The Verge says Plex want to become a one-stop streaming destination

[kamhouse]

The Verge has a new article:

Plex wants to become a one-stop destination in the streaming wars

Plex wants to become a one-stop destination in the streaming wars

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Suggestion to the Plex developers. If you can pull this off you really need to create a bookmarking system or watch list that adds a video to a section visible on the home screen.

This has also been a feature request in one form or another for the last 6 years.

Allow TV shows to be manually added to "On Deck"

I have a number of programs I watch, but sometimes they fall out of the “On Deck” window. However, I still want those programs on the “On Deck” list so they are there when I am ready to get back to them. I would like to be able to manually add those programs back to the “On Deck” list.

[Xhaka]

Plex to partner with Warner Bros to stream free ad-supported movies and TV shows

I’m surprised this hasn’t shown up on the forums this morning. It’s hitting all my news feeds. What do you think? The deal means Plex users (again, US-only) will have access to a selection of TV and films streaming via the Plex app. The content is completely free, but it will be ad-supported. There may be a catch because we still don’t know what sort of content we’ll get—Plex doesn’t have a list or even examples of what you’ll be able to see. There’s also no specific launch date. We just kno…

[kamhouse]

I’m guessing at the very least it will be like the Roku Channel. A variety of add supported shows and movies.

The harder challenge will be to try and get companies like Hulu, Netflix, or Disney+ to participate. We’ve already seen Microsoft’s multiple failures when they tried to create a unified Media Player and unified hubs in Windows Phone, i.e. other companies want their own branding and just create their own dedicated media player and apps instead. Unless Plex can build in brand labeling for these services the same problem is likely to occur.

[sekthree]

@kamhouse

Unless Plex can build in brand labeling for these services the same problem is likely to occur.

i think the easiest way IMO is to just have the streaming service flash at the beginning of each movie/show… like netflix does or hell like Plex CURRENTLY does with pre-roll. Or even, when browsing a multi list of content it can be in small text “provided by ”

[kamhouse]

@sekthree

the easiest way IMO is to just have the streaming service flash at the beginning of each movie/show

Yep. Other options though, might be to have new sections on the home screen similar to recently added TV or Movies. New on Hulu, Netflix Watchlist, etc.

Alternatively they could have labels under each poster labeling it as Hulu or Netflix, etc. A customization version if this is something I’d like to see anyway. This might be the ideal solution because then no matter where a poster showed up – On Deck, Watch Lists, or Playlists, or unified search results – the branding would stand out.

New tag field for labeling the poster view/thumbnails

Could we get an additional tag field, below the Categories field, specifically to create a note or label which is overlayed on the poster thumbnails. The DVR service could be set to automatically add a label such as “TV Recording” or some such and users could individually make labels such as Blu-ray, DVD, Home Video, Google Play, Amazon, or whatever suits their fancy. Labels could be especially helpful when using fake place holders for movies stored on Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, etc. I…

[Abo]

I don’t know, i see a lot of Boxee in this idea and we all know how that ended…

[JamminR]

A major part of my concern for Plex lately is loss of focus for the original reasons I bought in.
I fear in trying to become the streaming app to rule them all, they’ve lost some focus, and some customers, on what they were originally good at - being the best media player for personal content.

To me, they’ve added content lately that is NOT free. Commercials are a waste of my already limited time. I subscribe to pay services to avoid not having to have my time occupied by anything other than the story.

This Variety dot com article quote really irks me.

From co-founder and chief product officer Scott Olechowski
Still, Olechowski seemed cognizant that there nonetheless could be some backlash. “Anytime we do anything, there are some who don’t like what we do,” Olechowski said with a sigh. “It doesn’t matter what it is. And it’s a vocal minority, every single time.”

However, he seemed confident that the even naysayers would eventually come around, especially once the company adds large amounts of free movies from major studios like Warner Bros. “There’s a lot of great content,” he said. “I’m pretty sure even the haters will use it.”

I might be wrong, I don’t think Steve quite understands the customer base. Most of us came to plex to GET AWAY from commercials. Cord cutting, DVR commercial skipping.
Now he’s hoping we go back?

I can’t say I will not ‘ever’ use it, but I’m sure as heck not going to go to it first.

Try to strike a deal with non in-video commercial ventures (Netflix/Amazon), then I might use Plex as my goto for 3rd party content. I hate both Netflix and Amazon on my roku for content searching/browsing right now.

[nibbles]

Sort of the last thing I want to do is stream content from the Internet.
Nasty low res garbage, clogs the network at the worst time, major corps watching my every click, tapping me with fees to make the board members rich, charging by the byte, by the minute, by the show, eating my privacy, gosh darnit no!

EDIT: I swore oops

[JuiceWSA]

@JamminR

Now he’s hoping we go back?

Yea, apparently Steve doesn’t know Plex users will even go so far as to DOWNLOAD or RIP Amazon and Netflix content to get away from that ONE INTERNAL pre-roll ad (because we can), and to avoid the patented Amazon/Netflix Shrinking Credits Tech - so they can insert more (internal) ads (also because we can), but Steve thinks we’ll clamor for broken ad-insertion tech that’s gonna insert the same Bounty ad 74 times in an hour of media?

Yea… not in this lifetime.

[kamhouse]

@JamminR

I don’t think Steve quite understands the customer base.

Alternatively, Plex wants a wider customer base. Most of the existing customers might not care about a commercial riddled streaming service, but Plex might be hoping they can draw in new customers. There must be a few out there, otherwise the Roku Channel, Crackle, Tubi TV, and PopcornFlix wouldn’t continue to exist.

The biggest problem they have to worry about with this idea is feature creep and the old “jack of all trades, but master of none” syndrome. Plex needs to make sure they don’t make everything harder to use or let the competition pass them by. For example: Channels just released a beta feature letting you sign into TV Everywhere compatible live TV streaming services and record those into the DVR. It is very similar to the Silicon Dust cable channel service from 2018, except as far as I can tell it is not tied to a tuner.

Channels DVR Integrates Streaming Cable Networks - DRM Free TV Everywhere with Commercial Skip

Plex was never able to implement the Silicon Dust feature (before it ultimately failed anyway) because their DVR code doesn’t allow for separate guide listings. As far as I know they still can’t use multiple guides on multiple tuners.

I wonder if Plex has been so focused on looking for “different customers” that they aren’t keeping an eye on pursuing the market trends.

[JamminR]

@kamhouse

feature creep and the old “jack of all trades, but master of none” syndrome

As I stated ‘lack of focus’, this, unfortunately, is what I fear they’ve already been doing for at least 1-2 years, and for the foresee-able future.

@kamhouse

pursuing the market trends.

Unfortunately for trend followers (perhaps including Plex), the online discussions I follow (slashdot/reddit/etc), and my own circle of friends, see the trend to pull content from a few streaming subscription services and fragment across 10 different ‘branded’ ones, or, offer (NOT)free advertisement supported, is causing unhappiness. Customers are silently rebelling - in various ways, most involving wallets.

@JuiceWSA - I don’t mind pre-roll ads for in-service other shows/movies I might like. I see that type of content on friends shared servers and I just have to shake my head in disgust. Perhaps the interfaces suck, but, avoiding the 15-30 second ads for other shows I might like on the same service?? Really? How much of a mooch does someone have to be??
I’ve already found several new shows that way. I’m kind of glad they do it.
Hell, trying to browse for new stuff on either service (re:Amazon/Netflix specifically) is nearly impossible, hence why I mention using Plex if they ever pull in browsing subscription services I already belong to in the same layout as my own media (separated of course, so as to not see mixed up whether I own it locally or just can stream it through services)