Out of curiosity, why are Plex's monetization efforts silly? Sure, the freemium model is less than ideal compared to OSS, but I gladly paid for a lifetime subscription to Plex Pass 4 years ago and haven't regretted it at all since.
It’s also brought privacy concerns, because there’s incentive for Plex to harvest and sell data from users paid and unpaid alike.
I’m currently subscribed, but all of this has me on the lookout for viable replacements.
I've been using Plex forEVER and the only time this kinda thing happened to me was when the scratch space Plex was using for transcodes and things got full
Also, everything in my library can be direct-played by the clients I use (primarily Apple TV 4k) too, so transcoding pretty much only happens when I’m loading up my iPad for a trip (once or twice a year tops).
The only monetized features that have decent overlap with user desires are the player features, mobile apps, plexamp and its sonic analysis stuff.
More importantly, that monetization strategy is a great fit for legal self-custody. I have a pretty large library of content I bought on DVD and ripped for personal use. I don't share it our as torrents and watch videos locally on my own network, there's nothing wrong with that and I like that Plex is still paid for the software that makes it work well for my use case.
I get the frustration - Plex didn't do it in the past, but if you look at it from 1000 ft, and are ignoring history, Plex isn't doing anything crazy here. If you install the app on your phone/Roku/whatever, it's on you to understand how to use it/customize it.
It isn’t about the users being Plex users “even though I and they don’t want to think they are” (an incredibly presumptuous way to phrase that, honestly) it’s about a fundamental change in behavior and execution in their product.
Nobody said they weren’t within their right to do what they’re doing, but people should be allowed to point out when this happens. They are fundamentally changing the way their app works. That is an user-hostile action regardless of how you slice it. And that might be fine from their point of view, but it clearly is an issue for existing user, as this entire thread of comments shows.
Any paid software you can run on your own hardware by definition is paying to use "your own" resources(CPU, GPU, storage, etc), what you're paying for is their effort in creating and maintaining the software. If they want a gatekeep features for a premium version that's their right, if you have a problem with it find something else or make it yourself.
What kind of video is non-playable without GPU transcoding?
Get two copies if you want LoFi alternatives. Transcoded HDR 4k etc looks way worse than just having a 1080p copy
And what I'm describing is definitely a pro scenario, so charging makes a lot of sense