Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Updated (7/3/2014) First let me say that I've tried numerous apps to stream music and video. There was always an issue that made the apps less than stellar. Plex gives me 99% of what I want! Positives --------- - Stream movies and videos to iPhone, Android tablets (HP Touchpad running CyanogenMod 9, Kindle Fire HD, HP Slate) and HTC One phone (devices that I have) - Integrates with iTunes so that my 120GB music database can be played anywhere (I have moved to Subsonic for music streaming. It does a much better job with music. Perhaps one day Plex will be there as well.) - iTunes playlists on home PC are seen with Plex client so I can easily stream music while driving (no more Pandora, Spotify, etc.) (Yeah, still works, but it's not reliable.) - Plex client login allows you to see all of your libraries automatically, no matter what device you are using - Plex app for Roku so that I can stream home videos, movies, music to TVs. You can take this little box with you on vacation, hook it to a TV, connect via integrated WiFi and have access to all of your multimedia just as if you were home as well as NetFlix and other apps. (Just make sure that you are converting your files to something Roku likes. I tried the Amazon Fire TV and the video files that stream flawlessly under Roku were choppy with Amazon Fire TV and Plex.) - Integrated database populates the metadata for music and movies instantly. No need to use a metadata manager. - TV Show series look great and contain all of the info about each episode. - The quality of the videos can be adjusted automatically or manually based on your connection speed so you can stream over 3G or slow WiFi connections. - DLNA support in latest beta. (This works but I see it as a last resort when you have a device (TV) that has apps but not Plex.) - You can share your libraries with other Plex friends. (I am using this more and more. You can have control over what your friends and kids can view. There is also a Plex Notify app that will send you a text whenever someone starts watching a video.) Negatives --------- - Kindle Fire performance is poor. You can make some changes to the Plex settings to improve quality. I got my son's to work pretty well. Search the Plex forum for "kindle fire" to get info on this. (This is not an issue anymore, at least on the Fire HD and HDX.) - No social network integration. - You really need to be on a 192.168.x.x network for stuff to work correctly. This was an issue for me but I bit the bullet and moved everything over. (I don't think this is an issue anymore.) - Unsupported devices (like my HP Touchpad) may sometimes have playback issues but clearing the cache usually gets around it. Hey, it works so I am not really complaining. - DLNA implementation is just OK. DLNA is a PITA anyway in my opinion. This is all just off the top of my head. I'm sure most of the 1-star reviews are for the Kindle Fire performance. The Plex Windows Server is free. All you pay for are the client apps. You can have multiple Windows servers (I have 3 serving up different media types). Also, just got back from the Outer Banks in NC. Other than some dropouts along the coast (where cell service is questionable), there were no lost connections as I streamed music via Plex to my iPhone in the van with Bluetooth and that's a 6-hour drive. No more downloading music or managing playlists on multiple devices. Do it once on your PC and it is accessible with every Plex client. Can't beat it. (I've now used Plex for over 2 years and it is awesome for movies and videos. Just not so much for music. No other app comes close.) Hope this review helps. :-)