That’s an amazingly anachronistic idea. +1!
I would be happy if we could create a playlist that only added the 1st unwatched episode of every show,
That way you could hit shuffle and away you go!
2 Likes
@jkalland said:
Maybe I’m missing something, but why on earth would you want an interface that invites you to miss the beginning of media you have a local copy of? Do you want commercials injected too?
I think the appeal is emulating the experience of watching tv… kind of like leaving the tv on to fall asleep, or as background noise when you’re home alone, even if you’re not really watching it, serves a purpose.
@aeonx said:
@jkalland said:
Maybe I’m missing something, but why on earth would you want an interface that invites you to miss the beginning of media you have a local copy of? Do you want commercials injected too?I think the appeal is emulating the experience of watching tv… kind of like leaving the tv on to fall asleep, or as background noise when you’re home alone, even if you’re not really watching it serves a purpose.
But for that purpose (any purpose I can think of, really) you’d need the ability to only show watched media and/or not to update watch status. I don’t want my on deck to get all messed up because of something like this .
1 Like
@KarlDag said:
But for that purpose (any purpose I can think of, really) you’d need the ability to only show watched media and/or not to update watch status. I don’t want my on deck to get all messed up because of something like this .
I’m sure that’s possible technically.
@KarlDag said:
@aeonx said:
@jkalland said:
Maybe I’m missing something, but why on earth would you want an interface that invites you to miss the beginning of media you have a local copy of? Do you want commercials injected too?I think the appeal is emulating the experience of watching tv… kind of like leaving the tv on to fall asleep, or as background noise when you’re home alone, even if you’re not really watching it serves a purpose.
But for that purpose (any purpose I can think of, really) you’d need the ability to only show watched media and/or not to update watch status. I don’t want my on deck to get all messed up because of something like this .
Yep, PseudoTV for Kodi already has an option to not update your watched status / last viewing position for media watched through it.
@deepseth said:
@KarlDag said:
@aeonx said:
@jkalland said:
Maybe I’m missing something, but why on earth would you want an interface that invites you to miss the beginning of media you have a local copy of? Do you want commercials injected too?I think the appeal is emulating the experience of watching tv… kind of like leaving the tv on to fall asleep, or as background noise when you’re home alone, even if you’re not really watching it serves a purpose.
But for that purpose (any purpose I can think of, really) you’d need the ability to only show watched media and/or not to update watch status. I don’t want my on deck to get all messed up because of something like this .
Yep, PseudoTV for Kodi already has an option to not update your watched status / last viewing position for media watched through it.
Yeah but PMS still keeps it on record (when used with plexkodiconnect)
@KarlDag said:
@deepseth said:
Yep, PseudoTV for Kodi already has an option to not update your watched status / last viewing position for media watched through it.Yeah but PMS still keeps it on record (when used with plexkodiconnect)
Truth. My workaround for that was to use a second user account for my PseudoTV node that integrates with PMS.
Live TV is the last piece of the puzzle.
This seems like an awesome Idea, especially if it’s client Independent. And having a TV Guide for this seems it even cooler. Every time I turn an PLEX on my TV (when I have nothing new to watch) I spent at least 15 minutes deciding what to watch. Having a “PseudoTV” can solve that.
Try smart playlists on shuffle - accomplishes the same thing. You can even make smart playlists with content based on networks/genres & more than PseduoTV does.
Just discovered ‘smart playlists’ they’re more library searches with filters saved to a static playlist than what I’d call smart playlists, but they’re still pretty great.
We’re still a way off from PseudoTV though. Here’s a post I made for an original pseudotv request thread:
So far we currently have basic playlists: The playlist UI is so basic, the only way to create and add to playlists is via web ui and either by navigating each episode/show and adding them to a playlist(can’t do them in bulk). Or by filtering library by genre, content rating and network and adding the search results to playlists, but these don’t appear to be smart playlists that auto update as content changes, nor can be manipulated after the fact.
Once your basic playlists are created there’s no Pseudo-tv interface to view them ‘realtime’ such as an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) 
So effectively the only option available, is to launch these basic playlists, watch all your manually added content in order. Or by going to the … menu and selecting Shuffle. I’m not sure how this is meant to work, but sometimes this only shuffles the order of the episodes a show and not mixing the shows together. Sometimes it mixes the shows together.
Now in terms of EPG the closest thing we have is the Up Next button, which shows the next 7 queued shows in the playlist.
There’s also a tiny little button on the top right of the Up Next Playlist that shows other playlists. So if you click that you can effectively switch between playlists as if they were channels.
problem is, these are unshuffled, so you’d need to manually go into your playlists screen shuffle each playlist a few times, then start watching one playlist, and use Up Next to look ahead in your EPG, you can’t look behind, but there is a back button, you just can’t visualise the list. Then you ‘switch channels’ by using the change playlist button, but there’s no preview of the up next for those playlists until you’ve already switched.
So the main problems current preventing us from having a PseudoTV experience on Plex are:
- Playlist creation is very basic, no smart playlists, nothing can be made with metadata or attributes.
- The closest thing we have to an EPG is an Up Next menu, and a playlist/“channel” switch button. No way to compare the Up Next of the different playlists, nor is there a way to them look realtime, nor is there a way to preview the history of the playlist by seeing what has already ‘aired’. Also the switch playlist button doesn’t exist on the Roku App, so you need to back all the way out to the playlists nd select a different playlist.
- Playlists support is mostly Web UI based, and those of us with Plex Home Theater or Android/Roku apps are kinda limited Construction of playlists is web only, you can’t even add shows to existing playlists from the Roku app. Plus on HT, there’s a Playlist menu item, but clicking that doesn’t do anything for me. Trying to shuffle all the Playlists is impossible. Now to me this is actually a very minor issue, because if smart playlists existed you could construct all the playlists in advance and not really need to edit them in any way from the playback device.
So in my mind there’s only these 3 areas that are lacking for us to get a decent PseudoTV experience. I put them in order of construction, but it also works well as an order of priority. An EPG would be great, but having smart playlists would bring us much closer to a decent pseudotv experience as we’d be able to better simulate channels.
After reading this feature request, I got a spare Raspberry Pi that was lying around Installed Kodi and and then Pseudo Live TV, it has been great. And I can tell you this smart playlists don’t even come close to this.
@nascent said:
Or by filtering library by genre, content rating and network and adding the search results to playlists, but these don’t appear to be smart playlists that auto update as content changes, nor can be manipulated after the fact.
That is exactly what Smart Playlists are. What you are describing are normal Playlists. They can’t be manipulated after the fact however so far as I know. That would be a great feature addition.
Type / Filter / Sort
You can browse your libraries by type (such as Artists, Albums, or Tracks), filter them to find specific content, and sort them as desired.
Tip!: By using the Save as Smart Playlist button within the drop-down filter list, you can save your current filter and sort criteria as a smart playlist.
I don’t see a save as smart playlist button, but there is a Add to playlist button on the left menu. Could you show me where the Save As Smart Playlist button is?
There isn’t a “Save as” button. Filter > Add to Playlist. If you do not make any manual selections, then it will create a new (Smart) Playlist - you will not be given the option to “Add to Playlist”. You now have Smart Playlist, which cannot be edited by the user. These are not like kodi smart playlists nor is using Plex Playlists on shuffle anything like PseudoTV.
I can’t seem to find this. Any chance you could find me a screenshot?
@nascent said:
I can’t seem to find this. Any chance you could find me a screenshot?
Looks like they tweaked it and need to update the docs.
You just make filters and then click the Add to playlist button:
You can confirm that a playlist is a Smart Playlist by checking the top right corner of it’s thumbnail for this gear icon:
You have my vote
I originally thought this was a dumb idea since it sort of defeats the normal way of using a media server. But then it started to make sense. It’s like owning your own broadcasting network(s).
I could see setting up several “channels” such as:
Cartoons - ie Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, Scooby-Doo
Crime Drama - CSI(s), NCIS(s), Law & Orders(s), NYPD Blue
Medical Shows - Scrubs, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, House, Bones
Classics - I love Lucy, All in the Family, Archie Bunker’s Place, Jeffersons, The Bionic Man & Woman, Columbo, Green Acres, Gunsmoke, Happy Days, Hogan’s Heroes, The Honeymooners
Comedy - The Big Bang Theory, New Girl, Two & a Half Men, The Office
Adult Shows - Curb Your Enthusiasm, Californication, Entourage, Game of Thrones, Las Vegas, Masters of ■■■, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Oz, Orange is the New Black, etc
Discovery/Science Channel - Animal Science, Cosmos, Deadly Islands, Meteorite Men, MythBusters, River Monsters, etc
Of course some shows could overlap categories.
I guess my question would be how do you handle the order of shows? Would you want them purely random or would you take all shows from a category and “randomize” them so you are watching them in order but mixed in with each other.
So say show A has six season with 10 episodes each (60 total). Show B has 5 seasons with 6 episodes each (30 total). Expand out. But with just these two shows you would get roughly 2 shows of A for every B show.
If it’s purely random some TV series wouldn’t work well as you really need to watch them in order to understand the timelines, etc.
It would be ideal if we could choose to add only shows, only movies or a combination. For shows you could add the actual show and for movies a genre perhaps.
This could be a very powerful addition to Plex if done correctly. Would be especially powerful for those with small children.
The more I think about this idea, the more I like it.
2 Likes
