In short, Plex is sort of like my own personal Netflix/Amazon Prime/Disney+, populated with titles that I already own, operated off of a server that I control, and without worrying that the movie I'm in the mood to watch tonight got dropped by the service. I wouldn't call it perfect just yet, especially in music playback and UHD video (more on that later) but it's getting there. Digital purchases are even easier just copy the files to the library. Now, whenever anyone buys a title, we can open the box, rip it to a folder on our home network, sit down, and enjoy.

It's hands-free, my video titles are in one place, my family can use our media library wherever they are without walking off with discs, and my library no longer resembles a black hole. None of our four kids ever caught them making off with a disc or found where the silver platters were stashed. Whatever you call the sneaky little imps, they were exceptionally clever.

It was the same story over and over: Search for a video in our admittedly chaotic 'organizational' system and open the colorful box up, only to discover there was nothing but white plastic inside.

Besides not being able to pick up discs or use a remote control, the house was inhabited by some mischievous pixie, poltergeist, or tsukumogami whose sole purpose in life was to hide the exact Blu-ray disc I wanted to watch at that moment. I used to have real problems with playing movies.

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