There doesn’t seem to be any way to do this from the GUI. Any work arounds to cancel the recording of a single episode? Any chance this option will be added to the GUI soon?
Test it - Plex will probably want to be OFF for this:
Find a small file - name it the episode you want to skip - stick it in the structure.
I have no idea if that will really work, but, if so - there’s your work-around.
This has been a problem for over two years and I’ve complained about it multiple times. It’s clear that Plex has no intention of resolving any of the many idiotic design decisions that it has made. There are loads of valid reasons why one might want to cancel an individual episode. You might know that you’ve seen it and you want to free up a tuner for something else to record. And this is an issue when the networks commonly show new and repeats sequentially in prime time. Having to temporarily cancel an entire series to stop an individual episode is just not what anyone wants for this sitution – it’s just stupid.
I use NextPVR because it handles common scheduling issues way better (and more reliably) than Plex ever did and NextPVR is free. I try Plex DVR again every 6 months or so and that time suck always results in me switching back to NextPVR within a week… Using a DVR should not be a constantly frustrating experience and PLEX needs to get that.
Obvious idiotic things include:
- can’t record an individual episode if you also have a series recording setup
- can’t cancel an individual recording
- no keyword recording
- can’t record the same show on two channels at the same time – sometimes reception is not perfect and I want a backup recording
- the TV grid is awful – you have two weeks of listings but can reasonably only look at the first week. Beyond that, you have to press right scroll button 48 times for each day – a real hassle if you’re trying to review what will be on in prime time
- after more than two years of complaining, they still have prime time starting at 5:00 with no way to change that – in the US, prime time starts at 8:00, period – it’s not even a discussion
- still no manual recording ability (by channel/time) – this is a huge problem for people trying to record sports only to have something change in the listing at the last minute which results in the event not recording
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At the risk of veering further off-topic, this point has been addressed:
Adjusted time slots shown in Live TV guide date picker
Thanks philip. It’s been a few months since I last had the DVR installed. Good to know that has been resolved.
I hear ya. Plex has a lot of big holes in its OTA recording capabilities. My guess is the folks making the decisions probably only stream shows. Or they’ve not looked at the change list on this site. The switch to gracenote is a big upgrade, switching to tivo’s guide was a really poor decision, and it looks like the users really paid for that. The reason I want to switch to Plex is for the clients, SageTV clients are getting really old and the android mini client running on a shield is painful. On sagetv you just click on the show you don’t want recorded and put a check in the “already watched” field field for the episode. Then it doesn’t record again.
I tried installing the DVR again just for kicks. They did make a change in the TV grid of the web app (app.plex.tv) to separate Evening (5:00) and Prime Time (8:00). But I never use the Web App. I use the grid in Plex For Windows or the local http server (http://127.0.0.1:32400/web/index.html) that you get when you double-click the server’s notification icon. The grid is still its old crappy self. No choice for Evening and Prime Time starts at 5:00.
All the same idiotic issues/limitation I mentioned are still there and I’ve already uninstalled the DVR and gone back to NextPVR. The inability to access the 2nd week of the guide just baffles me. How could it be left like this for over two years? Even the free NextPVR lets you create your own channel groups so that you can filter their grid – not PLEX.
This change was made 3 days ago. The Plex for Windows/Mac desktop apps have their web clients updated every 2-3 weeks or so, so this should show up there soon. As for the server’s local web client, that is updated less frequently, and not always to the latest version. I wouldn’t expect to see this change there for a while. At any rate, I wasn’t attempting to sway you back into the Plex Live TV & DVR fold; mostly I wanted to ensure that you and anyone reading that particular point knew that it was something which has been acknowledged and is being addressed.
Back to the original topic… @mbarylski - There’s a request over in the feature suggestions forum requesting this feature (actually, there are more than one). Here’s the oldest one I found:
But here’s a newer one with more votes:
Neither is particularly popular, based on the number of votes cast, at least.
Which is why if you want this thing to skip an episode sometime in the next 400 years - you’d better find a work around - and as soon as they fix that blowed up transmitter - the only one within a hundred miles of here - I’m gonna find out if it works.
WVPBS is slower than Plex though… I may not live to see it fixed.
I liked @JuiceWSA’s idea so much I just ran a test, and it worked. Just make sure the file isn’t zero bytes. On my first try I created a zero byte file by just doing a touch, and Plex didn’t add the intended episode to the library. I then edited that file and just put in the string ‘Test’. I switched back to Plex Web and happened to be in the DVR Schedule, and saw the scheduled recording for that episode disappear! Just for fun I then deleted the fake episode file from my filesystem, went back to the DVR scheduler, and watched the scheduled recording for the episode reappear.
Very cool.
I didn’t stop or restart Plex services. The file watcher picked up the file addition and removal seamlessly. I should note I’m on Linux, so it is possible this will behave differently on Win or Mac.
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Super.
I guess you should make sure not to have Plex upgrade episodes, but work-around invented.
Thanks for testing it.
BTW: A good file to use would be a teenie Movie Extra or clip as it’s actually a video file and if you had or created one (Handbrake Preview would do it - about 90 seconds) in 1080p - the danger of Plex thinking it could improve on that would be minimized. You could keep that file somewhere to rename and use anytime you needed it.
If you have your Plex DVR ONLY use two folders exclusively - Mine are:
G:\DVR Shows
G:\DVR Movies
You won’t have to hunt for them.
Much.
I’m recording 2 channels - or will be at some point (hopefully) - so for me - a piece a cake. Other mileages will, of course, vary, but it will be easier to identify that file out of others in a file manager by looking at it’s size/length. Where’s Waldo is easier when you know what he looks like…lol
Noteworthy is that file will play and be displayed On Deck - soooo… having really low, or no audio level will be nice if you happen to have it show up automatically for some reason while you sleep… best not use the Finney/Chicago Typewriter Scene from Miller’s Crossing… wide open - if ya know what I mean…
I can’t seem to get it to work. I’ve got a “DVR” folder set up, so I dropped the file with show name and episode name and number (s01e01) into the folder. Rescanned to make sure the new episode was picked up. Checked the DVR, but the episode is still set to record.
Is your series recording set for New and Repeats? That’s what mine is set at and it doesn’t seem to be working.
Tips from @hokierulz indicate (I can’t test it right now):
File can’t be 0 bytes
I would imagine you’ll need a season folder
and I would also imagine you can’t have Plex ‘replace lower quality recordings’ if your hack-file is of lower quality - or no quality.
You’ll have to fiddle around a bit, I guess.
Again - I can’t help out ATM - I got nothing on the air.
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No problem, it worked! It just took awhile to scan back through and reset. Awesome!
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