Does anyone know if there are plans to show the program guide by day / time(as per standard program guide layouts) as personally I find the current layout really difficult to find programs that I would be interested in. Maybe I’m missing the point, but I feel it would be better to be able to easily navigate to the date/time when you know your show is on and then select record from there.
If you read many posts a lot of people want this but there may be a copywrite issue Rovi have a copyright. Netflix did a successful challenge but it’s not clear if it covers what you are talking about. I have seen no comments from Plex yet https://www.google.com.au/amp/arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/11/rovis-tv-guide-patents-now-owned-by-tivo-are-doa-at-appeals-court/%3Famp=1
So does that mean that Microsoft with Windows Media Center and Comcast and AT&T license these patents for their implementations?
You’re kidding me, people are actually trying to patent how you layout a TV guide… Some people really need to get a life. It’s a TV guide not a Ferrari… All jokes aside, I’m sure Netflix and such the like would like to protect their business and layout for online content, but standard TV boxes across the world have shown programme guides ordered by date and time for as long as I can remember. I basically want to see my channel list from my HD Home Run listed in channel order with programs in a typical date/time layout as per my standard TV set top box with perhaps a filter for genre. Allow me to filter out unwanted channels and perhaps a favourites list and suddenly my Plex DVR becomes not only usable but my main source for recording digital TV. At the moment, I liked the idea of the DVR, but find myself continuing to use my TV set top box as it’s easier to locate and record my programmes. Hopefully Plex will look at this as I love their software, but disappointed with my investment into my HD HomeRun and Plex DVR at the moment.
I have to agree. Every TV/STB device I’ve ever seen has some sort of linear text based EPG. This has to be complete BS from Plex. The lack of it renders the product completely useless to me. I paid for it rather assuming that the developers would have used some common sense in the UI design, but I was wrong.
I’m not sure they have said they won’t implement it. It’s speculation that just builds due to no comments and a guide that no one recognises and is not intuitive. There are some good features so we need a real guide and keep the good work that has been done that allows exploring. Maybe an official comment it someone has a link to official response to this. I spent a lot of time searching.
@tonydenson said:
I have to agree. Every TV/STB device I’ve ever seen has some sort of linear text based EPG.
True, however I assume the high paid guys in the fancy suits had some reason for discouraging Plex from implementing the guide in a format that everyone would be familiar with.
It wouldn’t surprise me if DVR manufactures paid Rovio by licensed the use of their patented material. Its a lot more realistic to do when you’ve got a regular monthly income stream from every customer using it.
The fact that netflix had to go after Rovio in court in order to organize movies in categories such as “Romantic Comedies” is a great example of the craziness of our patent system and I can’t blame Plex for being careful.
thats exactly what it means
@chrisgrandy said:
So does that mean that Microsoft with Windows Media Center and Comcast and AT&T license these patents for their implementations?
@jondhoughton said:
It wouldn’t surprise me if DVR manufactures paid Rovio by licensed the use of their patented material. Its a lot more realistic to do when you’ve got a regular monthly income stream from every customer using it.
There’s not much income stream from a £149 Smart TV that has a program guide built in (Freeview OTA)
@tonydenson there are many ways to license patented “technology”. Perhaps the TV manufacture pays $1 for every TV they bake it into. Maybe DVR manufacturers do the same thing, or perhaps they license it per device in use.
Who knows, I’m just pulling stuff out of my butt - but the point is that some lawyer somewhere told Plex it wasn’t a good idea, or perhaps they got a cost to license it and it didn’t make financial sense but the massive Netflix suit shows that there is something to be careful about when it comes to how you categorize and display this information.
I keep hearing this but can someone paste a link where Plex say they won’t do the guide right. At the moment I can only find speculation. The schedule looks normal to me. In windows where is the program guide data stored, I would like to look at it, maybe someone else can use it and make their own view of it externally but still waiting to hear from Plex as a lot of current DVR’s have this feature.
I agree that the Schedule is laid out in a EPG sort of way and perhaps Plex should consider laying out the Guide in a similar fashion. Netflix (and others) don’t lay their’s out as such as their published programs are not based around time. The signal that comes through your aerial is distributed based around time and hence should have a layout to suit. The Guide should be set out as per the Schedule with the Channel List to the left (omitting Channels you’ve chosen to hide to get rid of the crap) and then in the table view, each Row/Col provides minimal details for the show. Click on the show and you get the full details with record options etc. Allow the guide to scroll to show, at minimum, 7-days. Add in a dropdown genre filter and hey presto - job done! That’s my 2-pennies worth anyway! Plex is pretty cool, so I’m sure they get it sorted at some point - hopefully they are listening!
IIRC, the manufacturer of the HDHomerun tuners (Silicondust-SD) met with “Rovi” as a possible guide provider for their own SDDVR project.
Rovi informed SD that if they weren’t picked as the guide provider and if SD used the “traditional guide” layout without paying hefty license fees, then Rovi would sue SD for patent infringement. SD did not use the guide layout.
Recent cases of Rovi losing certain patent rights (Netfix case) DID NOT include the guide layout. Also, Comcast decided to pay Rovi for licensing the guide layout rather than defend/contest them in court.
I’d also like to hear from Plex as to why no guide layout, however we may not due to legal issues.
Nobody has been willing to test the “Rovi Guide Patent”. It is potentially an invitation to bankruptcy for a small company such as Plex.
There are programs not appearing in the guide, really I want to be able to view all and filter by channel and see a list of time line so I can see what is missing. I don’t need that view to be a grid really.
In the Schedule you can view by Calendar and Agenda View.
How about in Guide select channel then Agenda View ability that would help.
Note I have 13 Channels in Australia I use so switching channels not a big deal compared to USA or other countries.
I notice from Youtube Videos of Plex Guide cover art on all the programs, here in Australia its missing from about 30% of the programs, no I’m not exagerating so a nice view like the program agenda view would be nicer than trying to read tiny writing under a blank thumbnail.
I don’t think this would infringe on Rovi
Thanks for listening.
In the interim:
Select Program Guide
Select Discover v - Note: Initially it’s the only Selection viewable on guide
Select Shows
All v (Skip input for now)
Select TV Shows v
Select Episodes
Airing v (no input)
Select All v
Select Channels
If you want to see Movies, News, Sports instead of Shows:
Select Discover v
And try different combinations
Very kludgy for now, but hopefully Plex will at least add “All” to the Discover dropdown, which would then be a continuous time slot guide by channel and on a different view than Rovi’s xy grid guide.
If this works for you then put in a new forum request for “All” to be added to Discover v
Yes if they add all that would be better. I notice when you drop down to change the first column Discover, Movies, News, Shows, Sports that everything resets, like channel back to all and Episodes deselect.
So if they could add an all drop down good.
Add a view to change from the thumbnails to a list just like recording schedule agenda view probably cover what I would use.
How do Plex features work, do you need to write this as a new post or will they just read it?
Maybe they need a suggestions category. I don’t want to upset people by effectively double posting.
Hm … how about allowing the users to define the grid (rows/columns) as the like it and save the view. Then we can build our own grid but Plex did not go against any patents…
However, this is a discussion we could go for infinitely and in the end Plex team needs to say how they will do things.
I know it has been said. many times, but Plex should not penalise none US users for stupid US licensing laws, in UK and other countries you are not allowed to license such things. We should be able to use this layout in these countries, at least release a API so we (3rd party coders) can code our own EPG Guide view, as a plugin for Plex. This would then not make plex liable for braking any licensing laws.
To be fair I am not sure Plex can make guide layout different for each country. Maybe some creative thinking and working out exactly what we need and the best way to do it that does not cause legal disputes. It doesn’t have to be a grid but what we have is inadequate.
I’d challenge the patent… For it to be a valid patent it needs to be new and inventive. The latter means that it was not obvious for the average skilled person to come to the solution of the claimed invention on the basis of the last state of the art.
I’m sorry but Rovi was not the first to use this type of layout and I’m sure that as a kid most of us got the little magazine called TV Guide or read the TV listings in the news paper and these use the grid format. That fact that this information is pulled/pushed from a server does not change the fact. There is nothing NEW about this what-what-so-ever.
People have been using grids to display information before any of us were ever born.
