Hi,
I would like to get some clarification on what the “As of 28th September this app will no longer be available” message that now comes up when I go into the Plex player on all my 2019 Panasonic smart TV’s.
I’m keen to know if it simply means that the app will no longer be available in the Panasonic app store, or if the app will no longer work on my three TV’s.
Also is this a Panasonic decision or a Plex decision?
I know that Plex have said they will no longer be supporting Panasonic TV’s (although I see they are now supporting some TV’s only in the EU market - I wonder if there’s a consumer law that’s covering that…) but if I’m happy with how everything is currently working, then why does it need to be removed?
I would happily not upgrade my TV firmware, Plex media and plex players if it means I get to continue using Plex. The alternative is I need to go and buy three new TV’s at a time when we’re dealing with financial issues, product availability issues and ability to get out to the shops issues (because I’m not going to spend thousands of NZ dollars on TV’s that I can’t see in a showroom) caused by a world wide pandemic… or find an alternative to Plex which I would prefer not to as I love the product.
I came here after receiving the same message today! I’ve got a DX900.
I had a look on the App Market after I got the notification, and couldn’t see Plex there. It may have already been removed.
Yep I’ve seen that but doesn’t answer the question though. Will the app stop working or is it just no longer available to be instealled?
Also, the message talks about Panasonic TVs upto 2016 - I’ve got 2019. But as I said before; I know that Plex is dropping support for Panasonic (except some models in EU).
Irrespective of that; what I’ve got now works fine. If I don’t upgrade anything then why can’t I carry on using what I have. It’s the same as old operating systems; they may no longer be secure or get updates but if I want to continue using them then I can.
Whether the app is available or not is up to the TV manufacturer. In the case of Panasonic, they will be removing the app from their Appstore. I do not know if that means it will get removed from your TV. However, even if the app icon is there, it will not work.
The Plex app works by getting loaded over the internet when you run it. It is not actually stored on the Panasonic TV. The apps loads from a secured server. Since the TV won’t be able to connect to that secured server, there is no way to load the app.
So you’re saying that Plex client is going to stop working on the 28th Sept because Panasonic have removed the app from their store. I’m assuming also because Plex will be making changes to your back end servers to require “modern secure connections” which would then stop the client connecting?
Can you please explain why some TV that are in the EU will be still supported but those same TV’s outside EU won’t be supported?
Also can you please explain what encryption and authentication protocols and standards Plex is now insisting on, which I assume the likes of Amazon, Netflix etc don’t as those apps continue to work. It seems strange that Panasonic doesn’t support those “modern secure connections” on any TV (because you’re not supporting even the 2021 models) and I do wonder if it’s a commercial decision being hidden behind a security reason.
Sorry for being pedantic but the reasons and logic don’t seem to make sense (to this cyber security consultant).
I don’t know exactly what Panasonic is doing, but if they remove it from the store on the 28th then the app can’t be launched. If you have the app already loaded and don’t exit, it possible the app will keep working until the 30th.
These TVs are able to use the new encryption standards. AFAIK, these TVs are not sold outside of the EU. If you have one of these and don’t live in the EU, it may work for you. I don’t know if Panasonic is geo restricting the app from loading. If they have specific appstores for different regions, the TV outside of the appstore region may not load the app.
Unfortunately, I cannot go into details on the change.
“ Unfortunately, I cannot go into details on the change.”
Why? Sorry that’s a poor excuse. You’re connecting over the internet, you’ll be using standard encryption standards… we even use those standards in government so I suspect Plex aren’t using stronger than government requirements.
If you said you were requiring TLS 1.3 and the TV only supported TLS 1.2 then that would be a reasonable statement (although I would be surprised Panasonic didn’t support 1.3) but again; Netflix and Amazon etc don’t have a problem so why does Plex?
I come back again to suspecting it’s a commercial decision not a technical one… and if that’s the case; Plex is abandoning paying customers.
On addition; you do know the link you’re referring to is dated September 2020 don’t you? That’s a year ago.
So why are you saying it will stop working on 30 sept 2021?
Hi There,
Im pretty sure a whole bunch of us with Panasonic tvs are not overly happy with this reply from Plex.
If the issue is with Panasonic, why cant Plex intervene on our behalf?
Mike
Absolutely right, my message says the Plex app will no longer be available after the 14th September this year. Not really sure why but it’s going to cause a bit of a stir since I share my NAS Plex app with my family…
i am not sure if this is a proper work around for these folks but you can use the TV as a monitor and boot a dongle to the net and or connect a pc as i have on my TV so if i wanted to i can launch plex either from the TV interface or the PC interface. i hope this might be helpful
At that time of that announcement @anon18523487 linked to, the V1 app which ran on Panasonic and the other device brands mentioned were already unsupported and had not received any updates for years. We mistakenly did not include Panasonic in it with those others that were mentioned as not working at all after that date. We added Panasonic to it in Oct 2020. Since it was our mistake to not give Panasonic users the same notice we gave others at that time we were able to come to an agreement with Panasonic to keep the app for a while longer.
However we cannot maintain outdated security any longer and the current certificates used for them will expire. Because those devices cannot use modern security the app will no longer be able to load up from backend services. Panasonic is not going to keep an unusable app on the device and the new message is notice it will be removed, though it probably should have had more info pointing to the original announcement @anon18523487 linked above as a reminder of why.
We currently have an agreement with Panasonic to get the new version of the app on newer devices in European markets. I cannot at this time say if we might be able to get it on newer devices in other regions but it will not be on older devices.
Hi,
once again can you explain to your customers what security the Panasonic TVs are unable to support? Netflix, Amazon etc don’t have the issue. Please don’t reply and say you can’t tell us for security reasons, governments world wide publish what their cyber security “need” and “must” requirements are.
If it’s a matter of a certificate expiring, renewing that certificate is a time and cost issue, not a technical one.
As for only supporting some newer TVs in EU; the supported list includes TVs manufactured in 2017… I suspect your being told to support them for legal reasons (EU law regarding length of support in certain countries) and therefore if you can support them you could support others.
I realise that you can’t support all TVs for all of the time, but all this, and I’m sure other, paying customer is asking for is an honest explanation of why, and a commitment on how long you will support makes/models for. Without that my next investment of 3 new smart TVs to support Plex is going to be a significant financial risk.
Panasocis does not want two apps in the store and as the app running on older devices was not supported or recieving updates for years anyway it was decided to remove from store. I believe it was a TLS 1.0 to 1.2 change to root cert if I recall.
I understand folks are upset but I’m sorry the old unsupported app is still being removed at the end of the month.
So just to be clear, it’s lack of TLS1.2 support on the TVs that’s causing this? If that’s the case Netflix etc are still working and I would assume would also want the same TLS version. Also, just those limited number, and some of them are old) Panasonic TVs do support TLS1.2?
If I contact Panasonic and they confirm my tv supports TLS1.2, will you reenable the app?
The app will not get re-enabled because regardless of that Panasonic does not want two versions of the app in their store anyway. The current app cannot run on older devices and Panasonic decided to only have it available on the Euro market.
Checking with Panasonic now - hopefully they will reply.
So the limited number of Panasonic TV’s you do support, even ones that are built before mine, do support TLS1.2? but you don’t support any of the others sold world-wide, even those released this year…?? You can see how that seems strange that you’re asking your customers to believe that Panasonic, a major TV manufacturer, only has a handful of TV’s that support current protocols?
Is it also possible to provide a response re commitment on how long you do support TV’s - if I want to stay with Plex (undecided at this time) then I’ll need to buy several new TV’s If I want to retain the current single remote for each TV.
