I find the podcast feature useless, even more so than the “News” feature. I can at least disable the news but I see no way to remove podcasts from my server list.
I do not begrudge others for wanting and using podcasts but Plex should not shove them in everyone’s face.
Yes, I understand that I can ignore the podcast entry in my server list BUT I do not want to even see the entry.
Again, thank you Plex for adversely impacting my Plex experience once again.
Podcasts can be enabled/disabled the same way like News.
try https://app.plex.tv/desktop#!/settings/online-media-sources
@flow said:
@Elijah_Baley said:
I find the podcast feature useless, even more so than the “News” feature. I can at least disable the news but I see no way to remove podcasts from my server list.
The deactivation of podcasts is exactly on the same page as the one for news…
Thank you. I never thought to look there, in fact I forgot where the news was disabled.
I did NOT want this moved!!! You, Plex must have moved it just in an attempt to hide negative feelings.
Plex please put it back in the general section where it belongs!!!
@Elijah_Baley said:
I did NOT want this moved!!! You, Plex must have moved it just in an attempt to hide negative feelings.
It concerns Podcasts, so I moved it into this new category.
It was certainly not an attempt to hide it, but to collect all threads concerning podcasts into one place, so they can be found better.
@OttoKerner said:
@Elijah_Baley said:
I did NOT want this moved!!! You, Plex must have moved it just in an attempt to hide negative feelings.It concerns Podcasts, so I moved it into this new category.
It was certainly not an attempt to hide it, but to collect all threads concerning podcasts into one place, so they can be found better.
I posted it where I thought it belonged and that is where I want it. You moved it to hide it from others, like me, me that believe it is a total waste of time and effort.
I will never ever intentionally enter the podcasts section and I believe there are at least a few others that feel that podcasts should be disabled by default and instructions for enabling should have been included with the announcement email.
But I guess my judgement could not possibly be correct or important and Plex always knows best.
Thank you for moving this back where I wanted it.
Too bad they don’t spend this much effort fixing the features the paying customers aren’t getting like easy channel rescans, grid guide, …> @Elijah_Baley said:
@OttoKerner said:
@Elijah_Baley said:
I did NOT want this moved!!! You, Plex must have moved it just in an attempt to hide negative feelings.It concerns Podcasts, so I moved it into this new category.
It was certainly not an attempt to hide it, but to collect all threads concerning podcasts into one place, so they can be found better.I posted it where I thought it belonged and that is where I want it. You moved it to hide it from others, like me, me that believe it is a total waste of time and effort.
I will never ever intentionally enter the podcasts section and I believe there are at least a few others that feel that podcasts should be disabled by default and instructions for enabling should have been included with the announcement email.
But I guess my judgement could not possibly be correct or important and Plex always knows best.
As someone who has mostly moved on to emby, I have to admit that like the podcast feature.
I cannot fathom the patience mods must have to even attempt civil discourse with people around here. lol
@“Smiling Maybe” said:
I cannot fathom the patience mods must have to even attempt civil discourse with people around here. lol
Agreed, Plex changes something and it makes people act like their world is ending.
This whole thread reflects this!
If people calmed down abit, they wouldn’t look so silly.
OP should take note…
@Elijah_Baley said:
I will never ever intentionally enter the podcasts section and I believe there are at least a few others that feel that podcasts should be disabled by default and instructions for enabling should have been included with the announcement email.But I guess my judgement could not possibly be correct or important and Plex always knows best.
Plex Knows - ‘Best’ - is up for serious debate.
WTF is a Podcast - and W(hy)TF would I ever want to view/listen to one through my Personal Media Server? More ways for Plex to generate income? Is user data-mining not paying the bills? Here’s an idea… stop alienating users and more of them would be willing to support Plex by buying a Plex Pass.
So who’s idea was it to put Non-English Speakers in charge of arbitrarily changing ‘Unwatched’ to ‘Unplayed’ (both triggering a ‘Spell Check’ warning)? Did someone’s google translator lose something in the translation? This is at least part of the reason nobody can get Plex’s Goofy Transcoder turned off - 'cause nobody knows what those complex google translator based instructions are saying (or Plex makes money every time that Goofy Transcoder kicks in)! It’s like trying to construct an IKEA Entertainment Center by reading those Chinese to Israeli to Lithuanian to Spanglish instructions - and why my IKEA Entertainment Center looks like a Weasel Maze Fun House.
FYI:
Unwatched means you haven’t watched it.
Unplayed is how you would describe your cherished Uriah Heep Album - still in the unopened cellophane wrapper.
I’m not saying either one is right, but one is more right than the other one and if changing those are supposed to make me feel better by seeing you’re actually doing something - it ain’t working. Try actually doing something.
I hear what Elijah_Baley expressed in the OP post from a lot of people. The feeling is that Plex is reaching out into new areas but doing so at the expense of existing customers. They see work done on PlexAmp, VR, News, Podcasts, etc as lost dev hours that could have been used for the core features that are lacking or feel unfinished. Certainly that is a valid argument as well as the reverse that several different teams can be working on different things at the same time, but of course all development has to be paid for, so the real question is where the money should be spent in development. 
I think most people would see the “News” as lackluster and probably don’t use it much if at all. The people I talk to would rather just go to CNN, Fox News, FaceBook (ick/yuck for news), insert favorite site, to stay up to date on news if they want it. They get to pick the journalistic sites that appeal to them with or without bias.
PlexAmp is seen by many as nice, but to little to late. It’s seen as 10 year old technology delivered late in the life cycle of the product. It’s counter productive to the way many people use music these days. We used to have to own or have the music to load on our MP3 players or smart phones. Now the majority of music people use services like Spotify, Pandora, Slacker, Tidal, Amazon, Google, Apple, etc that host the music and allow us to search for our favorite artists or similar artists/music without purchase of specific music. Users of these services usually don’t have big music collections because they don’t need or want to. PlexAmp does bring some nice improvements to music listening but unfortunately are limited to that one client and not available on the devices most people would have hooked up to their audio system. So for many it’s another “near miss”.
VR is quite a niche product. It’s certainly not a feature the masses of Plex users are going to use. Let’s just leave it at that.
Podcasts are arguably more useful then anything mentioned thus far. Like the online music services, Podcasts have been the “other” radio killer. We are no longer at the mercy of the radio station programming department. We can pick and choose what type of commentary we want to listen to! Podcasts while still very functional, is morphing in new directions and uses each day. There are now tons of channels on Youtube that are both audio and video and essentially “video podcasts” but on a different easier to use medium. They are way easier to monetize and find (embedded in other web pages, search results) for people as well without any special tools which is a prime reason people use them.
People who do use Podcasts tend to use specialized tools and directories. I know I personally D/L the content vs streaming so I can use them in the car (no data usage) or while cutting the grass where WIFI won’t work well, etc… I can add a podcast from anywhere on the web by hitting the RSS link to add it. I don’t see myself changing my podcast use over to Plex since it won’t have the feature I use (yet) like syncing or video support. I’m sure I’m a more advanced user (but aren’t most existing podcast users?) then is targeted here. However, with that said Plex will expose a lot of new users to Podcasts because they have made it easy with a basic set of features and decent default casts.
Personal Opinion:
I’m not really pro nor con on these services themselves. What I’m not happy about is the way they are implemented. I’m not a fan of giving up control over my users and what appears to come from my system. I don’t like features like NEWS, PODCASTS just showing up on pages with my content on them. This has been hashed before on the forums. With each new release of a feature not running on my media server this issue becomes worse. It’s MY SERVER, MY SERVICE, MY USERS and I want to control the PROGRAMMING of what info is available when someone is connected to my server. This is what Plex doesn’t get or will argue with. These are NOT Plex users, they are MY users. This is something other software providers do understand and value.
There are tons of Podcasts that aren’t appropriate for some audiences or young kids and admins of systems shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to turn off said features or give up control (we have) of this. Any user with a Plex Account can turn on/off these features against the will of the admin. While this is probably good for Plex, Inc. it’s bad for the admin and a step in the wrong direction or evolution of the product IMHO.
On the Flip-side. I may really love Podcasts & News and want it to function just like one of my libraries and seem like my server(s) have a lot more content then it does. Why can’t I do this? I think a lot of people would prefer EASY control over these new features. It would make it easy to not “share” features with kids but to share them with adults for example, or remove said feature when someone calls YOU (not Plex) up for support or to complain. I could then tell them to go pound sand, remove them completely or just remove said service BUT it’s my decision, not someone else’s. Surely if I nuke the user, their use of any Plex software just halted and they won’t be using it anymore for News or Podcasts.
For me it’s about control of these new features and what comes down the road similar to them. Plex used to make it easy to control the content and what is/isn’t shared with people but are throwing this away. This type of functionality/control still would not be hard to change and should in order to make a better product.
I personally would have no issue with Plex releasing a streaming TV subscription service like many others, mini Netflix, a music service, etc but I want to control who has access to such services when the user is connected to my server. Is that to much to ask for?
