Well, the local trailer support, the way I see it, is a trailer within the movie folder (or online also I guess but still associated with movie user is in its detail screen.
So I don't think Saw 27 "The Uber Gory Cut (love that title BTW :lol: )f would run on movie Bambi II. (god I hope :wacko: )
Plex's track record with the random picture slideshow in PHT/Plex Client is what prompts me to make that point. I'm already dealing with inappropriate pics showing up on that! While I've never had anything as bad as my kid asking me why the monster in that picture has tentacles that look like pee-pee's, there have been some gory pics that I'd rather not have displayed pop up during family movie night as I'm trying to find us something fun for the family to watch. This is another good reason why basic parental controls should have been part of the very first Plex beta instead of something we're still begging for many years later.
I'd bet dollars to donuts that local trailer support will have us putting trailers, using a special naming convention, into a separate Trailers folder/subdirectory and then Plex will grab a trailer(s) from there. Based upon what they do right now with the slideshow in the Clients, I'd bet they'd just be a random grab from the new Trailer database as part of a "Cinema Experience" unless they implemented a new button to select within a movie or television show's main screen, so we could choose to play the trailer rather than the movie itself. If no trailer were available locally, then Plex would attempt to find one via a selection of sites, similar to what we currently do for subtitles or metadata. And it's this randomly chosen trailer(s), if parental controls aren't enabled, that scares the bezeebus out of me because at some point the luck of the draw will get you a VERY adult trailer as you sit down to watch Bambi with the wife and kids...
Trust me, without parental controls the above scenario is going to happen sooner than later with trailer support, and since most of the Plex clients have now moved beyond being a free hobbyist application to a commercial application that people (Many of whom are parents!) purchase for real money, when it does there is going to be a mighty poo-storm from some hopping mad parents. And at least one set of those hopping mad parents are going to go see a lawyer. While that might be a serious overreaction, in today's highly litigious climate I can see it happening. And because those parental controls, at something basic to show that they were at least trying, would have been pretty easy to implement I don't see that litigation ending well for Plex. I don't want to see that happen to Plex because I love the program and pretty much couldn't live without it!
So no matter how much I'd LOVE to see trailer support, without parental controls I'd rather it stay MIA until they can both be released together. That's not just in my best interest, nor is it just in the best interest of parents, but in all of our best interests considering the above possibility.
And at least one set of those hopping mad parents are going to go see a lawyer. While that might be a serious overreaction, in today's highly litigious climate I can see it happening. And because those parental controls, at something basic to show that they were at least trying, would have been pretty easy to implement I don't see that litigation ending well for Plex.
Your so terrified your kid will see something they shouldn't from your computer on your tv, and you consider this so much Plex's responsibility that in your eyes it is reasonable they would be sued for not including it. So your solution for Plex to limit their liability is to make a half assed version of this hard to implement product and include it as an official feature? :blink:
Congratulations on not reading what I wrote. I stated that even though I thought it would be an overreaction, someone would go off the deep end if Plex started serving up very adult trailers when viewing family fare with the kids.
I’m not sure what hard to implement product you’re speaking of. Plex itself? Parental controls? Trailers and a Cinema Experience?
The two highly requested features are either already available in XMBC as a plugin which means it should be possible to port it in, or should be relatively easy to implement in a basic form, even if they aren’t PIN/PW protected. They just need to be made a priority, and I was just pointing out a good, albeit crappy reason why.
I’m guessing from your very heated response that you don’t have kids, or at least not any young ones. Am I right?
why don't you just have a "family" account that excludes content you find inappropriate for your kids?
this is what I've done, and it works just fine.
I have my main account which includes everything except porn, so I can watch anything with my firends; I also have a porn only account.
back to trailers, I agree that Plex will probably require a "trailer" sub-folder, with a IMDB-like secondary feature.
as long as you've double checked that the metadata download is correct after the movie(s) have been added, I don't see an issue with an inappropriate trailer being played.
if IMDB doesn't have a trailer that matches the metadata already loaded, a "No Trailer" message would be displayed.
why don't you just have a "family" account that excludes content you find inappropriate for your kids?
this is what I've done, and it works just fine.
I have my main account which includes everything except porn, so I can watch anything with my firends; I also have a porn only account.
back to trailers, I agree that Plex will probably require a "trailer" sub-folder, with a IMDB-like secondary feature.
as long as you've double checked that the metadata download is correct after the movie(s) have been added, I don't see an issue with an inappropriate trailer being played.
if IMDB doesn't have a trailer that matches the metadata already loaded, a "No Trailer" message would be displayed.
I wasn't really worried about an improper trailer of the movie I was going to watch being shown. It's the thought that Plex will serve up random trailers the same way as it currently serves up random screen shots as a slideshow, and as a parent of a young child those are already problematic.
The problem with setting up the multiple accounts is that with a movie collection of over 3000 files I'm going to have to manually sort the entire collection to implement it, and then I'll have to maintain everything by hand each time I add anything to the server. Unless I can find a way to automate the process, then it's pretty much a non-starter due to all of the PITA time and effort involved. Especially when adding a basic database sort based on content ratings which are already in the metadata should be pretty easy to implement on the server and client side of things.
Congratulations on not reading what I wrote. I stated that even though I thought it would be an overreaction, someone would go off the deep end if Plex started serving up very adult trailers when viewing family fare with the kids.
I'm not sure what hard to implement product you're speaking of. Plex itself? Parental controls? Trailers and a Cinema Experience?
The two highly requested features are either already available in XMBC as a plugin which means it should be possible to port it in, or should be relatively easy to implement in a basic form, even if they aren't PIN/PW protected. They just need to be made a priority, and I was just pointing out a good, albeit crappy reason why.
I'm guessing from your very heated response that you don't have kids, or at least not any young ones. Am I right?
PS... I voted for trailer support too.
I read what you wrote
I'm referring to parental controls
If its so easy why hasn't anyone done it, why did it take so long to show up in XBMC, why is it not official on XBMC?
I do have a young kid. I approve what she watches by having seen it. The MPAA is a farce and unfit to determine what is appropriate for my child, even she herself is a better judge of that.
I am still in favor of having a parental control option, I just don't think Plex is obligated to do it.
I think this request is actually two different kinds of trailers:
-Support local trailers already in place for some; (moviefilename)-trailer.ext. (already in structure for some of us using third party software like MetaBrowser). Plex already ignores those "knowing" it's local trailer in the scan. So to support this one, we would need the "local media asset" to identify the file as trailer and in the movie detail, have a "trailer" function like "play" to plays this file.
A separate agent could also be built to download this from a source and create the local trailer file (kind of like tv theme one) but that's like part 2 of it...
-Online trailers; for this, I think a separate agent must be built since Plex doesn't officially read any nfo or xml file already in place. This would add the YouTube (or other site) link in database so that it could be played if requested in movie detail screen.
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PARENTAL CONTROLS. It won't change the way Plex is right now in this matter (if the kid can access the "Saw" movie and play it, why would playing its trailer be any worse or different?). So please stop referring to the other request like it depends on it... (same goes for playlists support IMO)
I'm sorry, I really don't mean any disrespect to the other requests (and I also want them) or to any user but it makes the request look much more complicated than it is when those matters are raised in this simple request tread IMO.
***Good thing is that it keeps bumping the tread... :P
I wasn't really worried about an improper trailer of the movie I was going to watch being shown. It's the thought that Plex will serve up random trailers the same way as it currently serves up random screen shots as a slideshow, and as a parent of a young child those are already problematic.
The problem with setting up the multiple accounts is that with a movie collection of over 3000 files I'm going to have to manually sort the entire collection to implement it, and then I'll have to maintain everything by hand each time I add anything to the server. Unless I can find a way to automate the process, then it's pretty much a non-starter due to all of the PITA time and effort involved. Especially when adding a basic database sort based on content ratings which are already in the metadata should be pretty easy to implement on the server and client side of things.
My solution is to use RSS feeds and download TV Shows directly into the proper TV Show folder (I only have to tweak the RSS settings once a season). Some cleanup is required at times, but usually this works just fine. As for movies, I sort them anyway. There's no way I'm just going to dump (over 3,000 as well) into a single folder and then try to find a movie. Again, I use RSS feeds to auto download the movies - this saves a ton of time searching for whats new, etc. I have mine sorted by Genre (Action, Drama, etc) and at least that way I can see the newest 200 titles in that section. Note, I have to touch the file anyway, to make sure the name is in the correct format - so dropping the file into the correct folder isn't an issue for me. I can see how if you just had one large folder with all your movies, how that would be an issue. But unless you've found a way to auto-scrub the title and subtitles of new movies, it seems to me that you too have to at least touch the file in some way, at some point. If your collection is stable and you don't add movies on a daily or weekly basis, then I can see your point. It would be a very laborious task to take a folder with all your movies, and carve it up.
Long story short, the solution is already there if you want to take the time to implement it. I doubt the PLEX Dev's are going to put much effort into parental controls, since they've already addresssed the issue (with accounts), maybe just not in the way you wanted them to. But I could be wrong...
Finally, I only spend about 2 hours a week keeping my PLEX folders organized, some weeks, I don't touch them at all. But just that little bit of effort makes for a very organized, and a very stress free Personal Video Library.
Yup, +1 for this! Really hoping it gets added. Currently, I have to manually search for trailers/switch to the YouTube channel to find them - this gets tedious when everyone gathered has to decide between even 3 movies. Local/Online trailer support would be suuuuch a timesaver and help speed up the decision making process!
One of my most missed features from MediaPortal, "MovingPictures" plugin had trailer support, you would be able to choose from imdb, youtube, apple, etc was awesome! Hopefully it makes it's way to Plex soon!
