Infuse vs Plex: A Detailed Comparison (Which is better)

Is Infuse really better than Plex? With the increasing popularity of streaming media, many people are looking for the best option for their media library. Two popular options are Infuse and Plex, both of which offer a great user experience and powerful features.

Infuse and Plex are two of the most popular media players available today, each with its own set of features and capabilities.

In this post, we will review Infuse (firecore) and compare Infuse to Plex to help you decide which one is better for your video requirements.

Related: 13 Best Video Players for iPad Pro and Air

We’ll look at the features, user interface, pricing, and more to determine which one offers the most value. Ultimately, we’ll let you decide which one is better: Infuse or Plex?

Related: 10 Best Video Players for iPhone

Plex vs Infuse: Should you pay for infuse or just use plex?

If you’re trying to decide between Infuse and Plex, the choice ultimately comes down to your individual needs and preferences. Let’s take a closer look at some of the factors to consider.

• Infuse has had issues with handling large libraries and metadata refreshing, although this has improved over time – Plex is generally more efficient than Infuse when handling large libraries.
• Infuse offers superior subtitles with a better font and a darker, more comfortable color for HDR content. Plex’s white subtitles can be overly bright, which may be uncomfortable for some users.
• Infuse provides mini thumbnails for easy video scrubbing, allowing for easier navigation during playback. Plex has this feature, but it seemed more difficult for me to find specific parts of the video (or moments) during playback.

Feature	Infuse	Plex
Handling Large Libraries	Has had issues in the past, but has improved over time.	Generally more efficient.
Subtitles	Offers superior subtitles with a better font and a darker color.	White subtitles can be overly bright and uncomfortable for some users.
Mini Thumbnails	Offers mini thumbnails for easy video scrubbing.	Scrubbing felt harder to navigate during playback.

What is Infuse?

Outside of being a great look app, there is a lot under the hood of Infuse. Infuse supports playback of 4K (Ultra-HD) HDR video, with efficient hardware decoding of h.264 and h.265. It can also download subtitles from OpenSubtitles.org.

Infuse lets you go beyond iTunes and helps you avoid wasting hours converting or transcoding files. Infuse’s powerful playback engine supports jalmost every video file format. These include: MKV, MP4, AVI, ISO, DVD, BDMV, and many others.

Related: 21 Best Video Players for Mac

If you aren’t running a media server, you can load video from AirDrop, iTunes, FTP, or a web browser. It also supports native Split View and Picture-in-Picture on supported devices. It works with versatile zoom, crop, aspect ratio, and alignment options in high-end theater environments.

Related: How to get New Movies on Plex

What are the benefits to using Infuse?

Infuse is a very well known media player that offers several benefits for users, including:

1. Stream from several devices and apps: Users can stream content from various devices and apps, making it easy to access your favorite movies and shows no matter where you are.
2. Supports nearly every video format: Infuse supports almost all video formats, which means that users don’t have to worry about converting files before playing them.
3. Handles metadata of movies and shows: You’ll be able to automatically downloads and displays metadata for movies and TV shows, providing users with information about the plot, cast, and crew.
4. Syncs to additional devices: Infuse makes it easy to sync your media library and playback progress to other devices, ensuring that you never miss a beat.

Related: Jellyfin vs Plex vs Emby: Which is better?

What are the disadvantages to infuse?

Infuse, like many other media players, offers some additional features through a pro subscription, which requires an annual in-app purchase.

However, if you are not interested in paying for the pro features, you will still have access to the basic functionalities.

• One limitation of Infuse is that users are not able to manually edit metadata or thumbnails for home videos, which can be frustrating for some.
• Infuse’s device-side metadata fetching can be slow at times, causing some delays when searching for information on your media library.
• I didn’t like that there wasn’t much information regarding small errors I had when using the app on Apple TV and iPhone.

Infuse Review: Is it better than Plex?

In this review, we will not only review Infuse, but also compare it to Plex to determine which media player is the better option.

Features: Free vs paid features

One of my favorite features is a variable speed playback, though. If you are trying to work through a big backlog of content, you can speed your video up to 1.5x or 2x playback.

Here’s a table we researched of all the features in the free version and what they do:

Infuse Media Software Free Version Features	What it does
High-Performance Playback	Provides smooth playback of 4K HDR and HDR10+ videos with efficient hardware decoding of h.264 and h.265 codecs.
Easy Subtitles	Makes adding subtitles easy by allowing users to bring their own or download from OpenSubtitles.org with just one tap.
Drag-and-Drop Transfers	Enables quick and easy transfer of videos using AirDrop, iTunes, FTP, or a web browser (iOS only) without the need for cables.
Trakt Integration	Seamless integration with Trakt, a popular media tracking service, allows users to keep track of watched history and ratings.
Custom Collections & Playlists	Enables users to create customized collections and playlists of favorite movies, TV shows, and home videos.
Videos on the Go	Allows users to stream their favorite content on the go by using Wi-Fi travel drives such as AirStash® and SanDisk® Connect.
Dolby Vision and Atmos	Supports high-fidelity Dolby Vision (Profile 5) and Dolby Atmos (E-AC3) audio for an immersive experience.
Home Theater & Projectors	Versatile zoom, crop, aspect ratio, and alignment options allow for use with high-end theater environments.
Advanced Video Upscaling	Smart video upscaling feature makes lower resolution videos look amazing on larger screens.
Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin Integration	Integrates with popular media server apps such as Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin to play videos and keep watched history and ratings in sync.
UPnP & DLNA Support	Enables users to browse, stream, and download videos with ease using UPnP/DLNA apps like Kodi (XBMC) and Serviio.
Additional Storage	Adds up to 256GB of external storage with the SanDisk® iXpand drive, which is fully compatible with Infuse Media Software.
Parental Controls	Configurable parental controls restrict access to certain types of content based on ratings or folder settings.
Variable-Speed Playback	Allows users to adjust playback speed for different viewing scenarios, enabling them to speed up or slow down videos as needed.

Related: VLC Media Player: Is it still the Best Video Player?

Below is a list of all the paid features:

Infuse Media Software Features	What it does
Additional Video Formats	Supports a wider range of video formats, saving users time from having to convert files.
HD Quality Audio with Spatial Audio	Provides added support for high-resolution Dolby and DTS-HD audio, allowing users to hear every detail of their content.
AirPlay & Google Cast	Enables users to stream videos with surround sound and subtitles to the big screen via AirPlay and Google Cast.
Stay in Sync	Keeps library, playback progress, and watched history in sync with other devices.
Cloud Streaming	Allows users to stream videos directly from cloud file services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, pCloud, Yandex.Disk, and MEGA.
Lifetime Updates (7.4 Now Available!)	Provides access to all future updates, including major releases like v8, v9, etc., with a subscription to Infuse Pro

Related: VLC vs Windows Media Player vs PotPlayer

User Interface

Upon launching Infuse, I was immediately struck by the app’s skeuomorphic interface, which features a wooden shelf design reminiscent of Apple’s iBooks app. The top half of the screen was dedicated to displaying my media artwork, while the bottom half showed the thumbnails of my media files.

One of the things that impressed me about Infuse was its ability to pull poster art and fan art from the web, using information from TheMovieDB and TVDB.

Related: 13 Best Video Players for iPad Pro and Air

The app uses both the file name and underlying metadata to find the best movie thumbnail, and it does an impressive job with remarkable accuracy.

Another great feature of Infuse is its theater mode. By turning my device upside down, the app transformed into a theater-like mode where most of the screen was occupied by the video’s teaser graphics, with thumbnails lined up along the bottom.

Settings

In terms of settings, Infuse provides a range of options to customize the user experience.

I particularly appreciated the ability to show synced videos, display full filenames instead of titles, and adjust the default sort order for browsing files. Other settings included toggling light/dark mode, allowing metadata and artwork to be fetched from The Movie Database (TMDb), and enabling the app to download subtitles automatically for local content.

Overall, I found Infuse’s user interface to be intuitive and well-designed, with a range of settings that allowed me to customize the app to my preferences.

The app’s attention to detail and ability to fetch metadata and artwork from the web made for a seamless and enjoyable media viewing experience.

Compatibility

I’ve done an extensive amount of research to figure out the compatibility of Infuse. Below we’ll cover every aspect of this in 4 different charts (Devices, video formats. subtitles and audio)

Infuse Compatibility Chart: Devices

Device	Operating System Required
iPhone	iOS 13 and later
iPod touch	iOS 13 and later
iPad	iPadOS 13 and later
Apple TV	4th gen and later
Mac	macOS 11 and later

Infuse supported: Video Formats

Video Format	Compatibility
3GP	Supported
AVI	Supported
ASF	Supported
BDMV	Supported
DIVX	Supported
DVD	Supported
MEDIA	Supported
DVR-MS	Supported
FLV	Supported
ISO/IMG	Supported
M2TS	Supported
M4V	Supported
MKV	Supported
MOV	Supported
MP4	Supported
MPEG	Supported
MTS	Supported
MXF	Supported
OGM	Supported
OGV	Supported
TS	Supported
VIDEO_TS	Supported
WEBM	Supported
WM	Supported
VWTV	Supported

Infuse supported Audio Tracks

Audio Format	Compatibility
AAC	Supported
AC3	Supported
E-AC3	Supported
DTS	Supported
DTS-HD	Supported
FLAC	Supported
MP3	Supported
OGG	Supported
Dolby	Supported
WMA	Supported

Infuse supported Subtitle Formats

Subtitle Format	Compatibility
DVB	Supported
DVDSUB	Supported
MICRODVD	Supported
MPL2	Supported
PGS	Supported
SMI	Supported
SSA/ASS	Supported
SRT	Supported
SUB	Supported
TIMED TEXT	Supported
TMP	Supported
TXT	Supported
VOBSUB	Supported
VTT	Supported
XSUB	Supported

Video performance

When it comes to video playback, Infuse stands out compared to Plex with its exceptional performance, surpassing many other options on the market.

I found Infuse to outperform Plex in some cases, particularly with seamless playback of certain formats and seamless audio.

While Plex has made improvements in this area over time, Infuse still has an edge. Additionally, Infuse supports high-quality 4K HDR video playback, efficient hardware decoding of h.264 and h.265, and quick subtitle downloads from OpenSubtitles.org.

Optimal settings for infuse

Best settings for Apple TV 4K and Infuse to play downloaded content (always be sure it is your own content and it is legal).

For optimal performance on Apple TV 4K and Infuse, it’s recommended to enable the Match Content option on your Apple TV. This will allow Infuse to adjust the video output to match the content being played, providing the best possible viewing experience.

With Match Content enabled, you can choose from any of the available video output options, such as HDR 60Hz and SDR 60Hz, without having to worry about default settings impacting your playback.

However, some users may prefer to have menus displayed in SDR, while others may prefer everything in HDR – ultimately, this comes down to personal preference.

Infuse compared to other options

While Infuse is optimized for iOS 12 and has powerful streaming options, subtitle support, and trakt sync, there are over 50 alternatives available across multiple platforms, including VLC Media Player, Kodi, AIMP, Jellyfin, and Plex.

Infuse alternatives mainly include media servers, media centers, or media players, and users can filter by specific functionality to find the best alternative.

Bottom Line

Infuse and Plex are two media players that offer distinct advantages depending on the user’s specific needs and preferences. Infuse boasts features like superior subtitles and mini thumbnails, setting it apart from Plex in terms of usability.

However, it’s worth noting that Infuse requires an annual in-app purchase for access to pro features, which may be a drawback for some users. While Infuse has some limitations, it still offers a powerful and compelling option for those seeking a media player with advanced features and smooth playback capabilities.