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On another site Emby vs. Plex lively discussion.


One2Go

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One2Go

Being a member since 2005 of a premier P2P tracker with 17,839 users that has closed invitations now for years in their Computers / Technology subforum a lively discussion is developing on the Emby vs Plex - What do you recommend? topic. Having been here since Media Browser and still running on a 32bit QNAP OS a Plex server, for the technology challenged users, you know where my loyalty lies and why I choose Emby over Plex. But some ideas from why others chose Emby would be helpful.

 

In addition some of those who responded switched to Plex years ago after trying out Emby because of problems or shortcomings which no longer exists. These ones are missing out on the latest Emby version plus others will try again to evaluate with the latest Emby versions. It would be helpful to post some links here which I could relay that would help former Emby users now on Plex to reconsider an evaluation again plus perhaps the latest Emby version's pros over Plex. I did post the Techcrunch article about Plex's possible future path.

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TylerV76

Being a member since 2005 of a premier P2P tracker with 17,839 users that has closed invitations now for years in the Computers / Technology subforum a lively discussion is developing on the Emby vs Plex - What do you recommend? topic. Having been here since Media Browser and still running on a 32bit QNAP OS a Plex server for the technology challenged users you know where my loyalty is and why I choose Emby over Plex. But some ideas from why others chose Emby would be helpful.

 

In addition some of those who responded switched to Plex years ago after trying out Emby and they are missing out on the latest Emby version plus others will try again with the latest Emby versions. It would be helpful to post some links here which I could relay that would help former Emby users now on Plex to reconsider an evaluation again plus perhaps in the latest Emby version's pros over Plex. I did post the Techcrunch article about Plex's possible future path.

 

 

 

Why choose one over the other at this point? Plex does some things far better than Emby and Emby does some things far better than Plex. It sucks that one or the other can't do everything well but that's the way it is currently. 

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One2Go

Why choose one over the other at this point? Plex does some things far better than Emby and Emby does some things far better than Plex. It sucks that one or the other can't do everything well but that's the way it is currently. 

The choice is such a personal one as it requires attention and time to maintaining two separate products. I am running Plex on a QNAP with a 32bit OS, which is dead for further development, and I keep it for my users that are technologically challenged as I don't want to provide user support plus they just want to watch. They wouldn't care about correct metadata or aspect ratio. Those users stay there but my interest and upkeep is very minimal.

 

Got a new 64bit QNAP NAS and will concentrate my time and effort on that one, but it will be Emby only. Also it looks like you may not be aware of the this article https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/07/plex-plans-to-offer-ad-supported-movies-and-more-premium-subscriptions/amp/ therefore the future path may be important to some because the forum here is full of posts migrating Plex to Emby. It is an important decision and some users want an either or choice.

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TylerV76

The choice is such a personal one as it requires attention and time to maintaining two separate products. I am running Plex on a QNAP with a 32bit OS, which is dead for further development, and I keep it for my users that are technologically challenged as I don't want to provide user support plus they just want to watch. They wouldn't care about correct metadata or aspect ratio. Those users stay there but my interest and upkeep is very minimal.

 

Got a new 64bit QNAP NAS and will concentrate my time and effort on that one, but it will be Emby only. Also it looks like you may not be aware of the this article https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/07/plex-plans-to-offer-ad-supported-movies-and-more-premium-subscriptions/amp/ therefore the future path may be important to some because the forum here is full of posts migrating Plex to Emby. It is an important decision and some users want an either or choice.

 

 

 

Im aware of the article. It may interest quite a few people and may very well push some people back to Plex from Emby. If Plex can incorporate services like HBO GO and Showtime Anytime into its dashboard, like they did with Tidal, that would be quite impressive. The ad supported movies helped bring other devices to the forefront so I see it as evolving. 

 

As for maintenance, I run both services and the only maintenance I do is loading files into a shared folder and the occasional update. My artwork etc is all done before placing files in the folders using tinymediamanager which automates the entire process. 

 

Plex handless Live TV better. Emby handles recordings better. Plex's custom player work better. Emby handles user controllability and manipulation better. Plex handles bandwidth correction much better. Emby handles plugins and add-ons better. 

 

Theres no clear winner at this point. They both are neck and neck depending on what's important to you. As far as media playback only, Plex is slightly ahead and its primarily due to their custom player. When you add Live TV to the mix, that's where the 2 are pretty even. 

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darkassassin07

I don't know how they have been lately as I haven't even looked at plex in over a year, But hands down the biggest reason I abandoned plex was the lack of support/feedback from the developers. At the time that I was exploring plex/emby, and learning about setting up a media server (or any web service for that matter) for the first time, I ran into quite a few issues. Plenty of them down to my own ignorance, but several issues that came down to bugs in the software or things not being made very clear. I went to the forums for help and basically had to beg for any sort of response, which would usualy come from another end-user with little more knowledge than I had.

 

I very quickly got the impression that the plex team was there to build the project to whatever features and specifications they desired, and to hell with what the community thinks/wants. I'm not willing to support a team that treats their suppprters with disdain.

 

 

Maybe that attitude has shifted since I was last interested, but I'm happily setup with emby, and happy to continue supporting a dev team that seems to be filled with good people and takes an enormous amount of care and consideration into what the community would like to see from this project. I have no reason to even look into plex anymore.

 

Kudos to you guys @emby :)

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One2Go

Theres no clear winner at this point. They both are neck and neck depending on what's important to you. As far as media playback only, Plex is slightly ahead and its primarily due to their custom player. When you add Live TV to the mix, that's where the 2 are pretty even. 

I noticed you failed to mention the BIGGIE namely support, @@darkassassin07 experienced what caused many others to prefer Emby. Plex does not listen not its users, but much more so no even to its beta testers and Ninjas. For example with the very recent change in thetvdb site the devs here had within a day a solution. Just that in itself gives Emby the edge. In addition when it comes to supporting a corporation or an entrepreneur for me the entrepreneur always wins out because he has mouths to feed and don't have to answer to shareholders demands.

 

As far as integrating other services is concerned, this is going to be one to keep your eyes on because the field of streaming services gets more and more crowded. If Disney no longer wanted to share their content with Netflix how in the world will Plex negotiate a deal for Disney's service or any other service to be integrated in the Plex Portal, what is in it for Disney? More likely Plex will be bought out by some huge corporation and then you have to deal with their support and their way of doing things and you are further removed from those that could listen to your requests.

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TylerV76

I noticed you failed to mention the BIGGIE namely support, @@darkassassin07 experienced what caused many others to prefer Emby. Plex does not listen not its users, but much more so no even to its beta testers and Ninjas. For example with the very recent change in thetvdb site the devs here had within a day a solution. Just that in itself gives Emby the edge. In addition when it comes to supporting a corporation or an entrepreneur for me the entrepreneur always wins out because he has mouths to feed and don't have to answer to shareholders demands.

 

As far as integrating other services is concerned, this is going to be one to keep your eyes on because the field of streaming services gets more and more crowded. If Disney no longer wanted to share their content with Netflix how in the world will Plex negotiate a deal for Disney's service or any other service to be integrated in the Plex Portal, what is in it for Disney? More likely Plex will be bought out by some huge corporation and then you have to deal with their support and their way of doing things and you are further removed from those that could listen to your requests.

Tvdb is still not fully functional. Emby didnt do anything but wait.

 

As for support, yes you get responses quickly but there are still a number of things not fixed that had responses 7 months ago here.

 

In regards to plex being bought etc., thats possible. Its also possible they will have more resources to better the product. At this point its purely speculation.

 

I couldnt care less if Emby or Plex was owned by a corp or an individual. I care that it works properly and completely and currently neither of them can say they do.

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One2Go

Tvdb is still not fully functional. Emby didnt do anything but wait.

A very wise thing since theTVDB site is a mess at this time.

 

 

As for support, yes you get responses quickly but there are still a number of things not fixed that had responses 7 months ago here.

 

In regards to plex being bought etc., thats possible. Its also possible they will have more resources to better the product. At this point its purely speculation

And with Plex it is years if ever they addressed their problems. They are sprawled too wide and it takes years to get a bug fixed. Instead of fixing bugs in the clients that people currently have they spend their newly found resources and are too busy adding support for the umpteenth Chinese shit-box rolling off the factory.

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Deathsquirrel

For me the Plex UI and workflows suck, so it isn't even an option.  I load it up once a year o so, find I still dislike it, and the uninstall it.

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BAlGaInTl

Im aware of the article. It may interest quite a few people and may very well push some people back to Plex from Emby. If Plex can incorporate services like HBO GO and Showtime Anytime into its dashboard, like they did with Tidal, that would be quite impressive. The ad supported movies helped bring other devices to the forefront so I see it as evolving. 

 

 

That fancy new integration does/will come at a high cost. Already, Plex has turned it's back on a lot of other features in order to try and be the central hub for all content from different providers.  Personally, I think it's doomed to failure. The media industry has too many restrictions, and apps move too fast.  No media service is going to develop an API that third parties can actually use. 

 

I would much rather buy a good media device (Nvidia Shield, or Roku) and use that to be my portal to all of the different services.  In that way, those services create the apps and keep them up to date.  

 

I started using Emby because it supported LiveTV and Plex did not.  The support and feedback from the devs here is light-years beyond what I saw with Plex.

 

One reason I continue to use Emby hasn't really been covered.  I'm in complete control of my server and users.  This is an area where Plex has really (IMHO) trampled on the rights of those running servers. Plex treats your (the server admin) users as their own.  Seeking to control what can be seen done at the user level. By contrast, Emby allows me to run my own server and control my own users.  Nobody has to create a separate Plex account to access anything.  You don't "have" to use Emby Connect in any way if you don't want to.

 

Personally, I ran the two side by side for quite some time until I just found myself not using Plex anymore, so removed it.  All of my users are extremely happy with Emby and the ease of use.

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neik

Yepp, the control thing was the reason I chose Emby over Plex in the first place.

 

Meanwhile I got to appreciate the support of the devs.

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One2Go

Just to add to this, the users to whom do they belong the server admins or Plex has been discussed at length in another thread and former diehard Plex admins/users have switched because Plex maintains they are their users. In addition the Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) that Plex sends to the users is another irritation.

 

You can also imagine if Plex decides in their clients to no longer allow you to select as library your local server but rather divides it into Movies. TV Shows, Music, Collections and Documentaries, then they can add their add supported or subscription content among your local server content. Not a very good idea to go that route for the future.

 

Finally the competition they face on the portal side is daunting. Roku is a much better option they have the Roku channel which already has this mix of free, add supported and subscription content and unlike Plex, Roku has 26 million active users that they can use to leverage when striking deals with media providers. Plex's future is not very promising from a business point of view but because many of us helped them to come to fame, thus they may think we are dumb and stupid to support their ill-fated endeavor to become the home for server admins that have local content on their boxes for their friends and users.

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TylerV76

 

...Plex's future is not very promising from a business point of view but because many of us helped them to come to fame, thus they may think we are dumb and stupid to support their ill-fated endeavor to become the home for server admins that have local content on their boxes for their friends and users.

 

 

This is where tech people fail to separate their feelings from reality.

 

Nobody knows how many people run Plex but we do know a few things for sure. The amount of people who use a product vs the amount who participate in an online forum for that product are vastly different. I would be curious what Emby's growth numbers actually look like for this year or even from 1-1-2018 till now vs previous years. I dont know if you've ever invested or ran a business but Plex's growth is EXACTLY what I look for. How you came to the determination that their future isn't promising is beyond me. 

 

Plex has more notoriety than any other media client available. Not because of history or what users did for them. Its because they are preinstalled on almost every smart TV available to consumers. And if its not preinstalled then it is listed as one of the top apps in the App Store. Its promoted on every phone, tablet and streaming device known to man. 

 

Everyone screamed about how adding Tidal was going to end Plex's personal media service and everyone is leaving and the company is going to fail. How'd that work out?

 

Hate to admit it, because deep down I HATE Plex, but anyone who thinks they see the future, just because they participate in an online forum that garners very little acknowledgment from the actual company, is sorely mistaken. 

 

That being said, Plex does some things better and Emby does as well. If you can't see that then you are missing out. If Emby would incorporate some of the things Plex does well, we could potentially have everything we've ever wanted. As it stands right now though, neither is a complete project. 

 

As for the other stuff you posted, I dont debate would "could" happen. Thats pointless. 

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TylerV76

Its coming just wait and see.

 

https://www.plex.tv/blog/uno-everywhere/

Uno is the best thing they have done for multi-server users and has been asked for on here multiple times. Been using it for a while and absolutely love it. Its probably the best feature plex has released in a long time. Emby needs to catch up quickly to accommodate multi-server users.

 

Not quite sure you understand how it actually works. The user decides what shows where and how its organized. Something Emby users have been asking for.

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Uno is the best thing they have done for multi-server users and has been asked for on here multiple times. Been using it for a while and absolutely love it. Its probably the best feature plex has released in a long time. Emby needs to catch up quickly to accommodate multi-server users.

 

Not quite sure you understand how it actually works. The user decides what shows where and how its organized. Something Emby users have been asking for.

 

This is a double-edged sword for us.  The reason this is much easier for them is because they capture the end user as a user of Plex - not a user of your system.  We would like to get better multi-server features but, when you are in complete control of your server and users instead of us, it becomes a much harder thing to do.

 

The primary reason they are designed this way is because the moves they are making now were in their plans all along.  They had to be because the real money to be made is by capturing the user and being able to present content to them from any number of sources.  We have not taken (and do not plan to take) that approach.  Plex, I'm sure, has always planned to because that would really be the only path to the returns their original investors will require.

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TylerV76

This is a double-edged sword for us.  The reason this is much easier for them is because they capture the end user as a user of Plex - not a user of your system.  We would like to get better multi-server features but, when you are in complete control of your server and users instead of us, it becomes a much harder thing to do.

 

The primary reason they are designed this way is because the moves they are making now were in their plans all along.  They had to be because the real money to be made is by capturing the user and being able to present content to them from any number of sources.  We have not taken (and do not plan to take) that approach.  Plex, I'm sure, has always planned to because that would really be the only path to the returns their original investors will require.

 

 

Unfortunately this doesn't matter to the majority of their users or media users in general. When they had the ignorant idea to stop allowing you to opt out of usage stats the backlash was huge, amongst a small group compared to actual user numbers. What most people see is uniformity and as much as they can get in one central area. Thats all that matters to them.

 

Emby could absolutely be the top dog for personal media consumption but some things need to be addressed and changed for it to do so. At this time though, when you break down the pros and cons of each, the 2 softwares have too many pros and cons to recommend one over the other. It still boils down to which one has the features you want that work the most. 

 

You need a substantially easier method to secure the server and what's being streamed. Getting HTTPS to work is a freaking nightmare for users who don't understand it. With Plex its available at the click of a button. 

 

You need to be able to specify libraries for each recording if you dont want certain things showing for other users.

 

There is still, after years of hearing "its coming", no conflict resolution for recordings. That to me is insane for a DVR to be missing that.

 

Live TV tuning is still the slowest out of any software available. 

 

Auto bitrate adjustment during playback is desperately needed.  

 

 

Those few things would absolutely make Emby the go to personal media software. These are all things that have been requested for a LONG time now. Instead things like moving button locations and should we group trailers and extras took precedent.

 

And lastly, limiting users to 15 devices while preaching that you want to allow server admins complete control of their server is a bit backwards. No other software I have used has this limitation as far as I know and it turns away a substantial number of new users. I personally have never had a problem with the limit but I have watched countless people see that and walk away from Emby. Just doesn't make any sense to limit someones personal server if you want them to be in complete control. 

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One2Go

You really don't have a grasp of econ 101. As EBR stated and as I have also numerous times pointed out Plex needs to generate income for its investors, where is that coming from? I paid the fee for a lifetime Plex Pass 8 years ago, they haven't seen a penny from me since. I am sure that is the case for many others. The client that comes preinstalled on devices will not generate the needed income unless they opt for add supported content or subscriptions. In addition for those preinstalled clients Plex faces stiff competition from the likes of Roku which has their Roku channel offering the same as Plex does but Roku generates additional income from Hardware sales and licensing. I have a Roku TV which is inexpensive and fabulous, no hassle with setup and if I want paid content I can do so, plus Live TV using the Emby Roku client and their EPG. Roku's tech support is light years ahead of Plex. As EBR and I surmised Plex's future path is to get more revenue from the users and the only path forward is as the techcrunch article stated from add supported and / or subscriptions.

 

All of this has NOTHING to do with what features are superior on which platform, it is all about which ecosystem will you adopt, Plex's with no more primary focus on local network streaming but add supported and subscriptions or Emby's focusing on it's user-base's wishes to be implemented if possible in future releases. Since Plex as well as Emby control the functionality of the various clients they can at any time modify them to their liking. With Emby at this time it will not be with the view of generating income which is not the case with Plex.

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Just a point of clarification: Our standard device limit is 25.  We still believe that to be more than enough for any reasonable household (and extended family).  And we have options for more above that so this has nothing to do with the control of your own users.

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TylerV76

You really don't have a grasp of econ 101. As EBR stated and as I have also numerous times pointed out Plex needs to generate income for its investors, where is that coming from? I paid the fee for a lifetime Plex Pass 8 years ago, they haven't seen a penny from me since. I am sure that is the case for many others. The client that comes preinstalled on devices will not generate the needed income unless they opt for add supported content or subscriptions. In addition for those preinstalled clients Plex faces stiff competition from the likes of Roku which has their Roku channel offering the same as Plex does but Roku generates additional income from Hardware sales and licensing. I have a Roku TV which is inexpensive and fabulous, no hassle with setup and if I want paid content I can do so, plus Live TV using the Emby Roku client and their EPG. Roku's tech support is light years ahead of Plex. As EBR and I surmised Plex's future path is to get more revenue from the users and the only path forward is as the techcrunch article stated from add supported and / or subscriptions.

 

All of this has NOTHING to do with what features are superior on which platform, it is all about which ecosystem will you adopt, Plex's with no more primary focus on local network streaming but add supported and subscriptions or Emby's focusing on it's user-base's wishes to be implemented if possible in future releases. Since Plex as well as Emby control the functionality of the various clients they can at any time modify them to their liking. With Emby at this time it will not be with the view of generating income which is not the case with Plex.

And their model is working clearly or there wouldnt be a partnership with almost every major streaming device and television on the market. They have been profitable for what almost 10 years. They have partnered with how many major companies and continue to do so yet you see them failing? Nowhere have they stated they are dumping their primary purpose, thats your own speculation which as I said is pointless.

 

This whole thread is based on “which is better” and you had to come here to ask for help to prove your point to people on another forum. Now youre deflecting with some maybe scenario that has no basis.

 

The fact remains, neither is a complete product which is why you needed help to state your case in the first place.

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TylerV76

Just a point of clarification: Our standard device limit is 25. We still believe that to be more than enough for any reasonable household (and extended family). And we have options for more above that so this has nothing to do with the control of your own users.

That contradicts the statement that “emby is under our control”. “You believe 25 is enough”, not “the users feel 25 is enough”.

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Gilgamesh_48

That contradicts the statement that “emby is under our control”. “You believe 25 is enough”, not “the users feel 25 is enough”.

 

FWIW: I and every single Emby user I know not only believes 25 is plenty and all but 2 do not really understand the need to jump from 15 to 25.

 

Of course increasing that limit hurt nobody so there is no reason to complain.

 

Also there are ways of increasing that number so I do not understand there being any reason for complaint about device limits.

 

Of course it is my opinion that if there are actually more than 8-10 or so devices using a server then neither Emby or Plex is really being used correctly as they are both for "personal and family streaming and when you get to big numbers that is not generally all that the system is being used for.

 

On the other side I am not real sure why it matters to either Emby or Plex as it does not put much, if any, extra burden on the infrastructure involved.

 

I am now using only Emby for my streaming but Plex is also always available to me because I have a lifetime subscription to both. In fact I "may" resurrect my Plex server on my Shield simply because I can and, since Emby is now fully functional on my Roku Ultra I do not need to hold the Shield as a tertiary backup client.

 

I am sure I am not as knowledgeable about Emby and Plex in a multi-user situations as many are but I do think that I am pretty "average" as users go and therefore I may be more representative of the "average" user than the power users with large numbers of clients.

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TylerV76

FWIW: I and every single Emby user I know not only believes 25 is plenty and all but 2 do not really understand the need to jump from 15 to 25.

 

Of course increasing that limit hurt nobody so there is no reason to complain.

 

Also there are ways of increasing that number so I do not understand there being any reason for complaint about device limits.

 

Of course it is my opinion that if there are actually more than 8-10 or so devices using a server then neither Emby or Plex is really being used correctly as they are both for "personal and family streaming and when you get to big numbers that is not generally all that the system is being used for.

 

On the other side I am not real sure why it matters to either Emby or Plex as it does not put much, if any, extra burden on the infrastructure involved.

 

I am now using only Emby for my streaming but Plex is also always available to me because I have a lifetime subscription to both. In fact I "may" resurrect my Plex server on my Shield simply because I can and, since Emby is now fully functional on my Roku Ultra I do not need to hold the Shield as a tertiary backup client.

 

I am sure I am not as knowledgeable about Emby and Plex in a multi-user situations as many are but I do think that I am pretty "average" as users go and therefore I may be more representative of the "average" user than the power users with large numbers of clients.

I agree completely about the user limit but it has definitely scared some people off. It wasnt really explained all that well and what I saw were people saying “plex doesnt have a limit so why would I switch to emby who has a limit”.

 

It worried me at first until I took the time to figure out what it meant and how it worked. Unfortunately alot of people wont take the time to do that.

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One2Go

And their model is working clearly or there wouldnt be a partnership with almost every major streaming device and television on the market. They have been profitable for what almost 10 years. They have partnered with how many major companies and continue to do so yet you see them failing? Nowhere have they stated they are dumping their primary purpose, thats your own speculation which as I said is pointless.

 

This whole thread is based on “which is better” and you had to come here to ask for help to prove your point to people on another forum. Now youre deflecting with some maybe scenario that has no basis.

 

The fact remains, neither is a complete product which is why you needed help to state your case in the first place.

 

They make their software available on other streaming devices or hardware platforms that does not equate to revenue increase from those vendors. Ask the Emby devs how much they receive from Apple for making their client available on the Apple platform. You are missing the thrust of their business venture they will never state that they will abandoning the local streaming platform because that is what made them popular. Note from the article https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/31/plex-acquires-watchup-to-bring-streaming-news-to-its-media-app/ how Watchup founder Adriano Farano and Keith Valory, Plex CEO comment about Plex's acquisition of Watchup.

 

 

Farano also said his startup had 12 to 18 months of runway left at the time of the acquisition, which was a combination of cash and stock, and a positive outcome for investors. But the business was operating in a competitive space. He felt that both Watchup and Plex shared a similar vision, now that Plex is moving away from its earlier “bring your own content” approach to streaming media.

 

Plex is now entering into content distribution and that is where they up against the big boys, Apple, Netflix, Disney plus hardware manufacturers. educate yourself "Plex’s Bold Plan To Take On The Streaming Goliaths" https://www.fastcompany.com/3067901/plexs-bold-plan-to-take-on-the-streaming-goliaths

 

I started the thread and it was never about which is better read the title again I was relaying what was posted in a thread where no one here has access to since the site is closed for years to new signups. Since I have both products I don't need help to point out what I perceive as an advantage and certainly don't need help from here to highlight Emby's features.

 

Out of curiosity please post credible references for your insight in Plex's financial well-being from their deals they are making. Maybe ask the Devs here how much they receive from the big boys for making their software available. Plex like Emby started out with enthusiasts for organizing their own media platform Emby is staying their Plex has to reimburse its investors and can't stay there.

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