captainjaneway@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    In a nutshell, if your app isn’t able to make a direct connection to your Plex Media Server when you’re away from home, we can act as sort of a middle man and “relay” the stream from your server to your app. To accomplish this, your Plex Media Server establishes a secure connection to one of our Relay servers. Your app then also connects securely to the same Relay server and accesses the stream from your Plex Media Server. (In technical terms, the content is tunneled through.)
    
    So, your Plex Media Server basically “relays” the media stream through our server so that your app can access it since the app can’t connect with your server directly. Source: …plex.tv/…/216766168-accessing-a-server-through-r…
    
    It’s not a requirement to stream and it’s sort of dumb they are lumping this relay service as a part of the remote streaming. Remote streaming should be allowed for free - if you are not a subscriber. The relay should just be a paid service, which makes sense. But if it’s a direct connection to my server, it should be free.
    
    That being said, I understand how Plex may have built some technical debt into this relay system. It might be hard for them to decouple the relay from the remote streaming. What they should have done is:
    
    We are removing the relay service as a free service, but you can still do remote streaming with a direct connection.
    
    And they should have built their architecture in a way that’s easy to decouple the two services.
    
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electric_nan@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m surprised by the resistance to Jellyfin in this thread. If you are using Plex, you’re already savvy enough to use bittorrent and probably the *arrs. If you can configure that stuff, Jellyfin is absolutely something you can handle. If you like Docker, there’s good projects out there. If you’re like me and you don’t understand Docker, use Swizzin community edition. If you can install Ubuntu or Debian, and run the Swizzin script, you’re in business.

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- waitmarks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The big thing for me with plex is user management. I am absolutely knowledgeable enough to set up jellyfin, but i dont want to deal with user management. Plex makes it easy, i tell them to make their own account and i just share my library. i dont have to reset passwords, they can do that themselves. However, it’s getting to the point where i will probably just switch to jellyfin and deal with it because of how bad plex is getting.
  
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  - electric_nan@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’m only sharing access with a few friends and family, so I don’t find it cumbersome. Usually I make their account using the Jellyfin app on my phone. I do sympathize with not wanting to do support, which is the main reason I don’t even ask for help with the hosting costs. I don’t want to feel any obligation.
    
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- LandedGentry@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  [deleted]
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  - Obelix@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I just setup jellyfin and it totally is the same. Install. Point it to a media folder. Setup port forwarding.
    
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- Swarfega@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Me too. Docker isn’t hard if you use a compose file. It’s easy to read syntax.
  
  Linux server.io has great documentation for their images.
  
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  - JasSmith@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    Docker isn’t hard if you use a compose file. It’s easy to read syntax.
    
    This is giving me “yaml isn’t hard to use if you use a compose file!” It is, actually. It’s easy for you because you understand the technology. The vast majority of people do not.
    
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- MrSelatcia@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I think I represent a huge portion of Plex users; I am tech savvy enough to follow a simple walkthrough on YouTube to get my server setup. But the arrs and docker both look like graduate level chemistry to me.
  
  Plex has been around for ages and they have put money into making things easier for users like me to understand with events such as Pro Week and directly paying content creators to dumb things down for me.
  
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  - electric_nan@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’ve got to admit that I’ve never used Plex (I’m a cantankerous open software fanatic), but how do you get your media on there? You’re hosting your own server so presumably you’re downloading the media somehow. Are you doing it manually? If so, you can do the same with Jellyfin. Is it automated with some tool built into Plex?
    
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  - freebee@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s quite easy without docker to get lots of it running with a dietpi install. Runs on rpi and alike, but also on any “normal” old low end pc. Just select jellyfin, arrs, … It handles it all for you, no need to learn Docker (I know people will argue about the advantages of docker, which are valid points, but ease of installation is more important to many people). The only difficulty remains the streaming outside your own LAN (because it’s risky). VPN, tailscale, … there’s options but it always keeps on feeling risky to open up outside LAN. Local setup for jellyfin can be really really easy tho, if it’s just for yourself and you mostly watch at home anyway… And in some jellyfin compatible app like Finamp and Streamyfin you can just download a few music albums, episodes or movies to your phone before you travel…
    
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profilelost@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ve been meaning to set up a homeserver with plex recently but will defnitely go for jellyfin now that I read this thread.

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GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It looks like as long as the host has a Plex pass, this doesn’t change much. It is a regression of service, which sucks, but there are viable alternatives for those unable or unwilling to pay. And honestly, jellyfin is the clear winner in that case and always has been.

Now, if they start to charge my friends and family for access to my media after I have already paid them for their lifetime subscription, then I’ll grab a pitchfork with the crowd.

Also, why not run both and be ready? The resources required are minimal if you’re running via docker, just some extra RAM and a negligible amount of compute for overhead on library maintenance tasks.

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- dditty@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Same. I’m not switching to Jellyfin yet either - mostly because of my boomer parents - but this is getting close to the tipping point for me
  
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- Evrala@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I run both on my unraid NAS. I use plex for streaming to my phone over cell data. I use jellyfin for streaming to my laptops and TV.
  
  Plex tends to break every once and a while though. Not often, but it happens enough that I’m replacing it with just having my music on a DAP that is synced with Syncthing.
  
  I also use the comic viewer function of jellyfin.
  
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Presi300@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
How to kill a service speedrun any%

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- art@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They think they have enough users locked in to just pay over setting up another server. They might.
  
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- interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Lol jellyfin
  
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  - StThicket@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If only jellyfin had an app on Tizen, I’d be all aboard.
    
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HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This is the best ad campaign Jellyfin could have asked for.

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Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Why would you expect this to NOT be paid? It requires them to be running servers to stream the media through, I wouldn’t expect this to be a free feature.

I dislike Plex for several reasons, but asking for payment for stuff that costs them money is completely justified.

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- LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Why is this getting upvoted? Plex isn’t running a server. You are. Your computer and your media files are quite literally “the server” that is serving the files to you remotely. Plex is at best doing authentication.
  
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  - Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    For remote streaming they do, here are their docs on it …plex.tv/…/216766168-accessing-a-server-through-r…
    
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  - ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Because he’s right. You can’t access your own server remotely without plex’s infrastructure (provided you don’t just set up that infrastructure yourself). You don’t need to open ports or anything. Your server reaches out to plex server, which creates an entry point to your network. Your stream is then either routed through their servers or possibly setup as P2P stream.
    
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- nuko147@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Wait a moment. I always thought that Plex’s servers only facilitate authentication (to verify your account) and discovery (to help your device find your server). They do not handle the actual media data. And if there is no Direct Remote Access, Relay usage is capped at 1 minute per day for free users. This looks like a cash grab to me.
  
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- couch1potato@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It doesn’t require Plex servers, though. I do this on jellyfin for free.
  
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  - Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    How do you do this on Jellyfin? The only ways I’m familiar with is to expose Jellyfin to the internet or access it through Tailscale, would love to hear alternatives.
    
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TedZanzibar@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Judging by the rest of the thread I’m going to get downvoted for this, but what the hell:

I’m sure I’ll switch to Jellyfin eventually but I tried it out a few weeks ago to see what all the hype was about and it just… wasn’t great. It was difficult to setup, with way too many overly-complicated settings, and then it refused to play one of the two test files I tried. Like it or not there’s a reason that Plex is the dominant player in the game, and a large part of that reason is that it verges on plug-and-play for simplicity of both setup and use.

Yes, it sucks that they’re removing remote streaming for free users, but I imagine there’s a significant chunk of users who don’t know or care how to properly open their server up to the world and are relying on the Plex proxies for their streams (which happens entirely in the background), and those aren’t going to be cheap to run. Maybe putting them behind a paywall will provide the resources to make them faster.

I did buy a lifetime pass last time they announced a price hike; it’s honestly paid for itself many times over, and I’ve been encouraging other users I know to do the same before this next one, because yes, it is a significant hike this time around. That said, while I wouldn’t pay monthly for it, I do still feel like the lifetime pass is tremendous value for such a polished product. It’s a shame they’ve had to do it at all, but I don’t begrudge them for it.

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RandomLegend@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
So glad i switched to jellyfin half a year ago

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cortex7979@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
jellyfin + tailscale is all you need. It’s so damn good and easy

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mcbang2000@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
sometimes good software is worth paying for

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jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The audacity of this company to increase prices when: A) downloads are locked behind the paywall but havent worked in years (probably close to a decade at this point) B) they focus all the development time on bringing bullshit to the platform (live tv, rentals, other streaming app searches, etc)

Requiring a subscription for remote access is actually fucking insane, they don’t have any bandwidth costs associated with that other than authentication so ???

This will drive people to Jellyfin, and watch how fast Plex drops into irrelevance when all the selfhosters move away. Plex is (now was) the #1 thing to that both myself and others in this community would recommend to someone looking to get into selfhosting. ¯\⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ not anymore, wonder how much the revenue will drop?

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psycho_driver@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Well, looks like my decision to stick with Kodi and never bother with Plex is about to pay dividends.

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the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I already pay for plex pass but I’m going to start looking into jelly fin out of principle. I will not support the enshitification of a service I use and this is how it starts. Soon they will have tiered subscriptions and then the cheap one will be taken away and the cheapest paid one will be stuffed with ads then all tiers will be stuffed with ads then they will jack up prices again or charge more for sharing with family or block it all together to force your family to get their own sub and the circle of enshitification will be complete.

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Buske@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Another company fucked by executives.

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Xartle@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
They seem to be getting a lot of hate for this, but Plex is not FOSS… They have the roots but they currently have like 100 paid employees and are trying to make a business out of it. They have to do something to make money to pay people every month. My $75 10 years ago isn’t going to do much for that… The fact that they’ve made it this far without folding is impressive.

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Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Why do people use this when Jellyfin exists?

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TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I moved on to jellyfin after I found out the hard way Plex servers need to authenticate for use. I’m sure by now there are ways to set up offline authentication but I already didn’t like the idea of paying monthly to stream my own content from my own machine. It just didn’t make sence to me. Jellyfin isn’t perfect, or as flashy as Plex, but it works, looks fine, and its free, not counting a much deserved donation to the devs .

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b3an@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ve been using Plex many years. I abandoned it about 1-2 years ago when they began their enshittification journey. Now I see they are continuing to double down on being assholes.

They do not need any more resources to allow people to use what already exists. Most people run their own servers, and, they track all that by the way. Hence why people moved away from it.

Don’t give them your money. Let them rot. They fucked their user base who built them.

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yarr@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I keep a Jellyfin instance running as a hedge. Here’s the thing with Plex (and actually a lot of companies set up similarly): those “lifetime” memberships are a trap. Think about it: Plex gets your money ONCE but they have ongoing expenses. Sooner or later, they’ll have spent every single cent made by a lifetime membership unless they either get more folks OR squeeze everyone a bit more.

Once they started adding their own shows and making strange UI decisions, I could sense the end was coming. A move like this brings it up fast. Jellyfin is not nearly as good as Plex in a lot of ways, but it’s really Open Source.

Anyway, a lot of rambling, but in short: when there is a “lifetime” subscription, watch out!

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MehBlah@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Wireguard so you are always seen as being on the local network. This bit of assholery is easily defeated.

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Uncut_Lemon@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I stopped using Plex shortly after they started forcing logging in with your online Plex account to connect to LAN only based server. The writing was on the wall all those years ago. Who wants to be locked out of their media when the internet is offline, completely defeated the point of self hosting local infrastructure

Jellyfin, while lacking a bit when I first migrated, has continued improved over the years and it has been joyful to use. Plus Jellyfin supported hardware transcoding before Plex did, which was a gripe I had with Plex at the time.

I stream from my server remotely and share with Family without hassle. I dunno where Plex is trying to go, glad I bailed long ago

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rekabis@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I don’t like it, but it’s a pragmatic decision.

Hosting for a simple website can be as little as a few bucks a month. That’s easy for any project to absorb, even if they are open-source with no one pulling a paycheque.

Streaming requires high-performance, high-bandwidth machines that cost anywhere from several dozen dollars to several hundred dollars a month. You build a resilient high-availability network, and you could easily be looking at several tens of thousands of dollars a month.

That isn’t easy to absorb, even for a for-profit company with clearly-defined revenue streams.

Some people want everything for free, but free doesn’t pay the bills.

Full disclosure: I don’t use the streaming feature. I prefer to grab actual copies to drop onto my NAS. I also don’t share to friends and family, as I am the only one I know of who uses Plex.

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RhondaSandTits@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience

How stupid do they think we are?

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