4 ms·

What I want that Plex doesn't already to is to be able to define TV-like channels. I have 6 Resident Evil movies or 100 episodes of Futurama and I want them to

by gdulli 10y ago

What I want that Plex doesn't already to is to be able to define TV-like channels. I have 6 Resident Evil movies or 100 episodes of Futurama and I want them to play in a loop on their respective channels, and when I tune in whichever one happens to be "on" is what I watch, even though it's the middle of an episode/movie. DVR-like functionality where I could "rewind" back to the start of a 30-minute buffer would be good. Pandora-like skipping would be good. But those features wouldn't be essential, compared to creating the programming grid. I still want what Plex does and what Streama does, to navigate to a specific movie or episode and start it manually. Sometimes I watch media because I want to watch one specific thing. But often I just want my favorite media on in the background while I work or do other things. I don't want to navigate through a library of 200+ titles to pick just the right one or a pseudo-"random" one. Is there anything that would let me do this?

_dax 10y ago
I actually implemented exactly this a few days ago. It essentially procedurally generates channels from your library that you can flip through. Working on Chromecast support before I open source it
- marcfowler 10y ago
  I'd be really, really interested in this, especially with Chromecast support. What are you writing it in? Perhaps I could help a little. Would appreciate if you could shoot me a message when you're ready!
- sosuke 10y ago
  Do you have a mailing list I can get on for that?
- thybag 10y ago
  As a plex plugin? Be very interested to have a play once you release, been hoping for something along those lines for a while :)
- esteth 10y ago
  I'd love to hear when you open source this - it sounds perfect for me :D
cheezerman 10y ago
Pseudo TV, an add-on for Kodi, does exactly this. http://pseudotvlive.com http://pseudotvlive.com
AndrewDucker 10y ago
I'm intrigued as to why you want this. (I'm not knocking it - I'm genuinely curious.)
- gdulli 10y ago
  I have two use cases, one is that I want to watch a specific movie or I'm watching through a show like The Americans in a deliberate, serial way. Plex does everything I need in that area. The other use case is, I want to work or browse the web for several hours, or work on a puzzle, or clean, or whatever, and have something on in the background. There's some media I'll only watch deliberately with full attention, (The Americans) and other media I can rewatch repeatedly in background mode. (Sitcoms, or certain types of movies.) When I want background programming I'd like less friction. Traditional TV works best in this area, in the sense that I tune to a channel and the programming is already set up. I don't want to stop every 22 minutes and pick a new episode, or choose one movie out of dozens. I'd spend too much time trying to decide. Pretending my library is made up of channels lets me choose one to tune in to, and I'll be happy with what happens to come up on that channel. There's a freedom in offloading the decision. (As long as I also retain the freedom to choose what to watch when I have a specific preference.) What I can't control with cable TV is the content, I can only hope there's a channel with programming I want to leave on for a while. Sometimes there isn't. But I've got a lot of media and would do the work to set up my own channels.
  - 123jay7 10y ago
    Aren't you over looking something? Like, in "traditional TV", shows are generally run in order. Ie, you get Monday - Friday, episode 1 - 5. So are you going to account for this? Or will you just play shows random. So you could get 1, 18, 3, 3, and then episode 19 but from a completely different show!
  - Viper007Bond 10y ago
    Plex has shuffle functionality. Go to Futurama, hit shuffle, and it'll play for days without touching it. Even if you want them to play in order, if you hit play on the show or season instead of a specific episode, they'll play automatically after each other. No stopping every 22 minutes.

by gdulli 10y ago

_dax 10y ago

I actually implemented exactly this a few days ago. It essentially procedurally generates channels from your library that you can flip through. Working on Chromecast support before I open source it

marcfowler 10y ago
I'd be really, really interested in this, especially with Chromecast support. What are you writing it in? Perhaps I could help a little. Would appreciate if you could shoot me a message when you're ready!
sosuke 10y ago
Do you have a mailing list I can get on for that?
thybag 10y ago
As a plex plugin? Be very interested to have a play once you release, been hoping for something along those lines for a while :)
esteth 10y ago
I'd love to hear when you open source this - it sounds perfect for me :D

cheezerman 10y ago

Pseudo TV, an add-on for Kodi, does exactly this. http://pseudotvlive.com http://pseudotvlive.com

AndrewDucker 10y ago

I'm intrigued as to why you want this. (I'm not knocking it - I'm genuinely curious.)

gdulli 10y ago
I have two use cases, one is that I want to watch a specific movie or I'm watching through a show like The Americans in a deliberate, serial way. Plex does everything I need in that area. The other use case is, I want to work or browse the web for several hours, or work on a puzzle, or clean, or whatever, and have something on in the background. There's some media I'll only watch deliberately with full attention, (The Americans) and other media I can rewatch repeatedly in background mode. (Sitcoms, or certain types of movies.) When I want background programming I'd like less friction. Traditional TV works best in this area, in the sense that I tune to a channel and the programming is already set up. I don't want to stop every 22 minutes and pick a new episode, or choose one movie out of dozens. I'd spend too much time trying to decide. Pretending my library is made up of channels lets me choose one to tune in to, and I'll be happy with what happens to come up on that channel. There's a freedom in offloading the decision. (As long as I also retain the freedom to choose what to watch when I have a specific preference.) What I can't control with cable TV is the content, I can only hope there's a channel with programming I want to leave on for a while. Sometimes there isn't. But I've got a lot of media and would do the work to set up my own channels.
- 123jay7 10y ago
  Aren't you over looking something? Like, in "traditional TV", shows are generally run in order. Ie, you get Monday - Friday, episode 1 - 5. So are you going to account for this? Or will you just play shows random. So you could get 1, 18, 3, 3, and then episode 19 but from a completely different show!
- Viper007Bond 10y ago
  Plex has shuffle functionality. Go to Futurama, hit shuffle, and it'll play for days without touching it. Even if you want them to play in order, if you hit play on the show or season instead of a specific episode, they'll play automatically after each other. No stopping every 22 minutes.