A New Experimental Plex Front End

[chrisjdavis]

UPDATE!

Genus is now in testing, and we have a GitHub repo where issues are being reported and worked on! If you run into a problem, check there first to see if its been reported, and if not open a ticket!

chrisjdavis/Genus-Public

Well, this will be an interesting post.

As a long time lover of Plex (Pass holder since it launched, been using Plex since 2009) I really dig the relentless forward momentum, it’s great to see, but for some of us, myself particularly, it can create moments that are frustrating, which is where I find myself now.

I really just want to watch crap I have in my own library. I don’t want to watch free streaming movies, share stuff with friends, rate, etc. I just want to watch my content, in the most streamlined, attractive and performant way. The current plex front end app makes that a pretty difficult prospect and as time goes on, I assume it will get worse and worse for folks like me.

So, being a software developer and a designer, I thought I would do a few weekends worth of work and test out some ideas. Much to my surprise, things went pretty well and I now have a mostly functional front end app that does exactly what I want, and nothing else. Since I assume others out there feel like as I do, I decided to see if any one on here would be interested in helping test and validate my assumptions.

I have another maybe week to two weeks of work before this can be used by other people without too much grief, and at that time I am thinking of releasing it with Apple beta testing app, if there is a large enough group of people who are interested that is. So, let me break some things down.

1. This is 100% a test of the user experience and design. It uses 100% native tvOS components.
2. Since we are using all native components, and the AVPlayer framework doesn’t’ support MKV, etc this version of the app relies on transcoding for everything.
3. If you test this, you are doing so acknowledging the above two facts and won’t complain to me about not being able to play your 4k HDR SuperStuff without it being downgraded to 1080p.

I have a few branches that incorporate 3rd party players, so that the app will support everything Plex can throw at it, but I don’t want to put significant effort into this if I am wrong, e.g. people don’t want something like this, only I do. If that is the case I already have a new step in my toolchain worked out that converts all of my MKV files to MP4 so they can be played in the default player.

Anywho, here are some shots of what we are working with, in my app, codenamed Genus.

I think that is enough to get the idea across. I guess let me know if there are people out there who want to test it out and provide feedback. If not that’s okay too. Doesn’t hurt to ask!

[RicardoVelaC]

It’s look great!!
The build will be only for tvOS or do you have plans to release for macOS too?
At this moment Plex don’t offer a decent macOS version, your app could be a great and modern solution as a desktop player and Xcode could built it easely

[chrisjdavis]

Yeah, I have thought about that, basically make a universal app kind of thing. Once I have this all buttoned up, a native macOS version would be next on the list.

[RicardoVelaC]

Great!! When that will be ready for testing I would like to participate via Testflight to test and provide feedback…

Congratulations for your work

[JCHH]

I’d certainly be happy to try it in TestFlight!

[bigbadrabbit]

Me too

[chrisjdavis]

Great! I am hoping to have the tvOS version ready to go in 2 weeks. There is some work to do to support macOS, so that will have to come a little after, but its on my radar now.

[m5gd9]

You’ve done a great job so far. The interface looks very good and tidy—I think I can judge that, since I’m a graphic designer myself.
It will be interesting to see how it works with the configuration options and metadata display, subtitle selection with its options, settings, language selection, etc.

But you’ve already done the most important thing: you’ve started

[chrisjdavis]

Yep, I wish I could just use the built in AVPlayer, since it has APIs for a lot of this, it’s just passing the data to them correctly (audio tracks, subtitles, etc). I am thinking, at least for the first revision, to take a page from Apple’s playbook and only expose what is absolutely necessary in the app. A lot of things can be managed in the server after all.

[Christian1979]

Hi @chrisjdavis

I‘m interested too to try it out in TestFlight

[bigbadrabbit]

You definitely should stick with the built-in AVPlayer. It already offers everything you need, and keeping it as the core player avoids unnecessary complexity or over-engineered features. Just use and integrate it the way Apple intends, without adding extra layers or reinventing anything. This keeps the app clean, stable and future-proof.

[chrisjdavis]

The only issue with that is you have to use transcoding if the media file isn’t an MP4, and that can be capped at 1080p or less depending on your servers hardware, which I assume some people will not be as excited if their 4k file plays as 1080p, etc. Something to think about though.

[SE56]

Looking forward to this project developing. On the surface it is a solid idea.

Cheers

[bigbadrabbit]

I get that. In my case it wouldn’t be an issue, since I remux all my videos into Apple-friendly formats anyway. But of course, if someone doesn’t do that, then the native player wouldn’t be very helpful.

[SuperSecret]

This project is exactly what I’m looking for! Throwing my hat in the ring as a beta tester. I will also say right now that I will, without hesitation, pay good money for the final release of this app if you so choose to ask for payment (you should😅).

[chrisjdavis]

I’m experimenting with settings in Plex to allow it to direct demux, direct play and transcode, see if it gives me a decent result. We’ll see.

[SE56]

I hope this will compare well with the ATV new Player from Plex, which I have been using since March 2025. One question that has me curious. Will there be TV and DVR compatibility for Terrestrial Channels or even IPTv?

[chrisjdavis]

I haven’t been able to see the new player, so unfortunately no way to compare contrast on my end. And no, this will not have DVR and TV. The point of this player is to make it 100% focused on media playback, from an old school, where Plex started, POV.

If there is enough of a demand, I might make another version that has TV and DVR.

[SE56]

So you could say it’s a bare bones Player to consume content.

[chrisjdavis]

I will confess that it has crossed my mind to charge for it. It isn’t a small amount of time going into it from one person. If I do, it will be between 4.99 - 9.99, no subscriptions, etc. I hate those things.