Plex lets users skip TV series intro

Plex has added a feature that makes it possible for users to skip the intro of a TV series at the touch of a button. Netflix previously came up with a similar functionality for series.

On its blog, Plex explains how the functionality works. The user’s video library is rescanned, using pattern recognition to detect the intros. Scanning by the Plex Media Server happens in the background, without the user noticing.

More precisely, Plex uses the audio track to detect intros. According to Plex, series often use the same audio, so that in many cases a ‘fingerprint’ could be made. For that an intro must be at least twenty seconds long. Plex also states that in “almost all cases” it was possible to retrieve the intros with scanning, but the company does not address the cases where this was not possible.

The ability to skip series episode intros is part of Plex Pass, the subscription version of Plex. The functionality will then work on iOS, Android, Roku, Fire TV and the web version.