One of the most underutilized feature of Plex is Recommended feature. Many have already voiced the want for the feature to allow recommending media within our own libraries. This idea builds upon that by combining with user ratings, another underutilized feature to have automatic recommendation.
Let’s have a look at a mock up first.
As you can see there is a new row of media shown on home screen below On Deck called Recommended. Notice that Recommended has moved under Libraries section in the left side menu, for better visibility. (You might also have noticed little markings in corner that are in different colors than usual Plex yellow/orange, we’ll get to them in a bit.)
We need to take it bit further. Not many people are going to bother recommending if they need to go out their way to find a dedicated button for it. This is where user rating comes in. I think it would be great to populate Recommended section automatically based on user ratings.
Not many bother with user ratings since it doesn’t really do anything as of right now. How can we encourage people to use it? Simple, Plex should show a little pop up after a media has been played. Movies need to account for the credits being unplayed obviously. TV shows should show rating pop up at the end of season or series.
As you can see, there are options to skip rating or opt out permanently for those who do not want to bother. (Admin can reset this within user management menu.) Simpler option should also be available with thumbs up/down, chosen by the admin in settings. If a user rates a media four stars or higher (or thumbs up), it will be displayed under recommended section for other users.
About that colored marking from above.
The marking signify who the recommendation comes from and corresponds user color. We have people who have similar taste in movie than others. As you can see, the user with blue marking liked a superhero movie. The user with magenta tag like Pixar/Disney movies. User with teal likes TV shows about crime. Color markings lets the users know who the recommendation is coming from quickly at a glance. Color for each user should be customizable and be unique to each users for this feature to work properly. A preset of about a dozen colors should be enough for most family/friends in Plex Home user setup.
When the viewer hover over the media, it shows details about the recommendation.
If more than one users rated the media highly, it will show top 3 user ratings but the colored marking will follow rating of the user who gave the highest rating. In the mock above, John who has teal color gave highest rating and Plex will use his color for the main display. In case of thumbs up/down option, it could just be random or first one who rated it.
User can also mark any media ‘not interested’ and it will be excluded permanently from recommended section.
Some more details about requirement for recommended section.
- It should only display unwatched media for the obvious reason.
- It should only display TV series as a whole, never episodes or seasons in order to prevent getting recommendation of later episode/season before watching prior episode/season.
- It should be limited to customizable (by admin) set number of media, in order to maintain clean home screen. We don’t want dozens of recommended media flooding the home screen.
- Recommended media shuffle and display random new media each time a client is started, so the user doesn’t sit with same media they aren’t interested in.
- Plex already does some recommendation on pre-play screen with related media. User gives 5 stars for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Related movies on pre-play include Captain America: Civil War, Ironman 3, etc. These related media can be shown on recommended section as well.
- Plex already keeps track of number of plays for media for each user. If a movie is played often enough, it would be recommended even without user rating. If a TV show is constantly watched, it would be recommended without user rating.
What do you guys think? Good? Bad? Anything else you’d like to see?
