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>I have a Netflix and Amazon Prime sub I find myself downloading the shows I pay for because it’s eaiser to have them in Plex than searching for them on Netflix

>I have a Netflix and Amazon Prime sub I find myself downloading the shows I pay for because it’s eaiser to have them in Plex than searching for them on Netflix/Prime... ??? If it's easier just to have them in Plex, why would Plex need to search Netflix? Serious question. I'm not a Plex user, but the first statement made me think about switching for a moment. Then you made the second statement about Plex needing an API to search Netflix. So I'm genuinely confused why that would be?

detaro 8y ago
They want to watch videos Netflix and other services from Plex. Those services don't have useful APIs, so Plex can't integrate them into their search/UI. So parent instead downloads the videos from torrents etc., so they are normal video files they can feed into Plex.
hadrien01 8y ago
Plex is (mostly) for pirated content. If you could search on Plex with a Netflix API, you would be watching legal content.
- touristtam 8y ago
  Can you link Netflix/Amazon Prime to a plex server and index that?
  - dewey 8y ago
    Not but it looks like that's something they are going for. Offering other subscriptions through Plex in the native Plex interface. https://www.plex.tv/blog/turning-plex-music-up-to-eleventy/ https://www.plex.tv/blog/turning-plex-music-up-to-eleventy/
    - dogma1138 8y ago
      Plex has a lot of plugins for online content https://github.com/plexinc-plugins https://github.com/plexinc-plugins
      - dewey 8y ago
        Most of these seem to be for public catch-up providers. Getting Netflix to run with the whole DRM situation seems to be a whole other challenge I'd say?
        dogma1138 8y ago
        Some aren't public providers it's just a webapp you can do nearly anything you want. As far as DRM goes it isn't really a problem since it's easily solvable on any device you use, for devices they can use the built-in DRM, for computers it's already a browser anyhow so you have the OS and browser level DRM. And you know what even if you aren't going to stream through the Plex app itself which is easily achievable how hard it is to just make the search API accessible and then simply have links like netflix://f9dd2846-cda5-49a0-bb19-fb9ba5b0521d for one click streaming? The trailers, recaps and episode data is publicly available any how e.g. https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70300800 https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70300800 All I want is for a basic API that would allow you to search then use these links to launch the stream through your account I don't care in which app it actually streams, this can be solved by an intern in an afternoon and it's mind boggling why it hasn't been done yet.
        dewey 8y ago
        > this can be solved by an intern in an afternoon and it's mind boggling why it hasn't been done yet. This is such an ignorant thing to say. Do you really think it's not done yet because it's so hard to do? It doesn't make any sense business wise for them that's why the public API they had got shut down for everyone except a selected few. Making everything easily accessible and comparable by making it easy to get the data out is most likely not what they are focusing on. You also don't need an API for their deep urls as you can just build them yourself: nflx://www.netflix.com/watch/<Netflix ID>. This opens the app and plays the video.
  - untog 8y ago
    No. It's for locally downloaded content only (they recently added some web show functionality, but it doesn't apply to Netflix or Amazon Prime)
- untog 8y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted here. I'm a Plex user that uses their DVR offering and whenever I look at the message boards/subreddit it's very clear the vast majority of Plex users are using it with pirated content.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
dogma1138 8y ago
Because I care about the user experience not the legal technicality. It’s much easier for me to automatically download and add all the shows into Plex and use its library management for all media. If I had a legal way to do it I would, Plex has plugins for example I watch NFL trough a plug-in which is linked to my account, I also watch BBC content through the iPlayer plugin, as well as other content such as podcasts for example from multiple sources. If Netflix and Prime has an official plugin that would allow me to link my sub and add that content to the Plex library I would do that in a heartbeat.

detaro 8y ago

They want to watch videos Netflix and other services from Plex. Those services don't have useful APIs, so Plex can't integrate them into their search/UI. So parent instead downloads the videos from torrents etc., so they are normal video files they can feed into Plex.

hadrien01 8y ago

Plex is (mostly) for pirated content. If you could search on Plex with a Netflix API, you would be watching legal content.

touristtam 8y ago
Can you link Netflix/Amazon Prime to a plex server and index that?
- dewey 8y ago
  Not but it looks like that's something they are going for. Offering other subscriptions through Plex in the native Plex interface. https://www.plex.tv/blog/turning-plex-music-up-to-eleventy/ https://www.plex.tv/blog/turning-plex-music-up-to-eleventy/
  - dogma1138 8y ago
    Plex has a lot of plugins for online content https://github.com/plexinc-plugins https://github.com/plexinc-plugins
    - dewey 8y ago
      Most of these seem to be for public catch-up providers. Getting Netflix to run with the whole DRM situation seems to be a whole other challenge I'd say?
      - dogma1138 8y ago
        Some aren't public providers it's just a webapp you can do nearly anything you want. As far as DRM goes it isn't really a problem since it's easily solvable on any device you use, for devices they can use the built-in DRM, for computers it's already a browser anyhow so you have the OS and browser level DRM. And you know what even if you aren't going to stream through the Plex app itself which is easily achievable how hard it is to just make the search API accessible and then simply have links like netflix://f9dd2846-cda5-49a0-bb19-fb9ba5b0521d for one click streaming? The trailers, recaps and episode data is publicly available any how e.g. https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70300800 https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70300800 All I want is for a basic API that would allow you to search then use these links to launch the stream through your account I don't care in which app it actually streams, this can be solved by an intern in an afternoon and it's mind boggling why it hasn't been done yet.
        dewey 8y ago
        > this can be solved by an intern in an afternoon and it's mind boggling why it hasn't been done yet. This is such an ignorant thing to say. Do you really think it's not done yet because it's so hard to do? It doesn't make any sense business wise for them that's why the public API they had got shut down for everyone except a selected few. Making everything easily accessible and comparable by making it easy to get the data out is most likely not what they are focusing on. You also don't need an API for their deep urls as you can just build them yourself: nflx://www.netflix.com/watch/<Netflix ID>. This opens the app and plays the video.
- untog 8y ago
  No. It's for locally downloaded content only (they recently added some web show functionality, but it doesn't apply to Netflix or Amazon Prime)
untog 8y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted here. I'm a Plex user that uses their DVR offering and whenever I look at the message boards/subreddit it's very clear the vast majority of Plex users are using it with pirated content.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

dogma1138 8y ago

Because I care about the user experience not the legal technicality. It’s much easier for me to automatically download and add all the shows into Plex and use its library management for all media. If I had a legal way to do it I would, Plex has plugins for example I watch NFL trough a plug-in which is linked to my account, I also watch BBC content through the iPlayer plugin, as well as other content such as podcasts for example from multiple sources. If Netflix and Prime has an official plugin that would allow me to link my sub and add that content to the Plex library I would do that in a heartbeat.