Apple Player Update Beta - Discussion

Plex Players Player Betas
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So…the ATV player has been broken for years. The team spent the last 2 years attempting to fix it, and now they are throwing all that work away to focus on the “New Experience”? I understand the stutter is gone in the NE, but good lord. Users have to wait EVEN LONGER now. All the while, everyone was hoping the last two years of development would actually get the users to a better place.

This company is severely mismanaged.

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I have a feeling that’s doubtful as they have new pricing/features going into affect at the end of April. I imagine they need the new Plex Experience app released by then (unless they are backporting that stuff into the old apps).

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I see several posts have been removed…

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Especially the one indicating that the Plex Experience apps are “code frozen” and in “final testing”…

Plex must think we’re really dumb

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My heart sank when I read that.

It’s not ready for prime time. Not in a million years.

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I"m really sorry for having upset everyone. That was not my intent.

I think I’m testing builds which you don’t have.

I apologize for my ignorance.

I’m testing a build labeled “2025.9.0 (950)”.
I get an update once, sometimes twice, a day.

In the release notes, I see a detailed list of fixes.
There are some “Added” statements so my previous statement about “code freeze” is clearly in error. Again, my apologies.

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At least you 'fessed up!!

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I’m human.

Today is apparently my day to screw up!

:see_no_evil_monkey:

lol

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I’ll be absolutely AMAZED if they have managed to make significant progress within a few builds though! Plex development is usually akin to swimming through treacle :slight_smile:

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What can I test here which would give you a good indication of where it’s at?

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When is the shuffle or play all files option coming to the libraries?

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Here’s quick list of some of the basic things that I’m currently still having issues with:

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@dklein

A ‘quick list’ ? :roll_eyes:

That’s a grocery list. I do have some extra time but GEEPERS!

  1. I am not using anything with “Old Player”. I’m entirely on the new app.

  2. Not getting any rubberbanding on ATV 4K (the original one) or iPad

  3. Pressing back closes whatever you’re looking at

  4. Playback console auto hides after a few seconds

  5. clicking down on Siri remote displays console at bottom of screen, which auto-hides after a few seconds of inactivity.

  6. Voice search operative.

  • Click mic button
  • Speak
  • Search results displayed (upper right corner)
  1. Don’t keep multiple versions so can’t test this.
  2. Never used voice search on the iphone in an app (what do you press?)
    – search button (to type) works as expected
  3. Intros / credits are removed before I put the media into my library. - Can’t test this.
  4. Seeing current playback progress shown clicking remote.
  5. Back button / swipe up ; When down in the library (seeing all the posters), pressing BACK takes me back to the top of the display (the “Libraries” at the top)
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Thanks @ChuckPa :slight_smile:

That does seem to be a lot of work done since the beta I have access to.

You mention the playback console closing automatically, is there a manual way to close it? Ie say I’ve skipped ahead 30 seconds, do I need to wait for the console to close on it’s own (about 10-15 seconds in my version) or can I push the back button on the remote to close it?

Re Voice Search on the iPhone… sorry for the confusion, it’s Voice Search on the Apple TV app when you’re in the Library search. Also when you’re in there, if you have an associated iPhone, users would expect a prompt on the iPhone to use the iPhones keyboard to type in the parameter rather than needing to rely on the AppleTV on screen keyboard. This is an Apple Accessibility feature that’s pretty standard in most apps (and I believe the current Public Release).

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Playback console will close after 3 seconds of inactivity.

I don’t have my phone associated but will try that out. If the Siri remote works, I’m sure the iPhone will do it too.

The only playback issue I have, which is one my Apple TV (A1842) has always struggled with, is playing Gemini Man (59.94 FPS) which I ripped from the BluRay (I bought it because it’s an insanely difficult video to play. Bitrate is 98 Mbps :slight_smile: )

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It sounds like development is pretty active. Last release in Testflight was a couple weeks ago. Any reason those releases aren’t more frequent? It’s not like any of us are expecting perfection at this stage :wink: Even weekly would be great.

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Fwiw. There’s no amount of time that makes not being able to dismiss the player overlay that is good since the player doesn’t move subtitles above the overlay.

3 seconds isn’t good. It’s missing 3 seconds of subtitles and I like a Sorkin script :confused:

Or anything foreign language.

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@ChuckPa:
Because you are using the same A-TV A1842 (64 GB) like me :wink: :

On my device the beta app immediately crashes after I open it. The logo starts and then after about a second I’m back on the home screen. tvOS 18.3 [22K557]

I’ve already tried to install an another beta build but no luck. Even with the oldest available Plex Experience Preview 2025.2.0 it crashes faster than the screen can write “Plex”. :smiley:

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@Fluamsler

I had that happen with 2025.9.0 (950)

Knowing I’m getting as-developed builds, I shutdown the ATV and waited.
The next build took (2025.10.0) care of it.

I’m now using 2025.10.0 (963) without issue

I had good luck with 9.6.0 & 9.8.0 buids. Did you try any of those ?

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We don’t get any of those builds - the last released build in Testflight is 2025.8.2 (Build 918)