is plex pass worth it?

[xdeathshot20]

So I use plex for my media.  I currently run it off of my main rig with a 8tb hdd for storage.  I am able to watch 4k hdr footage on my smart tv generally.  I do plan on eventually moving the plex server to its own dedicated machine but that is down the line.  My question is with plex pass it says "Use the dedicated video decoder and encoder hardware support in your computer/device to convert videos and stream HD or 4K video more smoothly to more devices at once."  

Does that mean that when i use plex atm, it isnt using hardware decoding and encoding?  If i get plex pass, would my streams be any better or allow me to more easily watch multiple streams at once?  Thanks

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, xdeathshot20 said:

So I use plex for my media.  I currently run it off of my main rig with a 8tb hdd for storage.  I am able to watch 4k hdr footage on my smart tv generally.  I do plan on eventually moving the plex server to its own dedicated machine but that is down the line.  My question is with plex pass it says "Use the dedicated video decoder and encoder hardware support in your computer/device to convert videos and stream HD or 4K video more smoothly to more devices at once."  

Does that mean that when i use plex atm, it isnt using hardware decoding and encoding?  If i get plex pass, would my streams be any better or allow me to more easily watch multiple streams at once?  Thanks

Hardware transcoding is only available with Plex pass. As well as the guide used for Live TV. 

[Curufinwe_wins]

If you are looking to use plex long term, yes the lifetime plex pass is worth getting. Over a few years, that cost is pretty low (don't do subscription ofc), and it does seem that things will be around for quite a bit longer. Certainly I've had plex pass for 5 years now and while they haven't updated as much as I would want, the 50 dollars (at the time) has more than paid for itself just from live tv when that was locked to plex pass.

[pr1vatepiles]

3 hours ago, xdeathshot20 said:

So I use plex for my media.  I currently run it off of my main rig with a 8tb hdd for storage.  I am able to watch 4k hdr footage on my smart tv generally.  I do plan on eventually moving the plex server to its own dedicated machine but that is down the line.  My question is with plex pass it says "Use the dedicated video decoder and encoder hardware support in your computer/device to convert videos and stream HD or 4K video more smoothly to more devices at once."  

Does that mean that when i use plex atm, it isnt using hardware decoding and encoding?  If i get plex pass, would my streams be any better or allow me to more easily watch multiple streams at once?  Thanks

Back in the day, the Plex Pass hardware acceleration did improve things for me. But this was back when I was still relatively new to Plex and not sure what I was doing. It's always been turned on since I've had the Pass and everything does just work. 

 

As Curufinwe_wins says, if you are going to be using Plex long term, it is worth getting. They tend to drop the price for "new years" around black friday, so something to consider.