Previously plex would pull cast profile pictures from tmdb as we would up vote, down vote and add pictures there which would then show up in plex. This gave the community some level of control over the profile pictures (albeit small).
I noticed today lots of cast pictures changing after a metadata refresh and upon checking they have changed pictures which do not exist on tmdb.
As one example (but there are many more). I’ll use Raelee Hill and here is a screenshot from https://watch.plex.tv/person/raelee-hill which matches the profile on my own plex server.
So, is this a change in how plex gets its cast profiles ? While the picture itself is not bad its the fact plex is taking away the small control the community had over these profiles which does not sit well with me.
These changed in the last week as I weekly refresh metadata on my whole library so something has recently changed.
I’m well aware of the modern plex agent. I was involved in it’s alpha testing all those years ago…
EDIT: To be more precise with an example. The show farscape (which I’m watching at the moment and have been for a month or two now) has had Anthony Simcoe, Gigi Edgley, Wayne Pygram, Virginia Hey, Raelee Hill, David Franklin and Tammy Macintosh all change their profile pics today after metadata refresh finished. As I say, I refresh weekly so I noticed changes when they happen, especially for shows I’m watching.
I’m going to close this as no one from plex commented. From what I can see plex has added additional sources for cast profiles (in the last 7-10 days), most certainly RT and most likely others as well.
While its good to have profiles which are missing I don’t (personally) like how plex do the ranking/rating of artwork which is why I use local assets for everything I can.
IMO, I’d like the following 1) if profile exists at tmdb, use the most popular one and then 2) use whatever other source plex have available to them.
With this change we lose the little control we HAD to promote profiles from tmdb. I dislike that …
Just asked about it and we’ve changed over to preferring licenced images (when available) from partners who supply these. RT is probably using the same source for their images hence the similarity, but we’re not using RT images.
Does Plex really find this acceptable? Many actors who have passed have unflattering photos of them in their final days instead of the prime of their careers.
Why is Plex so hell-bent on not allowing us local cast and cast photo management in our own private databases? It would allow us our own solutions to so many problems (Monsters: The Lyle & Eric Menendez Story comes to mind). Cast could be added from a drop-down similar to Directors and Writers, and any photo in our database should be able to be changed.
