If you’re concerned now about the level of things coming at an account level to users that are outside your sphere of influence, you really won’t be happy with the direction they’re talking about going. Streaming channels, pay services like HBO and such, deep links to other content providers, and an ever expanding library of offerings.
They’re looking to compete with the likes of PlutoTV, and become a portal for other services like Netflix. They want to become a full scale entertainment hub. Eventually a user won’t need access to a server at all to make use of Plex.
Like I said, I’m not opposed to those things existing and being available. I know it’s coming and nothing I say will change that.
My objection is to the fact that there is no option to grant someone access that avoids these new things. Sure, allow people to set up “Plex Inc” accounts and get access to those things. But make it a separate interface from accessing local media. Let the “Plex, Inc” users have this content shared with them, but then leave an option, some other way, for me to grant access to my media without any injected content. I understand some people might want to be Plex’s users. But some want to be my users, and Plex isn’t allowing that. Anyone that tries will end up with Plex Inc’s content injected in until they learn how to change the settings.
Yes, unfortunately I find myself asking that same question more and more. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) the competitors that allow these things aren’t at the same level as Plex in other ways (platform availability, UI development, reliability, etc.). No service I’ve found has it all, but others are getting more and more that I like, and Plex is getting more and more that I’m not crazy about.
It hasn’t quite reached the tipping point, and perhaps it never will, but I’m already running Jellyfin parallel to my Plex server and am trying out the various features and reliability side-by-side. Only time will tell which will offer a better experience in the long run.
emby, last I checked, lets you control the users locally at the server, or to use emby’s ‘cloud’ account (like how plex users must authenticate via plex.tv).
I don’t think they have any 3rd party content (at least yet).
anyway, like many things (ie loss of plugins, etc), a lot of this is yelling into a tornado.
plex is gonna do what plex is gonna do.
you can either roll with the changes, scream and yell and try to fight those changes, or find something that is better suited to your particular needs.
If you want your own customized client/server, I welcome any and all to roll up a dev account and start submitting code to jellyfin.
I run Emby in parallel as well… The client side just isn’t as slick and easy to navigate as Plex is for me. If they make serious improvements over there, I might find myself using it more.
I have an Emby account, (testing) installation and high hopes. As soon as they stop sucking we’ll be in bidness.
The truth is - you need to have a special, deep hate for Plex to use Emby - and if you leave here in a rage for Emby, you’ll be back very quietly not long after.
I think that’s what most people aren’t understanding. If you sign up for a free plex account and you have nobody who is offering you their server for material. Guess what ladies and gents…
plex offers you some free content
Myself offering up my services offers them only what i give them, none of the extra that a portion of people will never use.
Another thing I’ve noticed: I do use the podcasts feature but otherwise I’ve disabled everything else I could for online sources. But even though I disabled everything but podcasts, I still get ad supported “Movies & TV” results when I do a search. At least from the android app. (I haven’t tested elsewhere just yet.) Is that a bug, or is that intended? (Edit: searching from web ui does as expected: searches my server and online podcasts and nothing else. So I suspect it’s not intended that sponsored search results show on mobile despite my settings.)
I am able to reproduce this. I will file it with the team. Thanks for the report.
Edit - I take that back. If I enable/disable that option, the app will still search because it has cached that it has access. If I restart the app, it searches appropriately. Have you restarted the app since making disabling Movies & TV?
Yep. Due to the fact that my server is remote nowdays I happily run an Emby docker container as well as Plex and Jellyfin . As the Plex libararies update so do the Emby ones.
The playback/UI/UX experience on my Shield comparing the two…
Well it just gets better on every release in Plex. Meanwhile there was a recent huge update to the Android TV client in Emby. It’s now far worse than it was a month ago. It’s almost as awful as Plex used to be on the Shield (almost!)
The only postives I have found in Emby is the ability to fully manage the server via a mobile client app is just as simple as in a web browser.
The other being Trakt. Fully operational in Emby but in Plex even with the official Trakt webhooks it’s a complete lottery as to if and when scrobbling and “collected” work.
Personally my hate/rage days are over. I may not always like or want Plex latest “online source” but it’s easy enough to turn them off and generally Im in a far better place with Plex than 12 months ago. Meanwhile the whole Emby experience has just seemed to have degraded or at least stagnated in that same time period.
TL;DR
6 months ago it was a close run thing. For all Emby’s failings in the UI stakes it had and still has definite benefits in mobile management and just quietly doing what (I assume) most people expect a Media server to do. (Serving OUR media.) For that at least Kudos to Emby.
But despite that Plex will have to screw up bad to make Emby my daily driver.
Sadly I have to keep Emby running in the background to accomplish some of the Trakt stuff.
Well I’ll be… When I looked at the online sources last time, there were 4 items. Then today there are five, and movies and TV were set to disable for managed users. Maybe browser cache or something? Anyhow, thanks for making me double check!
Wow, can’t believe I read all the replies to this thread!
I can empathize with the arguments on both sides. On one hand you have a closed-source business trying to increase market-share in a competitive streaming landscape, and on the other dyed-in-the-wool media server administrators who are losing their control over providing a curated experience for themselves and their users.
Plex is doing what it thinks is right for its investors, and Plex user accounts indeed belong to Plex Inc. The fact that they offer opt-out options in client settings is nice to see.
However, Plex is not the only option for media server admins, and they too need to do what’s right for their investors (whether family, friends, paid subscribers or just themselves).
Probably like many of you, I’ve spent hundreds to thousands of hours meticulously curating the content on my media server to be positioned as “a unique experience you won’t find on any popular streaming platform. Everything has been uniquely chosen for its excellence.”
A few examples include:
Researching audiophile journals to discover whether to include the stereo or mono version of each Beatles song to their discography.
Learning music mastering methodology and studying audio waveform screenshots to know which CD master is the definitive one to include in the music library.
Cross-referencing various Star Trek blogs/forums to cull bad episodes from every Star Trek series, so what’s left is watchable and enjoyable.
Because of this investment in time and energy plus how I’ve positioned the experience to users, having to also wade through a bunch of B-movies supplied by Plex doesn’t work for me.
That’s why I’ve opted for Jellyfin as a media server. It’s open-source, you can browse the code for vulnerabilities and know user privacy is respected. It also allows to control the experience, for those who took great pains to craft an awesome one.
Interestingly, I’ve come back to Plex after a 2 year hiatus to use it exclusively as an AVOD streaming option. There might be a few quality movies here over time, and that’s worth logging in once in a while to take a peek.
Strictly off-topic, but you should try plexamp for this and its ‘Soundprint’ vizualizer.
Together with the ‘loudness’ numbers Plex is calculating (can be seen in the Plex media info)
Very useful, thank you Otto. I’ll take a look at plexamp.
If waveform screenshots aren’t readily available, I usually bring various masterings of a track into Izotope RX and run some tests. Does plexamp calculate RMS?
Back on topic; it doesn’t even have to be on the other extreme end where we force a setting. Being able to tick a box in PMS for “Notify users when they are watching media from online sources.” would go a long way.
And when a user is viewing media/pages for online sources; throw a yellow bar in the client with a message:
“You are viewing ad-supported media from {online source}. If want to hide ad-supported content [click here]. [Hide this message] [Why am I seeing this?]”
With more information under the last button:
“The administrator of {Server} recommends you to hide media from other online sources. This will make sure you only see their curated library while browsing Plex.
[More information about online sources]
[Hide media from online sources]
[Don’t show me this message again]
You can change your preference at any time by going to Settings > …”
This way there would at least be a clear path to turn it off for the less-tech-savvy people that use our servers.
