Plex Adds Public Reviews, Profiles in Social Push

Streaming platform Plex has introduced public reviews and user profiles, expanding social features launched last October. Users can now comment on others' reviews and make their profiles, watchlists and viewing history searchable, with customizable privacy settings ranging from public to private. Plex Pass subscribers are additionally also gaining access to HEVC encoding for improved visual quality.

Re:

[VertosCay]

I'm not sure why, but I don't ever see any of this on plex. I pinned my libraries on the front page and that's all I ever see. For me, plex has been the most simple and strait forward part of my 'arr suite.

Re:Plex

[skam240]

Yeah, I don't remember being nagged to sign up for premium either. If it happens it does so infrequently enough to where I don't recall it happening.

I wish certain parts of Plex were more customizable but overall I'm with you, it's been great for organizing my media.

Re: Plex

[fluffernutter]

For me it is constantly in the top bar and there is nothing I can do about it. For many videos it has a dialog box that pops up indicating that the video won't work without Plex premium and then I play the video and it works fine. Also why should I have to pin my libraries to the front screen? That is the main point. Pinning personal libraries won't hide everything else either. In jellyfin you see 'movies' and 'tv' on the front screen and not ads for all kinds of other movies or recently added stuff or

Re:

[skam240]

It's likely I'm just glossing over the top bar when I'm looking at Plex and just not recognizing it but those pop ups sound like a pain in the butt that I've never run into. Sorry to hear you're getting them.

I should take the time to check out Jellyfin though as I like that it's open source and I've heard a few people say good things about it now.

Re:

[SeaFox]

Did you try disabling the ad-supported content in the settings?

Re:

[VertosCay]

I don't have anything in my top bar? Are you using pi-hole? Maybe that's why I'm lucky for once.

Re: Plex

[fluffernutter]

No I'm on Android. But the web console hosted on Linux has the same thing.

Re:Plex

[SScorpio]

Plex is available on many more devices. Jellyfin has PC, iOS, Android, AppleTV, AndroidTV, Roku, and LG TVs. But Plex also has PlayStation and Xbox, Samsung TVs, Vizio TVs, and many other smaller streaming boxes.

Plex also has better remote access support. Just enable it and setup a port forward/firewall rule. Jellyfin? Have fun configuring a VPN on each client to access it.

I do like the IMDB integration so you can pull up the full list of what an actor or director has done. And if you have the movie you can play it right away.

The Discover queue is decent. It at least let's me keep track of anything that's trending, newly released, or upcoming. But if you don't like it? Just go into settings and hide it.

Same with the homepage, you can easily hide everything that's not content you have. I wish the other players would play ball. Plex has stated they want to be able to launch other services to the selected movie or show. But have been turned down.

I still remember when Emby was the Jellyfin of its day. Being the open and free alternative to Plex. And now? It has a subscription that costs the same to get access to all the features. We'll see if Jellyfin bucks the trend and remains how it is.

Re:

[fluffernutter]

Well I don't use smart TVs. All my TVs I bought before there was such a thing as a smart TV and they haven't stopped working yet, so I have no reason to buy a new one. When I do have a new one, I can't see the smarts being better than a small used PC off of eBay. Also the last time I tried to use my Playstation in a pinch to watch something it needed me to log into the Sony network before I could watch it. I don't really understand that kind of shit where I need to log into a network that has nothing to

Re:

[ncc74656]

Plex is available on many more devices. Jellyfin has PC, iOS, Android, AppleTV, AndroidTV, Roku, and LG TVs. But Plex also has PlayStation and Xbox, Samsung TVs, Vizio TVs, and many other smaller streaming boxes.

I used to run Plex. I even paid for a lifetime subscription years ago. I now run Jellyfin; it's been less of a hassle to keep it running and it puts less load on my server. I shut off my Plex container last month after switching my parents' Rokus over to Jellyfin. At home, I switched to Chromec

Re:

[dgoldman]

exactly!! Will go check out jellyfin.

Re:

[Richard_at_work]

Only Samsung TVs that use Android TV.

Plex ditched support for non-Android TV based Samsung TVs even while they were still current models in the shops. Pissed me off massively because it rendered my hobby room TV useless unless I bought another device which was supported by Plex - it wasnt even communicated in the app, it just stopped working with an error message one day, and the only way to resolve the error message was to upgrade the app (the Plex backend was no longer compatible with the front end app),

Re:

[Striek]

I dropped Plex like a hot potato when they emailed my watch history to every user on the system (I share it with a few family and friends). I did not sign up for that, I do not want it. It was a flagrantly obscene privacy violation, and there was no confirmation or opt-in/out prompt when the rolled out that "feature".

I use Emby now, and I'm quite happy with it. It has a few "Upgrade to premium!" notifications, but nothing overly annoying.

Re: Plex

[Fortnite_Beast]

Emailed your watch history to every user?!? That's ridiculous. I'm not doubting that it happened, but it's a huge red flag for that service. I Jodi things at home so I can keep things private, not have them sent out without my consent!

Re:

[Striek]

Not the entire watch history as in a log.

More like, "Hey, Striek is watching Game Of Thrones and Squid Games! You should watch with him!"

It was part of their social push. I assume they intended to prompt users first, so they could opt out. But it was set to opt-in by default, unless the user specified otherwise. The problem is that this didn't work for every device combination that Plex is used on. Certainly not mine. The prompt just never showed up for me.

I don't really care if it was an honest mistake. Wh

Re:

[Gilgaron]

I have a Synology NAS for backup and the media server stuff in it and its mobile apps (DS Video, DS Audio) work well on most all of my hardware without needing to go beyond my home network for anything. But stuff like the televisions can see the network share natively and don't even need any apps. It's just a nice clean file share.

Re:

[nicubunu]

I tried Jellyfin (always prefer an open source solution versus something proprietary) but didn't like how it handles subtitles and went back. If Plex gets to annoying, it is good to have the alternative readily available.

Switched to jellyfin and not going back.

[night]

Skip the nagging, upselling, marketing, and turning your media into a social network.

Switch to jellyfin and *gasp* it works offline. No marketing, no upselling, and no hassle.

Re:

[dgoldman]

Excellent. I like it. Will go look at jellyfin tonight. Thank you.
Every move Plex has made drifts from the "let me play my library" it started as.

Re:

[night]

I use web client and roku with jellyfin. If the ways you view your media are on supported jellyfin clients things should go well.

IMO: old Plex was better

[walterbyrd]

I just want to pick the video, or audio, I want to watch and listen to; and that's it.

Piracy Privacy

[Njovich]

Just what we all want from a piracy app, being fully doxed with the seller

End game monetization.

[Fly Swatter]

Hey maybe they could buy TikTok...