I wish they would spell out the click path when they add a major settings change in the feature announcements:
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Is it changing the posters elsewhere in your library, or is it just using different posters for the items in the watchlist (and just in the watchlist itself)? If the former, I don’t see the same; if the latter, I assuming it’s justing the whatever’s at https://watch.plex.tv for the watchlist (which I do see).
To follow up… I want to make sure I understand what each of these settings do…
- Discover Source - Adds/Removes Discover from the left nav?
- Display “More Ways To Watch” Search Results - Is this a duplicate of the current setting available under search? I had that turned off, and I’m not really sure I see a difference toggling this one? They don’t seem tied together.
- Display Availabilities From Other Streaming Services On Detail Pages - Again, I’m not sure I see what this does, as it currently doesn’t show other results when I select a search result from the dropdown search menu. It WILL show them when I’m surfing from within Discover if I leave this enabled.
It’s that last setting that raises an eyebrow for me… If I’m in Discover, that’s precisely the place that I’d want to learn where to watch something. I could see this toggle being useful if results were displayed as I was surfing my own material, but currently that is not the case.
Thank you for providing options, and pre-thank you for helping understand what each is intended to do.
Huh? You lost me in this, but if I can explain further…
If the setting is truly “disabled” from going to outside sources for “more ways to watch” should it not use the poster I have on my server? No matter where it shows up?
For example The 1950’s poster of Cinderella is not the poster my children grew up with (the one I chose is) So if I add it to the watch list I am expecting it to be the one I went and changed it to, to appeal to me and my users.
I understand I’m (as my wife said) “nit-picking” and I am grateful they have added this as requested, but some of us go out of the way to make our PMS our own by changing what we are allowed to change to make it how we like, just to have a “feature” thrusted upon us and then finally get what we asked for to only be halfway done.
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What I was curious about is whether or not your preferred poster is still being used in the library itself. That is, is it only the watchlist poster which differs? If it’s just the watchlist poster which differs I think it’s likely just a case of it using the metadata from watch.plex.tv (for Watchlist, instead of referencing what’s already in your library).
But that’s just supposition. I was mainly just curious if your library metadata had changed. The way you worded you original post about this made it seem like it had, maybe.
RIght. The fact that the items in the Watchlist don’t respect the posters/backgrounds/metadata of what’s in your library is what’s preventing me from using it. @pshanew you’re right, it’s happening because the Watchlist is always using https://watch.plex.tv for the items you add in it.
And I don’t think it’s nit-picking at all, a lot of people (me included) are carefully curating the metadata and the look of every single item in their Movie and TV show libraries. So when you add items to the Watchlist, the fact that they don’t look the same (different posters, different backgrounds, different descriptions, etc.) is very jarring. That’s the number one reason why I’m not using the Watchlist feature.
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Ok now I understand what you’re saying, I thought by adding the image it would help explain that. I have added the 3 movies to the “Watchlist” because I have used one in the past (to prove a point about “More Ways to Watch”) and one I know is on a server I share with someone else (to see if it used my poster) and the 3rd was a random.
But why would it? If I’ve disabled the use of “Discovery” through the settings why would it not default to my server for the metadata from a “Watchlist” on my PMS?
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I’m not sure, it was just an assumption. But assuming further, I would guess it has something to do with the fact that this functionality (Watchlist) was originally implemented for, and exclusive to, Plex’s ad-supported content and watch.plex.tv is where the metadata came from.
But again, I just wanted to ensure it wasn’t messing with your library proper.
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Correct
The option in the account settings will enable/disable the search option itself:
If you disable it, there’s no option in the search preferences to include/exclude search results from „More Ways to Watch“.
While enabled Plex will display the availability of an item from Discover and your Watchlist on other services (incl. „More Ways to Watch“ search results). If you disable this option from the account settings, Plex will only show an item‘s availability on one of you libraries, shared libraries or (if enabled) the Plex video-on-demand.
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So, this toggle provides the same functionality in the end. The difference removes the option from the search bar. Client vs. Account?
In effect, this limits Discover to only returning results from personally connected media sources (my server and a friends) and Plex provided media if enabled. It removes other online streaming provider sources, correct?
Thank you for the swift response.
This is excellent news!!!
I love the detailed number of options we have to control “managed users”, toggling the “More Ways to Watch” search feature as well as the display of availability from outside sources all at the Account Level! Awesome!
Thank you Plex for putting us, the admins, back in control of our servers and our content. This is why I started using Plex and continue using it. I still have concerns about Plex’s path into the future, but these changes give me A LOT MORE HOPE that I still have a path with Plex.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. No more porn for my family and I can educated my users how to block it too! Perfect!
P.S. - And I like how this gives everyone the option to keep using Discover features too, if they so wish. Best of both worlds.
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Display „More Ways to Watch“ Search Results
Yes.
Disabling the account option removes the search results and the option to re-enable them in the search preferences.
I guess this will have more of an impact if the features will be made available to managed users too.
Display Availabilities From Other Streaming Services On Detail Pages
I don’t think so… Discover and all related features are still fully available. The option only impacts which sources are displayed on the Where to Watch box/hub. Specifically… if enabled, the Where to Watch box will list other streaming providers as sources (as configured in your provider selection) in addition to local/shared or Plex sources. If the option is disabled, only the local/shared and Plex sources will be listed.
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Is this the first step in allowing managed users access to Discover?
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- I didn’t say that
- I don’t know anything about Plex‘ roadmap
There’s a separate suggestion discussing that use case… let’s keep this on on the newly implemented options to disable Discover related features.
Found an issue I believe.
I made the desired changes to my account and disabled Discover completely in a web browser using Plex Web (see below). However, on my Roku (7.0.13.7804) I’m still seeing Discover on the left-side menu. I do NOT see Discover on my Plex Web.
The good news is that I do NOT see “More Way to Watch” and do NOT see outside availability on my Roku.
have you closed and reopened app or switched users so it reloads?
Opening and closing app did not help, however switching users did. I had to switch users and then back. At first the app showed “Discover” in the menu and then it disappeared.
All seems good now. Thanks!
You mean that it disables Discovery from the “More” location on the left bar ?
Yes it does.
