It looks like it’s a high priority, and will be arriving this quarter.
No where does that post say first quarter. Merely that it was delayed from the last quarter of last year and there are now “plans to deliver it as soon as we can”.
“Unfortunately, we have had to push delivery out by one quarter due to resourcing challenges.”
… which he later stated:
“Our original plan was to deliver this by the end of Q4.”
Math says Q1, no? I suspect it will get delayed again… but it’s clearly a priority for them. Interesting to see the emotions attached to this. Everyone getting so upset when it will arrive when it arrives and not a moment sooner.
One easy way to implement this and bypass the license/copyright issues is to build an Android Live Channels plugin and use Live Channels app (which has grid view) to watch live tv shows, schedule recordings and watch recordings through either Plex and or Live Channels Recordings.
I use SHIELD devices throughout my home and this would be an easy way to implement grid view for Android users.
It looks like it’s a high priority, and will be arriving this quarter.
No where does that post say first quarter. Merely that it was delayed from the last quarter of last year and there are now “plans to deliver it as soon as we can”.
“Unfortunately, we have had to push delivery out by one quarter due to resourcing challenges.”
… which he later stated:
“Our original plan was to deliver this by the end of Q4.”
Math says Q1, no? I suspect it will get delayed again… but it’s clearly a priority for them. Interesting to see the emotions attached to this. Everyone getting so upset when it will arrive when it arrives and not a moment sooner.
It used to say Q1 and that’s been removed, so it would seem as the schedule is currently on hold to me due to “resources”. If the resources are busy trying to fix the current implementation and bugs in DVR/Live TV then they aren’t available for grid. Just like there are only so many hours in the day, there are only so much a dev can work on at one time and you put your resources where they are needed most (fixing current issues).
Keep in mind this isn’t just DVR devs but also the client devs. The grid EPG will need code written for every platform before it becomes useful for many people. There is obviously a lot of work to be done.
I read the official announcement as “planned out” but not in development. We all know it is important since a DVR/Live TV solution without this feature will never get high marks since it’s just to different from what people are used to or expect. It will come, the only question is when.
Whenever Plex Guide Grid view comes to fruition, presumably it will be coming to the AppleTV platform first. So unless you have an AppleTV your wait will likely be even longer once the ball starts rolling.
So the questions are:
Is the Plex Guide Grid actively being worked on?
Will the previous ETA of Q1 be honored or will it be pushed back yet another quarter or possibly indefinitely?
What platforms are or will be worked on with respect to the Plex Guide Grid?
Everything seems to be subject to change at a moments notice so I suspect the answers to all these questions aren’t as relevant as we might think.
Basically it might be best to think of it as being at square one. Its a twinkle in a developer’s eye, all good intentions and such,…
@EABenton said:
You don’t know the name of the show? Are you kidding? That’s the only way I know that I want to record a show.
Not go only let me look at the schedule and record random shows??!!?? I can’t imagine looking at a 2 week grid to find the show I wanted - that would be looking at a grid the size of 1,218 cells for me for 1 hour . . . I have 87 channels enabled and multiply that by 14 . . . or do you want to look at 2 hours? that’s 2,438 cells in a grid . . .
There’s data and then there’s usable information - and I’m not sure either of those examples above provide usable information. However going into Plex as it stands right now I can filter shows by channel and see all of the shows that are going to be shown over the next 2 weeks.
You have to know what you want - I switched from TiVo and use the same process - I know the name of my show and I search it and schedule it. I see a commercial and go oohhh that’s looks good and I whip out my iPhone and I schedule it.
Do I like the Program Guide as it is now? NO but it’s usable
Not everyone uses things the same way so your comments are short sited. I cut the cord long ago and have used online streaming services and Plex for all of my viewing needs. As much as this was great I did miss just putting on some TV for background noise or watching the local news. When Plex announced live TV streaming I got myself a tuner and antenna to fill that one final void. I don’t use the DVR function at all. So looking at a grid where I can see what’s on at the top of the next hour or beyond would be incredibly useful for my needs. Maybe I want to look ahead and see if there is something on live TV tonight. Do I need to see the next two weeks worth of programming? No I don’t. Will this be beneficial to someone else? Probably so who am I to judge?
Can you tell me how to filter by channel? I can’t find anyway to pick a channel and see what’s on for the next two weeks as you describe.
Program Guide, Switch from Discover to Shows, Movies, News, or Sports. Then switch from All to Channel, and select channel. It does not provide a list of everything on channel, only items matching the selection made for Shows, Movies, etc.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
Program Guide, Switch from Discover to Shows, Movies, News, or Sports. Then switch from All to Channel, and select channel. It does not provide a list of everything on channel, only items matching the selection made for Shows, Movies, etc.
It gives it to you in alphabetical order. Useful if your main purpose is to DVR your favorite shows but not if your main purpose is to find a channel to put on the TV as background noise.
I’ll be the first to say that while I very much want to see and make use of the announced Guide Grid style upgrade, I don’t want it to “replace” how Plex is designed now. Rather I would prefer it to be an added feature.
IMO, there are times when a topographical approach is sorely missed.
There have been a few situations when I knew the name of a show, time and date but a search in Plex yielded nothing.
This occurred with the premiere episode of “The Mick (on Fox)” and a few other shows like returning seasons of “Beyond (on FreeForm)” and “Colony (on TNT)”. With a traditional guide grid it would be easy enough to navigate to the show and see what was going on. However, with a typical quasi search only option that cannot directly pinpoint channel and time a null search result is just a hole.
One of the best software DVR solutions Microsoft Media Center provided a mix of options for such navigation. A powerful search option, customizable favorite channel lists and a traditional guide grid to name a few.
Right now I would settle for a customization option for a personalized channel list that would provide everything on those channels for the entirety of the guide data. In other words, a user built guide grid,…
John - Thanks for replying and showing him how to filter by channel
@kewlrobd
It’s not short sighted - I’m a consultant and work on databases (which a grid basically is) and clients want this huge grid because they don’t know what they want but figure if they get everything it will be what they want!
We work with clients to cut that huge grid down into multiple reports showing a very focused set of information and they are much happier. There is a huge difference between data and useful information and I will stand by my 20 years of consulting that a focused grid is much much more useful then a huge grid that shows everything.
I do a lot of database and cube work as well and you surely know that it’s important to have the information up front in order to drill down into the data to get more information. You test and do user panels for find and optimize the information so you have enough data to be useful but not so much to make it a chore to use. It could go through several iterations to find the sweet spot.
HOWEVER, 50 years of existing use tells us empirically that a traditional grid view (2 dimensional) is an already familiar and optimal way to express this data for some views. In an electronic grid you can also narrow the channels by movie, tv show, news, sports based on whats currently on now or within the next X upcoming minutes.
There are numerous reasons to have a grid. It’s familiar and family friendly (what they are used to), it’s an easy way to just tune to a particular channel regardless of whats on (think CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News), it’s super useful to find holes in the EPG data. For this last item it’s really the ONLY easy way to find missing EPG data. See a clear open spot in the grid with no data and you know there is data missing. See channels with no listings at all and you know it’s either not being imported correctly or is missing, etc. You might not ever realize you have missing data otherwise. For anyone watching the news networks like CNN or Fox News the current system is a real pain since some shows are classified as news and some as shows. Unless you know what’s on you can’t easily find/tune to that channel. Trying to use the what’s on now screen can be spotty for this since you need to have an idea of what’s on that channel since all clients don’t show the channel along with the name.
Another useful use of a grid is to check out nightly prime time shows that are on at 8 and 9pm local time. It’s very easy to look at specific times and to quickly look through your channels. You could do this for all 5 nights pretty quickly. There is no real alternative to prime time movies and shows otherwise.
So it would be short sighted to think the Grid EPG isn’t useful. For many people it is the most useful way to access and find something.
No where did I say it wouldn’t be useful! In fact I said I don’t like it in it’s current state either But then I knew the name of the show that I am looking for and find the current system fits my needs.
And you support my point of having a focused grid and then having the option to drill in - garbage in garbage out - you can never have too much information but you can have too much data.
What I did say is that they are working on it and to quit constantly whining for it!! That how they implemented it they tried to think outside the box as they were trying to avoid any legal ramifications and you can’t blame them for that.
We agree. They thought they had a legal issue so they worked around it to get the product moving and working. DVR, then Live. Now that they have it mostly working for people and are ironing out the last set of bugs in the current system they will be able to focus on other things DVR related.
Yeah - I absolutely love the system - there are a few bugs and they love to introduce new ones and take time to fix them . . .but once you get on a stable version and stay there - it works very well.
I’ve moved away from TiVo to just Plex - I didn’t think I’d use the Live TV that much but but I have and it works well too. I also only use Apple TV clients and don’t have a problem their either.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
If all you are looking for is background noise shouldn’t you be able to use the Program Guide On Right Now section?
Yes but I may want to see what’s on for the next couple of hours? Why does everyone else in the industry use the grid style? Because it’s useful. You’re acting like those of use who would benefit from the grid style are being unreasonable. You’re the one being unreasonable and thinking everyone should prefer what works for you. I may want to throw on the local news while doing some chores but know that at 8:30 Family Feud is on and make a mental note to switch over to it.
I didn’t start this thread and I’m certainly not getting on the devs to get this done any quicker. I simply came here looking to see if there was an update on the ETA but you anti “gridsters” are ridiculous.
@EABenton said:
John - Thanks for replying and showing him how to filter by channel
@kewlrobd
It’s not short sighted - I’m a consultant and work on databases (which a grid basically is) and clients want this huge grid because they don’t know what they want but figure if they get everything it will be what they want!
We work with clients to cut that huge grid down into multiple reports showing a very focused set of information and they are much happier. There is a huge difference between data and useful information and I will stand by my 20 years of consulting that a focused grid is much much more useful then a huge grid that shows everything.
Apples and oranges! I get what your saying about a database which is much more complex then a grid and you know it. I’m an IT consultant. Excel would be a better example of a grid.
Plain and simple some people want to know what is on an all of their channels an hour from now. This is currently not supported. If the Grid style was too much information then why does every major outlet use it?
Going back to your DB example I am not saying I need two weeks worth of grid. Many other systems show the next few hours on their grid which is very usable in how I want to watch TV. For you to tell me i’m wrong about how I want to use something is ridiculous. Right now I can’t see what is on at the top of the hour. This isn’t an unreasonable request.
No it’s not an unreasonable request. It’s coming and it’ll be here when it gets here. Apparently the Apple TV will get it first. Hopefully this quarter which has like two weeks left to it but I’m not holding my breath.
