The team released early versions of the port, called OSXBMC, intended for eventual full integration into Mac OS X. The developers continued collaborating with the Linux-based XBMC project until May 21, 2008. Due to different goals from the XBMC team, they forked the code that became Plex, and published it on GitHub. The OSXBMC code was kept roughly in sync with the upstream XBMC code. In July 2008, the project was renamed Plex, which the developers said was chosen because "it evokes 'cineplex' and the suffix means 'comprising a number of parts'".
In February 2024, Plex started offering films through Plex TV for rental.
In April 2024, Plex partnered with T-Mobile.
Plex also offers Plex Pass, an optional paid-subscription service that adds additional features to its server software and player apps such as hardware accelerated video encoding, mobile synchronization, metadata fetching for music, multi-user support, parental controls, over-the-top live TV and DVR, trailers, extras, and cross-selling offers. Remote streaming was a feature for free accounts until it was made exclusive to Plex Pass and Remote Watch Pass subscribers beginning April 2025.
In 2020, Plex announced that it would introduce a movie and television show rental marketplace. Its movie rental service launched in February 2024. The rental service was criticized for its inability to purchase rentals directly on Apple TV and Fire TV devices, limited selection, and video and audio quality limited to 1080p and 5.1 surround sound.
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