Plex, the world’s most comprehensive streaming entertainment platform comes to the Atari VCS.
From the beginning the team has identified three core pillars that serve as the foundation of the Atari VCS: Gaming, PC Versatility and Streaming Entertainment. Today the Atari VCS team announced our first major streaming entertainment partner, Plex, and we plan to have several more app and content partnership announcements to come as we continue to build out our non-linear content strategy.
In a world where digital content is increasingly abundant and diverse, Plex brings all the media that matters to you together in one place, and now you can look forward to accessing it all through your Atari VCS. Plex allows you to combine your personal collection of video, TV, music, and photos with streaming content from a wide variety of specialty streaming services you can discover and access through Plex.
A Plex free subscription comes with more than 80 channels of live TV and a growing catalog of great web shows, news, and podcasts, including more than 14,000 on-demand free movies and shows from content providers such as Warner Brothers, Crackle, Lionsgate, MGM and more. Sign up for a free Plex membership and you can access all this content through your Atari VCS.
With a Plex media server on your main PC and Plex on your Atari VCS, you can stream your collection of non-DRM movies, TV, music, and more to the VCS or to any device, anywhere. And you can take Plex with you, accessing it on your computers and portable devices across your local network or anywhere you’re connected to the Internet.
Why is this important to Atari? Because the ability to access streaming media is very much at the heart of the vision for the Atari VCS, and Plex is the clear market leader when it comes to organizing and accessing streaming content. We are delighted to introduce the Atari VCS community to Plex, and we are likewise very excited to introduce the 20 million Plex users to the Atari VCS.
Plex will come as a free download on every Atari VCS. To use basic Plex services on the Atari VCS, users must create a Plex account. The primary functions of Plex are completely free, and includes playback of anything on your local server PC, as well as podcasts, news, and web shows. Plex mobile apps require being unlocked (through an in-app purchase or a Plex Pass subscription), and premium features can be accessed with a Plex Pass subscription. Plex will launch with its basic core services available on Atari VCS and will grow to include more capabilities over time.
Free Plex services include:
- Plex ‘Movies & TV’ streaming service is free to all users and ad-supported.
- “News”, “Podcasts”, and “Web Shows”
- 30-second previews of songs from TIDAL
- Access to Plex Media Server services
- Plex mobile apps (Android and iOS) can be used for free, but have limitations.
Paid services include Plex Apps and Plex Pass (some services require separate PC server at VCS launch):
- The Plex Pass subscription includes free use of the paid-for apps as well as other features and benefits
- Live TV & DVR: Watch and record over-the-air broadcasts available in your area, using a compatible tuner and digital antenna.
- Stream trailers and extras (interviews, behind the scenes, etc.) for content in your movie library.
- Add lyrics from LyricFind to your music libraries to follow along whenever you want.
- Set up a Plex Home for your family to allow easy switching between accounts and restrict what content you share from your server.
- In addition, streaming music through TIDAL requires an active TIDAL subscription — either billed/managed through Plex or elsewhere, with the TIDAL subscription linked to your Plex account.
A Plex Pass premium subscription is $4.99 paid monthly, $39.99 paid yearly, or $119.99 for a lifetime subscription. Utilizing the Plex Media server requires data storage (via a local PC at VCS launch). Later versions of Plex on the Atari VCS will enable this function via USB or housed on an external drive or NAS, and accessed via a home network.
What’s next?
Look for more information as we reach out to both the Plex and Atari VCS communities between now and launch, and expect more content announcements as we bring more streaming services and individual channels into our lineup.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
— The Atari VCS Team
