I take advantage of Plex nearly on daily basis, and I’ve seen a number of large “enhancements” over the past 12 months. Whereas I’m pleased with many of the adjustments, considered one of my favourite options—and really underrated—was on the unsuitable finish of them. Permit me to clarify.
Playlists are superior
The function I’m speaking about is playlists, and I ought to clarify why I like them a lot. You in all probability consider playlists relating to Spotify or YouTube, however Plex has them too. Something that you’ve in your Plex library will be added to a playlist, and you’ll customise the title and canopy artwork as nicely.
There are a few explanation why I like playlists in Plex. First, they are often rather more centered than the Watchlist. I personal a bunch of TV sitcom seasons, and I’ve created seasonal playlists that embody holiday-related episodes. It’s additionally very nice to have a listing separate from my Watchlist only for stuff I feel my son may like to observe.
Upon getting a playlist created, you are able to do my second favourite factor: shuffle. As talked about, I’ve loads of TV sitcom seasons, and I’ve dropped all of the episodes into one large playlist. I like having the ability to click on “Shuffle” and fake I’m watching old-school linear TV. What’s going to play subsequent? I don’t know!
5 Overlooked Plex Features Everybody Misses
Plex is greatest often called the streaming platform that allows you to host your personal video content material after which stream it to gadgets in your native community. Nonetheless, Plex has a lot extra to it, and likelihood is there’s at the least considered one of these 5 options you were not conscious of.
So what occurred?
The fantastic thing about the Plex apps was once consistency throughout gadgets. Perhaps they weren’t the prettiest, however all of them labored basically the identical. That’s not the case anymore, and it’s particularly obvious with playlists.
On the internet and TV apps, playlists will be discovered within the sidebar alongside together with your Watchlist and libraries. That was once the place playlists lived within the Android and iPhone apps as nicely. Early final 12 months, nevertheless, the cell apps obtained a massive redesign, and the sidebar was eliminated. Discovering my playlists is extra cumbersome now, however that’s not the worst half.
Plex has determined to cover playlists inside particular libraries. If you wish to see playlists with TV reveals, it’s a must to go to your TV library first, then faucet “Playlists” within the menu bar or scroll previous rows of “Proceed Watching” and just lately added content material. You need to do the identical factor for playlists containing films from the Film library. The flexibility to see all of my playlists in a single spot is gone, and so they do not present up on the “Dwelling” tab in any respect.
The actual downside, nevertheless, is that the flexibility so as to add media to a playlist has merely vanished from the cell app altogether. There may be actually no manner so as to add to a playlist out of your telephone. It was once an choice within the “Extra” menu, however it was eliminated for some cause. For those who actually wish to add to a playlist whilst you’re away out of your desk or TV, you’re pressured to open your telephone’s net browser, navigate to the Plex net app, check in, and attempt to use a desktop interface.
What’s unusual to me is the truth that it’s nonetheless attainable so as to add to a playlist from the Plex TV app. The performance is notoriously janky—I can’t inform you what number of occasions I’ve by chance created a brand new playlist—however it does work. It was a lot simpler to do on a telephone.
It’s odd to see what I’d think about to be a core function get sidelined like this. The TV and net apps are at all times the place I wish to watch my content material, however the cell app was once nice for the administration facet of issues. There have been rumblings of Plex making it simpler to search out playlists within the cell apps, however nothing about truly including to them, which is the largest omission. Convey playlists again to their former glory, please.
How I Used Plex to Unify All My Streaming Services
For streaming your assortment, Plex is a superb device, however it may do much more by performing as a intermediary to your streaming companies. It is so helpful that you will end up opening Plex greater than the opposite apps. Since I unified my streaming companies with Plex, I haven’t got a lot of a cause to go to, say, Max or Netflix, two companies I subscribe to. I like that I’ve an summary of every little thing relatively than being restricted to at least one ecosystem.
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