I don’t agree with how you present that it is all ok for core functionality to be removed by the drop of the hat.
Plex starts with advertising as a software that has all these core features. People invest their time and money. And we are not talking about a couple of thousand users but probably over half a million.
That would be like rolling out the Live TV feature, people buying Plex Pass now that you have Live TV capability, buy hardware invest time. Two years down the line the Live TV is still full of bugs and Plex announces well our slogan is “Your media, your way.” Live TV is not our focus so we’re axing Live TV.
What Plex should have done if they felt these features were obsolete then build a roadmap with gradual phase out while incorporating alternates.
If you have a useful alternate for Watch Later I think you should share it for everyone’s benefit.
Well one way is simply a computer hooked directly to the TV with a wireless mouse or a TV type remote control designed for the computer. Then you just navigate to the web site you want to play and play it.
Another way are apps that are designed for the content you want. Such apps are quite plentiful on many devices.
Watch later just added additional steps to the above.
That’s more like Watch Now vs Watch later.
Watch Later was more like a bookmark you could use on your computer, so you could save cool videos and have them available in an easy to get to format on your TV via Plex.
I used to use this for programming videos and things like that.
PS Glad someone likes the new UI. Not a fan myself. It’s no longer “My media, my way”, but “Mostly my media, their way” now the way I see it. The top level “Content First” structure is just so limiting when you have multiple libraries that used to be readily available. Now you have to hunt for them and it’s not intuitive at all. If I build a Library I want it as the “First Option” not a sub menu of another option.
It’s cool that the UI can now access multiple servers and make it look like one bigger system but they could have done this much better IMHO. For example use the old menu system and just show Libraries from all servers owned by that admin in one list.
Maybe @elan can let us know what percentage of that 2% who use plugins are plex pass subscribers. Judging by the people who are speaking up on the forums it seems to me like the people who are paying are suffering for these removals.
When the new UI was introduced to Plex Media Player, I had some serious objections (which now apply to the new Roku beta interface as well). I concocted this mock-up as my idea of a better interface than the new UI, and I wish Plex would have taken it to heart.
I’m a new user, so I haven’t dug into plugins as of yet, though I did browse some websites that speak of some of the most noteworthy ones.
Seems to me the problem is not really the plugins themselves, but the way they interact with the server. There are many programs and games out there that allow plugins, but it is understood that the plugins are purely the responsibility of those who author them, and when an update breaks them the authors need to fix it in post.
From what I understand (correct me if I am wrong) Plex directly supported plugins and even worked that support into updates.
This was not the way to approach this IMO.
Much better to open up certain parts of the program to the public to allow plugins, but refuse direct support, leaving that in the hands of the authors. This way the plugins will continue to work for all time as long as the authors update them.
I would go even further to state that the authors understand that Plex may implement features that mirror the plugins, and no compensation will be provided.
The community gets the functionality they crave, and Plex gets to draw on thousands of bright minds and their brilliant ideas. Crowdsourcing of a sort, if you will.
Incorrect - though they had a ‘directory’ of plugins they DID support - a whole forum section, and, even a web based plug-in was made to allow for, unsupported plug-ins.
I still heavily use 2-3 non agent plug-ins that I know will be removed at some time.
I probably use those more than actually viewing my library media.
I find that they’re removing it extremely upsetting and frustrating.
See the announcement link blog and FAQ forum post.
I don’t think this would work. If you open parts of your program to the public, then the plugin authors will be able to break your whole program with their plugins and you’d have to deal with angry paying customers requesting support.
Instead you’d want to provide a way for the 3rd party apps to communicate with your program in a strictly defined way, which is basically what Plex did. I’d say they got the plugins system the right way more or less (save for certain implementation details), but sadly, after years of neglect, the cost of supporting it outgrew the usefulness of the feature (in their view), so they’ve finally decided to cut it…
If a plug in breaks your system you simply remove it. Many (lots) or programs do exactly this for years and years and it works.
Plugins don’t magically gain full access to the system but have to call code that is exposed to the plugin, essentially an API.
Read between the lines and it’s easy to see Plex doesn’t want VIDEO plugins anymore. They want full control over this area so that content isn’t pulled from 3rd party servers illegally.
Let’s face it, ripping video from disc is illegal in many countries.
Plex allows many to break the law by viewing movies they’ve broken DRM on to make backups to store in other formats.
If the illegal plugin argument is going to be used, then Plex should only exist as a personal home movie and photo viewer without the metadata grabbing agents for subtitles, trailers, and info for commercial movies.
The difference is that Plex isn’t involved or helping you to break the law (if it’s illegal in your country) with rips. You do this purely on your own. Plex provides legal means to gather content including recording it from cable or OTA.
If/when Plex allows plug-ins that blatantly violate TOS of websites and hijack content then it’s a different story.
Exactly this
