Plex Is the Best Way to Search for Movies on Apple TV

If you’re like me, you’ve probably got several streaming services running side-by-side. This is annoying enough, but trying to figure out which show or movie is streaming where is turning into a real time-waster for me, until I discovered that Plex solved this issue with its streaming app.

I’ve Been Asking for a Unified Streaming Search Forever

All I want is a single app or search tool that will tell me where something is streaming. There are, of course, websites like JustWatch that do exactly this. However, as someone who resides outside the USA, these types of sites tend to be less useful, because invariably it gets availability in my region wrong. So, most of the time when it tells me that something should be on Netflix, it’s not on my region’s Netflix.

Even if you live somewhere that matches the information on sites like these, it’s still annoying to use a completely different device just to figure out what content is on the streaming box that’s right in front of you! This has led to me renting stuff on Apple TV when it was streaming on an app that’s already there, or just giving up and watching something else, probably from my Blu-ray and DVD collection. Since I can at least look at my shelf and know what I have!

Third Party App Integration Is Spotty on Apple TV

I use an Apple TV 4K as my main streaming device, and tvOS does have a system-level search function. The problem is that not all streaming services expose their data in such a way that the tvOS search can find whether something is in their catalog or not. In my experience, this means the built-in search function is pretty much useless for finding anything that isn’t on one of Apple’s services (or YouTube), because obviously, they have the best integration with their own device.

I can’t blame Apple for this too much, if at all. In the end, streaming app makers have the option to fully integrate their apps with the systems search function, but that still leaves me with the consequences of streaming service fragmentation.

The Plex App Knows Where Things Are Streaming

Except, as I recently discovered, the Plex app fulfills this role almost perfectly. Plex is a streaming app that allows you to stream your own digital content locally. So you can, for example, digitize your physical media collection, or download public domain movies and series, and Plex will pull all the metadata and organize it all for you. It’s easy to set up Plex and I have a dedicated Plex server in my house.

Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen)

You’ll get the full Apple experience with this streaming device. The A15 chip provides great hardware for all of your apps, Apple-exclusive or otherwise.

Plex now also has its own live streaming channels, almost like traditional cable TV, as well as a library of ad-supported streaming content you can watch for free. I was searching for something in Plex, hoping that it would be in its free catalog, when I noticed that not only would Plex tell me if a show was on my server, or in its library, it would also tell me if it was on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and so on.

I can also just select a button, and it would take me straight to the show in question. I can also tell at a glance whether I need to rent the show, and I can see whether it’s cheaper on Apple TV or Google Play.

All of My Apple TV Searches Now Start With Plex

After learning that Plex is such a powerful search engine for content, any search I have for a movie or show now starts on Plex, and within seconds I know exactly where to go to see the content I want. Even if that means ordering a DVD or Blu-ray, because it’s streaming nowhere. This doesn’t just work in the app either, if you use Plex on the desktop in a browser, it offers the same feature. Search. Click. Start watching.

I’m never going back.