Playlists! (again .....)

[ChefGS]

Updated today so latest version. Always latest version.

Maybe if enough of us keep bringing this up in NEW topics we can piss off the overlords enough that maybe they will actually FIX THIS!!! Or ADD the feature.

And yes, I did a search for this topic. It’s all over the forums and has been for many years now. But apparently, like Sharing of Playlists, it’s a feature that the programmers don’t care about because it’s not new and sexy and only 90% of users would ever use it.

More and more people are using playlists. Movies, TV series’, Music, etc… So why is it totally ignored on all fronts and in all aspects by the programmers? Maybe we’d all stop bitching about them if we could get a simple answer from someone that actually matters. Not just other users. That would be a change.

As a MANY year paid user and then finally a Lifetime Member I think we should get at least some consideration. We financially support this product and there are some times I wonder why. We get a great product (I admit) but we really do get pissed on by the programmers as all they seem to be interested in is adding NEW stuff. When if you read the forums MOST of us want OLD items improved or fixed. Hell, we would mostly be happy with actual dialog from the head people regarding the issues and thoughts we have. How about something like the new Microsoft/Asobo (Flight Simulator) people do with monthly hour (or so) long videos from the programmers about what’s going on, what’s being worked on, added, fixed, and answer member questions.

I digress… How hard is it for the addition of a playlist database variable that would simply remember WHERE in a playlist a user is when playing it. The PLAY button at the top of a playlist is really stupid. With few exceptions (Music comes to mind) who would ever want to play a playlist from the beginning EVERY TIME THEY RUN IT???

So my thought is add a ‘PFL Play’ button for “Play From Last” which would play from the last show/movie/song position in the playlist. It would continue from where the user last left off. Either with the next episode/song/movie or the correct position inside a song/movie/episode just as Plex does now. But from within a Playlist it would also continue the playlist.

I have quite a few Playlists of TV series’ (Star Trek, Arrowverse, Marvel FULL list, etc…) that have well over 500 items. Some almost 1000 items. Having to scroll through 900 items to be able to start up a list is insane!!! Seems like (but who knows) a very simple fix/addition.

And yes, I have learned my lesson after losing 4 HUGE playlists… I now separate them into multiple lists. MCU 1, MCU 2, MCU 3, etc… Adding nore more than 150 items per. However, I still have 3 that are all over 800 items.

Anyway, maybe we all need to keep posting this and eventually they will get tired of seeing it and do it.

Greg

[tycho1974]

You could use collections instead. Your other users can see collections you make, but they can’t see playlists. I find collections much more useful to me.

Collections appreciation post

I haven’t used Plex collections before, instead opting to use playlists. I figured playlists gave me more options in terms of sorting, which was my preferred feature. However, after watching Lon.TV’s recent video on Plex collections, I saw just how powerful collections can be. First off, while I knew that my playlists weren’t visible to others users on my server, I did not know that they can see any collections I make. For me, this was a game changer. I also didn’t know that I could make dynami…

[pshanew]

While not a perfect solution, you could create some advanced filters using collections and some view state criteria, and save it as either a smart collection or playlist:

This one includes episodes from my Stargate collection which are either in progress or haven’t been played in the last 3 months, ordered by release date.

Since smart playlists/collections are dynamically updated, as episodes are played they’ll fall off the list for 3 months. The result is that the next time the playlist/collection is played, it will start where you left off (since the last episode you watched will no longer be in the list).

After 3 months, the played episodes will be dynamically added back to the list (should you desire to start again). The time could be adjusted to ensure you have time to make it through the entire list before it starts over.