Plex has been increasingly present in my news feed as of late and especially so with the discover feature. It’s the first time I can recall reading about a Plex feature in my news feed before seeing it in the forums.
Yes.
As of now, the “Watch More” which had the problematic content is gone. Happened maybe 20 minutes ago.
But Discover is still a forced, no option, client-side update, yes.
1 Like
Yeah, it boggles my mind, if a lot of the guys at Plex have kids, who in their right mind pulled the trigger in the meeting room right before the launch. Like, were they legitimately okay sending this out as a Beta, without crossing their own T’s and dotting their I’s.
Like every single time there’s a launch of a new feature, it’s been more of a dread, WTF is gonna break on my system this time scenario. We can never have a smooth operation of anything with these new additions.
its amazing how a post gets made about kids being able to see this content and it gets resolved in a day because thats a liability risk to Plex. They work fast when they want to.
that being said, i dont mind the discover stuff. But also agree you should be able to turn it off. At a minimum, if you pay for plex pass you should be able to.
2 Likes
Its been media outlets FIRST, Plex blog 2nd, then forum, then email. That’s how it’s been for the past 5+ years.
It should never be this way.
Customers should be informed the same day or at least a few hours before any media outlets are about to publish their articles or reviews.
2 Likes
I found out from elderly relatives who all of a sudden started seeing weird stuff come up in searches for their grandkids home movies.
2 Likes
Are you really saying you honestly think that is in the plans?
It is beyond frustrating when features one depends on are broken and remain so while resources are poured into new features.
DVR commercial removal was broken for around 6 months and EIA608 subtitles haven’t worked for me for around 4 months now.
I suppose that Plex has many features and platforms and it’s challenging to support all that. But one has to wonder if Plex can ever be depended on when core features are broken and allowed to stay broken for that long.
I’d like to use Plex as the core of entertainment in my household but it simply hasn’t been dependable enough. Will it ever be? I’m still hopeful but not optimistic at this point.
2 Likes
When you are inserting an ad platform into your product with no opt-out, no way to turn if off, you have to get your marketing, FUD and talking points lined up first.
5 Likes
Yep, $120, and you still get ads.
2 Likes
Why in heaven’s name, does anyone think having a Plex Pass somehow meant no ads on anything? How does anyone escape ads or forced recommendations on any device connected to the Internet, on any device that matches and organizes all the metadata only possible when using Internet sources? What is any trailer if not an ad?
It already ticks me off that my AndroidTV device forces recommendations on me. Plex is me-too in that regard but it’s hardly me-first.
If you don’t want any of those advantages made possible from all the Internet-connectedness of PMS then why are you not using DLNA? (Which incidentally PMS still provides.)
I like what Discover looks like it can do. Yeah, it’s still beta and some things need to be adjusted/fixed. But I like the idea of seeing “what’s on TV or at the theaters” which includes online streaming subscriptions as well as what’s on my Plex server.
Is everyone OK with social media and their ads? How about news sites or YouTube or the Disney+ that you pay for?
Unpin Discover if you don’t like it. At the very least don’t add any sources for Discover to use. If your kid found Discover on your TV or their phone or tablet and saw something inappropriate then I think better parental controls and/or decisions are in order.
1 Like
First, I have no beef with you. No one is asking for Discover to be removed from you. However, it is obvious you have a beef with us for some unknown reason.
Those ads weren’t in the product when many of us bought into Plex. Looks like a bait-n-switch. Plex was a way to avoid all the ads on TV. It was a cord cutter dream.
As for, “everyone else is doing it”…I see that must have worked for you in the past.
Plex provided all the advantages of internet-connectedness without ads before. The ads are not required.
I’m glad you like Discover. No one is saying to take it away from you. We are asking only to be able to turn it off, is that too much to ask?
6 Likes
Did you click on “Discover (beta)” get the warning about it being added to the source choices without realizing what it was?
FWIW, you have my vote to be able to make it utterly disappear from your source choices.
First, unpinning discover doesn’t disable anything but take it off the home page.
Neither does unchecking the other services. The recommendations are still there whether you’ve got those boxes checked or not, in search, underneath videos on your own server, etc.
The issue regarding parental controls - there aren’t any for Discover. It doesn’t respect the profile settings for content restrictions, and (up until just a bit ago when Plex ‘fixed’ it) would show content that was inappropriate, including the ability to play trailers for those items.
So you know what’s fun? You’re asking for the same thing people in this thread are actually asking for - the ability to disable those features using the very methods you mention.
2 Likes
Doesnt matter if you realized what it was or not. There was no opt out option. We’re all in.
2 Likes
Nope, I knew fully well what it was and unpinned it and didn’t select any sources. However, I’m still seeing the results in searches. It also still shows up in my Watchlists.
So, you didn’t answer my question, “Is it too much to ask for a way to fully turn off Discover with a simple toggle switch?” EDIT - I see you did answer. Thanks for agreeing with us! One more vote for an opt-out option.
2 Likes
You realize you can’t say ‘no’ to that, right? Like there is no way to not have it add?
I remember seeing a warning when I clicked on it but maybe that’s changed. I’d already read the Plex article and had a good idea of what to expect on the beta.
I think you’re misunderstanding something here - it’s forced, unable to be opted out from, unable to be avoided, entirely client side. You can’t hold back a server update until it’s corrected, and regardless of expectations, all users were given it.
And there are numerous issues with it. This is less ‘beta’ (which would be done in a closed group first then released out slowly) and more an ‘f it, we’ll do it live!’.
2 Likes
You did intentionally click on “Discover (beta)” to add it, right? I know I had to. Has that changed?
Did you click on it without first reading the article about how the beta worked? Not me. I read the article and knew what to expect.
Did it work materially different than described in the article? Not in my opinion. Yes, it needs work but what do you expect from something clearly labeled “beta”?
Did adding it make PMS unstable in some fashion? Not mine. How about yours?
I understand you may now urgently wish to undo your earlier choice but “foist” or “forced” are the wrong words. Consider “bitterly regret”.
As noted elsewhere, I do support adding the ability to make Discover completely disappear from the user menus.
