With free movies, documentaries, and TV content, Plex can help make your mediaverse bigger than ever. All Plex users are able to access free, ad-supported content to stream whenever they like. Awesome blockbusters, indie classics, cheesy B-movie action, and more are all ready for you to enjoy.
Related Page: Video on Demand Overview
Basic Info About Video on Demand
Why ads? Will having a Plex Pass remove them?
Our goal is to bring a wide assortment of content—from big studios, independent producers, and more—from around the globe to you for free. In exchange, we’re asking for a bit of your time to watch some ads. Even so, you can expect a notably lower ad-to-content ratio than you’d experience with typical broadcast television.
Since ad revenue is how the studios and distributors get paid, having a Plex Pass will not remove ads or reduce their frequency.
Does having a Plex Pass change anything?
To be clear up front, having an active Plex Pass subscription does not change what content is available on the free service in any way. You don’t suddenly get access to more or newer titles.
However, users with an active Plex Pass subscription do have access to higher resolution playback from the service, when available. Specifically, Plex Pass subscribers are able to access 1080p quality streams when one is available for an item in the catalog. Non-subscribers have access to 720p quality streams, at most.
Will the available content be changing?
Yes, the content available will change over time. Many items will continue to be accessible, while some other items may only be available for a limited time from a distributor. We’ll also continue working to bring in additional partners to add more content from around the world.
Are you putting ads into my personal content?
Absolutely not! That would be a really terrible idea for many, many reasons. Your media collection—including your recorded movies and tv shows, home videos, photos, music collection, and more—will continue to stream to all of your devices ad-free.
Are there geographic restrictions?
Some distributors have very specific requirements for where their content is allowed to be played, due to various licensing parameters they have in place with everyone they work with. Though some content in our catalog will only be playable in certain countries, much of it can be played worldwide. We’re continuing to work with new and existing partners to bring even more titles for users all over the world.
Due to local regulations in a few countries, our on-demand content will not be available for users located in the following countries:
- Bahrain
- Cuba
- Egypt
- Iran
- North Korea
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Sudan
- Syria
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- United Arab Emirates
Is there content in [my language]?
While the majority of our initial content is in English, we do have non-English content, too. In addition, we’re working with new and existing partners to expand our catalog and bring in even more titles from around the world.
Will the studio partners know what content I have or watch in my personal library?
Absolutely not! In fact, we take pains to ensure that Plex doesn’t even know what’s in your personal media library in the first place. Neither Plex nor any of our partners will have any access or visibility into the content or metadata that our users have in their personal media collection.
Do I need a Plex Media Server? Do these stream through my server?
No, this service is independent of any Plex Media Server. You don’t need to run your own server or have one shared with you. The content streams from online and does not go “through” any Plex Media Server you have installed or shared with you.
Why am I seeing the same ad so many times?
Due to the way that the ad industry works, it’s fairly likely that you may see the same ad more than once when watching content early after our initial launch. As people start watching content from around the world, a wider variety of advertisers will come on board, which means a much broader pool of possible ads (and thus a much lower likelihood of seeing the same ad multiple times.
Accessing or Restricting the Content
Can my family watch this content?
Absolutely. Our ad-supported movie and TV content is available to all users for free. If your family members already have their own, regular Plex account, then they’ll have access directly, or they can choose to enable/disable the media source for themselves, as desired.
You can also create a managed user for a family member and add them to your Plex Home for fast user switching.
Related Page: Managed Users
Related Page: Plex Home
Can I restrict the content my child can access?
Yes! You can create a managed user for your child and apply one of the preset profiles to control what type of content the child’s account can access. Plex Pass subscribers can further customize the restrictions for what content is accessible.
Related Page: Parental Controls
How do I turn Video on Demand off so I don’t see it?
You can control whether the Movies & TV (on Plex) source is available for your account as well as for any managed users you have set up. You’ll find instructions in our “Video on Demand Overview” article.
Related Page: Video on Demand Overview
Can I change the audio language?
Our desire is to source the title’s original language and provide English subtitles or captions, whenever this is available and possible for us to source through our distributors. Due to limitations to what we can source, we don’t currently make changing the audio language available.
Are subtitles available?
Subtitles are coming soon and will be available for many of our titles, however we’re not able to guarantee availability for our entire catalog. We’re limited to what our content distributors provide.
Why do some titles list the wrong audio language?
Some non-English titles still have English listed as the language, even though the spoken language is different. We are working hard at resolving this discrepancy.
Other Questions
Can I create a playlist or watchlist of items?
We’re working on this, so stay tuned!
Can I add titles to my own personal library?
This capability is not currently available. However, we are exploring library augmentation that we may include in a future update.
Will I be able to browse the entire catalog or see titles by genre?
We are working on providing additional ways to browse and discover content within our catalog going forward. Stay tuned!
Will I see preview thumbnails when seeking content?
This capability isn’t quite available at launch, but we’re almost done with building out the video preview thumbnails and will bring the functionality in an update soon.
How can I request a title be added?
If it were only so straight-forward that we could pick and choose any title we wanted to add! Alas, content deals in this industry are complex and very nuanced. While you can give us suggestions in our forums, we can’t promise they will get added or commit to any timelines that involve content.
How do I report things like mismatched or incorrect metadata and playback issues?
You can visit our forums for detailed information on the best way to report issues to us. Keep in mind that in most cases, we won’t be able to provide an individual response for issues reported.
Related Page: Reporting issues with Video on Demand
