Does Plex just suck or am I doing something wrong?
 

So after hearing about how great it was for years I finally decided to set up a Plex account. Ive successfully added my own libraries and can stream whats on my main computer everywhere in my house. This is great but I got curious about all the free channels I always hear about so decided to try them out.

After a quick google search I think Ive added the most popular ones. Im sure there are a lot more and maybe better ones but right now I have:

-Ice Films
-Let Me Watch This
-SS Plex
And all the channels that come with the Unsupported Appstore Bundle.

So far after trying all the channels I have Ive successfully started maybe three shows/movies after trying at least 60-70. Most of them wouldn't play at all, saying "Channel is not responding", and some would open a popup to a youtube trailer for what I was trying to watch.

So does Plex just suck now for channels or am I doing something wrong?

I use a (2011) imac and Roku.

It works great for me. Keep in mind you have to both have Plex active in your browser AND run the application at the same time.

Plex works well with your own media collection. The streaming channels, not so much.

This is what Ive experienced. So why does everyone rave about cutting the cord and using Plex to watch the channels they like? Did it used to work great but recently stopped or what? I still feel like I may be doing something wrong, like maybe using xmbc or something like that? Ive read about something along those lines somewhere but I dont know anything about it. It looks super confusing though.

There are essentially two methods of going about getting media after cutting the cord. You can download all the movies/TV to your computer, and watch them from your own computer. Or you can simply stream them over the internet, and the media is hosted on a variety of servers all over the world. Plex is good for the former, especially in conjunction with auto-scraping/downloading apps like CouchPotato/Sickbeard. But if you don't physically download all your media, it's not nearly as useful. If you would prefer to simply stream your media, then what you want is KODI/XBMC.

Kodi/xbmc is a complete game changer

Not sure who would ever recommend PLEX for rebroadcasting streaming... but don't. You want a local app on the Roku or whatever to stream your other stuff. Use something like Sling TV

Plex is amazing for me using a Roku. I only stream my own files though.

Ok, so I set up Kodi and a "package" (dont know the correct terminology) from tvaddons.org. I now have a lot of channels, but like Plex more than half of them dont work and the ones that do arent too great quality wise. This shit is confusing as hell and im limited to channels that are shown on Youtube videos because I have no clue how to find/install channels myself.

EDIT: I just opened a channel?...called phoenix that is supposedly very popular and chose sports. I tried opening ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports 1 & 2, and NBCSN...every one failed to open, it just says working for a while then nothing happens. If this is the crap the cord cutters rave about I think I'd rather just pay for cable/satellite...

Sounds like cable/satellite might be a better solution for you.

Phoenix sucks ass. You want Genesis for shows and movies. 1Channel is also decent.

If you want to watch live TV, your best bet is USTVNow and/or a digital antennae.

And honestly, I'm kind of with Fish. It seems like your patience with and understanding of technology might not be real high. I mean, thinking that people are "raving" about similar experiences to yours is kind of ridiculous. Clearly, you haven't set things up properly, so you need to start troubleshooting instead of getting on here and sending out generic rants. If you don't want to go to the bother of troubleshooting, then this level of technology probably isn't for you.

I thought this was harsh. THen I reread his edit. It really sounds like even SlingTV would not be a good fit. If you want 99.9% reliability, you are gonna have to pay for it. If you want free... shit is not always gonna work.

The thing that annoys me is that he's aware that XBMC is extremely popular and that people rave about it. That millions of people use it to great satisfaction. Despite that, he then extrapolates his very limited experience with the platform as the user experience that all of those people must be having.

There's two ways to think of it:

1. Yeah. Millions of people over years of development are quite content to just use a really shitty platform that doesn't deliver at all.

2. Maybe those people know what they're doing, and I don't. Therefore I should figure out how to make this thing work by troubleshooting instead of just assuming that the platform sucks.

Clearly, one of these ways of thinking is narcissistic and delusional whereas the other is logical.

I use Plex 1) for streaming media from my server to my Roku and 2) being a conduit to let me get NFL Game Pass on my Roku (which doesn't have an official app). The Game Pass thing works great for what it is, but otherwise I haven't found much else attractive about other "apps" for Plex.

Ive gotten Kodi to work fine for TV shows and movies. What I cant get it to do is stream live TV channels. Ive been messing around with it all day, watched probably 15 Youtube vids and tried different tutorials. I have the live channels, they just wont play anything. I actually did get one NBC Sports channel to play but that's it. None of the ESPN, Fox Sports or CBS stations will load.

I see the usefulness of it if you just want to watch already aired TV shows and movies. But if this is as good as it gets for live TV I dont think cord cutting is a real option unless you dont need or want it.