I don’t think most server admins are going to that level of creating libraries at that level of detail…I know I certainly am not.
For that matter, I think the amount of collections you’ve created is overkill - how can anyone find what they’re looking for in that? For example, it looks like you’ve created a collections for specific actors. I’d think a basic search would be way better for that (especially with audio search) since the number of actors is unlimited. What if I’m looking for a specific actor and you haven’t created a collection for them? Then I’m back to searching.
In any case, I really think the issue here is that Plex is NOT focusing on self-hosted content. Yeah, they are still putting resources into the PMS side, but they’re not carrying that same level of resources dedicated to self-hosted content over to the client side. It’s like the 2 groups aren’t talking to each other (or the customers - us).
Actually, the actor collections serve a few purposes:
I rotate 2 or 3 of them on the Home Screen daily along with other collections. It keeps the Home screen fresh by displaying several rows a movies in a random sort order on a daily basis. Many times my users never leave the Home screen because they find something that interests them right there on the Home screen. The “Top Rated Movie” collection is the most helpful and it is pinned as the top row below Continue Watching.
The other reason is that I have a few elderly users. They aren’t as sharp as many of us due to their age, and it really helps them to see things visually to jog their memories.
I display about 50 of collections on my “Recommended” screens, so when Plex defaults my users to that screen, there is a TON of things to scroll through.
So, these collections aren’t just about cluttering my Collection screen, but allow me to get movie posters in front of the user’s eyes to catch their attention and spark an interest. It’s what most of the mainstream streaming companies do. People don’t always come to Plex knowing what the want to watch. There come looking for something that might interest them to fill some time in their day.
Yes, this collection page is a mess even though it is quite well sorted, but if there was an Actor view it would really help…and a Award view, Studio view, etc.
This is my current Home screen. Tomorrow it will rotate to another set of collections and does so each day of the month and then repeats each month. So today, the “Katherine Hepburn” collection is being used. Tomorrow might have Tom Cruise and John Wayne.
I should add, that Kometa has several defaults built-in that would create this sort of list of Collections in a matter of hours. And, it would keep it synced going forward.
Forgot to respond to this. YES, I fully agree! I never understood why Plex wanted to become exactly what we are all trying to avoid by building our Plex servers.
I get how money was the draw, but it was completely contrary to the existence of Plex.
Not sure if there was a legal/PR advantage. Plex supports studios by selling/renting their content and becomes very successful at it. Thus, the studios don’t take an interest in self hosted usage of Plex. But, honestly, the way studios are trying to lock down ownership of content (meaning user never own their own media but instead lease it), I think Plex’s initial mission would still have been a problem.
Thankfully, DVR and the Supreme Court allow us to own media and share copies of it. Heck, my over-the-air DVR is showing 197 movies available for recording in the next two weeks alone (and 11,000+ tv show episodes), and I don’t have cable. Even “Wicked” (2024) is available in that list and I saw “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” a couple months ago.
Have you been following the many updates in regards to ATSC 3.0? You’re well aware in the USA that many local affiliates and their channel owners including the mega media corpa, they want DRM copy protection on their channels, and on top of that, ATSC 3.0 devices must register and connect to the internet in order to initiate the process of decrypting. Yes, thankfully ATSC 1.0 remains but going forward, the complexity and the power struggle of who owns what will remain in the hands of the media networks and the mega media conglomerates. We will remain the product. They surely want us to know our place, only as consumers.
Have you ever tried to search for an actor’s name using a TV remote? There can be easily a couple of thousand names in that list (try scrolling it). Searching something is also not fun.
I have the same. Collection for famous main actors that are nicely curated with an individual cover (with the actor’s/actress’ signature and picture) - using color codes to help differentiating between “movie collections”, “actor collections”, “brand collections” and “language collections”. If you open the collections, I curated texts for each actress/actor collection that gives some insides about their career. I am doing the same for the classic movie collections and also for the different brands I collect. This gives my family and me so much more comfort in looking for what we want to watch - including inspiration browsing these collections - something that you never get from a search.
I am a collector. And I want my collection to be something that is done well, looking nice to the viewer and all in my own language. And my family appreciates that very much. My wife is all in for these actor collections. She’s using them all the time. If I imagine telling her to use the search… that would clearly be the end of the whole home entertainment thing.
You see, there’s more than one use case and what seems odd to one person means a whole world to another. Having the possibilities is what matters most. Having the possibilities no longer is what really should bother everybody involved.
Yep, Plex needs to expand on Collections and provide categories of collections (and dump the current “Categories" and pull it into this future category system/UI.)
You do you regarding all your collections, but just an FYI about voice search. Just tried it myself and by default (using the Plex keyboard), you’re right, it doesn’t work (it searches whatever Amazon has available).
But you can change it to use the “system keyboard” (which means it uses the Fire TV keyboard/search options), and then voice search works as expected, only returning results in Plex. It’s basically just using it to transcribe voice to the keyboard, instead of typing it in.
No. I don’t have Roku. But the new Android phone app now has a pull-down menu at the upper-left that lists all my Libraries plus all the stuff they’re trying to sell (live TV, etc.) Is that what you’re talking about? It doesn’t list my Playlists. If it did, while that’s not the top-level item I want to see, I would settle for that.
My mistake, been jumping between threads about Roku preview and Android.
Yes, the lack of focus on Playlists has been VERY upsetting on the new UIs. Playlist are extremely important for everything media. The Watchlist is a poor excuse to spy on us and to demote Playlists.
It’s funny hearing that setting up remote streaming was “painful”. I’ve brought up in other places that the Plex Remote Watch Pass is really cheap and for the cost Plex saves you from having to deal with getting a domain (or DDNS at least), certificate, setting up proxy… and I get shouted down that I’m overstating the value of it. Yes, it’s a one-time thing essentially. But it’s still not easy for someone without much tech/server admin experience. And signing in to a login prompt without manually filling in a server address is easier for friends. Of course, there are people that used to gripe about the $5 one-time unlock fee for the mobile apps. Like, how do you run a media server at all if you can’t afford to pay five bucks for an app?
Nah, it hasn’t changed much in my opinion in the last few years. The newest Android TV app has even added a “top menu pills” thing to the Home Screen which feels like the very thing we are complaining about here now. It’s options that were at the top before (Home and Search), but I feel like they take more room or are more obtrusive now than the small icons we had before. The rest of the interface is virtually unchanged. Still no advanced filtering of views of libraries like Plex. No Smart Collections at all. Same basic poster/card navigation with background image dimmed behind the pre-play screens.
If you have small kids you have the first reason to split libraries. If you share your server with friends of families you have another reason to split libraries. 20+ libraries I will probably never have, but just because I don’t need it in that way it does not mean other people have to follow my decisions.
Just a reminder that the annoying bug that restarts your video playback when there are network issues is still there. It is probably the bug I have hated the most in the whole existence of Plex. I am watching a video in the subway, we enter an area with poor reception and the video restarts, even when it is downloaded! I don’t understand why this bug has no priority, it is known for months, and it is still there.
I’m not sure why folks took my post so literally. I thought I made it clear that I was mostly joking. And my first sentence was pure sarcasm (as noted by the upside-down smiley which, in my opinion, is as good as a /s).
As I clearly noted, I know there are reasons why some folks choose the “multitude of libraries” approach. And I do not fault them for that.
Though I do believe, that for the majority of users, a small number of libraries curated by collections is the way to go. That’s just my opinion of course.
To tell you the truth, I don’t have the slightest idea of what is best for other users. Why do you?
Please try not to speak for them. You cannot know. One example… on TV apps of Plex, you don’t get the Alphabet right control on collections. You get it with libraries. If larger amounts of items go into any collection (like all 80’s movies, to get you a random idea of one), navigating that library can take longer than with libraries.
This is only one sample. You cannot easily re-sort or filter collections… you can with libraries… etc…
Don’t assume, just voice your own idea of what is best for you, please. Nobody will challenge that. If you continue to speculate on what’s best for others, you will eventually find to be proven wrong more often than you think.
If you are happy to use collections, I am happy for you. Go for it. I use both concepts extendedly. I have no idea about other users who don’t express themselves and raise their voice in this forum.
Again, why do you think that you know what’s best for “the majority”?
