When I use my Roku and search for a movie, it doesn’t return any results from Plex.
Does Plex support the Roku search function?
Neither Plex or Emby are blessed by Roku to be part of the global search. It is up to Roku who is allowed access to the God functions.
Roku is searching the “public” databases of Netflix, Hulu, etc. It would be the equivalent of opening up a tab for each streaming service in your browser, searching for the same movie on all platforms, then compiling those search results.
But the Plex database is not only unique to each user, it is housed on your own personal server. Allowing Roku to access that database would be a privacy nightmare, as well as a logistical challenge. Would Plex the company green light that access? Or would they give each user that option? If the latter, do we give Roku our Plex login? Or direct access to our server? Sounds like a headache to me.
This is only related to Roku search, not Plex. I recall when Roku brought out its search function. I knew there was a mini-series (Rubicon) on Amazon I wanted to watch.
I could find the show by searching Amazon, but when I searched using the Roku
search function, it couldn’t find it. I contacted Roku support to ask why, and they
told me they didn’t search the entire catalogs of every provider. That may be
fixed/changed now, I dunno. I’ve never used Roku search since then. Pretty
useless feature if you can’t trust it.
In general I do not use search on any device to find movies or TV shows. If I know what I want I simply browse to it and if I do not know what I want to watch then the search is pretty much useless.
Searching for movies is a waste of time for me and at my age time is a very limited commodity.
Roku’s global search does not search each individual installed channel. It’s more nuanced than this, but here is simple breakdown of how it works.
- Roku has one global search database.
- Channels (apps) provide a list of content they have available in their channel. This is global content, not per user.
- User globally searches -> Roku looks up the search term against their database -> Roku returns channels matching the criteria and displays in their UI.
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Leaning heavily toward those recently in possession of the largest amounts of cash (since changed hands), making us, the users the recipients of Advertising even in our searches - like we didn’t know that would happen…
I love it when my ‘Friends’ talk to their remotes and it takes them as far away from Plex as they can be - then they wonder what happened?
I know you are being a bit cynical, but I’m going to respond anyways 
This isn’t 100% accurate, as they do prioritize free channels pretty high. The do attempt to order the results in a way that is “useful” to the user.
This is straight from their docs (and can be verified by performing searches)
The overall priority of channels in the Roku Search content providers list is as follows (the order is randomized for channels with the same priority):
- Authenticated SVOD (subscription) or TVE (cable/satellite) channels.
- AVOD channels (free).
- Unauthenticated SVOD or TVE channels.
- TVOD channels (purchases or rentals).
Fair enough - and Plex isn’t any of those… making talking to your remote fairly useless in the Plexiverse.
In the Roku Plexiverse you mean? 
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Oh it’s equally useless on FireTV.
That crackerhead will whisk you away from Plex so fast it’ll make your head spin…
I personally spend more time than I should making sure something doesn’t start when I’m talking to my cats (myself). I like button you can press to make things happen.
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Can I finally ask…its something I have meant to ask in a while. Is your experience of Android TV limited to the FireTV?
Also I can’t believe you have been accused of being cynical in any comment about the Roku. 
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Yea, I’m a long-time victim of Plex on FireTV - a taste so sour I’ll not take one further step into Android World unless something major happens and even then the pain of the distant past will haunt and I will remember.
I do like the new player.
… and am impressed with the VPTs, in general, but it seems like 40 of 'em would run me to either end of Gone with the Wind, so more granularity in that arena wouldn’t go un-noticed.
My cynicism knows no bounds.
There are a few ‘notable mentions’ for Roku UNO I’m preparing to mention.
I’ve been busy.
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You respond well to those.
And we’ve been successful, for the most part.
You’ll hear from me…lol
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Going off topic a while but fair enough. The Pre-Play and it’s hideousness is apparently soon to be addressed and that’s my one remaining gripe on the Shield
Me, You and not too many others it seems.
Yep they seem to be 30 seconds forwards and 10 seconds back on the Shield. Is it different on the Roku?
More back on topic… I only use Plex on the Shield and it’s set for Plex to be loaded as soon as the Shield powers on/wakes up. Voice search works great because it’s only searching Plex I guess. So are you talking about a more global search… I have a Roku stick for the housemate but haven’t really looked at it much. Just curious.
No way… I know you have those actor thumbs us deprived Android boys don’t have. But well that takes me back to search on the Shield. It’s goddam awesome, but for sure those actor thumbs would be a nice accompaniment.
@ljunkie is poised, armed and ready, I’m sure. 
No, Roku is perfect - 10 seconds either way after Roku INC set the terms and @ljunkie 's only response was to comply. I sure do miss 30 forward and 10 back. Oh well. I miss 40 too.
I’m impressed with the VPTs on FireTV. Apart from there not being enough of them. It seems. For me.
I was sure that would never happen. It did. Amaze me. I’m right here wanting to be amazed…lol
I’ll prepare @ljunkie a bit with one of ‘the notable mentions’, and for the record the way this is done in the Web App is really nice:
For Movies, Shows or Collections where one may apply artwork and data - it appears, nicely done.
On FireTV it is a stark, fully opaque image that eats the foreground like a hungry, caved Rancor - and on my Roku it’s a black wasteland of nothingness - 'cause no backgrounds/clever descriptions appear at all. I’m lucky to get a Poster.
We’ll cover that in more detail later…
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Isn’t that a contradiction? Or am I misunderstanding?
You have 10 forward AND back on the Roku? That’s more “granular” than 30 forward, 10 back on Android TV?
I can’t bump 30 and miss the Family Guy intro - and as previously mentioned in another thread, the brand new ‘Skip Intro’ that could be the answer to 5 years of pain - don’t work yet (for me, at least).
The granularity of 10 per VPT has always been ‘The Roku Way’.
The squishing of the 30/10 bump by Roku INC wasn’t something ‘we got used to’.
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Ah right. Haven’t experienced skip intros yet. The server is ploughing through all my shows though.
