However, last year, Plex said it had 15 million registered users - meaning both free and paid. It’s unclear how successful Plex’s changes have been as the company doesn’t disclose its number of paying subscribers. This change has led to other closures, including Plex’s decision last year to shutter Plugins, Cloud Sync and its “Watch Later” bookmarking feature, in addition to the technically challenging Plex Cloud. Today, Plex is a DIY streaming solution that allows users to watch not just their own media across platforms, but also stream podcasts, news, web series and music from TIDAL, as well as capture and record live TV from a digital antenna.

Plex’s overall business has been changing, in recent years, to become more than just a home media organizer. Though the desktop app is meant to replace Plex Media Player, the company says it will continue to update the software until January 2020, to allow time for everyone to make the transition. But otherwise, the new desktop app is free.

To use the Downloads feature, you’ll need a Plex Pass subscription. Similar support for offline media will come to Plex’s mobile apps, too, at a later date, the company said. Previously called “Sync,” this feature has been renamed to “Downloads,” and lets you take your media with you. Meanwhile, the new Plex desktop app includes all the capabilities of Plex Media Player along with support for offline access. They have remotes that work wonderfully out of the box (no more fiddly custom key mappings!) In short, they’re designed for the environment in which you’re using them, and it shows,” the company explained, in hopes of fending off any backlash. They don’t need to sleep (much), they use a tiny amount of electricity…and they don’t require nearly as much effort to get up and running. “Modern streaming devices don’t need as much care and feeding as desktop computers.

The company also noted that the new Apple TV and Android players support nearly all the same formats and that Plex’s app for streaming devices has come a long way in recent years. Today, however, Plex’s apps for streaming devices are fairly capable, and a heck of a lot simpler to set up and use by mainstream consumers. Home theater PC-style configurations are today a bit of a holdover from an earlier era where there were fewer resources to stream personal media from your PC to your TV.

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