Hey Chuck thanks for chiming in! Hope you’re enjoying your weekend and staying safe. Just would like to point out:
You said the Apple platform is difficult to work on, I can’t disagree as my skills are not in coding so I will take your word for it. However I have 3 different generations of Apple TV 4K models and Infuse on each model plays everything great. And usually when they roll out bug fixes (and quite fast mind you) it usually fixes things for each generation. So is it really that much different between ATV generations?
Why not get coders who are experienced with coding for Apple products exclusively? It seems like it would lead to a much better outcome and allow those who prefer to code for the PC side the opportunity to do so.
PlexAMP for example works on every single iPhone, iPad and Mac computer I have across many different generations and models. So I know the Plex team is capable of making something work well across multiple Mac and iOS devices with varying hardware and OS changes.
I think what everyone truly wants to know is, are the developers behind the tvOS app committed to making it work well and really putting in the effort to do so? For me that’s the important question anyway. I don’t have to know details if I know the devs are truly working to make the app great.
Thanks for sharing what you can without getting into trouble, much appreciated! From what you’re saying my hopes are this:
Getting away from the legacy API fixes audio/video sync universally, allows for better 4K playback (especially 60hz which will not play properly at all).
The overall quality of the app improves and is easier to manage, and bug fixes that prevent smooth playback become more frequent in the future.
Developers make personal media playback a strong focus moving forward.
That’s it! I’m a lifetime Plex pass holder, so here’s a suggestion to you and the dev team as to how you could monetize someone like me who only uses local media.
Offer an “in app purchase” for TrueHD Atmos & DTS:X software decoding within the client and allow the user to pay the license fee to unlock this functionality.
Would something like that be possible in your opinion? If Plex wants to be profitable, live TV and ads is definitely not the only way.
I very much like the ideas. They make sense and provide a better custom experience for those who want it.
You are entirely correct about adding in-app purchases. It makes good sense overall as it’s a 1:1 Grant → Use relationship. There wouldn’t be any ‘extra’ licenses floating out there which cut into the product viability.
I will forward all this.
If I suddenly disappear, you’ll know I stepped too far somewhere
If it means you not pushing your luck would you mind to also ask if we can have notifications when anything changes regarding the new audio player.
Bigwheel explained the other day that it’s done by flags rather than client updates. The downside of that is there’s no release notes to see when anything has changed/improved.
TL;DR
Playback for anything with True-HD Atmos just didn’t play at all. Suddenly it was fixed behind the scenes.
There’s another issue with Spatial Audio that BigWheel picked up on…so it would be great to read somewhere when something changes with the new player rather than just trying it every day.
Fingers crossed you walked the lines carefully enough and you do not disappear
I’m optimistic that with a few pivots Plex will be just fine for many years to come.
Appreciate you listening to the ideas Chuck (especially on the weekend) and I agree with @Xhaka some kind of notification about changes to the audio engine would definitely be welcome, since it happens behind the scenes. That way if something goes right/wrong we aren’t thinking it’s something going on with our own setups.
You can’t really trust what Plex says. I still remember the not long ago when they blamed QT for not supporting them in order to solve some GUI issues, then a user went and contacted QT people directly to ask for they side of the story and what happens is that Plex do not pays for QT support and they wanted to just pay for like one month of support and fix all their problems in that month, but QT does no offer “just one month of support: for you to fix all your problems and go”. Plex said QT was ghosting them and that was not true and QT had receipts for it. Then that said guy who went to QT to ask was banned from the forums and whenever someone mentioned the problem everything was deleted, they stopped doing that when they realized that such attitude only brings more and more attention.
Hi @ChuckPa , I personally am very happy you survived at Plex and you are still there, I have high respect for you and your work and I specially appreciate all the efforts you made to keep the FreeBSD version up, I even understand the decision to remove hardware transcoding.
After saying that, I do not think anyone is attacking you personally, I understand you as an employee have to live with the decisions taken by your company. But at the same time you are the one here facing the music, you could collect our opinions and bring them up, maybe someone will listen, most probably not, because I’ve seen the attitude your CEO has here and in Reddit. Maybe you did this already, maybe Dave did it too, maybe many times. But please try to understand our side, it is very frustrating, every time we use Plex the damn thing is out of sync, and we power users use Plex basically every day. Almost four years with this stupid situation. We must really love Plex to stand this. Saying that Apple platform is difficult to program in is at the end just an excuse, every other app do what you can’t, it is as simple as that.
And about the Apple TV remotes, I have never in my life used them for more than doing the setup to activate the remote from the TV to control the ATV. I do everything with my TV remote, in all our 3 ATVs. In our “Movie Room” we have a projector instead of a TV and I control the ATV with the A/V Receiver remote.
Hi ChuckPa, I recommend a Silicone Case Protective Cover Skin For Apple TV 4K remote. I have found it helps with handling, there a lot of different designs.
Then again there is an Remote app for iPhone and iPad
I think the bottom line for me is my age and disability. I think it’s finally catching up.
The heart attack showed me just how “Not Indestructibly Young” I am now lol
As for the remote on the phone? I stand a better chance trying to use my Apple Watch!
When you say “Hey Siri” and the every TV changes – NOT GOOD
Chuck: While I bought a Nvidia Shield Pro (to mess with and to hold me over until the sync issue is resolved), I appreciate that you and your team are working on a fix.
Nvidia Shield Pro has its own problems. I bought it for $40 off on Prime Day. For some reason, it makes my LG OLED TV flash the “Dolby Atmos” symbol when TrueHD is used. And it does it every few minutes. This happens when I plug my Shield Pro directly into my office 42" LG OLED TV. But this doesn’t happen when I plug the Shield Pro into my Denon Receiver. So, Shield Pro will only work on my “primary” 77" LG OLED TV (with a Denon Receiver).
I was using OSMC Vero 4K+ (not Plex) for years. It’s awesome. But the UI sucks. Fiancee won’t use Kodi. I think I can train her to use the Shield Pro. She’s most comfortable with the Apple TV 4K.
would you mind to also ask if we can have notifications when anything changes regarding the new audio player.
lol
