It’s been years now, and Plex still doesn’t have a proper guide. Wth.
You can’t scroll through a guide while watching and return to full screen!? How is this possible.
Maybe Plexs direction is strictly based off their funding and bringing in multiple sources instead of focusing on its core users.
I don’t get it.
Not sure what client you are using but on my Android TV client I can scroll throw the guide and switch back to the show. If you launch the show from the home screen you will get the last viewed list, if you launch from the guide you will get the guide. You have to push the up on your 4 way selector. To get back to the show do a back or return.
Shield.
Are you saying I have to scroll through the entire guide and reselect the channel?
Nope, just back out and it will take you back to the channel your watching. This only works if you bring up the guide using the up selection.
If I hit up and start scrolling the guide and hit the back button, it just pops out the side panel and back again sends me to the home section.
Make sure to use the back/return and not the left on the 4 way selector.
I stand corrected, something changed as this was working but no longer does. It is not something that I use a lot so not sure when it quit working.
What else is super irritating, why on earth do we not have a sort feature? Sort alphabetical or by channel number?
Unfortunately, we don’t have that because Live TV/DVR is just a scam that Plex can say is part of the Plex Pass. For over 3 years now, I have seen no evidence that Plex has the desire or intent to make it good (or even work properly).
It may not be perfect but I have used it for a couple of years now and works for what I use it for with very little issues.
The most basic navigation and sorting which I think every guide out there does, Plex doesn’t have it?
It just seems such small simple features are not there.
I moved to Emby well over a year ago, but was hoping Plex finally sorted out their issues.
Nope.
You say this but you probably haven’t had the opportunity to use the HD HomeRun apps. There’s a huge lack of usability in the HDHR apps when Plex offered more than what the hardware manufacturer created and HDHOMERUN had more than 5 years to develop and surpass Plex.
The HDHomerun app’s UI sucks, but at least it actually functions as intended. That’s a lot more than I can say for Plex.
At least I can tune and view programs in the HDHR app. Come to think about it, I can tune and view in ANY other app/system but Plex. Since June 2021 Live TV has been broken for Comcast viewers.
On a positive note, Plex reps ask for logs and methods to reproduce from the many who are part of the thread. They ask every few months and say it is under investigation. Sure is good to get such excellent support.
I tell the family, one day, if we just believe enough, we may be able to watch TV again. Their response really warms my heart.
@GaryHammer , I don’t really have words for how much I liked your post.
I’m not really looking for a protracted discussion here. I have a QuadHD tuner on Windows, which means that the free NextPVR software is something that is also available as an option to me. And I find it astounding that free software maintained by a guy as a hobby has all these guide/scheduling features that Plex does not:
And I’m not even getting into the deficiencies/bugs people have with playback, especially for in-progress recordings. And if you have extra time specified for recording a sports event, you can’t start playback for it during that extra time (there’s no UI for that). You have to wait for the recording to completely finish. Welcome to a perfect recreation of a retro VCR tape-like experience.
To me, it’s just a fact that Plex has not had the commitment to make Live TV/DVR a good product. Instead, they leave core functionality broken for months and months at a time.
I agree. Their focus is on this new media consolidation.
Comparisons such as these are less than useless. They imply that:
To the first point, I’d say that that’s obviously not the case. The NextPVR developer is laser-focused on creating a DVR-only product (well, I guess you could say that live TV is there as well). Obviously, creating the broadest possible feature set under that limited umbrella is going to be their focus.
Live TV & DVR is a feature of Plex Media Server; not its sole focus. There have been improvements over there years, including ad skipping and intro detection, among others. Neither of which do NextPVR natively support, I might add.
To the second point, that’s obviously not the case. Everyone has a differing set of what they consider to be “bare minimum” DVR Live TV & DVR features. For my use case, for example, Plex’s meets it perfectly.
Most of the features you mention are, in my opinion, in the nice to have category. I think there’s a legitimate case for setting up manual recordings as a must-have feature for situations where the EPG isn’t accurate. And I’m surprised you didn’t mention the ability to start viewing a time-extended recording-in-progress since that’s the subject of one of your other opinions (that Plex should stop advertising Live TV & DVR as a Plex Pass feature).
There are bugs to be sure, many related to time shifting in-progress recordings. Those are well documented and are highly dependent upon the client being used (Android TV being the most problematic, seemingly).
To the OPs original question, the only solution of which I’m aware now is to re-select the same channel in the guide to watch it after backing out to the guide.
Oh, but I did …
Anyway, NextPVR integrates nicely into Jellyfin or Kodi with plugins. So, so yes, it can focus on being a great DVR. But I thought that the theme of the thread was deficiencies with the Guide which is what I mainly focused on. So pointing out how Plex compares to even free alternatives would seem to be relevant.
Yep, I see that now. I was too focused on your bullet points. Mea culpa.
