If Discover was actually a choice, no one would be this angry. The fact is that Plex is plastering garbage all over our searches without our consent. This abomination is simply not acceptable and Plex should be ashamed of the disrespect they are showing towards their paying customers.
5 Likes
You need to read my post as I said.
I did not say my media at all.
Again
It was choice for me to add or use Discover. Not for you?
I get it. You’re angry. You don’t like Discover because it has carries with it a whiff of ads. And it is a whiff compared to other Plex online content.
Would you elaborate on what this does mean then?
No, it was not a choice. There was no opt-out provided and the staff has said this was intentional. Try turning off every single provider and doing a search; you’ll get the abomination in the OP. That’s not a whiff, that’s a landfill. That simply isn’t acceptable and I have a massive issue with my money being used to put food on the table of those responsible for this. Bring back a proper search and fire every single one of the dirtbags who were pushing for this to be mandatory, immediately.
4 Likes
It’s a choice to add Discover to your home screen. It is not (currently) a choice to have additional items added to your search results.
They really borked the Search function a few weeks before they rolled this out. I fear even having the ability to remove extra-curricular items from search results won’t restore the super simple/useful functionality we used to have.
1 Like
Neither are acceptable. Period.
1 Like
Agree on the degradation of ordinary search quality but that’s unfortunately been an issue for while. I don’t get ads there though; just results from things are all that good a match.
That’s incorrect. Yes, you can choose not to pin Discover. You can choose not to click on Discover.
However, you will still see advertising in your search results for streaming service content, even from those you don’t tell Plex you have.
They already degraded search by removing the search results page. Now they improved the speed at which it shows results from the Plex servers you have access to, but with the catch that it also shows you advertisements for streaming content.
5 Likes
Alarmist narrative you say, but it looks like the direction plex is going tbh, shoving this beta “features” upon us is not something we agreed but here we are
2 Likes
Hi All, I have direct personal experience of Plex injecting adverts into my local content - content which is not available on any streaming service.
This may be a malfunction, and part of beta functionality, but in any case, it is unacceptable behaviour. I have a Plex Pass and expect Plex to honour its long standing functionality.
Keep out of my local content
When Plex makes changes as any commercial entity does, it needs to go above and beyond to avoid breaking its key brand promise…
Not happy… 
What do you mean?
I mean I am playing a movie that is completely local to my system. Every 15 mins or so, Plex is injecting 30 - 70 seconds of ads. I hope that this is simply a bug, because if it’s intentional, it’s a disgrace.
Unfortunately, I have zero percent confidence that I can do anything to escalate this to anything approaching actual customer service…
You need to document this claim about ads being inserted into you media. What you describe is exactly what happens when watching from Plex Media and TV Shows.
This accusation has been made before and it always turns out to be someone watching a copy of something they have in their personal media but selecting to play it from Plex Movies and TV Shows inadvertently.
2 Likes
Not this time - I quit my server, quit my client, restarted from zero and watched the exact same local content . No ads this time. Not Plex content, just my own - lengthy drone footage if you must know… As I said, I’m hoping this is simply something buggy in their Discover feature or latest release, mistakenly tagging something being watched as being streamed. I certainly hope so…
Which type of Plex client were you using?
A kind of Smart TV, perchance?
If you can reproduce this, and record it happening (wish a smartphone?) that would be very, very interesting.
Or share server or client logs.
Discover doesn’t appear to have changed anything related to local playback. There’s no mechanism that would inject ads.
Potentially relevant, possibly what @OttoKerner is alluding to:
I was using a Samsung 2021 Smart TV as the client. Plex client up to date on the Samsung. Plex server always bang up to date with latest normal updates.
I did try this morning to reproduce the issue, but could not get the same behaviour. Was not brave enough to try and reinstall the server version, or mess with the database.
To be honest, I was glad that I could not reproduce it. I’ve been a fan and paid supporter of Plex for many years, and I have always felt that they really understood their base. I don’t want to overstate this, but I felt a kind of visceral shock when I say these ads in my own footage, so I really didn’t want to have it happen again. I’ve been around enough software of similar complexity in my career to believe that in the implementation of many useful features, there comes an odd corner case bug, and I hope that was it…
I’m not a ‘sky is falling’ kind of person, so I’m hopeful that all is really well under the skin. This does kind of frustrate me though, realising that if there is an actual issue, there’s no easy way to have it formally reported, investigated, tracked and cleared. Plex is a big-feeling organisation now, with much to lose if it ever does inadvertently lose its way.
I suggest that Plex invests some time in having a more recognisable and transparent customer service channel for bugs, suggestions, feedback and so on. Forums are great, but don’t inspire paid customer confidence… My thoughts and opinions only 
I distinctly remember Samsung being one of those TV manufacturers who do this kind of thing. https://www.tab-tv.com/how-to-turn-off-ads-on-samsung-tv/
2 Likes
I saw this post just the other day:
If you follow the links from there, many different vendors are mentioned. Samsung, LG, Roku.
Those are all home-screen and pop-up ads, AFAICT. They can’t (yet!) pause a streaming session to insert an ad. But I’m sure they’ll get brazen enough at some point.
Related, and equally concerning, is what’s baked into ATSC 3.0: two-way communication and targeted advertising.
1 Like
