Server Version#: 4.87.2
Player Version#: 7.0.30.8287-6dae31a4f-Plex (on Roku)
I’ve a paid-up Life Time subscription to Plex Server for the past few years. I’ve never seen this issue before: when streaming my own content from my own in-house NAS (Synology) server, Plex Server (or Roku??) is now showing me one or two (intelligent/targeted) 30 second ads at the beginning of my shows. I’ve re-checked the files separately and these ads are not embedded in my files… they are being introduced into my local in-house stream in real time apparently coming from either Plex (or Roku)…
Is this the latest deal with Plex? That paid up life time subscribers now have to look at (Plex-delivered/ or Roku-delivered) ads while perusing our own in-house NAS content??
Is there any way to stream to my household TV sets without either the ads or the accompanying ad spying that is going on here? I’m not married to Roku and if available I’m willing to use a device other than a Roku to get my content without the ads and the spying… I have an extra HDMI port available on my TV sets for this purpose…
Chances are extremely high (basically 100%) that this is not the case (as has been every time someone has posted this, nothing against you, just stating my observation).
How did you get to the file that you wanted to watch?
If you did a search and you have the Plex TV and Movies (or whatever it’s called) turned on as an option to search in, the chances are, again, extremely high that you clicked on the result from Plex’s service and not from within your own library.
You didn’t mention what you were trying to watch (that would allow me or someone else to confirm Plex also has it on their side) but I would suggest going directly to your library where it is and start it that way (instead of searching).
Given that you specifically mention 2 targeted ads it sounds like you have movie trailers enabled for your content. Plex only serves ads in their ow content.
Only the content that Plex provides has ads injected into it.
Most likely is that you are inadvertently selecting something being streamed by Plex. They redesigned the search function a while ago so that it is not very intuitive and easy to accidentally pick Plex content if you are on the home page vs inside one of your libraries.
I’m a long time user and this is just the first time I’ve seen this a few days ago. The first time this happened to me, it seemed that my selection of an episode from my own collection (The Fugitive, s01e01, 1964) had switched from my collection to the live TV tab and was showing me the same content I requested but from the alternative external source, not my NAS. I thought I must have made this mistake myself and I stopped the stream… again switching over to own local source (which I was sure I did in the first place).
When this happened again a few days later, I tolerated the ads and then watched (what I thought was) my own local NAS show.
Now I’m realizing that it’s possible I’m specifically having this problem with content that’s dually available both on my NAS and via an external stream source. It seems to me (so far) that I’m specifically attempting to play my own NAS content, but at some point the stream is switching over to the externally available source… and showing me these ads.
This has been going on on-and-off for about a week now… I guess only with the content that’s dually available. I didn’t jump on this immediately when it first happened because I’m accustomed to seeing ads at the beginning of streams and I wasn’t focusing. Once I realized that I’m seeing these ads in front of my own NAS content via my Plex/Roku setup… the alarm bells went off…
I just checked and The Fugutive (1964) is indeed located on Plex’s service.
I personally had Movies & TV disabled under “Online Media Sources” in the settings (actually have everything disabled there). I had to temporarily re-enable it to confirm and once I did that, it appeared in the search results.
If you don’t use Plex’s online service, I suggest turning that off in your settings to help avoid this in the future. Otherwise, make sure you see your library when you are on the page for the media you want to watch.
My home page shows me the last few items I viewed. So If I select an item from this tab - rather than continuing from my own internal stream its going to switch me to an external Plex or Roku stream (of the identical content) but with the embedded ads? How long has this been going on? If this is the case, I can easy enough avoid this Home tab (or maybe even disable it hide it)…
Again, I don’t use the Plex on-demand offering, but I’ll answer this using some basic logic/guessing. (Anyone, please feel free to correct me if my guess is incorrect).
If the on-demand service works pretty much like our personally hosted libraries, then what is probably happening is that what you watched from Plex’s service is showing up in the continue watching list.
At that point, I don’t know if there is an easy way to distinguish where it’s actually from or if it possibly does some sort of combination.
My post prior to your response I’m replying to, shows a screenshot of where the setting is to change having the online media sources active. Sounds like you might want to disable those so that they are not part of the equation for you.
All the content I’ve experienced this issue with is dually located both on my NAS and via the Plex (and/or Roku) external streaming services. So I’m experiencing an inadvertent switch from my library over to the external commercial source. I’m sharp enough on the platform (using it regularly 7 or 8 years now) to generally understand where my own content is, how to stream my own stuff, so it just seems that something’s changed in one of the many pieces of code in this equation that’s now switching me over (without my knowledge or input) to the public commercial streaming version. Maybe I’m starting the stream from The Home tab instead of my TV Shows library tab… in the past this wouldn’t cause this switching behavior… but now it is.
No big deal… I know I can disable/hide any of these tabs. But maybe I occasionally peruse these tabs and think it’s too drastic a fix to disable entire tabs just to rectify a small issue like this.
Now that I know (or have a better idea) of what’s going on here… I’ll be more careful & deliberate with how I start my (old show) streams that might be dually homed.
BTW… be careful with the discover credits / filmography sections. Selecting anything in there will take you to the plex cloud and away from your local content. This could result in you playing their content and not yours, even if you have the online offerings disabled.
Yes, this is correct. If you have something in your library that also exists in Plex’s catalog, we will track the progress. If you have Movies and TV pinned to your home page, then the CW row will allow the ability to resume from Plex’s catalog. If you don’t have your own library pinned, then the only one shown will be from Plex.
