Okay, the performance of Plex over the past two years has gone from good to garbage over the last 2 years, especially when used in conjunction with IPhones and IPads and Chromecast
The problems do not arise when using these devices with NetFlix, BBC Iplayer etc. So it is not a wifi problem
Neither do they arise when using PMS with a Plex Client running on a Smart TV. So it is not a server problem.
At the moment, the system is not fit for purpose when casting from IPhones to Chromecast.
I am now considering moving to another media streaming system. Can anyone give me any good reasons to stay?
I know a number of people will disagree but I believe that “casting” is nothing more than a work around to allow devices that cannot work directly on a TV to play to the big screen.
I have no problem streaming using Plex on any of my real streaming devices. (Rokus, Fire TV , Shield TV, Raspberry PI and computers)
My suggestion is to quit “casting” and get a real streaming device.
This is entirely a chromcast problem. Not a Plex one.
Leave if you like but Emby is far worse.
What you say about Chromecast might be true, however, Chromecast works perfectly with NetFlix, IPlayer and other similar services. Plex used to work very will with Chromecast, but it has got steadily worse, whereas other services are fine.
Not sure what Emby is, but I will check it out.
Regarding Chromecast, 5 of my kids use a Chromecast as their main playback device for watching Plex, and two of them initiate the cast with the iPhones.
If they were having issues doing it I would have definitely heard about it by now
This has EVERYTHING to do with the low quality CLIENT software solutions being programmed by Plex…
the server is doing its thing… it organizes (although the could do more with the database) and the transcodes IF NECESSARY the media being served out.
problem is… that while many of these clients could do more, they are not being programmed to take advantage of the hardware… and in many cases are I believe being intentionally dumbed down to make it easier on the dev teams.
perfect examples are apple tv and openPHT
apple TV can play many more formats and native high quality containers with other third party softwares yet plex insists on using only apples API player… it makes the experiance a lot less than it could be
OpenPHT wether its on a pc platform or embeded (pi, etc) does a MUCH better job than just about ANY plex provided client in terms of stability, and the ability to play native formats and pass DTS and other native high quality audio streams without trasncode … even HEVC …
what is killing plex is its clients in my opinion…
that an what appears to be a serious lack of any semblance of modern software development best practices for release control, bug/issue tracking, testing/qa, etc…
… to wit… plex’s constant fix one thing - break 10 even makes microsoft look good…
I am wondering about the route that the Plex client takes to get to the server. It no longer allows a direct connection entry in the advanced settings - which begs the question : why is it there.
It is almost as if the connection is going via the plex.tv system to get back into my network - it would find that difficult, I have not enabled external access.
“problem is… that while many of these clients could do more, they are not being programmed to take advantage of the hardware… and in many cases are I believe being intentionally dumbed down to make it easier on the dev teams.”
yup. we have a winner…
@RickyCafe
I have been making that point for quite awhile and I dont fully trust that there are not some ‘metrics’ being collected
plex’s official position is its there to push codecs down to the server when need… why not just make them ALL part of the release… if its for space you have to be joking … plex keeps GBs worth of crap in the logs and caches… its like a fat ■■■■■■■ ordering 3 big macs and a diet coke
other porported reasons are to provide tunnel options and other ‘reach my PMS’ from wan side magic that gets through firewalls and NATs that Plex does a nice job of not talking about how it actually works.
no… to be sure we are connected to the mothership for more than what we are being told…
@dragonmel said:
This has EVERYTHING to do with the low quality CLIENT software solutions being programmed by Plex…
THIS! It must be a challenge keeping so many client applications up to date, but for me, the PMS is almost perfect. The addition on DVR and Live TV means that I could almost replace my Virgin TiVo box and simply have my TV hooked up to an Apple TV running Plex 24x7. Still waiting on the aTV update and for a useable EPG, but hopefully, it’s not too far away…
@adrianwi
The server software could be the greatest thing since the pocket calculator BUT if all the clients are ■■■■ the experiance will suck…period
its like dumping 10k on a mcintosh amplifier for your audio system then piping it through radio shack speakers …
until plex puts more resources and skilled programers at making FIRST CLASS clients for the most popular consumer platforms… plex will end badly …
Plex’s development leadership (provided there are any) need to direct the ios and tvos programmers to begin working on a playback decoder engine that they control that squeezes every ounce out of the hardware vs being content to use apples dumbed down APIs… just like VLC and all the rest of the 3rd party video apps that have done it with success…
If those devs are not skilled enough… hire better programmers or hell… buy or use (if gpl etc) the code from people smarter than you.
Ahh look guys, an armchair developer who knows best! /s
plex for me works great and is getting better and better, even on my chromecast and other devices (although i admit they are the more newer devices). Is it perfect ? No, not yet…
Oddly enough i have no such issues as described by op.
I’d love to see Plex do a “papercuts” program similar to what Ubuntu did a few years ago, where no new major features are added and as many bugs, issues and missing pieces of the existing software are fixed. If I remember correctly, they took user input for as many bugs and issues as they could and went about fixing as many things as they could. Now THAT is awesome. I, for one, would love to see gapless playback and refresh ID3 tag info when you do a “Refresh Metadata”. I’m sure there’s a long list form other out there. Plex is so close to perfect… if they’d just fix what’s existing now it’d be a truly class act platform.
A feature freeze is a brilliant idea so they can focus on HW transcoding and bug fixes for PMS 2.0.
@danjames92
not a feature freeze… a release schedule that alows the client devs an opportunity to catch up and clean up…
additional work can be done on new features etc but in the background
stabilize this out of control and unweildly development and get on some semblance of a development timeline that is not some hapazard, half baked spiral that its been on for far too long…
@danjames92
a former DoD software ENGINEER that was the head of indipendent validation & verification QA over multimilion dollar software contracts… that guy…
@danjames92 said:
A feature freeze is a brilliant idea so they can focus on HW transcoding and bug fixes for PMS 2.0.
Plex believes that because each piece is developed by different teams there is no problem with adding features and capabilities to the overall system. However in this they are wrong in my opinion. Not only are they wrong they are misguided in that they do not seem to have sufficient controls in place to make sure that changes in one, seemingly unrelated, place does not have an adverse effect on other parts.
The other part of the equation is that Plex insists that all, or most, interfaces look mostly the same. While this is laudable in many ways what it actually does is limit the best systems and developers to the standard set by the worst. It means that possibilities in the better interfaces that are exploitable by the better developers are never seen or even actively suppressed so that the lesser interfaces/developers do not look stupid or inadequate.
Plex does not seem to think their users are smart enough to handle differences between interfaces but, in that, they are wrong. Most Plex users are quite smart and can handle differences. I think Plex should allow their developers to develop the best user experience for each platform and not limit one just because another developer/platform can’t make it work. Sameness is not always, or even usually. a good thing.
In some ways the same thing goes for the server BUT the server does need to “look” the same to every device so the wiggle room is less and there is really not much that can be done on one platform that cannot be done on another.
But all this is quite moot as Plex only listens to Plex and its users seem to be treated as a necessary evil. Plex wants all of us to use the system in exactly the same way and conform to their belief that their way is the only way.
It is a fact (at least as far as I am concerned) that Plex is the best of all possible solutions for media management and playback but it could be so much more and so much better. Just the ability of users to make more choices would be a huge step forward but according to Plex user choice is often too hard for their poor defenseless little developers to implement and maintain and we would not want to stretch their abilities too far.
But on top of all that Plex insists on adding new features and abilities all the time because that does not tax the developers. As least it does not as long as the “features” do not have to be finished or bug free. So time and energy get spent on new incomplete features while existing bugs and features go unfixed and incomplete.
So, should Plex mostly freeze things until most everything currently in existence is complete or fixed? Yes!!
Will that freeze happen? No!!
@Elijah_Baley said:
@danjames92 said:
The other part of the equation is that Plex insists that all, or most, interfaces look mostly the same. While this is laudable in many ways what it actually does is limit the best systems and developers to the standard set by the worst. It means that possibilities in the better interfaces that are exploitable by the better developers are never seen or even actively suppressed so that the lesser interfaces/developers do not look stupid or inadequate.
My opinion on this has always been that most (most, not all I realize) usually stick to a certain eco system for their media. There are those on mostly Apple products and those who only want Android and those that only use HTPCs for the most part. In my case, I stick with Android everything.
So, the idea of having a similar interface across all devices isn’t necessary really. Just let the Devs figure that one out for each application they are working on.
And, like you said, we’re not idiots who can’t figure out how to navigate a new interface. It’s not THAT different. You know, left, right, up, down, enter, etc.
