The UI on the program guide is nice, but I would rather have it as a simple table with hours and channels (like on http://www.tvguide.com/listings/). The filters for News, Sports, Shows, Movies, etc., could still be available. Am I missing a way to change view away from the thumb-nail show images?
Nope you’re not missing anything. There is no grid view. Search forum, lots of discussion on grid layout and patents owned by a company, Rovi, with some users that think the patents were defeated in court. They will provide links to court rulings overturning some Rovi patents but according to a Plex employee the rulings do not refer to the Grid patent. They will not risk a lawsuit over violating the patent.
I’m with you Brian. The grid view that we are all used to everywhere else is the most efficient and user friendly way to view channel listings. But if there is any chance of legal troubles I’m happy to deal with it until until such time as those can be put to rest. I value Plex too much to see it risked (I’m not a cord cutter yet, but the prices for cable are driving me there). I just put up a plex media server on an nVidia Shield Pro with an HD HomeRun Prime (no cablecard yet) and was coming to the formus to ask the same question so thanks for getting to it 1st.
Off topic, you’d think they’d have a browser that works on the Shield, I did not like having to go to my PC to setup the DVR and for any time I want to schedule a recording, but since the web interface is the only place we can do that and there is not a web browser on the Google Play store (no chrome can you believe it?) for the nVidia Shield I’m stuck with using a PC or my phone to set any recordings. I’m still running Next PVR on Windows 10 with my Hauppauge cards and PMS till I get used to the DVR function in PMS on Shield. I have to go to my PC to set records for NPVR too since I don’t have an HTPC hooked up directly to the TV so I guess it works out about the same. I think I’ll run in parallel for a while so I can come up with what I miss the most from NPVR and start submitting some enhancement requests.
@Drake718 I thought the Shield was working with Live TV and setting up recordings? Are you sure you are on the latest Plex Pass version and not the general or public version? Android TV devices and iOS can currently use Live TV and schedule recordings as long as the server is on the current Plex Pass release 1.7.2.3878.
Just don’t call it a “grid” problem solved.
Why not just make a simple timeline pr. channel with thumbnails then? Right now its ■■■■■■■ impossible to navigate and get a good overview.
I just a quick mockup in PLEX with the current thumbnails that they use, and then just arranged pr. channel and then going chronological forward. Atleast this way you can browse the channel, and just go forward in the thumbnails and you are going forward through the day, that way its easy to find something that is gonna be on channel 1 at 20 am. You just choose channel 1, and then go forward until you get to 20 am.
Right now, you have to first find out, if the documentary you want to watch is qualified as a tv-show, news or a movie. Then you need to find it in a big library where you just HOPE that is not translated to english, because then you might not know what its called. You could choose to go by “first aired” but then you need to know if it has aired before, maybe years ago.. it makes NO SENSE.
Just let us choose channel we want to record from, and then give us a row of thumbnails for that channel with all the things that are airing on that channel chronological.
FIRST CHOOSE CHANNEL
THEN YOU GET CHANNELS ON ALL CHANNEL PAGES WITH THUMBS SHOWING PROGRAMS COMING ON THAT CHANNEL IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.
All I want is a SUB-LINK to a page that shows other shows airing on the same network, ANYTHING that would indicate what channel the show or program is airing on. It would be a bonus to include network logo’s for the channels but I will take a plain white sub-link right now over everything else. I don’t think we need a channel grid-guide as long as we can properly see what is airing on channel specific pages just like the DISCOVER home page.
MY PROPOSAL:
WHAT I SEE NOW:
@tapomirbowles said:
Why not just make a simple timeline pr. channel with thumbnails then?
That is actually a fairly good idea IMO.
A single strip of icons horizontally with each icon representing a show on a single network for a given time slot (time shown under icon). As long as all the guide data for the entire 12 or so days is available for the channel then there can be a sense of completeness.
In some ways it wouldn’t be that different then the SiliconDust HDHomeRun DVR guide. It just wouldn’t pop up from the right dynamically.
In fact one, two or three horizontal lines would seem to be permissible especially so if they are independently scrolled.
So for example if AMC were on line 1 and TBS were on line 2 and SyFy were on line 3, scrolling through one would have no effect on the others. This is very much unlike the static page guide grid because moving through time does so for all channels at once.
Exactly Octavean. But it shouldnt just represent a show, it should represent whatever is shown at that time, wether it be a movie, a tv show or the news. It should just be a page with all channels on it, and then thumbnails representing the timeline. So the timeline starts at the present time you are at when you are looking at it, and then it just continues on to the right with whatever is up next and so on and so on until there is no more days of programming left for that channel.
@lr1950 said:
All I want is a SUB-LINK to a page that shows other shows airing on the same network, ANYTHING that would indicate what channel the show or program is airing on. It would be a bonus to include network logo’s for the channels but I will take a plain white sub-link right now over everything else. I don’t think we need a channel grid-guide as long as we can properly see what is airing on channel specific pages just like the DISCOVER home page.MY PROPOSAL:
WHAT I SEE NOW:
I disagree for non US-users, its pretty important to have a channel specific chronological overview, since shows might be translated in the EPG, so if I want to watch Midsumers Murders, I would have to know to search for that name, but the problem is, in denmark, that show is called Commisoner Barneby, so if I did not know that was the name, I would not be able to find the show. But I would if I could search / scroll pr. channel and then going forward chronolocially. Then all I would have to do is choose channel 3, go to 8 am, where I know its shown, and there I Would then see the show and the name for it. Easy peasy.
Right now, I know there is a show coming on a channel called Tv3 on thursday called Operation X. Its a documentary tv show. But the problem is, when I search for that name in the EPG, it does not come up. There is no program by that name, which means it probably has another name in the EPG, an english name. I have no way of recording that program right now, unless I wait until an hour or so before its airing, and hope to god that it shows up under “airing soon”. But it might be too late at that point. Again if I could just choose channel Tv3, scroll forward to thursday 9 AM, where I know its gonna be shown, I could record it that way. But I cant, and there is no way anyone has patents on Thumbnails with a time and name under it in which you can scroll forward.
@serverlink09 The article you linked to mentions some patents, but NOT the one related to the grid layout.
I think @tapomirbowles suggestion makes a lot of sense. Maybe with a 3rd filter of the date, so I could find channel 1 on 18th June.
One thing I’ve not come across that I’d like is quick key access to get to these pages. A button to get to the guide, being able to type in a channel number to change it.
OK I got it, how about this:
Favorites!
Allow users to add favorite channels to a Favorites List with complete listings for the given channel. This would be a simple horizontal timeline (using a full 14 days of guide data) for a single channel using icons and text.
Users then build their own customized Favorites List of channels.
So it wouldn’t be the full guide grid patented by Rovi which is an X / Y plane grid. It would essentially be only an X number line. However, the ability to allow users to build their own list of favorites would serve the same purpose by binding together a stack of X number lines.
Each line would scroll horizontally individually though which could be a lot of scrolling.
Without grid guide, Live TV is not going to be useful in replacing WMC, Tivo or any other cable provider.
I know handful of faithfuls and cord cutters that are only interested in prime time shows will use it but any family that’s used to the TV from last 2-3 decades is going to want grid guide.
Yeah well, despite Tivo holding rights to the grid, they too are implementing BIG graphical images of content on their new interface and the GRID GUIDE is sort of is left in the background and many people are not going to be happy with their design changes either. youtube.com/watch?v=J7BJHMBFFWA
I agree that it will be an issue for a lot of people and will limit the appeal of Plex DVR for traditionalists. That won’t be the case for everyone though.
The odd thing is that there is something of a hidden truncated guide in Plex which is accessible from the menu when viewing live TV. So Plex developers know full well that there is a need for a proper guide for all channels.
PLEX users seem to be far less patient due to the WMC shutdown but Tivo users have only been waiting for a UI in high definition for only what, 10 years? lol
Maybe Plex engineers can work with creators of other software solutions that have rights to use the triditional guide grid.
For example, “Channels 2.0” looks like a fairly good option on the Apple TV. If such an app could function as a plug-in and defer DVR functionality to Plex DVR it could Server as a full guide front-end and assist with schedualling with via guide.
Allowing another program to serve this purpose absolves Plex from any possible copyright infringement issues. Especially so if said program licenses the guide grid format.
@lr1950 said:
Yeah well, despite Tivo holding rights to the grid, they too are implementing BIG graphical images of content on their new interface and the GRID GUIDE is sort of is left in the background and many people are not going to be happy with their design changes either. youtube.com/watch?v=J7BJHMBFFWA
Well Tivo is responsible for the EPG guide on all of their boxes and have full time staff aggregating and enhancing it.
Plex on the other side is solely at the hands of Gracenote - which can not be compared to Tivo guide quality.
However that new Tivo UI looks as if they hired XBMC skinner to do their GUI 
Very uninspiring for such a big and commercial product.
But at least they do have a grid guide.
