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Plex Launches 'Discover' and 'Universal Watchlist' Features to Help Users Find and Watch Content Across Streaming Services

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Media management platform Plex today announced a new "Discover" feature that's designed to make it easier for people to find what they want to watch across different streaming services. With Discover, customers can add any TV show or movie into their Plex Watchlist, and receive information on where to find it.

plex-discover.jpg

The feature will inform users which streaming service has the content that they want to watch, and if the user has a subscription to that service, the content can be watched directly from Plex. It's similar to how the Apple TV app works, but it is more universal because it does not require an Apple device, and it also works with all streaming services, Netflix included.

To go along with Discover, Plex is debuting the Plex Universal Watchlist, which is an all-in-one watchlist that lets customers keep track of anything that they want to watch. The Universal Watchlist will display newly available titles from shows that are still airing, and it will let users know where the content they want to watch is available.

plex-watchlist.jpg

Plex says that its new feature set is meant to turn Plex into a one-stop shop for all media content. In addition to supporting watchlists and content from streaming services, Plex offers a selection of free, ad-supported TV shows and movies, plus it supports personal media libraries and live content.

More information about Discover and Universal Watchlist can be found on the Plex website. Plex is free to use, but upgraded personal media management features require the $4.99 per month Plex Premium package.

Article Link: Plex Launches 'Discover' and 'Universal Watchlist' Features to Help Users Find and Watch Content Across Streaming Services
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/05/plex-discover-universal-watchlist-features/
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I love this… I wonder what their privacy policy is, and how they got Netflix to work with them, yet Apple can not. This is one of my favorite features of Apple TV, the Watch Now area. I think this Plex offering is a much-needed service now that there are so many streaming options.
 
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So I just installed the update and gave it a try.

You pick from a list which services you subscribe to and it lets you search their libraries. When you try to watch a show.... it pulls up a list of services and shows which ones you indicated that you subscribe to that have the content... and you pick the one you want to stream it from.

Then it passes you OUT of Plex App... and INTO the App for the streaming service... and right to the episode you want to watch.

I am not sure how it handles "Watched" episode tracking, havent watched any episodes yet.
 
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Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
 
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Not intended to reply to your post, meant for MartyF81 - I am trying to delete this. Why can't we delete if we mistakenly posted?
 
MartyF81 said:
So I just installed the update and gave it a try.

You pick from a list which services you subscribe to and it lets you search their libraries. When you try to watch a show.... it pulls up a list of services and shows which ones you indicated that you subscribe to that have the content... and you pick the one you want to stream it from.

Then it passes you OUT of Plex App... and INTO the App for the streaming service... and right to the episode you want to watch.

I am not sure how it handles "Watched" episode tracking, havent watched any episodes yet.
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Thanks for sharing this… that is exactly how Apple TV works… it does not stream the show "inside" Apple TV, but through the streaming service's respective app.
 
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Pemberton_Malcolm said:
Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
Click to expand...

I play 4K content via Plex every weekend. Works just fine for me. Streams from a NUC pulling the media files of a NAS... and plays on Apple TV's throughout my house over WiFi. 4K content does need quite a bit more CPU than 1080 content does though.

I am even able to stream it over the internet when I travel... though that is heavily dependent on wherever I am having a fast enough download bandwidth to handle it.... which is rare.
 
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Pemberton_Malcolm said:
Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
Click to expand...
plex plays 4k content locally just fine. Been doing it for years. Nor does it need an SSD. In fact I can stream multiple 4k streams on my local network and outside my home to friends and family simultaneously without issue.
It direct plays on my local network and to some of my friends/family who have supported devices. No transcoding needed and it uses no CPU for that.

If you're buffering then there's a problem with your network, or it's trying to transcode with a weak CPU/GPU due to a client not supporting the codecs it needs. But that's easy to see.

But 4k absolutely works just fine. I watch 4k content almost daily with it. Across a variety of devices.
 
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AnotherOpinion said:
I love this… I wonder what their privacy policy is, and how they got Netflix to work with them, yet Apple can not. This is one of my favorite features of Apple TV, the Watch Now area. I think this Plex offering is a much-needed service now that there are so many streaming options.
Click to expand...
I am guessing their privacy policy will be similar to that of Netflix and any other streaming service used.
 
Pemberton_Malcolm said:
Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
Click to expand...

No idea what you're talking about, I stream 4K HDR from my NAS (off a standard 10TB HDD, no SSD here) to my ATV Plex client all the time.
 
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MartyF81 said:
So I just installed the update and gave it a try.

You pick from a list which services you subscribe to and it lets you search their libraries. When you try to watch a show.... it pulls up a list of services and shows which ones you indicated that you subscribe to that have the content... and you pick the one you want to stream it from.

Then it passes you OUT of Plex App... and INTO the App for the streaming service... and right to the episode you want to watch.

I am not sure how it handles "Watched" episode tracking, havent watched any episodes yet.
Click to expand...
Im very interested in how it handles watched content if you every feel like updating your post. Might just get me to switch back to Plex after moving to Emby years ago. Im slowly starting to acquire streaming services again and one of the big frustrations is having to jump back and forth between apps. I always seem to forget about the less important shows Im watching and they just sit there unwatched and forgotten.
 
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hardax said:
Im very interested in how it handles watched content if you every feel like updating your post. Might just get me to switch back to Plex after moving to Emby years ago. Im slowly starting to acquire streaming services again and one of the big frustrations is having to jump back and forth between apps. I always seem to forget about the less important shows Im watching and they just sit there unwatched and forgotten.
Click to expand...
So it doesnt seem to track it. I let an episode play... and went back to Plex and it does not indicate "watched" you have a button where you can Mark it "Watched" in Plex. Unless I am missing something... it doesnt appear to Sync. Which is a Major bummer for Binge watchers.
 
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enjoyed plex years ago, can you still not play Apple Content on it? my whole media library is through apple (I stream everything)...I gave up ripping dvd's and trying to find movies over the internet years ago
 
gcmexico said:
enjoyed plex years ago, can you still not play Apple Content on it? my whole media library is through apple (I stream everything)...I gave up ripping dvd's and trying to find movies over the internet years ago
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DRM content? No, it won't play. It will play anything without DRM. Plex doesn't play content from streaming services. It lets you search through plex, in one place, but when you go to play something from a streaming service it will launch that service to play it.
 
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Pemberton_Malcolm said:
Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
Click to expand...
Yes it does, remotely too. I use this all the time. I use a 2012 Mac mini with spinning hd's on it. No need for SSDs aside from booting.

Must be something wrong with your network.
 
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