I just tested the new version of the WebOS preview app and would like to share my feedback.
Bugs:
The magic remote cursor doesn’t work in the search screen keyboard. No matter where it points, it always types an “A”. (Fixed in 5.1.1)
If the server has video transcoding disabled but the file needs transcoding to be played, the preview app shows a wrong (very missleading) error message about not being able to access the file on the server.
The preplay screen doesn’t show the “watched” status (progress bar at the bottom of preview images) of episodes that have never been highlighted. (Fixed in 5.2.1)
The preplay screen looses the “unwatched” status (rectangle at the top right of preview images) once an episode has been highlighted. (Fixed in 5.2.1 by removing the indicator)
The chapter images below the seek bar always show an orange triangle at the top right (just like unseen episoded did in the old app). This would be helpful if it would show if the chapter was already started, but right now it always shows for all chapters. Please either only show it for future chapters or remove it completely.
Problems:
Although the timeline is an improvement compared to the first version of the preview, it could still use work. A big improvement would be to completely remove the gradient that needlessly spans up to the center of the screen. That space wastage is especially visible if you pause while a subtitle is shown. The subtitle will then be above the center of the screen, although there would be space available below it (just above the title of the show). The old app just had a clear edge for the semi-transparent background of the timeline bar which wasted much less space, please bring that back.
But if you abolutely must have a gradient, please make it smaller and much more smooth! (Right now it has very few and distinct steps which is quite ugly depending on the currently showing video.)
Multi-line subtitles now have more line spacing which makes them harder to read. Please reduce the line spacing again.
The positioning of the subtitles is also weird in the preview app. With the old app a single subtitle line was shown in the black bar of a video that’s not using the full 16:9 vertical space. But the preview app shows the subitle line exactly in a position where half of the line is in the black bar and the other half is in the video area. This also makes subtitles harder to read.
The preplay screen shows the format of the selected audio track, but not the language. The language is more important, so please show it too.
The subtitle selection screen doesn’t show additional information about the track like the web interface does (e.g. if it’s a SDH track).
Minor things:
Please show an indicator for HDR video in the preplay screen. The old app showed it with the resolution, the new one doesn’t any more.
Please show “DTS” on the preplay screen instead of “DCA”. Other places like the audio selection menu and the web app also show “DTS”.
The old app had an option to disable posters as background (by selecting “Blur” in the settings). The preview is missing that option in the new settings menu. Please bring it back. (Added in 5.2.1)
The library filter settings are ugly and too big. The old app had a small unintrusive bar, but the preview shows big grey boxes.
Any chance of highlighting the items which are currently under the magic remote cursor (like when you select it with the arrow buttons)? The old app also didn’t have this, but other apps like YouTube and Netflix do, so it would be nice.
Translation stuff:
Some texts, especially those in the new settings menus, are not translated to German. Even those that could use the same strings as the old app.
The german translation for the filter bar in the libraries is wrong. The “by” in “x y by z” is translated with “von” but it should be “nach”.
Please consider formatting dates (e.g. the release date of episodes) to the chosen language. (The old app also didn’t do this, but it would be nice to have.)
Server Version#: Initially 1.19.4.2935, but 1.20.3.3483 for the last update to this post
Player Version#: Initially 5.1.0, but 5.2.1 for the last update to this post
Another big issue on our LG TV (web os 3.1.8, plex app 5.1.0) is that the early access version always will transcode AC3 audio to AAC. On 4K movies this leads to playback problems, with long “buffering” pauses.
After leaving early access, the same content is played directly from the server, as expected.
Ok, with the first preview this odd AC3 transcode to ACC was obvious, with my WebOS 4.1 the current preview is not transcoding. I have also noticed a 4K increased compatibility with many 7.1 channel sources.
I would navigate to the bottom of LG Plex app preview settings in left menu/settings/audio/ enable AC3/ Restart TV.
I really hope you guys are working on making this happen. Clicking to play a file under the cursor while another file is highlighted just feels wrong and is a bad experience for new users.
If you use the cursor/ pointer, you need to click/using the ok button for it to engage. Having tiles highlighted with moving cursor on a not so powerful and web based app is asking for trouble. Don’t get me wrong, that would be a natural thing to expect . This behavior was the same in previous version. As you have said, lets see if it is possible.
I’ve updated the first post for app version 5.1.1 and also added a few new findings.
I can not confirm this. AC3 is directly played without problems on my LG C9. Only TrueHD needs transcoding, but this is also the case with the old app.
Sounds good. 65OLEDC7 here, and we did set the audio settings to enable AC3, without any effect, even after many restarts. Haven’t tried any newer version yet. On our old TV, new versions of anything is rare.
[Edit] As of version 5.1.1 of the Early Access version, direct play is working normally.
Before making a new thread, I wanted to check with everyone here on if this experienced by all:
Currently on latest 5.1.1 preview.
When opening the LG WebOS Plex App, The background is grey with a plex logo is in the middle of the screen. The screen then ‘refreshes’ or flashes after a second or two, the size of the logo changes, but it’s still a grey background. Finally, it refreshes a third time to a purely black background with plex logo which is what I expect with an OLED, before going into the Plex ‘Home’ Dashboard.
Is this going through the motions to start / refresh the app each time or is this a bug?
Opening the plex app itself I’ve clocked at around 8-10 seconds of just the grey / black background with the logo before it goes into the Home Screen, which seems abnormally long compared to others on FireTV or AppleTV.
Isn’t this supposed to be built from the ground up as a native App Store app similar to Netflix and others? Those load much faster from WebOS.
The initial startup of 3-4 slightly different loading screens is odd to say the least, like its recognizing the display and that it’s an OLED panel before switching to pure black.
So your saying a Netflix app does what the Plex app does. DVR, Live TV, play your media, Chapters, Video Previews, Photo’s, music and so on. I would suggest the WebOS app for Netflix is far simpler, yes very polished by the company’s billions of Debt. Yes I like Netflix…
Start up background colour, I would expect that to change in time as did the previous UI. If not, it maybe there for a reason, to be backward compatible with Earlier WebOS devices. My iPad devices are almost instant, so I get what your saying. The browser view for server is a delay of up to 5 seconds and that with a device with far greater processing power than a Smart TV.
Being a loader makes sense and I understand each of the “Apps” serves its own purpose and has various features that could affect loading time, but I did just a quick comparison on initial load to being functional to interact. I do agree once it’s in the App it’s fairly quick to play videos and other actions, which is good.
Wow, it looks like it’s loading totally different Plex splash screens. Maybe Plex had a contest to see who could design the best splash screen, and they couldn’t decide the winner so they just used all the entries on app start up… one after another.
I’ve just checked the subtitles with the current version 5.1.2 again. Although the changelog mentions fixes for vertical spacing, I can’t see any improvement. So the points from the first post are still valid.
