So especially after the new criminalization of streaming or downloading in the USA omnibus bill my previous approach of paying for the services that got me the content I wanted but the. Using Plex because the UX is way better is now not viable.
So I’m forced to use these horrible services. And even Apple TV doesn’t fix this and do the obvious like Plex + sonar etc and allow you to subscribe to tv and moves you want to see and have it automatically show as new or on deck if a continuation and continue to watch. (Especially new stuff not yet aired)
While I know that Plex can’t embed their content without agreements that these short sighted companies won’t grant, I think that there is another option using what Plex already has that could be a game changer:
Let us add tv shows and movies we want to watch using a search on tvdb or
Movie db or whatever Plex is using similar to how sonaar and Plex dvr does now using the guide data but open it up to everything. Let us filter by content that is on the services we subscribe to or choose all and tell us what service we’ll need to be able to get it.
Allow us to add the services we have and set basics about it (yes this would require Plex to keep track of things like Hulu versus Hulu + live tv or sling blue versus sling orange)
Then When we add a show put that content in as if the files existed (some sort of stub like a shortcut) and show them to us on deck etc.
Obviously if it’s on something we get with live tv/dvr in Plex already just use that for the best experience whenever possible. This would also have the effect of searching not being limited to content in the next 2 weeks in the epg which would be a major win.
Then for stuff we couldn’t get from live tv, use deep linking on devices to automatically launch the best service we have access to with said content similar to how Apple TV app does it even though it sucks at the rest because of no on deck, new, etc to keep track of where you are.
When we come back to Plex ask if we watched it or stay on the screen for the episode with the watched flag enabled. Let us set it so that when we flag as watched it automatically is hidden.
The weaknesses of this of course is that Plex can’t get completion status of an episode nor trigger dvring without access to their apis. But that is still WAY better than the alternatives now and while there are a few companies doing similar in the stores they’re all awful and don’t get it right like Plex does.
But if integrated into the dvr style look up stuff that’s there you could prompt when adding a new show to launch the app and set our dvr options. And for services that offer live tv or specific air times, put it right into the unified live tv/dvr guide for us too so we can browse as if it was normal tv in those cases and perhaps have a roll up that gets pinned of new stuff for the day for services that dump a season or a movie at midnight or whatever.
Provide an open integration point that is basically just a json or xml file for services that can be loaded. Maintain your own for those that haven’t chosen to participate directly with you. Basically it need only define where the openid connect metadata file is for single signon which they all support, the pathing scheme with wildcards for content per platform (web, iOS, android, windows, mac, Linux if they have apps for the last 3), content epg data for the user endpoint in standard format, and then mappings for user progress in content with a standard interface you give them and the same for dvr recording. (Of course enterprising souls would create docker repos probably that emulated these endpoints to provide them when possible). Allow everything to be optional in the file and automatically use whatever they’re willing to provide. Allow that package to include code that you run in a container or similar to will put the conversion of their current api in Plex itself if you want although as long as you’re flexible lots of people will just create docker images that do emulation but major services won’t and this would give them a lower barrier to entry on Plex than having to get special endpoints for Plex in their apis.
And if you did this well the services might see you as an ally more and opt to do deals with you to give you access to api calls with single sign on credentials to get progress and set dvr/download.
And if that went well you might get them to allow you to add their streams and do encrypted download into the native Plex as long as you were willing to limit the streams and locations that content could go to.
This would be a major stepping stone to partnerships if executed correctly and would be a major win for those of us that now have these god awful services inflicted upon us.
I’ve done some poc on this and the basics would work with virtually all services. On web it always works if they have web access. On iOS any service that has integrated with Apple TV will work automatically and others like Netflix will work too (sort of integrated but has deep linking). On android most work as proven by TiVo 4K streamer that does similar to this so this is doable and can be incremental over time proving to the services that they can gain viewers and usage if they work more closely with Plex (and of course you know this type of thing is coming from Apple so it’s in their interest to make sure there is competition)
