'Plex Cloud' for Accessing Media Anywhere is Now Available to All Plex Pass Users

Seeing as how I have 4TB of media on my local Plex Media Server, I don't think there's a cloud solution that is cheap enough to make this worthwhile for me. Nice idea, though, if you have a very small library.

In physical area, if not in population, most of the US has 15mb or slower internet speeds. I'm not just talking about cellular speeds but Cable and DSL connections to homes and businesses. I live in one of those areas. All of the talk about "going wireless" or of "easy access to your data" is based upon a communication system that doesn't exist for many people in this country.

Plex is my most used AppleTV app. Period.

With no built-in encryption support?

Whats to encrypt? We talking movies music and tv shows here, everyone has seen them or will see them....

Ripping a blu ray/dvd you paid for is illegal in the US. So even if your entire video library is ripped from you own physical media collection its all considered illegal content. Its not as big a risk to do that if the content stays on a server or storage in your own home i would say. But Now your going to take all this "illegal" content and upload it a cloud storage provider, all of which have terms of service that basiclly give the full access to you content? There is no where i can think of to get HD movie files LEGALLY with no DRM or encryption and you are free to use as you please. Now i'm not saying google, dropbox, and Microsoft are just gonna instantly delete your files but they might determine at some point that your content breaks there TOS and remove it. My other fear is the MPAA gets wind of all this are starts trying to pressure these providers to delete there content or possibly help them pursue legal action against users. Anyone else thinking the same thing? Maybe i'm just being overly cautions?

With no built-in encryption support?

What is better about Infuse? I just visited the site. The interface looks almost exactly like Plex on iTV.

The big difference between Plex and Infuse is that Plex uses a central media server that hosts the library, while Infuse just needs access to the files (i.e. you don't have to run server software like PMS on your server) and then builds a local library on the ATV. This has pros and cons:

- If you add or reorganize media files and run multiple ATVs with Infuse, every one of them has to scan the files and update its local library separately, while the Plex libarary only needs to be updated once on the server (however, you can sync watched status across multiple ATVs with Infuse using its trakt.tv integration).
- Plex relies heavily on the Plex server to transcode video and audio formats that the ATV4 cannot play natively. Infuse can play almost every popular format directly on the ATV. As a consquence, it can play a number of formats (e.g. VC-1 video or high-definition audio formats) losslessly while Plex can't. Also, you can use a cheap NAS without a lot of CPU performance for Infuse, while for Plex you may need a beefy computer to be able to transcode demanding video formats.

Some added functionalities such as remote access are not directly supported by Infuse (it's possible though to configure your own VPN server e.g. on your router to access your media remotely using the iOS Infuse). The Plex client is of course available on many devices, while Infuse is tvOS and iOS only.

It's also worth pointing out that there is a third alternative: MrMC is a port of Kodi for the ATV (with some features removed due to Apple limitations). Similarly to Infuse it can play a large number of formats directly on the ATV and builds a local library. But the UI is quite different.

I will never use Plex again, after my bad experience with them. Some other folks here pointed me to Infuse ('https://firecore.com'), and there my search ended. Its exactly what I need - easy streaming of locally stored media to my aTV4. The interface is perfect, and Infuse also looks up the metadata for me. Well over a hundred movies stored on my iMac, and Infuse works without letting me down.

Best part - no need to register with some remote server in order to watch stuff I have stored here, behind my firewall. I simply do not trust Plex.

Cool
Personally I don't care for the Infuse interface. Reminds me of Windows.
Out of curiosity, what was the bad experience with Plex?

Maybe I'm an exception but I still use iTunes to manage my movies and TV shows. There are some great tools out there that import all your files into iTunes and then they are easily available on AppleTV and iOS devices. I use VideoDrive ('http://www.aroonasoftware.com/') for the job: converts video tracks if necessary and adds descriptions and artwork along the way.

All depends on your situation.
If you have a small library, have some time on your hands and don't keep a lot of TV/Movies on hand than iTunes can be fine.
However if you have hundreds of movies and hundreds of TV shows, maneuvering through the Computer icon on AppleTV is a chore.
In that instance Plex trumps Computers.
I still add content to iTunes as a back up, however Plex is primary.
Added bonus, you probably won't need conversion depending on file type, and it pulls the metadata.
Lastly, with in the Plex app, you can search for your content by voice.

The big difference between Plex and Infuse is that Plex uses a central media server that hosts the library, while Infuse just needs access to the files (i.e. you don't have to run server software like PMS on your server) and then builds a local library on the ATV. This has pros and cons:

- If you add or reorganize media files and run multiple ATVs with Infuse, every one of them has to scan the files and update its local library separately, while the Plex libarary only needs to be updated once on the server (however, you can sync watched status across multiple ATVs with Infuse using its trakt.tv integration).
- Plex relies heavily on the Plex server to transcode video and audio formats that the ATV4 cannot play natively. Infuse can play almost every popular format directly on the ATV. As a consquence, it can play a number of formats (e.g. VC-1 video or high-definition audio formats) losslessly while Plex can't. Also, you can use a cheap NAS without a lot of CPU performance for Infuse, while for Plex you may need a beefy computer to be able to transcode demanding video formats.

Some added functionalities such as remote access are not directly supported by Infuse (it's possible though to configure your own VPN server e.g. on your router to access your media remotely using the iOS Infuse). The Plex client is of course available on many devices, while Infuse is tvOS and iOS only.

It's also worth pointing out that there is a third alternative: MrMC is a port of Kodi for the ATV (with some features removed due to Apple limitations). Similarly to Infuse it can play a large number of formats directly on the ATV and builds a local library. But the UI is quite different.

[doublepost=1489150509][/doublepost]Thanks,
In addition some info.
- MrMC now supports Plex client with direct play. And is the only one which supports DVD with menu support
- Plex has now dropped support for many NAS systems from Synology, WD, Netgear, Readynas, Qnap and others, see https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/218212517-Which-NAS-devices-are-no-longer-supported-starting-with-0-9-17-0-server- ; so there is a risk Plex will drop the support during the life cycle of your Plex server solution
- Infuse Pro 5 also supports the cloud now
In addition to supporting the aforementioned media types, Infuse 5 now permits you to browse, stream and download your videos and other files from anywhere by storing them in the cloud. The app supports a variety of popular cloud services, including Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive.
- Infuse you have to pay each year for the new version as well as a subscription - not nice, expensive and a waste.