In my testing of Preview 7 - 2025.3.0 (844)
- Home Screen loading time does appear to have improved in this release. However, for movie/tv detail pages some metadata appears to be cached locally on device and for others it is not. When metadata caching for items occurs, app does feel more responsive, but when metadata needs to continually re-download from providers, the app feels outdated and unresponsive. Content caching seems random, as some recently accessed movies still need to re-download content every time their detail page is accessed.
- If Plex is unable to download a “Logo” for a film, that space in the UI is left empty. There is no title displayed on the page.
- I was able to access LiveTV, but playback controls are not accessible with either button clicks or swiping on Siri Remote during LiveTV Playback (ie unable to access subtitle menu or the three dot menu on the right). The Back button does exit the playing content, but it looks to “crash” back to the main app Home page rather than the guide.
- During media playback or TV/Movie items, the “Playback Options” menu is empty.
- During media playback, there is no consistency in navigating “down” to bring up the playback controls. Sometimes it goes to the “Pause” button, sometimes it goes to the “Three Dots Menu” button, some times it goes to the “Subtitle” button, and sometimes it takes multiple downward swipes or presses to get past the “playback position bar”.
- During media playback, there is no way to “hide” playback controls manually once you bring the menu up. Swiping/clicking “Up” on the remote does not hide the bar, and using the “back” button just exits media playback instead of closing the control bar. Going “down” on the playback controls goes to a chapter selection screen and does not hide them. (Personally, I tend to agree with the sentiment of other testers that using the Apple UI would be a better decision here. It looks more modern and the user base has an understanding of how it works).
- “Scanning” through playing media with a swipe has a weird “runaway/rubberbanding” type effect where the playhead is all over the place.
- While Multichannel Spatial Audio with AirPods Pro is available on the iOS app in this version, it does not function on the AppleTV version.
- When “Match Framerate” is enabled in the AppleTV settings, audio is out of sync when using “Airplay” audio devices, including AirPods Pro, but in sync when playing on TV speakers or through wired sound system. When “Match Framerate” is disabled, audio on Airplay devices (ie AirPods Pro) is in sync.
- DV/HDR content tone mapping settings for SDR Screens now follow the main AppleTV “Match Content” setting. There is no option to set screen type in the Preview App like there is in the Public App (ie HDR vs SDR). This means you may get blown out or “flat” color on HDR media when played back on SDR screen if the Apple TV “Match Content” setting for “Dynamic Range” is enabled. But if “Match Content->Dynamic Range” is turned off, proper tone mapping occurs. Affects Direct Play and transcoded content.
- “Navigation Cursor” disappears if you access another app and return to Plex Preview, or if you access Apple TV control center.
- Subtitles are now properly reporting playback in dashboard and Tautulli.
- No easy way to get back to the top navigation bar from the Home or Library screens. In current public app, users can just swipe left (from pretty much any screen) to access Plex Settings and Navigation. On the Preview App, hitting the “back” button doesn’t jump users to the top, users must swipe or click up multiple times to reach the Navigation bar. (Personally, I tend to agree with a lot of the testers that the left side navigation menu is a better option then reverting to a top menu for a non-touch screen device as it cuts down on number of interaction inputs).
I’ll continue testing this and the iOS version, but I ask Plex to re-consider the top Navigation Bar and new Playback Interface controls. I personally prefer the ease and speed of the Left Navigation bar in the current Public release, and I think that Apple’s Playback UI (or even the current Plex Public UI) is far superior in ease of use, funcitonality, and aesthetics than this new Interface that we’ve seen in both the iOS and AppleTV preview apps. I understand the want to “democratize” both code and interface across all the clients, but Apple TV users pay a premium for their devices because they want apps that are fast, reliable, consistent, and look good, and this new Playback interface is not that.
