All I've worked to do for years and years is to have one singular and simple interface for all my media, and Channels + User Community Projects covers 98% of all my situations. My Plex Lifetime pass has depreciated in value to zero since I don't even bother with having a PMS installed anymore.
All stations from OTA, TVE, FAST, Live Streams, and any other capture technology I want in a combined guide (that is itself broken down into sub-guides)
All movies, TV shows, and videos combined together no matter if they are sourced from recordings, imported video files, or on a streaming provider
Granular control in almost every way I want, set-and-forget functions that don't require babysitting for the things I don't want to think about
Ways to fix things that are wrong or just not the way I like to see it (like metadata) without hacking/breaking
Some ability to create custom/limited experiences per device using labels (i.e., only certain programs and stations showing up on a particular user device)
A light, efficient server application that does not take over all my system resources and does not require changing hundreds of deeply hidden controls to act reasonably
Apps and web interfaces that actually work
Responsive support and access to developers who actually use the product and are excited about continuing to develop it and not just monetize their users with things no one asked for
Could some things be better? Sure, absolutely, Channels isn't perfect and has some minor gaps (and don't even get me started on the feature gap between Apple and Android as well as the Apps and the Web Interface). Here's a wishlist of some items that I'd like but don't take away from the experience for me:
User profiles (and the ability to switch between them) instead of doing assignments per device
Source stacking; for instance, if I have a movie on several streaming providers and a recording, I can choose which one I want to play instead of having literal copies of the same item in my library
Automatic A/V redirect; instead of Channels opening up third party apps, taking the output of those apps and putting them inside the Channels player. You can sort-of do some of this with user created tools, but out-of-the-box would be so nice.
Organizational folder structure, especially for videos. The one thing Plex and other things like it do very well is allow users to have whatever structure they want for subfolder hierarchy. Channels is flat. Library Collections help with this somewhat, but it's flat, too. This also ties into User profiles.
Parent-child relationships in general. As an example, I can create a bunch of small guides for different topics (Animals, News, Houses), but I can't combine those small guides together into a big guide. Instead, I would have to create another small guide that combines those stations together, thus having two points of maintenance. The same could be said for Library Collections and many things like them. It all comes back to Channels taking a flat approach instead of a hierarchical one.
Music, although I don't even use my files anymore and just use Spotify, so I suppose not really a concern for me anymore
None of the above are show-stoppers for me or a reason I'd want to reinstall Plex. These very minor limitations are easy enough to work around, so long as you understand Channels' approach. And hey, since this product is being developed all the time, what I've listed might not even be true in the future. There have been plenty of times that the Devs have said, "We're not going to do that." and then have done it anyway!
. I use a Appbox to have access to a server with EVERYTHING. But i pnly use itbif I cant get it in CDVR or one of the streaming platforms I have. Plex is superior at managing/organizing large libraries. But CDVR had made huge strides and is quickly closing that app. If it wasnt for piracy I would have no use for plex. And t Plec banned my lifetime account. . . . I don't blame plex for that. I was 100% violating TOS. But im still angrym