Plex makes Media Player free and comes with add-on for Kodi

Plex makes its Media Player client available for free. Until recently, users had to purchase a Plex Pass subscription to use the software. In addition, the developers have released an add-on that allows Plex to run on top of the popular media player Kodi.

Plex Media Player is the successor to Plex Home Theater and completely rebuilt from the ground up. The old software was based on the media player XBMC, which is now known as Kodi. Since the announcement in October last year, a Plex Pass was required to install Plex Media Player and that requirement is now gone. The media player is suitable for Windows, Mac and the Raspberry Pi. The software is based on the open source MPV media player. The media browser is powered by Chromium 45.

While the basic functionality of the application is free to use, certain features are only available to users with a Plex Pass subscription. These include Plex DVR, Cloud Sync, lyrics display, multi-user support, and display of additional information and media in the movie library, such as trailers.

For Plex Pass users, an add-on was simultaneously released that allows the Plex media player to be used on top of Kodi. It is available for download in a preview version. This is a Preview, because various functions are still missing. According to Plex, features like Companion to use other devices as a remote are missing, some Channel features aren’t there yet, and some music features are also coming later.