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Plex Cloud is everything you love about Plex without the hardware
As tablets, notebooks, and smartphones become increasingly ubiquitous, and more work is done on laptops and Chromebooks, the role of the blocky old PC has become – at least for many – little more than a home media storage device. Now Plex Cloud wants to steal even that utility from the old vanguard.
Plex Cloud essentially takes the hardware out of media storage. It’s kind of like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon Drive, except that it’s set up exclusively to facilitate quick and easy media streaming.
Those who have been using Plex on their physical server or NVIDIA Shield at home know what to expect here. Aesthetically organized files that are easily categorized, filtered, and searched through: everything from home videos to digitally downloaded movies and tv shows. Except now, there’s no need to run the physical server in your home or mess around with Networked Attached Storage (NAS) devices. You can stream uploaded media from practically any smart device.
One cool feature regarding Plex Cloud is that when you upload content, Plex will automatically attempt to locate related material to enhance your experience. If you upload some of your favorite movies, for instance, Plex will gather posters, trailers, and other bonuses you might normally expect from a BLU Ray purchase.
Plex Cloud piggybacks off your existing Amazon Drive account and has unlimited storage. You need a Plex Pass subscription to be able to use it, and these are available for $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. If you don’t have a subscription to Amazon Drive, then you’ll need to fork over another $60 a year for that service.
Plex will automatically attempt to locate related material to enhance your experience.
There doesn’t appear to be a way to directly transfer your existing Plex media server to this cloud-based platform, so it looks like you’ll have to manually upload your files.
Right now, Plex Cloud is still in invite-only beta, but if you’re interested you can sign up to participate over here. Plex says they’ll be expanding the beta over the next few weeks, so if you don’t get in at first, your invitation may be coming soon.
What do you think of Plex Cloud? A worthwhile service, or not something you’d be interested in? Let us know your take in the comments below!
