The only two things I use when watching videos are Plex and YouTube. So I’d like to get YouTube (free) in Plex. I did some research and found this was an old issue, perhaps in line with Web Shows and Plex has changed, now has “subscriptions” and I see such things as YouTube (free) and YouTubeTV (I assume that expensive stuff) under subscriptions.
I tried out GitHub - kolsys/YouTubeTV.bundle: Plex YouTube video plugin and installed it but I just don’t know how to get it working in Plex. I mean I see YoutTube TV in the Plug-ins section but I don’t know how actually to watch YouTube stuff through Plex. I know I must activate YouTube somehow but I don’t see how.
What is the state of streaming YouTube (free) through Plex? I’d like to only think of running one app on the TV, that is Plex.
For girns, I went into Plex > Streaming services and enabled YouTube, YouTube Free, and YouTube Premium. Didn’t seem to change anything.
I think that currently, Plex does not support youtube. As Otto said, plugins don’t seem to work anymore, so old guides/pages about youtube in Plex are likely to not work now.
As for enabling Youtube in “Streaming Services”, that is a totally different feature recently added, and it does not allow you to play any item in those services:
Plex runs their own metadata resource site, similar to IMDB, TMDB, TVDB, etc. They now allow you to view these items in-app using the “Discover” menu, which shows trailers for items across all kinds of streaming services, their release dates, and allows you to add them to a watchlist for later review. They try to keep track of which streaming services each item is on. What you would do then, is tell Plex which streaming services you own or are interested in to show you curated selections from those services. Then, they also provide a link to the service itself so you can view the item.
That is it. That is what “enabling” youtubeTV does. It does not let you view it in Plex at all.
Hmmm… Then what is the difference between YouTube, YouTube Free, and YouTube TV? I see the latter as the paid-for service and YouTube Free is obviously the free version. But what then is YouTube?
The only streaming service I have configured are those 3 YouTube things. Yet when I go to Discover I don’t see anything from YouTube. Instead, I see a bunch of stuff from my server, my friend’s server, and various other places I can purchase stuff. Not interested. I subscribe to Doug DeMuro’s YouTube channel among others. I don’t see anything listed in Discover about his channel. I can search for his name, but nothing comes up. How does one use Plex to “discover” content on YouTube channel’s that one subscribes to?
I suppose there’s some confusion about the Discover feature.
You can select your preferred streaming providers (some are ad-supported/free like Plex, some are subscriptions, some are places where you can buy/rent stuff). It’s no reference to YouTube in its entirety or an alternative frontend to access their content.
As for Discover itself… the feature is intended to expose where certain content is available; not to watch it inside Plex.
Free or not… the content on Youtube isn’t available to Plex for redistribution to their users.
It is supposed to allow you to see if a certain movie is available on e.g. Youtube when you look for it on https://watch.plex.tv/ or through the Search feature on Plex or by browsing the various hubs on the Discover media source in Plex.
It is not supposed to let you watch that movie instantly through the Plex system.
Even though this would be right thing to do in a perfect world, business and legal reality prevent Plex from doing it like that.
So deep-linking to the dedicated app of that streaming service is about the best they can do.
So is this Discover thing only for “movies”? That seems uselessly limiting. And if so what constitutes a “movie” in terms of YouTube? I use YouTube for short videos and certain content producers that I subscribe to, not for “movies” on YouTube and not for YouTube Premium.
When I go to https://watch.plex.tv I see a bunch of junk (nothing about YouTube) and an Open Plex button. That takes me to https://app.plex.tv, where I usually go directly if I care to watch something from my Plex server in a browser tab. And as I’ve stated, when I search in Plex or browse these “hubs” I don’t see anything about YouTube - perhaps I’m not seeing it from all the clutter involved, or perhaps I’m not looking at these “hubs”. I go to More and under Plex I click on Discover BETA. Is that what you mean by a “hub”?
And why is it illegal to stream free YouTube content? I see under Movies & Shows such free streaming services such as Crackle are available to be streamed. How is YouTube different in this regard?
Not just movies but only the stuff they’re offering as part of their on-demand etc. scope – not just every video anybody ever uploaded or any channels.
Content available on YouTube Premium will show that source when you search it using Plex Discover – e.g. search for the movie Kedi from 2017. The same goes for content available on “Youtube Free” – e.g. Over the Top from 1987. Keep in mind: both of those are services of YouTube, not the common video portal!
It’s not illegal – Youtube will be happy if you stream it and pay for the content either by watching ads or some other tracking of your personal data. As every other streaming platform they’re simply not overly keen for other providers to stream their stuff. Plex has a specific license agreement with the providers who’s content they offer on their own on-demand streaming platform (e.g. Crackle). The same goes for the free live streaming channels included with Plex.
Not sure why I would spend $13 to Buy / Rent it when I can watch it for free. Probably the free one has ads…
Still do not understand the difference between YouTube and YouTube Free but it probably doesn’t matter because all I was trying to do is to use Plex instead of using YouTube for the small stuff I stream from there. Not a small amount of stuff but generally short things or things from some content creators that I like. I have zero interest in paying $$$ for content from YouTube, ads or not.
Didn’t know a licensing agreement was needed to stream free stuff directly accessible from the internet.
Terms of youtube’s site probably states that to display video content from their site, you must either use the site itself, or use a specific video embed player code that youtube provides for most (all?) videos. This allows them to control the content’s availability by disabling the video here without having to physically remove/delete the video itself from their servers. If you dig into the code and found the video stream itself, you could quite possibly watch their video content (this is how video down-loader apps/sites work), but you would be breaking their terms of service. Certainly developing an app (Plex) that would enable this would paint a huge target on Plex’s back for google to go after.
As for Discover, it seems to only scrape its movies/shows from TVDB and TMDB. If someone has gone to the trouble of numbering all the videos by a particular youtube uploader, you would be able to find their content on the discover feature (such as CinemaSins and Pitch Meetings). Looking at them though, it doesn’t appear that there is a link to youtube for viewing these shows.
I’ve always believed that the discover feature was a defensive measure against MPAA threats that Plex was facilitating piracy in providing software to make it easy for people to host their own servers. This discover feature provides (mostly) helpful links back to the (for pay) source of copy-righted materials. So what amount of work they are going to do to make sure each movie source links to a place to legally acquire it will likely focus on the movies/shows by big studios. Some small youtube channel video makers are probably not on their priority list.
When it comes to youtube’s actual main content (user uploads)? Yes.
If you wish to see what new upcoming major studio movie/show releases are coming and don’t want to google it? The discover feature is pretty nice for that. Seems to me to be a lot of work for so little use, but as I said I have a theory as to why they did it.
I think you’re saying, “we CAN’T do this” but I’m hearing “we WON’T do this”.
This is not an insurmountable obstacle
I can give you a long list of other apps that already have this capability. You can search for, play or even watch Youtube content together with someone in another location directly inside their apps. Whatever you want, not just movies you have to pay for.
The list of apps that do this are free. Some of them you don’t even need an account for, and you don’t have to sign in with a Youtube account. Keep in mind these are not huge companies that run these apps with tons of cash to throw around. Certainly B-list companies compared to Plex.
When I saw this listed in the discovery choices, I thought I could pick a Youtube video and use the watch together feature with a friend connected to my server. Wow, this does nothing!!!
If you enable a feature on any app and can’t tell what it does, it’s probably a bad sign
You’ve likely hit the nail on the head here, however unintentionally. Plex would likely make a much more appetizing target for any perceived licensing violations resulting from such a feature. Plex is arguably the largest player in the home media server application space and likely under much greater scrutiny than others. They need to ensure they dot their i’s and cross their t’s.
These companies are B-list compared to Plex but are still very popular apps well known to many including Google
Maybe Google doesn’t have the resources to go after these companies?
Youtube does not discourage inserting their API into other apps which is why so many other companies do it.
They have very clearly stated polices on what you can and cannot do in this regard. These policies are on a public website anybody has access to.
This appears to be a bit of unjustified fearmongering
If you want to dot your i’s and cross your t’s, reading that document is a good first step
I don’t personally have any i’s to dot and t’s to cross in this regard, but to which document are you referring?
And also please understand that I’m referring to the more general case of streaming from 3rd parties/IPTV streaming with Plex, not just Youtube. Opening up streaming from any service at all via plug-ins is fraught with potential legal landmines. Plex would need to integrate Youtube specifically, not via any generic plug-in support, if it were deemed to be appropriate.
I am not referring to unsupported 3rd party plug-ins in anyway. This is fully supported by YouTube
The documentation I’m referring to are contained in the Youtube API Services and Policies
For instance, inside Discord you click a YouTube logo and are prompted to agree to the YouTube terms of service.
The UI is similar to, but not identical to YouTubes homepage (YouTubes TOS)
You can search for, watch, or remote stream these YouTube videos with an unlimited number of friends.
You are providing yet another way for people to consume YouTube content. There is no downside to them. They actually have a dedicated, free service to companies like Plex for this exact kind of application.
The companies that implement this inside their apps advertise this feature to get people to sign up just like Plex could. More people to sign up who might watch Plex driven content with your ads
This is not a secret illegal thing the way it’s being represented here. This is encouraged by YouTube and the sites that promote this feature advertise it…
