Can Plex just hire Lunatixz (Lunatixz (Lunatixz) · GitHub) or Rafael Vieira (rafaelvieiras (Rafael Vieira) · GitHub) to port over the concept to Plex? Just contract the work and then you can leave your main devs to focus on other items.
3 Likes
Channels DVR release this very feature late last year, it works flawlessly which I can’t say the same from all the hacks (dizquitv, pseudotv, ersatzTV) I’ve tried so I could run this in Plex. I can’t believe after 7 years and 161 comments on this post this is still not a feature. I love Plex, this clearly has an audience and it make a lot of people happy so we don;’t have to go through hacks to get this to work.
Please, we want the Virtual Channels feature in Plex., how many more votes do you need?
3 Likes
On this note, then I advise Plex to raise prices, get rid of LIFETIME packages and have EVERYONE on $100 yearly plans because the business model that Channels has is obviously making those improvements.
Plex is already a much bigger and developed company, with a lot of employees, which makes it harder for features to see daylight, they probably have stakeholder meetings to decide which features they need to work next. They don’t just make money with our subscriptions, they also have ads in the Live TV channels, which makes it more profitable than Channels which is a small operation.
So you obviously understand the basics between a major company with VC money being pumped in vs. a company like Channels. It took my wild comment above for you to blatantly answer your own question of why this feature, like many others get sidelined or not considered. It took nearly a DECADE for us all to get the ability to add custom Playlist Cover Artwork.
Besides, Channels covers one area of expertise, that even both Plex and Tivo can’t do. Channels, while understandably does DVR well, they aren’t managing content like Plex and have limited their development to just a small handful of client platforms.
Plex has a bigger purpose, is a behemoth for media and has more client platforms to develop for.
Channels won’t touch the Roku platform after the fiasco of wasted energy they put in trying to get the mechanics of it to work. The Roku app platform seemed to have it’s own limitations, which Channels supposedly has no intentions of developing for anymore.
My whole household is Roku platform and Channels FAILED me to deliver a client that would work for my needs. I already kicked and stomped, made my voice heard on the matter and ultimately was told NO, it won’t happen.
So while we would like to point out all the flaws with how we each aren’t getting features or parity between services, it’s only within their scope of expertise, money, and internal discussions, and most if ever has nothing to do with us. There’s gonna be limits to things whether we like it or not.
1 Like
Just posted a feature request similar to PseudoTV but with a slightly different take on how to implement it. A blending of these two ideas would be cool.
1 Like
Is there a step by step process for these work-arounds to get virtual channels into Plex? I have a HD Homerun but am not familiar with XTeve, Zap2it or DisqueTV. I have used github before but I am in no way extremely savvy with work-around techniques. I have used Channels for their “virtual channel” feature and would love for it to be offered in Plex natively but since that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon I’d love to try what you are referencing here.
1 Like
Would love this TV watching experience. I’ll be checking out PsuedoTV and dizque, but would love this to natively work.
1 Like
Just recently set up ErsatzTV and it works pretty well so far. Had one small issue and the developer responded to my question within 3 minutes with a solution.
2 Likes
still wanting this as a native feature and not as something to be accomplished via a workaround.
1 Like
The more I think about this, the more I like it…as long as it could be available to ALL users, not just HOME users…especially since this is my local media that would create the “virtual channels”, not broadcast live TV…
Bumping this. I use DizqueTV for my custom live TV channels, but I’d rather have Plex do this natively so that I don’t have to use Xteve and XMLTV guide sources.
1 Like
Hi everyone! Just hopping in here to call out that this is something of interest for us! We won’t be releasing it soon but it is on our radar and we are trying to make sure that when we build it we make it as good as it can be. Stay tuned for more info on this next year!
23 Likes
Really happy to hear this is at least on Plex’s radar.
This would make me move over from Emby 100%.
PLEASE - Sooner rather than later if at all possible!
I’m glad at least a few Plex employees are considering this feature but by the fact it has taken this long for an official response is surprising. Still though, given the fact they’ve already developed technology for this during their Hackathon a while back, they should do it soon.
1 Like
This would be Plex’s killer feature for me.
1 Like
I made this suggestion earlier this year. Plex, look at Ersatz TV, Pseudo TV, DisqueTV, and Irish Craic Party’s Retro TV (https://youtu.be/luxFdsAkG80?si=6Y6bsJq1JsxH0x9j) and use those to guide your programming decisions
At a very basic level, it should:
- integrate into the livetv channels
*allow me to assign channel numbers and logos, with opacity setting so it’s normal for a little, then fades to maybe 10% during the show if you choose, or just disappears
*allow me to channel surf through as if it were regular TV and see the media even if it’s fifteen minutes into it
*schedule media, collections, and playlists on the hour and half hour
*fill up the time slot with “Filler” aka commercials and trailers, at chapter breaks in the media to get to the next half hour on the clock and be able to limit Filler to the same year as the content release year or same year and later for nostalgia feels. I’ll be adding parody trailers for the sake of a good laugh.
*assign collections as programming blocks with unique logos, like Jetix, Fox Kids, etc, Saturday morning cartoons, etc, with their own schedules
*assign playlists as marathons on specific days or days of the week
*schedule shows to run sequentially, randomly, or manually
*limit “Filler” by year so that if I’m watching a movie from 1986, my Filler is also from that same year, or that year and later
*allow station identification at chapter breaks or programming block indents (like Saturday morning cartoons had, Knight Rider had, or USA up all night), before and after commercials, like Transformers also had (“transformers will return after these messages” “we now return to the transformers”), and ‘next time, on…’ at the end of a show’s playtime.
*allow schedule blocks for specific times of year, so Christmas movies run in December only or just December 25th, and horror genre in October, for example
*reskin the channel guide to look like the mid 80s continental cablevision channel guide that scrolled, and assign that to a channel as an option
*ability to share TV channels you create with any other person who has access to your Plex server. A new way to ‘watch together’
*ability to create a channel based on genre tags (Rom Com channel, Horror channel, etc), year released (all 1981, or all 1981-1989 shows, for example), release/air date within (channel for stuff released in the last year)
*ability to mix media libraries (movies, TV shows, music videos, etc) within a single channel. I personally have Youtube science videos saved so I can have my own ‘Learning Channel’ and ‘Discovery’ for Ersatz TV, and I want to do the same within Plex when this feature is released (and doesn’t crash as often as Ersatz seems to do.).
1 Like
Being able to stream direct URLs from a M3U file in the TV section for radio broadcasts, icecasts, online video content is ideal. This feature would solve my issue as it is stated! I don’t care how it’s done, I just love that concept instead of having to keep direct links to my icecasts and run via other apps. It makes the process clunky for me without this feature.
1 Like
@McWanke - This would be great, any updates?
And please have the ability to share any TV Channels created with people we share our libraries with ?
I’ve just been looking at https://ersatztv.org/docs/intro
Having this a native Plex server feature would be amazing.
3 Likes
