Recommendation based on previously watched/rated

Feature Suggestions
1

Request

Add a recommendation section based on previously watched or rated content. This could be similar to how Netflix will suggest new content based on what you have watched. Plex currently does this, to a limited extent, by having the “Related Content” section when viewing a piece of media.

Why it would be useful

For users that have large libraries it is sometimes a struggle to find new content that you would enjoy. The last thing I want to do after coming home from a hard day at work is try and find a new movie that I would enjoy. This would remove the limitation of knowing what type of media you want to watch that is present in the current system.

Current Workarounds

There are two workarounds currently, both very flawed

  1. Choose the type of media you want to watch. Select your favorite movie/show from that type, and then choose “Related Movie/Shows” from that media’s page and pick something from there. This is a multi step process and gives a limited recommendation based on broad categories.

  2. Install a 3rd party plugin that dynamically creates a new library based on trakt.tv’s recommendations. The end result of this is similar to what I think Plex should implement in the end, but just without the need of installing 3rd party tools. This is achieved by syncing all media and watch status with a trakt.tv account via their API (https://github.com/trakt/Plex-Trakt-Scrobbler). Once that is syncing with trakt you can use another tool to dynamically create a library based on trakt.tv’s recommendation of what you should watch based on your previously watched media (https://github.com/adamgot/python-plexlibrary). I have not been able to get this to work for multiple users, so a native Plex solution would be superior to this.

2

Big fan of this feature. I see a few big problems though:

  1. Plex would really have to roll their own. Unless you are ok with Plex calling some API with your entire viewing history to get recommendations…

  2. Building a recommendation engine is hard. Really hard. If I remember correctly, Netflix held a massive competition years ago, paid the winner a million dollars, and then pretty much threw the solution away. This was a contest that drew a lot of very talented people.

  3. If Plex did roll their own system, it would almost have to be a system that aggregated user data and feed that into a decision engine. Feeding Plex all of the media you are watching would go against what most people are comfortable with.

1 Like
3

Hi Plexsters!

Whilst this is mainly regarding the older PMP in TV Mode, i think these suggestions would be great throughout all systems.

Whilst using Plex is amazing, I think it could be improved to provide the user more options of finding their content. Netlfix have a really great UI, and way of suggesting content from my view history.

On Plex, films and tv shows have generic hubs, such as recently added/released, continue watching etc. Wouldn’t it be great if Plex had extra hubs/sections which was added to you home section, and updated automatically and reacting to your play habits?

For example, If a genre was being watched often, other genre matching items from our library could be offered and lined up on our home screen. Similarly a ‘because you watched x you’d might be interested in x’
If you’re in a film, Plex will offer related films. Why not remember i watched this movie and offer the related ones next time i log on?

The UI seems very fragmented/basic in regards to content discovery.

For example, if you click on a films details, go though the cast member icon, plex will show you everything in that library with that actor. However if you came through the film section, you will only get results of that actor in your film media. TV Shows with this actor won’t show up. Why? If i want to know what else they’re in, why not do a full search of my library?

Other suggested hubs we could have on our home screen hubs could be genres, so all thrillers etc could be lined up, top picks on what plex thinks we’ll like next, popular items with other users in our household.

This could be achieved, as Plex has a record of our watch history, and pulls metadata from various sources. So its more than able to offer up automatically relevant content to a specific item.

What do you guys think?

4

Would be a thumbs up from me.

5

It’s really a great idea

6

While reviewing this suggestion, I’ve noticed that there’s already an existing suggestion discussing an option to provide hubs / recommendations based on your watch preferences and ratings (incl. the above mentioned reference to Netflix). I’d therefore like to ask you to comment/vote in that other thread to help us avoid distracting or cannibalizing votes (also given it’s been there for a few years longer and has collected more votes).

Since this post was created, Plex have also updated the UI and provide a new centralized person page which will list all content in all your libraries from cast & crew members (incl. their filmography).

With that in mind… unless I’ve missed some unique aspect of this suggestion, I’ll close this thread as a duplicate. My apologies for the inconvenience to everybody who’s been voting/commenting here.

7

So I’ll name my annoyance first, before elaborating on my enhancement request. I find (quite often) that my loving husband will check PLEX, then Hulu, then Netflix … and ultimately start watching a movie on Netflix. I’ll be on the sofa, notice the movie he’s chosen, and say “Hey, do you know that I’ve already put this on PLEX!?” And he’ll say “Ok, but I saw it on Netflix.”

So basically, we have over 350 movies by my last count. He does not like to scroll through the entire list of movies when he is looking for something to watch. But the PLEX landing screen only displays “Recently Added” or movies partially watched “On Deck.”

I know there’s big data involved in Netflix’ “Recommended for you,” but I wonder if there could be an enhancement where you could get a random suggested sampling from your library, something that you might be able to set up like an iTunes smart playlist.

Maybe you have an On Deck category that displays, “Unwatched Family Movies from the 80s and 90s.” Or “Action movies from the last 15 years.” Some combination of conditions that the PLEX Administrator can put together for their family to see upon login. (along with the option to randomize the returned movies so that it does not show the same titles each time you get to it)

TL:DR, I’m sick of my spouse watching movies on Netflix when I’ve gone through the trouble of PLEX. Help please! =)

1 Like
8

This is exactly what I want as well. In addition I would like an email or a push notification.

9

This is one of the two features Plex is missing, in my opinion.
The other one being advanced manual metadata editing.

I’d really like recommendations based on what I’ve already watched and rated, but Plex features this only in a very limited way.

I’ve read arguments saying it would be to complex to develop such a recommendation engine.

But in fact, it’s already build in. The new “Movies & TV” section which features Movies to stream from a centralized Plex server (only accessable via “http://app.plex.tv”) gives me recommendations based on movies I’ve already watched.

All Plex would have to do is take local movies I’ve watched and/or rated accordingly, then show me movies that are related.

Please implement this feature for all Plex content, until then I’m sticking with Emby, which has this feature already.

10

Casting my vote for this.

Plex now has a “Recommended On Your Services” row in the “Trending” section of Discover. I haven’t seen it discussed, but it is working well in suggesting media based on what was watched on my own server. Could this be applied to a “Recommended For You” row for our own media?

15

wanted this to be a thing for a long time

16

Bump! This is what I came to suggest.
The only thing I miss from my old Kodi setup was the different recommendations it would provide for the movie library. It would be great if we could add a few more options.
Examples: Random list, Because you watched…, Best movies from a chosen genre.

17

Except for the „because you watched“ part… you should be able to cover those by creating smart collections and publishing them to the Home Screen / Recommendations tab.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/publishing-collections/

1 Like