this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Plex TV Episode Shuffle Experience (self.plex)
submitted 1 year ago by whynotzoidberg to c/plex
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Either I’m nuts (possible) or Plex’s shuffle functionality does a poor job randomizing from the set. What’s your take?

I’ve been trying to figure out if it is just my perception or potential bias since our memories are fallible and whatnot.

It seems like TV show > Shuffle and Playlist (containing all episodes) > Shuffle yield different favored episodes (so maybe a different shuffle algo). And then when I play in episodic order, I recognize episodes that seemingly haven’t played in a while.

I suppose I could pull play counts off my server, but that’s no fun! Sooooo, is it just me?

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[–] slazer2au 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or, it is doing a good randomisation. Random does not mean play each thing once, it means everything has an even chance to play.

Spotify had this issue, people were complaining the shuffle wasn't working because some things aren't played or some things are played more then others. What you want is a weighted random where things that have played have less chance to be picked.

[–] SpaceNoodle 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's because of the designers misunderstanding what "shuffle" means. When I shuffle a deck of cards, there's zero chance that I will deal out two of the same card.

[–] whynotzoidberg 2 points 1 year ago

That’s a great way to put it. You found the analogy I was looking for. :-)

[–] whynotzoidberg 2 points 1 year ago

I hear what you’re saying. You’re right weighted random addresses watching in series order vs random. It doesn’t address the two shuffles yielding different high level patterns, though.

While it could totally be randomization and coincidence, the consistency in the different episode repeats with Show > Shuffle vs Playlist > Shuffle catches the pattern sensing part of my brain.