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 Plex Pass subscription , 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.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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