Plex, a streaming media service, just added a new tool called Credits Detection, which automatically enables users to skip credit scenes for TV series and movies.
Credits Detection was announced in a blog post on Wednesday, Feb. 15, and is now available. It will cause a Skip Credits button to appear on a wide variety of Plex players, including those operating on Apple TV, Android TV, iOS, macOS, Windows, Xbox, Roku, and more.
Now, this is some favorable news for binge-watchers!
Skipping Intros and Credits
Plex already has the option to skip show intros while watching a series that consists of many episodes, The Verge reported. The new Skip Credits feature works in the same way for both TV episodes and movies, alerting the viewer when an outro or credits sequence has begun. This provides the option to skip to the conclusion of the show or, if accessible, to a secret scene midway through the credits.
Those who do not want a distracting Skip Credits or Skip Intro button spoiling their watching experiences may turn off the function completely, which is a nice touch that Plex has included.
Although the new technology is more advanced, Plex says the skip button may not always be visible.
According to a blog post on the Plex website, "We've worked hard to tune a machine learning algorithm to make sense of several inputs (text detection, the presence of black frames, and a few other secret ingredients) to come up with a reliable set of markers when credits begin and end... It's a tricky problem, and there may still be some cases where it doesn't go exactly to plan, but those cases should be few and far between at this point."
Feature Availability
By default, Plex activates the Skip Credits function for all library items kept on Plex Pass subscribers' personal Plex Media Servers running version 1.31.0 or newer. The company claims that this feature works automatically for any free-to-watch material it delivers.
The Plex support website has a comprehensive list of player apps that work with the media service and information on how to modify Credit Detection. This even includes turning it off and manually assessing video for credits.
Preliminary testing revealed that the iOS app's Skip Credits function is inconsistent and only works on specific content. For example, while watching a movie, the app correctly identified the end credits but missed the beginning.
It is, indeed, a new tech introduced by the firm, so glitches may actually happen for now.
Even if you compare it with Crunchyroll, which only provides skip features for a subset of their video, Plex's automatic identification is intriguing mainly because it is accessible across the board in both the server and the library.
