Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Plex is now in the movie rental business, with a catch or two

The rentals screen on Plex.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Plex — everyone’s favorite media server — has long been used to organize your home library. More recently, it’s been in the FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) game, serving up ad-supported content. And now it’s getting into the movie rental game, with titles starting at $4 a pop. And it’s all entirely separate from the , which adds all kinds of goodies to the Plex experience.

Devices supported for playback at launch include Amazon Fire TV, Android and Android TV, Apple TV, iOS, PlayStation, Roku, various smart TVs, and Xbox. If your favorite device happens to not work with the rentals just yet, you can always check things out in a web browser.

On which devices can you actually rent the movies? Well, that’s a little more limited. Mainly because iOS is a no-go so far. You can rent elsewhere and watch on your Apple device, but not actually pay that way. Same goes for Amazon Fire TV.

The payment mechanism varies a little on supported devices, too. You’ll go through Google Play on Google’s Android devices. Roku goes through Roku and Vizio (mostly) through Vizio. On platforms like PlayStation, Xbox, and some smart TVs, you will pay through Plex itself. None of that should be a deal-breaker, but it’s also not the most elegant of solutions.

One more catch: This is all limited to the U.S., for now. But Plex does say that it intends to expand internationally at some point.

Rented movies won’t have ads, which is nice. And you’ll have 30 days to actually watch a movie once you’ve paid to rent it. But as soon as you hit play, you’ll only have 48 hours to do so. That’s fairly standard for this sort of thing.

Plex says that movies will be served in 1080p resolution, and in 5.1 surround sound when possible.

Editors' Recommendations

Phil Nickinson
Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
5 movies leaving Netflix in April 2024 you have to watch now
A clown stares into the mirror.

The end of April means Hollywood is heading into the summer blockbuster season. The new month also signals the removal of many notable films on Netflix. Step Brothers, The Florida Project, The Sting, and the first three Jurassic Park films will be unavailable on Netflix starting May 1.

The list does not stop at the six films mentioned above. We selected five additional films departing Netflix at the end of April. Our choices include an Oscar-winning psychological thriller revolving around jazz, an iconic comedy from the 1990s, and a billion-dollar-grossing comic book villain origin story.
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Read more
The 10 most popular TV shows on Netflix right now
A man behind a bar, a heavyset woman sitting there and pointing at him, both smiling in a scene from Baby Reindeer.

Exploring the thousands of titles on Netflix can be both exciting and overwhelming. Content of all types abounds, from dramas and comedies to reality shows and documentaries. It's a good thing there's a list to help narrow your decision by letting you see the most popular Netflix shows. That's right, every week, Netflix releases its list of the 10 most-watched TV shows over a recent seven-day period.

Netflix viewers can't get enough of Baby Reindeer, as Richard Gadd's drama is now the No. 1 show on the streamer. New shows dominated the middle of the charts this week, with Killing Eve season 1, The Circle season 6, O.J.: Made in America, The Upshaws part 5, and Our Living World occupying spots three through seven. Below, we have listed the top 10 shows in the U.S. from April 15 to April 21, along with general information about each show, including genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Read more
Check out this great movie before it leaves Amazon Prime Video next week
Multiple actors as Mr. Blue, Green, Grey, & Brown discuss how to leave the subway tunnels in The Taking of Pelham 123.

Among the many frustrating things about the modern streaming landscape is that, in addition to not knowing what to watch, it's also difficult to know when you'll actually be able to see it. Although Amazon Prime Video has plenty of great movies, those movies come to the streamer and leave it seemingly at random because of complicated rights agreements that no regular person should ever care about or understand.

It can be hard to make sure you catch a great movie before it leaves, which is why you should definitely make time to watch The Taking of Pelham One Two Three before it leaves Prime Video at the end of April. The movie, which tells the story of a MTA train heist in 1970s New York, holds up remarkably well 50 years later. Here are three reasons you should check it out.
It's a perfectly paced heist movie
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974) | Official Trailer | MGM

Read more