It's awesome to have new devices Plexified, and it's great to have Plex Home, and all other cool stuff of late, but in order to ensure they all stay relevant/sustainable, could we dedicate 1-2 release cycles to modernizing the codebases instead of adding anything "new"?
Merge PHT with the Kodi/Helix codebase
Merge PMS with the latest FFMPEG (Atmos, H.265, etc.)
Merge The Roku channel with RARFlix
Clean up the Xbox/Playstation code and get those apps up to par
Fix any outstanding/backlogged bugs
Get all the apps feature parity (Plex Home, Cinema Trailers, etc.)
I obviously can't speak for everyone (they can "like" this post to side with me), but I would be willing to wait a while for this, so long as we knew it was, in fact, coming. As it stands now, it feels like at various points different systems/apps are ahead/behind more than others, and the more new stuff we pile onto these apps, the harder this merge will be.
+1 this should be main focus at this point before adding any new features. Lets get all caught up DEVS and then add more bugs, I mean features to PHT and PMS! :)
I agree whole heartedly. I hate that plex is so far behind XMBC right now. Especially in the OS/hardware support arena.
Some hardware isn't worth running on :P
That said, I do think they've done an admirable job of late broadening the base (Xboxes, Playstations, Smart TVs, etc)...I just want to be sure they take the time to refactor them all, hit feature parity, and merge as many codebases as possible, so that Plex can stay agile & awesome for a good long time (as opposed to rapidly devolving into over-forked spaghetti code)
That said, I do think they've done an admirable job of late broadening the base (Xboxes, Playstations, Smart TVs, etc)...I just want to be sure they take the time to refactor them all, hit feature parity, and merge as many codebases as possible, so that Plex can stay agile & awesome for a good long time (as opposed to rapidly devolving into over-forked spaghetti code)
I agree, for the server. However, for the clients, I think each platform should be allowed to evolve as far as that platform and the vision of the programmers of that platform allow. They can, and probably should, remain to continue to look alike but they should be allowed to "be all that they can be."
Making one platform dumb down because certain functions are not able to be implemented on another is the programming equivalent of teachers teaching to the dumbest kid in class. It only serves to limit development without really helping the "dumb" kid.
It is perfectly possible to still merge the codebases while allowing the better equipment to develop by using compiler flags or some such.
Of course much of the same can be said for the server side but it is important that what the server(s) expose to the outside world look the same regardless of source so that all clients work with all servers. That more requires that the servers be at or near the same source code.
Actually I think that either direction the code goes will be about equally complex but keeping the server's code close should at least make finding bugs a bit easier.
Oh I wasn't meaning we should dumb everything down to be able to run on a NAS or an old Roku 1...definitely not. But whatever is considered "core" or "baseline" functionality should probably be kept as pristine/similar as possible.
Mostly, though, I just want to make sure that before we get more & more codebases floating around with more & more features stacked on top, that they take the time to merge/"unfork", refactor, etc. and try and clean it up wherever possible...but no, we shouldn't do things like gutting camera upload from iOS/Android simply because a Roku doesn't have a camera or anything silly.
Yeah it really doesn't make sense to add on more features that you'll eventually have to fix when the core of say, PHT aren't up to date with the latest codecs and other players (Helix) out there. It stinks to be behind features all ready available on other Apps so, that's why I personally feel it would be well worth the wait if they paused new features for now, and got all the codebases caught up especially with Dolby Atmos.
I disagree with that, actually, and while their stance on "we don't do ETAs & roadmaps" is maddening, as a developer who has seen the other side of the fence (where not only is the grass not greener, but there is no grass...only flames and anguish and everyone dies) where ETAs & roadmaps are over-communicated & missed more often than not. The only thing worse than mystery is disappointment ;)
As for "other media", Plex seems to be on a bit of an audio binge this last week or so, so we'll see...but my guess is it has less to do with "figuring out that they are actual media" and more to do with "for every 1 person who wants Plex to do podcasts, 25 people want it to do XXX"...but we'll see. I think audiobooks would be pretty sweet, as well...although totally ridiculous to have in some clients like PHT. "Welcome to my movie theater. Here is the 4k projector, atmos sound system, 12 foot screen. And now...an audio book."
I would also love to see the Plex team do a feature freeze and just fix everything that's already in place and get all apps for all platforms up to date!
110% agree on the part about stabelizing and cleaning up the code on the existing platforms. Plex for IOS has been so buggy and completely unsupported the last 6 months that it’s allmost useless.
