[Feature Request] Let Plex decide what to watch for me.

Feature Suggestions
1

Many a time I want to watch a tv show or movie, with no particular preference as to what that is. It got me thinking, wouldn’t a feature that picks, at random, the first unwatched episode of a series or a movie and starts playing that be a godsend? Shuffle is kind of a faux method of doing that but it usually puts you deep into a series or in a later season. This feature would be great for playing a file at random from the entire library or in specific folders, so it’s not so broad that you will get a movie chosen for you when you want to watch a tv show, or vice-a-versa. It would be such an amazing addition to an already amazing piece of software.

You could put a button in each folder or in library context menu akin to, “Choose for me” or “Let Plex decide”, and let it get to playing! That would a way of doing it.

Edit: It should totally factor in on-deck partially watched episodes as well.:slight_smile:

2

potential duplicate of
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/156738/feature-request-pseudotv

3

It’s not. The equivalent of what I’m talking about would be like creating an endless random playlist* that prioritizes unseen episodes/movies first(or one or the other), but no episodes or movies(sequels) that are past what you’ve seen. The ability to prioritize unseen tv would ensure that you could have an endless playlist of TV shows without skipping ahead into a series or movie sequel at the press of a button. Also, It would only play when you decide to watch it, and not be on a set schedule like PseudoTV.

PseudoTV creates a live tv-like experience where set episodes play at set times. If you decide to start watching tv at 11:25, you’ll catch the back end of an episode you may or may have no seen. This would be fine for people who just want to turn on tv and watch stuff without much attention to following a shows chronology.

I am asking for a smarter feature that prioritizes unseen tv and movies(again, or one or the other) first, so that it never skips ahead, so that you are always watching something new, and slowly wittling away at your backlog of movies and tv! This would be amazing for someone like me who likes to skip from show to show. It would emulate my behavior for me at the press of a single button. “Let Plex Decide”.

Sounds like it would be quite difficult to program, especially if you want to take in on-deck partially viewed videos into account(which would be logical since you’d want to finish those episodes before moving further). I just think this feature would be amazingly convenient.

The “Let Plex Decide” button would be followed by options like, “Pick up where I left off/resume”(to complete the last thing you were watching), or “Start Fresh” (to pick another episode at random). Since it would be random, the chance of picking up at a partially viewed episode would still be possible, but starting fresh would make it more likely to pick something else that you haven’t seen. Either way, you’re devouring content efficiently… with the Plex Smart feature. Advanced features could include a series priority option ranking shows from lowest, low, normal, high, to highest, giving them a greater weight of being picked. The potential for such a feature like this is endless. I’m not saying it’d be an easy feat, but I think it’s something many people would embrace.

*the playlist of random unseen episodes in chronological order could be pre-built so they can be edited or episodes can be chosen on the fly(my preference). Playlists could be built or files could be played on the fly based on the entire library or select folders. These options would be nice.

4

While others may like this kind of feature I can absolutely guarantee that I would never use it. Of course something like this would have to be implemented as an optional feature so, that understood, I would have no objection to it.

However I would hope that it, if Plex decides to add it, gets placed WAY down the priority list.

Having said that, it is possible that, depending on how some other parts are coded in at least some of the clients, this could be implemented with just a few lines of code. If that is the case then clearly it should be added as long as it has no unexpected side effects.

I think this is more of a client side feature than server side one but there may need to be server support added before the clients can implement it. If that is that case I doubt it will be easy to implement so the priority should be extremely low.

5

I’d be happy if they were receptive to the idea, no matter how high or low the priority. =) I’d use the heck out of it.(obviously)

6

So I’ve found threads on this dating back to 2008, so I don’t expect much in the way of a response, but it’s definitely a feature users have been asking for. Here are a few threads that I found asking for such a feature.

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/2374/randomly-play-first-unseen-episode

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/112791/sequential-playback

and of course my thread.

There were other threads but they either no longer exist or were deleted.

Not to mention, the countless threads asking for a pseudo-tv like interface. There’s no reason to add such a feature without random, sequential playback of video files to create an endless stream of new content at the click of a button, but unlike pseudo tv, doesn’t play when you’re not watching. It would be more like PseudoOnDemand

Perhaps it’s not a super high priority feature, or it involves a more complicated development process than I can wrap my head around, but it’s something that’s been on the the minds of Plex users for more than half a decade. You’ve got the binge watching down. Now time to smarten it up and add random sequential binge watching of an entire library/folder, I think it would genuinely put the “TV” into plex.tv. ;D

7

Yeah, if people have been requesting something like this since 2008. Then 2 things: 1. Most people consider it a very viable request and is in great demand. 2. For some reason Plex does NOT consider it important. Which does not make a lot of sense. If this forum is here so that the company can listen to its costumers. Then why haven’t they paid attention.

This should be a client side issue. In that the ‘button’ is added to the user interface, and could be placed at different locations.

I personally would love to have a ‘random’ button for a TV series that could play ANY episode. But, it could also be used to play any UNWATCHED episode.

The logic would not be that hard either. But, I think where it falls flat. Is that I just listed 2 ways that it could be used. Unfortunately there are more ways that. Like the one post suggested: It would pick the first unwatched episode of any TV series. ( I personally don’t like this option. Why ? Lets say that the random picks ‘Family Guy’ and you don’t want to watch that series. What then ? Hit it again. And if it gets picked again ? Trying to remove series that you don’t want to watch at that particular time would be to difficult. )
So, trying to figure out WHERE and WHEN you would get the ‘random’ button, could cause a lot of headaches.

8

I mentioned that they could add an advanced feature that raises or lowers the priority of a series being picked for a random queue. Perhaps series could be omitted entirely, or the button could create a random playlist(10, 25, 50, 100 episode lists, etc) where you could easily remove episodes of Family Guy altogether before you click play.

There are tons of workarounds, including stopping the episode and pressing the button to play another episode at random(unwatched/watched, first unseen episode of a series, partially viewed episode on deck, or any all all episodes) depending on your preference. Chances are if you have multiple series, the likelihood of getting Family Guy again is very low, however having an automated auto-populated playlist based on your preferences would prevent such headaches along with a series priority feature that allows omitting media.

For example:
I’d include my Anime and TV Folders:

My preferences would be set to this:

  • turn on series priority* - advanced option- series can be set to omit,lowest,low, normal, high, highest.
    • genre prioritization option
  • play only unwatched episodes
  • play unwatched episodes in sequence only
  • include on deck unfinished media
  • allow multiple episodes from the same series**
  • allow Plex to auto-populate a playlist with the above preferences***
    • auto-populated playlist set to 10 of (10,25,50,100, or user defined)
    • default name of auto-populated playlists: Plex TV(customizable). Subsequent playlists would be Plex TV 02,03, etc
  • If this option is left off, all series are considered normal priority.
    ** Turning this off would only populate playlists/random play episodes from each series once until all series play an episode(if applicable) before allowing subsequent episodes in a series to play. For example: You have three series, Glee, Domnion, Dragon Ball Z. All three series would have to play an episode before they’re queued up for play again. Priority will still affect what episodes may show up first.

Disallow multiple eps from a series before playing an episode from each series once:

  1. Domnion S01E01
  2. Glee S01E01
  3. Dragon Ball Z S01E01
  4. GleeS01E02
  5. Dragon Ball Z S01E02
  6. Domnion S01E02

Allow multiple eps from each series:

  1. Domnion S01E01
  2. Dragon Ball Z S01E01
  3. Domnion S01E02
  4. Glee S01E01
  5. Domnion S01E03

*** Disallowing Plex to auto-populate a playlist would play episodes at random based on the above preferences.

This would create a 10 episode an editable playlist called Plex TV 01 that plays pre-picked episodes in the above defined order: based on priority or omission, unwatched and in sequence, allowing multiple episodes from the same series, while including on-deck partially viewed files. Alternatively, turning off plex auto-playlist option would just play episodes at random with the above defined settings, which in in the end is a similar result, only lacking the ability to edit the pre-defined playlists. I would opt for the second option, just because I’m a rebel.

My list would look something like this, if I went this route:

  1. Family Guy S01E03
  2. Dominion S02E04
  3. Last Ship S02E02
  4. Dominion S02E05
  5. Teen Wolf S04E02
  6. Glee S05E08 (on-deck)(resumes at 23:32)
  7. Broad City S01E01
  8. Last Ship S02E03
  9. Dragon Ball Z S05E13
  10. Domion S02E06

Dominion is noticeably on a higher priority setting with multiple episodes from a series allowed since it’s getting picked more often. I could remove Family Guy from the list if I didn’t feel like watching it, unless i omitted it in the priority options, then something else would’ve shown up in its place. On Deck episode included. There’s an anime episode as well since I’ve included anime to the relevant preference parameters. I could also include movies, or isolate my preference to a single folder, i.e. TV, Anime, Movies.

The skys the limit!

Edit: Have something to add. Integration into a PseudoTV like interface could be equivalent to adding an “On Demand” Channel, that take these preferences into account, where instead of a playlist showing up, a channel can be populated based on the above preferences for endless TV watching of new content that only plays when you select the On Demand channel equivalent.

9

Actually, I just noticed that the android version DOES have a ‘random’ button that shows up when you select the root of a library. I have not verified it yet, but it does appear to favor unwatched shows. There are no options of any sort for it. But that does mean that it SHOULD be included in the other client versions.
I still personally favor that it be available for a series, as well.

10

Yep, it favors unwatched shows, but it doesn’t pay any mind to whether they’re in sequence or not.

11

Update: I have been messing around and it turns out that the ‘random’ mode IS available on all levels of a television library. At the base root of the library it is a actual ‘random’ / ‘shuffle’ button. The next level down is the series, here under the 3dot (menu overflow) button you can find the ‘Shuffle’ menu item. The next level down is the season. Here once again the ‘Shuffle’ menu item is under the 3dot. Selecting here it does NOT favor unwatched shows.
As I clicked it with a half of a season watched, and I got a episode that was already watched.

12

Dunno how hard it would be, but adding an option to “prioritize unwatched shows in sequence” to shuffle would satisfy the most basic function of what I’m asking for.

Pooling the first unwatched episode in every series and randomly picking one doesn’t seem like it’d be too complicated a function to integrate. Advanced iterations of this option with priority, on-deck inclusion(unless these are considered unwatched in which they’d be factored in), etc could be considered down the line.

13

… and … (duh) it is right there off to the left on the plex web app. So, it’s implemented on the web app as well.

14

@gusvjr said:
Dunno how hard it would be but adding an option to “prioritize unwatched shows in sequence” to shuffle would satisfy the most basic function of what I’m asking for.

Pooling the first unwatched episode in every series and randomly picking one doesn’t seem like it’d be too complicated a function to integrate. Advanced iterations of this option with priority, on-deck inclusion, etc could be considered down the line.

Yeah stuff like that could be done, then placed in the settings section. Then those rules would be applied when you hit the random button.

15

I guess this kinda puts the death-nail in my roku 2.

16

I did a little testing. I don’t think it necessarily favors unwatched shows, it’s just that I have way more unwatched footage than watched footage, so it’s more likely to be chosen. Yeah, what I’m asking for does basically amount to a smart shuffle, but perhaps shuffle should be kept intact and this feature could have it’s own unique button so that people who prefer pure randomization don’t have to keep messing with settings if they opt for a smarter shuffle from time to time. I wonder what it takes to get an acknowledgement on such things. ;D

17

Would love for this feature and have also asked for it in the past.

See below thread… to add no one replied :frowning:

The ability as said above “prioritize unwatched shows in sequence to shuffle” would be perfect!

I could see this being added as a filter we could choose in plex media server, then being able to save that as a playlist to work on other platforms

@elan could this be possible?

Thanks

18

Too bad you didn’t get any responses, and thanks for the support. I know I didn’t come up with the idea. It seems so ingenious, yet so logical that any next level tv binger probably thought of how awesome such a feature would be at some point.

Would love a devs response as to whether this is feasible or an impossibility. There is obviously a demand for it, and I don’t think it would be too complicated a change to make. The groundwork is already there’. Of course, they would know better than I how much work would go into making this a reality. For the sake of TV bingers of diverse taste everywhere, comes on devs!

19

Hopefully we can get a reply :slight_smile:

20

Still think this is a great idea that’s flying under the radar.