This account level also lets you share your server with others, use Plex's VR app, and control playback with voice controls on supported hardware. With this tier, you get all the basic media organization and streaming capabilities, the ability to cast to other devices, and support for tons of media formats, including 4K. If you want to try hosting files,4 or don't need high-level features, Plex offers a free account. Plex's playback flexibility is similar to that of VLC Player. Plex includes built-in tools that convert non-natively supported files, such as DTS, to a usable format. Plex can also display JPG, PNG, RAW, and TBN image files. For videos, the list includes MP4, MKV, HEVC, AVI, MOV, and DIVX. In terms of audio, Plex supports MP3, M4A, FLAC, and WMA files. Plex can play nearly any media file you throw at it. I tested Plex on multiple devices, including several Windows 10 machines, a Fire TV Stick, and a Google Pixel 3. You can also find Plex for gaming consoles (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One), select smart TVs, a few VR platforms, as well as for Alexa and the Sonos app. Supported streaming devices include Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku. On the playback side, the new Plex app is available for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows devices. The virtualization software, Docker, is another option. Alternatively, you can install the software on network-attached storage (NAS) drives from popular manufacturers such as QNAP, Seagate, Synology, and Western Digital. Plex Media Server is available on FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows computers. Finally, Plex has abandoned support for podcasts. In addition, Plex recently shut down Plex Arcade (Opens in a new window), a subscription game streaming service that we found disappointing in testing. Plex Cloud was a premium feature that let you host media in the cloud independently of local storage, but it was plagued by technical issues. If you're looking for information about Plex Cloud, know that Plex shut down the service (Opens in a new window) in 2018. (Opens in a new window) Read Our Peacock Review However, it's not ready for an official release. On the Plex forums, you can download a preview version of Plex HTPC (Opens in a new window), a home theater app that brings back useful Plex Media Player functionality to the PC and Mac and eventually Linux.

However, some functionality and platform support is going away, or being retooled for a later release. As for specific changes, the updated media playback app replaces the older Sync capability with the simpler Download function for accessing your files offline. Once the media server is configured, you can stream and download that server content on other devices, as well as share you library with other people via the new, cross-platform Plex app. Although we don't condone the practice, content pirates may be drawn to Plex, as well. It's also for people who oppose popular video and music streaming services. Plex is best for people with large repositories of local media files who don't have a lot of space on the devices to which they'll stream content.

To get started, you set up a server on a device using the Plex Media Server application, and add local media libraries to it. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions.

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