It's an "experience" all right

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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So as to not get removed, I won’t be naming names…

I’ve been a lifetime plex pass user for a long time, and in that time the server and player interfaces have been stable and generally intuitive. Most disruptive updates were only minor inconveniences. I’ve really enjoyed seeing skip credits and skip intro appear in the software.

This latest update and the gaslighting by Plex staff regarding the UI - that’s too much. I have a theory on why this has happened, and why it’s never going back to the way it was.

< theory >
At one point, you were the customer. You paid your subscription (or like me, you paid for the lifetime pass) and you (generally) got what you wanted - the stable, intuitive product you had been sold and had come to rely on.

Then, suddenly, Plex got new customers - the streaming providers they shove down your throat with this new update. They’re being paid to put streaming content in front of the eyeballs of Plex users - which is why you can’t remove the services from the display of the new UI - why parent’s can’t stop their children from having access to these services - the new Plex customers WANT you to have unfiltered access to their content. At that point - you ceased being a customer and you became the product.

They’re selling access to your eyeballs, and they can’t have you turning off the money spigot.
< /theory >

I’m not having it. It only took an hour or so to switch to the other home media server - it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. My wife and son picked up on the interface of the other home media server with ease, saying “this is almost like Plex was before the update.”

I’m losing skip intro and skip credits - but I figure that throwing some money at the devs for the other media server would probably remedy that pretty quickly. Heck, I’m a software developer - I might code that up myself and give it to the project.

Anyway, I guess I got my money’s worth out of the lifetime pass. I’m sad to see it go to waste, but at this point it’s more about the ease of use for my family. They aren’t as patient as I am when it comes to bad interfaces. I’ll dig through it for hours just to come up with an exact percentage of my disdain - they’ll give up after 1 minute and blame me for it, and I don’t have time for that.

So, adios Plex. I wish you hadn’t done this.

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I am also a longtime lifetime plex pass user and agree with your assessment . I too have no desire for any streaming content. I have over 30 TB of music, tv shows, movies, and video and and have also been looking at other home media servers. Which one did you settle on? I have already installed emby and jellyfin on a test server but haven’t had my wife look at the user interface yet. She is the one who gets to choose. When she first turned on the plex app on roku after the app update, she couldn’t find any of our media and she was not a happy camper.

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No, those ‘skip intro’ and ‘skip credits’ stuff that Netflix added years ago and everyone else copied is annoying. Because companies never put an option to turn it off, so if you never want to skip anything you still have to see the buttons. It’s absolutely ridiculous and shows a complete disrespect for the show or movie you are watching as well as the user.

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Well, the weak point of your theory however is, that you CAN remove Discover, Live TV and Plex FAST stuff from your account and/or your children’s managed users without any issues.

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Jellyfin, for their roku app which is fast and intuitive

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In the roku interface? There are a ton of people complaining that they can’t.

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Disabling of Discover, Live TV and such is an account wide setting. Its valid across all clients.

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Thats fine. Its still slow and poorly designed - they already lost me.

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You can disable the option on each client for Plex. Then have no pop-ups. I’m really not a fan of the recent updates, but that is a completely false statement.

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Yes or even deactivate the feature on the library, when you absolutely don’t want it.

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It is not a false statement when talking about Netflix and other apps. That is what I was referring to. It’s an absolute true statement that all of those apps force you to see a button always encouraging you to skip recaps, intros and credits even if you never want to skip them. Also they always interfere with the ending credits never letting them play out without trying to get you to click something else. It’s like the people that ruined Cable have ruined Streaming too.

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Interesting point of view. I actually use Plex so I can let the end credits rolls maybe I’m old school but I like watching the credits and listening to the credits music whilst the film I’ve just watched sinks in, any skip buttons Plex presents can be hidden or disabled completely if you want. I leave them on as I have to admit, skipping the opening credits of TV shows is a feature I use a lot on Plex. I do agree and I get annoyed with Disney etc when the credits magically vanish and they spin up something else for you to watch starting in 10…9..8…. its 1am in the morning the only place I’m going now is to bed.

I did have a shock a few years? ago when the UI changed overnight and all my content was hidden. I didn’t have much trouble working out how to get it all back though, and disabled all the online/ streaming content and removed it from the home screen. I pin all my libraries now so they seem to stay where I put them, I’ve never had to do all of this again for example apart from the first time setting up a new client such as on my son’s bedroom TV. I understand that money is changing hands and I want Plex to continue on. My plex pass must be 10 years old now so its been a good value for me personally. I think the system was feature complete for me a few years ago though and I would be happy to “opt out” of any further updates if I was asked to pay again for this tool. If you want to go back in time, most clients still allow you to completely bypass/ remove the online stuff by “manually adding a server via IP address”, remember how we used to do it before plex accounts? Then the old school interface appears like its 2013. Still all works, I use this sometimes when our internet is down as it doesn’t need internet to work

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Fair play. It seemed to be aimed towards plex as well and I just wanted to clarify that at least that can be turned off on this app. Small mercies, I guess.

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My fault, I should have clarified better that I wasn’t talking about Plex specifically but other apps. I didn’t know you can do that on Plex it must be a Plex Pas thing, I am just a free user. At least Plex got that right and made it so you can hide those skip buttons. Something that none of the big companies like Netflix, Amazon and others will do. Even if you complain they won’t listen. I get some people like to skip those things but have some respect for those that don’t want to skip.

We shouldn’t have our screens spammed with buttons we never want to use. It just wreaks of arrogance, them deciding for us how we should watch. It amazes me how companies that add features like this love to force them instead of rolling them out with options to disable if the user doesn’t want it. Lazy and arrogant both!

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I always watch the entire episode or movie never skipping anything. Which is why I hate any apps that pop junk up over the videos asking me to skip intros or click something else because the end credits are rolling. My attitude is just leave me the hell alone and let me enjoy my video! Take your app intrusions and stick it!

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I’m totally with you, btw, I find the inability to turn off popups like that really, really annoying. I hadn’t considered that that might be a plex pass feature. I mostly like to watch through the credits and often find I get frustrated when my wifes netflix auto skips if I don’t catch it in time…

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Agreed, the New Format & Streaming Services are terrible. I’ve used Plex for years to access MY Library, not all the other crap floating around the interweb streaming services. Now accessing my Library & play lists is on par with doing my taxes.
Providing an option for users to return to the former format, excluding the “Discover” & outside or sponsored Streaming apps & channels would be beneficial. They’re services I don’t & won’t use and feel I shouldn’t have to pay to watch my own library.

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