Plex Discover consolidates your streaming services
How many times have you thought, “I want to watch a movie,” but had no idea where to find amongst the million streaming services available? According to the Plex press release, Americans spend over 600 MILLION minutes, every night, deciding what to watch (we suspect people in Otheristan spend less time though). Many people turn to JustWatch, an app MovieSlap will take a look at in the future, but another solution was announced today: Plex Discover (along with its sidekick, Universal Watchlist).
What is Plex?
Plex comes in two pieces: server, and app. You can install the server on your own hardware in your home, and then store whatever media you want to consume – whether it be ripping your Blu-ray or CD collection, saving pictures and home videos, or even setting up a personal DVR to record shows from an antenna. If you want more detail on how to use Plex to cut the cord, check out an article I wrote over at Neowin.net.
The Plex app basically allows you to connect to a Plex server in order to consume media. However in recent years, Plex has been expanding and now has its own free streaming service available. In fact, AJ used it the other day to watch what he considers one of the best movies most people have never heard of, A Day, so go check out his review of that and then come back and read more about Plex.
In addition to streaming, you can also watch some Live TV (not the major networks, but channels like AMC Thrillers, Johnny Carson TV, and Party Poker). It also integrates with TIDAL, and has web Web Shows and Podcasts available. You can install the app on your phone, tablet, or even use a web browser as it’s pretty flexible.
What is Plex Discover?
Plex Discover aims to solve the problem of combing through all of your streaming services to find the show you want. Instead, just open up Plex, search for what you want, and the app will tell you what service it’s on. If it’s on Plex, great. If it’s on Disney+ or Netflix, that’s fine too. Plex wants to be your central repository for all of your media consumption.
The feature is currently in Beta, so you can expect some bugs, but it’s available on the app right now. Simply open the app, select which services you have (and boy is that a long list to choose from, half of which I’ve never heard of before!), and then when you search for something in the Plex app, it’ll tell you where to find it. For example, I searched for The Walking Dead, and below the “Watch The Trailer” button was a section entitled “Watch from these locations (BETA)”, that showed AMC+, Amazon Prime Video, and a few others.
You can also click the “Discover” section of the app and it has sections such as, “Trending On Your Services,” “Top Titles on Other Services,” and “New On Your Services,” helping you wade through all of the offerings.
Get more information on Plex Discover directly from the Plex website.
What is Plex Universal Watchlist?
Another exciting addition is the concept of a universal playlist. Tying into Plex Discover, the idea is that you search for what you want to watch, add it to a watchlist, and later, without caring what service the show is on, simply click what you want to watch. This could be especially helpful when shows move from one service to another so that you don’t lose track of what you want to watch.
Get more information on Plex Universal Watchlist directly from the Plex website.
Overall, I’m a big fan of Plex and seeing these two new features is a great step in simplifying what we watch on TV.