Plex and Amazon are teaming up to beam you content from the cloud

Honestly, the words Home Theater PC are scary to a lot of cinephiles. Sure, they too want to watch content wherever they go without a subscription fee, but the idea of setting up and, worse, maintaining a media server is just too much for them.

So in an effort to lower the barrier to entry, Plex is doing away with the whole "you need your own media server" thing thanks to a new partnership with Amazon: The two tech companies have teamed up to offer pre-built Plex storage servers to Plex Pass and Amazon Cloud subscribers.

The service is called Plex Cloud, and it works like a regular local Plex server, except … well, all in the cloud. The servers are akin to Google Drive folders in the sense that you can store files on them and access them on any device, but differ in the sense that they're specifically designed to show up on your Plex app.

Load up the folder with content and you're set to stream your favorite TV shows, movies and music on any device running the Plex app.

Now, the caveat here is that you'll need to either be an existing Amazon Cloud subscriber or sign up for the service (to the tune of $60 per year) in order to get in on the deal.

Want Plex via your Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive account? Unfortunately you might be waiting awhile. In a statement, Plex said "We'll continue to evaluate adding support for other cloud storage providers over time."

Plex Cloud is going into beta starting today, and interested streamers can sign up for the service on Plex's website.

• Still want physical hardware? Check out our list of the best XBMC/Kodi boxes