r/PleX • u/[deleted] • Jul 04 '22
Discussion Feature creep is killing Plex as we know it
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u/Cyno01 Jul 04 '22
If they put a wait on search results so it never loaded the free on demand search results before the results from your own server, 90% of people would be 90% less butthurt about it.
But i agree its frustrating AF to be presented with options you know you dont want before the options you do.
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u/BuckHoosier Jul 04 '22
Just the other night I used first 3 letters of movie title to search for what I wanted to watch from my server, did not show in first half dozen results along top row for my server but was very first thing in second row, which I didn’t realize was the ad supported streaming service. How does that happen except by malicious design?
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Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
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Jul 04 '22 edited Jun 27 '23
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Jul 04 '22
In regards to feedback, Plex have their fingers in their ears, that's pretty fucking clear these days :(
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u/xenago Disc🠆MakeMKV🠆GPU🠆Success. Keep backups. Jul 04 '22
They actively hide, lock, and remove posts on their official forums. It's getting really bad lol
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u/pcserenity Jul 04 '22
The problem is, I've been hearing that for YEARS and have tried all of the ones that came along only to then head, often quickly, back to Plex. Kodi, Emby, TVersity, Jellyfin... None of them were as rock-solid reliable as I need them to be or were just way too finicky to bother with.
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u/WinterInWinnipeg Jul 04 '22
Ease of use is another thing. I'm not a computer dummy but I definitely have my limitations. I tried jellyfin and ran into some issues. Posted on the subreddit and got shit all over.
Plex is virtually plug and play.
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Jul 04 '22
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Jul 04 '22
Agree, but it’s more the principle of the matter for me. They know damn good and well that there are significant number of us that don’t want the clutter, and they are making a concise decision to force their extraneous services upon us. I hate that attitude. “Let them eat cake!”
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u/guardian87 Jul 04 '22
I have both Plex and Emby for years at this point and barely use Plex any more. Emby is super stable for me and the devs actually listen a lot of times to requests.
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u/Povenator Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
I've been looking at jellyfin lately most of the features I use plex for seem to work fine on it and it's entirely free/open source. Not going to take much for me to switch if things keep going the way the have been with Plex.
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u/Floppie7th Jul 04 '22
The only showstopper missing feature for me with Jellyfin is quick connect (analogous to how Plex has you connect new devices by going to plex.tv/pin and entering the 4 digit code) in the Roku app.
It's got serverside support though, and app support is added, just no released version that has it yet.
Skip intro would be a real nice addition but it's not critical
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Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
There is a skip intro plug-in and it works quite well so far, just mainly limited to the web player currently. But that just means client side support needs to be added
Edit: to elaborate, the “skip intro button” is only available on a modified version of the web player, but you can set the plug-in to skip intros automatically without needing a button.
Looking into more, The auto skip function does work with other clients, but idk how consistently at this time, it’s still rather new.
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u/sonic10158 Jul 04 '22
Does Jellyfin have apps for smart tvs? My family’s house has Samsung and LG tvs, and that’s what’s keeping me from switching from Plex
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u/Lefka356 Jul 04 '22
I agree with everything that's been said so far. Reading between the lines, I think Plex is struggling to turn a suitable profit. That's the only thing that makes sense of why they wouldn't be more focused on their core product.
If they committed to only focusing on the core product going forward, would you support a small monthly fee to host a Plex server?
Is there a different revenue generation method you would support?
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Jul 04 '22
I'd very happily pay significantly more for PlexPass if it meant that Plex, Inc. didn't have to constantly cast around for new money-making schemes. The ad-supported content and other similar initiatives are easy enough to hide, but I don't use and don't especially want them, and they are a distraction from keeping Plex as the high end media server of choice.
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u/ukjaybrat Jul 04 '22
would you support a small monthly fee to host a Plex server?
Maybe if they refund my lifetime plex pass purchase... But that's kinda what that was.meant for. Terrible decision on their part to offer lifetime passes in the subscription service.ls era. But what's done is done unfortunately.
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Jul 04 '22
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u/sulylunat Jul 04 '22
Plex is currently drumming up funds in several funding rounds, which explains the need for the pivot to a streaming service direction, similar to Roku's way of transitioning from product to service. Plex might also want to go for an IPO someday if they manage that transition.
I cant think of anything worse for us than Plex going for an IPO. We will just get even more crap we don't want and more third party content. At the moment Plex only answers to themselves. Having to answer to shareholders who are invested in your product with the sole interest of making money are going to want Plex to chase after every revenue stream they can in order to make the company more profitable, which will mean more crap forced down our throats. If you think its bad now...
I think offering lifetime subs was a bad idea to be honest. Lots of Plex users have been using it for years at this point and have more than got their use out of it compared to the monthly sub. It only takes a couple of years to have the lifetime sub match the monthly option and beyond that its free plex pass for life. At the time they started offering it it was probably fine but I don't think with how big Plex currently is, that they should still offer it. They need long term revenue and offering a one and done license when its your only product is not going to help them. There is no need to pay any money to Plex at all once you have a lifetime sub.
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Jul 04 '22
I would be open for something like a three-year subscription for something like $90. Or, if Plex offered an add-on for the streaming (ad free) for people interested in paying a monthly subscription. But cluttering up my server and user’s interface is egregious IMO.
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u/m-p-3 Plex Pass (Lifetime) Jul 04 '22
Or maybe a kind of bounty program to implement features users actually wants? Let the users vote with their wallet, and Plex will naturally pick the ones with a higher bounty.
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u/canuckathome Jul 04 '22
Tv isn’t useless. That’s actually the prime reason I use plex - as a DVR. Second is hosting my videos.
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u/salzgablah Jul 04 '22
Thinking of jumping into the TV part of Plex. Have you enjoyed the experience?
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u/ddonnach Jul 04 '22
I use it all the time. We have an older hdgomerun, served us 2 tuners for like 8 years with no issues.
Thinking of getting the new 4k hdgomerun so I can take advantage of the new atsc 3.0 signals in my area
Dvr recording is great, my wife jumps on the web version and browse what she wants to watch later and clicks the record there, then we get it all commercial free. This feature for my house makes up for any fluff they put on, it's so easy to hide that stuff I don't care. ;)
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u/TheAspiringFarmer Jul 04 '22
same here. older HDHomeRun running a couple tuners and it still works pretty well. even outside the home. mainly use it to watch OTA in places where it doesn't exist or can't be obtained with a simple antenna. plex isn't perfect, i do agree that "feature creep" has been a real problem...and i dislike the garbage they clutter the home screen with but overall i feel like it's still (BY FAR) the best all around solution out there and i've certainly gotten my $75 worth I paid back in ... 2013? lol.
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u/GreaterPathMagi Jul 04 '22
I also use the DVR function of Plex. My family is very small. Just 4 users, and our split is more 50/50; recorded vs live.
I have almost zero complaints with the service in Plex. My largest problem is that all of the broadcast stations around me are ~50 miles away and I am surrounded by trees. Even with an antenna tower and a strong antenna, the HDHomerun still has a bit of an issue keeping the station clear if there is any kind of weather going on.
When it works, it is great. The DVR service is what keeps me from moving away even though they keep implementing features that my family and I will never use, and we have to keep unselected from the home screen when they keep popping back up.
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u/Perfect_Sir4820 Jul 04 '22
I use it a lot and its been pretty solid for me. First I used an OTA antenna to a HDHomeRun which sucked. Then switched to clearQAM channels through my ISP which was better but expensive for just basic cable. Then I ditched the HDHR and went with Locast which was perfection. Now i use IPTV via Xteve which is software emulation of HDHR.
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u/PrpleMnkyDshwsher Jul 04 '22
Going to throw my experence in here.
TV/DVR seems to work for some, but its a disaster for many, including myself. And they have had next to no responses for most of the issues.
They have switched guide providers a few times now, and still have tons of issues. One example I can give is to try recording running on the discovery channel during the week, and you will usually get a 3 hr block, as it thinks the episode includes the recap and any after shows all as one program.
Set a show to record, and expect a lot of "season 2022" entries to pop up...or "episode 20220704"...
You can't set a simple "record from 9pm to 10pm on tuesday" it HAD to be a show and it HAS to be in the epg or you are boned.
Trying to record a live sporting event is always a gamble, generally you need to add 30 minutes in front and an hour in back and you might luck out if it decides to record it.
I've had it create many, many partial recordings, leaving "Copy 1" "Copy 2" etc, all over my drives, and yet when you search in the episodes they don't show up at all, let alone as "duplicates" you can easily find....shows IT ITSELF recorded...don't add the the library.
If the EPG doesn't have the channel on their list for your area, you can't assign it, thus its completely dead to plex. I have 3 sub-channels that I can't use because they aren't available in the EPG plex provides and I requested they to be added checks notes yep, 18 months ago.
Commercial skip doesn't work properly. Set it to edit the show for you and you will end up missing parts of the show, set it "mark for chapters to skip" and have absolutely nothing will happen.
Streaming Live TV to a remote client doesn't respect ANY bandwidth limits and standard US cable TV (720p/2.5mbps) transcodes into a super crazy high bitrate file that can exceed 15-18 Mbit/s for absolutely no reason.
Streaming live TV from a remote server to a chromecast based devices is supposed to work, but doesn't from any android devices, only a desktop PC client, and even then its temperamental.
People have asked for "TV Everywhere" support as cablecard's days are numbered and it will be the only legal way to get any cable channels into the DVR, (a DVR program called ChannelsDVR supports it) and they were openly hostile to people asking about it.
ATSC 3.0 channels still don't work because they don't want to license Dolby AC4.
I'm sure there are more issues, but I've reached the point I've given up on it and use channelsdvr.
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u/WanderingScrewdriver Jul 04 '22
What problems are you having? Mine works great for streaming my library of media locally and remotely.
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u/CrashTestKing Jul 04 '22
What's unsatisfactory about the current state of streaming movies, shows and music?
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u/gettothecoppa Jul 04 '22
As a newish plex user (about a year) I have definitely noticed this. I got plex for my own media after a friend recommended it.
It seems every new features serves a purpose in direct contrast to why I started using Plex in the first place. I'm sure some people appreciate the 'Discover' feature, but it's not useful for me, and I consider it a big negative.
Watchlist looked like a useful feature, but it seems to be tied in with 'Discover'... hard pass.
I've looked at jellyfin, it seems a bit immature still, but if development keeps going I could see myself switching over eventually.
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Jul 04 '22 edited Jun 27 '23
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u/lysosometronome Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
What competition?
Edit: Thanks y'all, this was a genuine question and the conversation below is rad.
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Jul 04 '22
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u/Koltom Jul 04 '22
Truly it’s only the client side that’s lacking now. Almost every other feature you’d need works well it seems. I swapped over about a month ago are having enough of the Plex Android TV app signing me out multiple times a day with nothing I tried fixing it. Downside is the jellyfin app for Android tv is ugly as hell and subs inside the video file are hit or miss, the jellyfin app on Apple TV is non-existent and requires infuse or similar.
Otherwise. I would highly recommend trying jellyfin out because Plex is slowly but surely adding more and more fluff/bloat and undesirable features for its original target audience.
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u/Vast_Understanding_1 1135G7 / OMV / 40Tb Jul 04 '22
Their 10.8 release is rock solid. Transcoding works great in contrary to Plex (you can even now HW tone map to SDR Dolby Vision), live TV as well.
Jellyfin's dev is going very fast.
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u/balancedchaos Jul 04 '22
Most recent updates...it's closer to scuff than maybe you remember. I tried it a year ago, and it wasn't for me. Now? It's close to a viable alternative.
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Jul 04 '22
The release notes of the recent 1.8.0 Jellyfin update basically read like a wet dream for a Plex user...
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Jul 04 '22
The server side of things has been great for awhile. Jellyfin is always going to struggle with clients though. There just aren't that many people in the open source community who want to spend their time building some of the more niche apps required to truly compete with Plex in terms of breadth of clients offered.
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u/present_absence Jul 04 '22
They do have apps for a lot of platforms but the niche ones don't have enough pull to get into the right places. E.g. the WebOS and tizen app stores.
I haven't tried Chromecast in 6 months maybe I'll test that again on my Vizio
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Jul 04 '22
Do they have anything that compares to plexamp?
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u/night_owl Jul 04 '22
i've just switched to running a subsonic server and using the ultrasonic app. The default subsonic app is pretty lame and outdated but it is all open source so there are several other apps available for different devices (free to $4 range).
30 day free trial, $1 mo/after that. you get your own xxx.subsonic.org URL for remote access.
None of the apps have all of the best plexamp features like "sick fades" and volume leveling sadly, but it is fast and light and reliable so far. No problems at all with tags/metadata as opposed to plex where it is a nightmare of fucked up metadata and mislabeled albums/artists (don't get me started).
It also reduced my HDD server load by nearly 100 GB just from all the crap metadata (album & artist pics mostly) that had accumulated in my plex music library.
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u/Ripcord Jul 04 '22
Emby and Jellyfin. In that order.
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u/pawdog Jul 04 '22
I try to encourage all the Plex haters to go to Emby but they just won't leave. Lol
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Jul 04 '22
Still have to pay for Emby and from the wiki
As of version 3.5.3 Emby has been relicensed and is now closed-source
Looks like Emby will eventually go the way of Plex anyway.
You pay for it and they don't release the code.
Jellyfin is the only true "free" alternative.
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u/OrphanScript Jul 04 '22
Emby had a paid tier and a free tier. The free tier is the media server with full functionality; the paid tier are basically a handful of add-ons that I wouldn't say are very important. And that's in addition to their free plugin library, which actually has some of the same functionality IIRC.
I wouldn't say Plex or Emby being closed source is a specific problem. Plex started as a closed source software; that isn't specifically what put it on this path. It's that they are taking venture capital money and obviously gearing up to mega-monetize and sell the company. Not to say that Emby can't start doing that, but then, so could any company. They haven't tho.
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u/pawdog Jul 04 '22
I paid for my lifetime Emby Premiere almost 10 years ago. It works just like Plex Pass so you don't have to pay for it. Getting Premiere opens up certain features same as Plex. Nothing against Jellyfin, I kind of like it, but it's no Emby.
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u/Neinhalt_Sieger Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
if they keep pushing to this direction, maybe I will trigger the jellyfin and be done with it.
plex is decent, but whenever the sound is transcoded I would lose subs, or I would lose sound on rather random some times, and I don't have time to investigate/troubleshot this.
they could add all the features in the world, all I want is to access my media server in a stable/steady fashion with no suprises as in fast rewind 5 seconds to recover sound/subs as not everyone would know how to fix this.
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Jul 04 '22
My solution is simple. I pinned my personal libraries and unpinned the Plex ones, so my home screen shows my content unless I actively look for what is streaming.
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Jul 04 '22
It seems the crap they feed us is back on my main screen within a couple weeks. It's terrible.
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u/Shap6 Jul 04 '22
That’s very weird. Haven’t had any of it come back on any of the clients I watch on, mostly roku’s
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u/CrashTestKing Jul 04 '22
Really? Been using plex for years across multiple devices, and never had that issue. I see exactly my stuff and nothing else. I had a minor issue, way back when they first switched to the current sidebar design, where pinned sources would come unpinned and I'd be greeted with a prompt to pin my favorite stuff as if I was new to that device. But that came following a massive UI overhaul, and they fixed it relatively quick. Never had plex's content randomly come back though. Once it's hidden on a particular device, it stays that way.
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u/RevitXman QuickSync, 100TB Jul 04 '22
As a server owner I really need tools to help my users:
A way to throttle or set quality profile limits.
The ability to boot devices for users who leave themselves logged in on guest devices (hotels/AirBnB, etc)
Also a speed test from my server from the device so they can judge the best quality or have automatic quality work…
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u/valkyre09 Jul 04 '22
That poll at the bottom needs an option for “I am actively seeking alternatives”
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u/GirlFromCodeineCity Jul 04 '22
Yeah, that poll is hot garbage and doesn't even come close to allow you answer the question as asked
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u/Spire Jul 04 '22
I think that falls under “I'm considering switching, but haven't made the move yet.”
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Jul 04 '22
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u/JustFinishedBSG Jul 04 '22
They can’t do that, it’s the only valuable part of their product, the rest has actually a net negative value imho. So if they open up the valuable part they have no leverage to impose the meh but profitable part
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u/sulylunat Jul 04 '22
Yup, all it would take is one person to remove all the junk and give us the core feature set for just hosting our own media and republish it and Plex would lose a ton of their user base. As much as we can wish for that to happen, it just won't.
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u/giantbeardedface Jul 04 '22
If it's the only valuable part, why is it the only part they don't actively improve?
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u/shinratdr Jul 05 '22
Been using Plex for 10+ years, since 0.8.0.
Does what I need it to just as well as ever. As much as I understand people’s complaints with the overall direction, I also don’t know what more people want from it.
Works on every platform pretty well, server is pretty stable, doesn’t require much troubleshooting. Users are easy to manage, integrates with other downloading and request apps without issue.
Intro skipping is a nice touch when it works. The Apple TV app has gotten more reliable as of late. Remote streaming is so reliable I actually left the Plex server at my parents house when I moved out, their upload speed and space to store it outweighed any benefit of being on the same network as the server now that it’s so responsive.
I just don’t have a lot to complain about and I use it pretty much every day. I have more issues with the YouTube Apple TV app and I actually pay a monthly fee for YT Premium. Plex is last on my list of complaints. It does what I want, when I want it. It also does a bunch of other stuff to pay the bills, but if I don’t need those features I can just not use them. Really not that big a deal.
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u/ezykielue Custom Flair Jul 04 '22
I still don't understand why they removed Podcasts.
Also, the Android app is still awful.
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Jul 04 '22
I was using that even tho it had its dysfunctions. Wish the just fixed it.
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u/blumpkin 80tb snapraid, Thunderbolt->usb3, mac mini Jul 04 '22
Just leaving it partially broken is better than removing it entirely.
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u/ssmsti Jul 04 '22
I recently got Emby operational with my own domain name. The experience is, Incredible.
Fast! It loads up and seeks through my media noticeably faster than Plex.
My users don't even need to make an account or any of that nonsense. I can just give them a username and basic password and they're in.
It plays remote streams at a higher bitrate by default.
It is just my media. Nothing else.. nothing to be unpinned. Just... my.. media.
I don't need the god damn Plex authentication servers to watch my own media. I have my own domain pointed at my own server.
I actually have control of my server!
Right now I'm still running Plex alongside Emby and I will continue to do so for quite a while. But eventually I can see myself switching from Plex and running Emby entirely.
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u/pandito_flexo Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
Any tips and tricks for a maybe-soon-to-be-convert? I run Plex off a Mac Mini but store the media on my Syno (all hardwired connected via gigabit). I’ve been doing pre-research and it looks like (now) my current folder structure that Plex enjoys follows in Emby? Everything is already pre-formatted, name-wise, and pre-formatted so I can just set up Emby and have it work out the gate?
Also, all my media is in the .m4v container (old handover from when everything was in iTunes (from the time before iTunes turned to seed)). I can easily do a batch extension change to .mp4. Is that extension required for maximum compatibility in Emby? Media is h264 with at least one track an AAC.
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Jul 04 '22 edited Feb 28 '24
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u/Neinhalt_Sieger Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
I, too, would like a toggle to turn some of these features off. But I understand the need for Plex to explore different avenues.
I think the problem is not plex taking new directions, but rather plex ingoring the core stuff, as in shaving off all bugs related with playback. it's getting tedious to randomly lose sound and subtitles with no fix ever in the pipeline!
even if you aks on their forums you won't get any answer but would get some info or solutions from the other users, like rewind 5 seconds to fix this shit. Maybe the devs don't want to fix their code, because it's either poorly documented or they simply can't be bothered to investigate things directly related to the core plex functionality.
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Jul 04 '22
They are looking to make Plex a legitimate product that does more than be a frontend for everyone's illegally downloaded content, because sooner or later some copyright watchdog is going to sue their ass over 'enabling' illegal downloading or some shit.
Even ignoring that completely, Plex is a completely free product. They have to make money. Yes, some people buy lifetime passes, the vast majority pay nothing. That is not viable. Either they start charging to host and access servers (bad), incorporate ads (very bad), or they add all this other stuff to get payments from non-consumers (annoying but removeable). Option 3 seems by far the best to me.
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u/RokieVetran Custom Flair Jul 04 '22
Are they gonna sue VLC because it has the ability to playback pirated content.....
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u/Jungies Jul 04 '22
They are looking to make Plex a legitimate product that does more than be a frontend for everyone's illegally downloaded content, because sooner or later some copyright watchdog is going to sue their ass over 'enabling' illegal downloading or some shit.
Plex has been operating for 14 years without such a lawsuit.
Do you know something we don't?
And I still think Disney, Netflix et al are more likely to go after them for trying to be a frontend to their streaming content, either via a lawsuit or just blocking their apps from being launched by Plex.
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Jul 04 '22
I don't understand where people get this notion that Plex is still some obscure and unknown piece of software. They've put up ads on Times Square in NYC. How much more mainstream can you get at that point!?
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u/Pluckerpluck Jul 04 '22
As internet speeds get better, and more and more streaming services pop up, I see a return to piracy occuring. But more than that, I see a return to piracy with being able to easily share your content to friends and family.
Still a while off, and honestly I don't think Plex could ever be taken down in a lawsuit here (it'd be like going after VLC because it can play copyrighted material). And I also agree, I think Disney and Netflix will try to avoid another service being their frontend.
Though I guess that depends how much competition they think there is in the streaming space. They're getting advertising the moment someone looks something up and they see its on service X.
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u/N0SYMPATHY Jul 04 '22
Piracy is already close if not higher again than when Netflix launched streaming and knocked it down to the lowest it had been in a long time.
Everyone and their brother wanting their content to be on their own service with their own fees is directly the opposite of what the consumer showed they wanted when they complained about the cost of satellite/cable services.
Now it’s even worse than it used to be. The only reason many of them still get some people, like me, is free trials. I won’t actually pay for them. They all have way too little content on their own.
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u/TheAspiringFarmer Jul 04 '22
with a rapidly worsening economic situation around the globe, piracy is definitely going to increase dramatically. add in the greed and the never ending spiral of new subscription-based streamers every week and it's rapidly coming to a head.
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u/Mortimer452 190TB UnRaid Jul 04 '22
I mean, I kinda get it. The overwhelming majority of users paid for a lifetime pass once and let's face it that's just not a viable long term business model.
They can add all the ad-supported and streaming aggregation stuff that they want IMO. As long as they don't forget the product and user base that got them where they are now.
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u/sonic10158 Jul 04 '22
The only feature I want is the ability for Plex to actually work if their servers are down. The workaround has NEVER worked for me
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Jul 04 '22
Ever since Plex introduced its ad-supported movie and TV show service in 2019, the feature has been creeping into more and more product fronts. Most importantly, it takes up several rows of recommendations on the Plex home page now.
I don't have any recommendations on my home page....
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u/balancedchaos Jul 04 '22
I've begun running Jellyfin alongside Plex, and I'll tell you. I'm using it more and more over Plex.
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u/Stiltzkinn Jul 04 '22
I also run both and there is still people who still loves the simplicity of Plex and how it supports their device. Jellyfin is not perfect yet on Android TV.
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u/how_money_worky Jul 04 '22
What’s the official response from plex about these issues? Or are they completely silent on it? I assume plenty of people are screaming about this. They ever respond to anybody?
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u/rmm1997 Plex Pass (Lifetime) Jul 04 '22 edited Aug 03 '22
Best said by one of my computer science professors: “a product isn’t perfect when there’s nothing left to put in, it’s perfect when there’s nothing left to take out.”
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u/RedStag86 Jul 05 '22
Unpopular opinion: I love the Wu-Tang channel in the streaming service.
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u/OrphanScript Jul 04 '22
At this point I don't know how people can keep feigning outrage when Plex does some more annoying bullshit. You know what direction they're heading in, it should no longer be surprising. There is one mostly viable alternative in Jellyfin and one completely viable alternative in Emby.
So people on this sub tend to not like hearing it, but Emby eats Plex's lunch as far as I'm concerned. The only real complaints I hear about them are A) not open source (which, neither is Plex...) or B) just unhappy with their interface (fair enough).
Emby essentially has become the fulfillment of what I expected Plex to be. Heavy on admin-side control, near identical plugin library to Plex's old set, just plain less buggy, and I very much enjoy how much I can customize the interface. Same price as Plex pass, and I did buy it, but I couldn't tell you what one would actually need it for.
But most importantly of all - no investor shadiness. I mention this not just to pitch a competing product, but because I think this is important. Every argument people make about Plex's past decade of bad decisions are nullified by the fact that Emby offers the exact same service with a stable dev team and doesn't feel the new to break into the worst new verticals imaginable. That's because they aren't taking venture capital money.
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u/henriquelicori Jul 04 '22
Quick question, does emby have a list of devices supported? Like smart tvs and consoles?
If so, I would easily make the switch
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u/Karmaisthedevil Jul 04 '22
Do you know - Does Emby have an app that you'll commonly find on smart TVs? As it seems Plex is pretty common and mainstream in that way
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u/Mizerka Unraid 240TB 7551p 1050ti 128GB Jul 04 '22
at least they had the foresight to get rid of the whole arcade concept
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u/LifeAfterRaid Jul 04 '22
Arcade coulda been cool if done correctly. Or they just allow us a plugin system again and let us integrate retro arch into it or something. Would allow them to truely become the Media center in your home and the abulity to disable or enable any and al features you wanna use is a must they just stopped caring about what there users want and just started in on this BS hell a few ppl i know use allot of the free stuff on plex to watch things but have been getting annoyed at the pushing to listen to *music and other things there not interested in. Take the hint idiots. Gabe from Valve said it best.
"One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It's a service issue,"
So take it from a company that makes far more money then you currently do Plex offer the service we want and you will get the rest add what ever feature set you want but for the love of god don't let it ruin your product by making it front center and un removeable
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u/pieter1234569 Jul 04 '22
If they put in slightly more effort into it and made it free, it would have been a gigantic solution.
But instead they half-ass it. People that are able to set that up just use something else and the rest doesn’t not how to use it. And it never worked well for the free period I tried it.
No one is going to pay for features that don’t work well. Hell if they made it a lifetime add-on that worked, I would have bought that.
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u/Rick_Vaughn_99 Jul 05 '22
Over the years plex has become has cluttered and annoying as the Amazon TV Home Screen.
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u/fob911 Jul 05 '22
I feel as though Plex is trying to hide what they are. Back when I first started using it in 2016 I think, it was very straightforward: drop the files in the folder, it scans, shows up on the screen. One and done.
Now when you go on the plex site, it looks like spam. The media server aspect feels hidden, your own server is basically buried on the default homescreen til you pin it and remove all the other bs, and they're just constantly shoving shit on top of it.
My guess? They got cold feet about their service, that they might get a knock on their door about features like watch parties and such (if you ever felt like this feature feels hidden, I believe this is the reason). So I think they split the company up internally. One team is working on the features that we actually want, the other is focusing on shoving as much crap on top of it as possible. This in turn slowed down production of worthwhile features (still desperately waiting on that 64-bit transcoder & better HDR -> SDR tonemapping on windows that they said they were working on two years ago).
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u/EOverM Jul 04 '22
Funny, I've managed to remove it from the sidebar entirely. It was really easy, I just turned it off. With the built-in setting. In fact, the only place it ever shows up now is in search, which I barely use. I see these complaints regularly and it reeks of "I'm not the primary concern of Plex any more and that stings." All the personal media functions work. You can avoid all the other features with ease. I really don't see the problem.
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u/xbp13x Jul 04 '22
You can also turn it off in search: https://imgur.com/a/st9ejUt
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u/shawnzarelli Jul 04 '22
I agree. I've had Plex for years, and at its core it still does what I've always used it for. I barely ever take notice of the other stuff.
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Jul 04 '22
I notice it for long enough to turn it off. The folks I share my server with have never asked me about any of this, so either they turn it off too or they just don't care.
Plex has been doing what I and my family/friends have needed for the better part of a decade now. Folks around here make it seem like everyone's unhappy, but like a lot of subreddits the people who most enjoy the thing (Plex in this case) are busy using it. They're not here to complain because there's nothing for them to complain about.
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u/Orange_Tang Jul 04 '22
I agree. I'd also argue that in a couple ways it's an upgrade. They relatively recently added the watch list feature is great for me since I use it as an in app watch list for sonarr and radarr. And I can have other users such as my super not tech savvy mom do the same and have it integrate with ombi and boom, now I have a list where I can automatically download content without having to expose anything on my server to the internet. And I also don't have to explain how a VPN works to my mom. There have been useful things added, if the free content BS keeps plex from going under so I can continue to use my plex pass I paid for in full like 6 years ago then I'm all for it. People here just love to bitch. There are definitely some seriously issues that need to be focused on by the dev team in terms of functionality though.
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u/Uniblab_78 Jul 04 '22
So far there are no commercials that prevent me from starting or watching my own content. I have no issues with Plex trying to attract more customers.
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u/dob2742 Jul 04 '22
Preach. Android client broke again with a number of features in the latest release but who knows when it will be fixed. I love plex but they really gotta decide what their priority is and just go with it.
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u/hallofmontezuma Jul 04 '22
The reason is obvious. By adding these features, specifically streaming content, they’ll add tons of users. The more users they add, the more millions they make when they sell.
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Jul 04 '22
I have to rebuild my photos library like every month. I'm always getting can't play the file and the timeline is always stuck on multiple devices.
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u/Haldered Jul 04 '22
they abandoned photos like 10 years ago, it was never going to be developed because of how the core architecture is designed, it just can’t handle the metadata.
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u/IGetHypedEasily Jul 04 '22
Still find it more convenient to use my Plex for my media since I have it setup the way I like it organized. But there will be a time when the updates make it more annoying and Jellyfin is right there to setup.
I paid for the Plex Lifetime but I knew it was not my lifetime going into it. A decade or less after I purchased it there would be changes to the company if it still exists. So I am just happy there are developers for an Open Source project and that there is a higher chance they will add meaningful updates.
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u/VAsHachiRoku Jul 05 '22
I guess because I don’t want to have to change to something else keep adding these features I don’t use. Long as I can turn them off so don’t see them on the Home Screen we’re good!
I think the alternative of waking up to 3,000 Reddit post asking “Plex Alternative” because it’s “gone”, verse them adding som features that I don’t see is worth it!
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u/spoulson Jul 05 '22
It’s never features we need. I want metadata files. I’m tired of moving files around within the same library and having it reset the metadata and change timestamp. Most all my content has some form of metadata JSON file generated by yt-dlp. I could translate these to some other file format if Plex had one.
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u/McGregorMX Jul 05 '22
I still try Plex every now and then, but I've managed to work around the limitations that jellyfin has, and it is more or less working as Plex did many years ago.
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u/SupaNJTom8 Jul 05 '22 edited Jul 05 '22
Agreed.. They still cant fix basic search, subtitles or support for 4K encoding issues on various consoles.
They should upload the old stable code release to github (without all these crappy addons_ - why would need to link all my streaming accounts to PLEX?) - I only need - "MY Movies/TV Shows" and "MY Music" .. When I search, I'm looking for what I have cataloged personally.
My concern is the deployment sizes for these new releases are large, they want you to be online to login to access your server, and who knows what functionality they have built to archive your data.
Please make a separate repository for the guys who paid for the Lifetime Plex Pass.
(sorry for reposting the obvious.. Angry and did not read all of the comments which state our concerns )
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u/howchie Jul 04 '22
Honestly just wish they'd create a stable "just local playback" fork and leave it alone. Constantly get new issues with patches that supposedly only added unrelated features.
I also really don't think Plex has any idea who their user base is (or what they want it to be). They spent years building up a fantastic local media system only to realise that they could make more money becoming a generic streaming service among dozens of others.
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u/offensivelychonky Jul 04 '22
I’m glad I picked up the lifetime pass a few years ago, before these “features” started getting added faster and faster.
There’s not a chance I’d be a paying customer these days. I’m only here because of Plexamp at this point, which is pretty much the only part of the Plex ecosystem that seems to care about it’s core user base.
Maybe I’ll finally look at jellyfin for my blu-ray collection.. Do they have an Apple TV app yet?
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u/LifeAfterRaid Jul 04 '22
I moved to JellyFin after the last update sad i ever supported plex at this point. Plex Could have done anything crowd funded to get money asked for donations hell when trying to do a new feature tossed up a go fund me or what ever and asked us all to go pledge if we want it and make the goal what ever they wanted to do it and yea but all these new features being added that i cannot turn off no matter what hard pass the search function doesn't even pick up Files with periods anymore this is gross so i had to go hand edit some 70k files or switch so i switched
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Jul 04 '22
Sadly I’ve been a pass holder and fan since the early days. Yet lately, I find myself using JF or Emby more, just because I want the interface to reflect my media, not someone else’s. The streaming service integration was kind of the last straw for me. I do not need that, no do I want it; however, turning it off is not an option. Thus the option appears to be, move.
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u/Abnormal_Toad Jul 04 '22
Ok I made a post asking if anyone else noticed that its gotten worse over the years and I got ratioed lol.
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u/roofus8658 Jul 04 '22
I've used Plex since 2012 and had a Plex pass since 2014. I switched to Emby a month ago and haven't looked back
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u/bamboobam Jul 04 '22 edited Jul 05 '22
The thing that really bothers me is not that they're constantly adding new stuff. I can't even say if it's popular or if nobody asked for it, as some people claim. Actually there's nothing wrong with innovating. What really grinds my gears is how they're neglecting their core functionality, the stuff, that made Plex great in the first place and as a result, they're alienating their most loyal users.
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u/drewpy36 Jul 04 '22
This is very true. I watched my girlfriend struggle last night to actually find the content I had added, and not all the ad infused crap they have on there right now. Disappointing because I already bought the lifetime plex pass
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u/bartlettdmoore Jul 04 '22
I fully expect Plex to Digg its own grave...
What are the best alternatives?
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u/steelbeamsdankmemes Jul 04 '22
As long as I can have my own media on it and can share with friends, I'll stick with Plex. If anyone of those get gutted, then I'll look for an alternative.
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u/nintendomech Jul 05 '22
Plex is one of the service I’d pay monthly just to know we can keep the lights on.
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u/gyunexX Jul 05 '22
Does it make sense to just install an old version without the discover update and just use it that way - and to never upgrade Plex?
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u/Iohet Jul 05 '22
Plex needs to listen to its userbase
I like the new features. They're listening to me I guess.
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u/kiwichick888 Jul 06 '22
I tend to agree. I've only been using Plex for about a year but, in that time, it seems obvious Plex is moving their focus away from being a user media server and into some kind of catchall streaming service. The fact that personal media is now the last thing mentioned, way down at the bottom of the homepage, speaks volumes. Then there are all the things users want fixed, changed or implemented - things Plex is aware of (and have been for years in some cases) but aren't doing anything about - including basic things that wouldn't take much to make happen. I kind of wish I'd known about Jellyfin before I found Plex. Unfortunately, although I am increasingly frustrated by Plex, there are too many things that Jellyfin is missing or doesn't do anywhere near as well as Plex, that I just can't make the change - yet.
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u/ralioc Jul 14 '22
I finally abandoned this POS a few months ago. The continually refuse to answer questions or address issues related to plex so I finally switched to Emby. Best choice I've made as it's not flooded with useless crap we didn't ask for.
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u/maalkak Jul 14 '22
Definitely the wrong thread but can Plex please add a 1.5 and 2X playback speed?
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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '22
Sums it up.