Is the Xbox One Plex app abandoned?

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
1

This seems to be an abandoned app, no meaningful updates in over a year and a half. It’s slow, missing key features, lists dont remember your position when coming back to them after being inside a list item.

Are there not enough Xbox One users to warrant supporting this app? There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 million xbox ones sold. Would more Xbox One users change the approach to supporting this app? Or are video game platforms not preferred by Plex as clients? I didn’t have a lot of experience with it but from using it a little a couple years ago the PS4 app didn’t seem to work very well especially in terms of streaming performance.

It’s a shame because the Xbox has some nice video features, the video PQ is excellent on it.

I’m a hard core Plex lover and consistent financial supporter, it just bums me out that my client platform of choice seems to be considered unworthy of support by the Plex team.

2

No, the app is not abandoned. A lot of the recent fixes that have gone out have been server side fixes so they don’t necessitate an update to the app. Even with that there has been a major change to the core platform of the Xbox One which added a lot of time to the current update in the works.

3

Good point jmckee, but I understand seththetechy’s question, as the Xbox One client is one of the few apps that has yet to see the updated design. This hasn’t changed much since even the Xbox 360 days.

I can only speak anecdotally, but the app itself is pretty solid and works well (why fix something that isn’t broken?), but the lack of design updates is a bit disappointing.

4

It’s time for an update lol

5

@“Terry Cinemas” said:
It’s time for an update lol
Good joke

6

As a yearly plex pass person, im not too happy that the xbox one s client doesnt support 4K, HDR. My other Plex Media Player on the RBP3/2 are getting more updates!

7

I also think it needs bringing up to the same quality as other apps.
I think it’s important to say though how well the voice controls and support for the official MS media remote work - Plex is far better than Netflix, Amazon, etc. in that regard. Please keep this functionality with any update!!

8

I had the same thoughts.

9

Both the Xbox One and Xbox One S already support 4K material when direct play. However only the Xbox One S will output it. In addition, no transcoded content can play in 4K currently. This is due to two factors:

  1. HEVC is not a part of the HLS standard so HEVC cannot be sent when transcoding (IE Subtitles or Audio remux).
  2. A problem with the h264 decoder and 4K content that has been forwarded on to be looked at.

Because of the combination of issues if a file needs to transcode it has to be transcoded down to 1080p as well.

HDR support should already work. But there have been reports that it is not getting triggered automatically based on the stream being sent to the Xbox One so that issue is already being looked at.

10

Where are we with the xbox one update? … Im currently wishing i purchased a PS4 now for my home media setup because it comes with alexa support? …

Is this client ever going to be updated? if so do we get a ETA…

P.S Lifetime Plex Member, Hoping his lifetime membership will be enjoyed on a Xbox One :slight_smile:

11

@br3nn88 said:
Where are we with the xbox one update? … Im currently wishing i purchased a PS4 now for my home media setup because it comes with alexa support? …
The update is still undergoing internal testing.

Is this client ever going to be updated?
Yes.

if so do we get a ETA…
Typically, Plex Inc does not release ETA’s. With the Xbox One app the developers were releasing ETA’s once the app was submitted to Microsoft for approval.

12

@jmckee said:

@br3nn88 said:
Where are we with the xbox one update? … Im currently wishing i purchased a PS4 now for my home media setup because it comes with alexa support? …
The update is still undergoing internal testing.

Is this client ever going to be updated?
Yes.

if so do we get a ETA…
Typically, Plex Inc does not release ETA’s. With the Xbox One app the developers were releasing ETA’s once the app was submitted to Microsoft for approval.

Please add ability to direct play 4K media with HDR like your other apps. Files that play great and activate HDR in plex app on my Samsung tv (I have to force direct play, but it works!) just fail miserably and seem to be transcoding on Xbox one app. Computer starts whirring up and pic looks terrible.

13

@wolverinegeo said:
Please add ability to direct play 4K media with HDR like your other apps. Files that play great and activate HDR in plex app on my Samsung tv (I have to force direct play, but it works!) just fail miserably and seem to be transcoding on Xbox one app. Computer starts whirring up and pic looks terrible.

It should already work. On my Samsung TV with the Xbox One playing back I don’t get a notification on the TV, but I also have no issues direct playing the 4K HDR sample files I have.

If the CPU is spinning up what most likely is happening is something is causing a transcode (Either subtitles or Audio). Because of the current limitation of the h264 decoder on the Xbox One whenever a transcoded 4K stream is needed it has to automatically be down converted to 1080p (HEVC is not supported via HLS and the h264 decoder cannot handle 4K material).

To troubleshoot what is happening more we would need to see your Plex Media Server.log when one of these files is getting played to see what exactly is happening.

14

@jmckee said:
The update is still undergoing internal testing.
Can you clarify whether the Windows 10 UWP App is tested on the Xbox One or is it still a separate client (non UWP)?

15

@Wiidesire said:
Can you clarify whether the Windows 10 UWP App is tested on the Xbox One or is it still a separate client (non UWP)?

Unfortunately, only the developers and Plex employees are allowed to released that type of information.

16

Unfortunately, Plex UWP is in zombie mode.

I wonder what are the actual user base for UWP/Edge in Plex. Anyone wants to poll this?

17

@jmckee said:
Unfortunately, only the developers and Plex employees are allowed to released that type of information.
@Moussa can you chime in here? Is an all new UWP app or a regular update being tested on Xbox One?

18

@jmckee said:

@wolverinegeo said:
Please add ability to direct play 4K media with HDR like your other apps. Files that play great and activate HDR in plex app on my Samsung tv (I have to force direct play, but it works!) just fail miserably and seem to be transcoding on Xbox one app. Computer starts whirring up and pic looks terrible.

It should already work. On my Samsung TV with the Xbox One playing back I don’t get a notification on the TV, but I also have no issues direct playing the 4K HDR sample files I have.

If the CPU is spinning up what most likely is happening is something is causing a transcode (Either subtitles or Audio). Because of the current limitation of the h264 decoder on the Xbox One whenever a transcoded 4K stream is needed it has to automatically be down converted to 1080p (HEVC is not supported via HLS and the h264 decoder cannot handle 4K material).

To troubleshoot what is happening more we would need to see your Plex Media Server.log when one of these files is getting played to see what exactly is happening.

Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.523 [16056] DEBUG - Job running: EAE_ROOT=‘\?\C:\Users\wolverinegeoff\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder’ FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS=‘\\?\C:\Users\wolverinegeoff\AppData\Local\Plex\ Media\ Server\Codecs\57aa73f-1206-windows-i386\’ XDG_CACHE_HOME='C:\Users\wolverinegeoff\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache' XDG_DATA_HOME='C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources' X_PLEX_TOKEN=‘TNA2nmrsyoGyLsHhSYcA’ C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe -codec:0 hevc -codec:2 dca -i “D:\TV SHOWS\Planet.Earth.II\Planet.Earth.II.sample.mkv” -filter_complex [0:0]scale=w=min(1920,iw):h=min(1080,ih):force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,format=pix_fmts=yuv420p|nv12[0] -map [0] -codec:0 libx264 -crf:0 16 -maxrate:0 34825k -bufsize:0 69650k -r:0 25 -preset:0 veryfast -x264opts:0 subme=0:me_range=4:rc_lookahead=10:me=hex:8x8dct=0:partitions=none -force_key_frames:0 expr:gte(t,0+n_forced*1) -map 0:2 -metadata:s:1 language=eng -codec:1 aac -ar:1 48000 -channel_layout:1 5.1 -strict:1 experimental -aac_coder:1 fast -q:1 0 -segment_format mpegts -f ssegment -individual_header_trailer 0 -segment_time 1 -segment_start_number 0 -segment_copyts 1 -segment_time_delta 0.0625 -segment_list http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/l5yjgqh06zs2/seglist -segment_list_type csv -segment_list_size 2147483647 -max_delay 5000000 -avoid_negative_ts disabled -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 media-%05d.ts -start_at_zero -copyts -vsync cfr -y -nostats -loglevel quiet -loglevel_plex error -progressurl http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/l5yjgqh06zs2/progress
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.564 [17436] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] [MDE] Finished analysis of 4k (mkv, hevc, dca-ma, 150, main 10)
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.601 [13440] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] canPlay: true
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.627 [19472] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] canDirectPlay: false
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.670 [15064] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] canDirectStreamVideo: false
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.697 [14920] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] canDirectStreamAudio: false
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.733 [13440] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] bitrate: 35564
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.767 [17436] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] videoResolution: 2560
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.795 [19472] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] [PDE] Player decision
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:28.829 [15064] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] Player: html

later:

Asked for segment 0 from session.
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.039 [19472] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] Direct Play: false
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.321 [15064] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] [Transcoder] Video (start) options
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.349 [16056] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] hasMDE: 1
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.380 [17436] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] path: http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/metadata/9581
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.409 [19472] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] mediaIndex: 0
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.438 [15064] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] partIndex: 0
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.463 [14920] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] protocol: hls
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.488 [16056] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] offset: 0
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.514 [19472] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] fastSeek: 1
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.541 [16056] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] directPlay: 0
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.566 [17436] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] directStream: 0
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.591 [15064] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] subtitleSize: 100
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.618 [19472] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] audioBoost: 100
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.645 [14920] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] location: lan
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.671 [15064] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] session: l5yjgqh06zs2
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.696 [16056] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] X-Plex-Session-Identifier: 0cck61l8b0w75
Jun 25, 2017 22:45:29.721 [17436] INFO - [Plex for Xbox One] subtitles: burn

Any insights? Tried messing around with auto output (bitstream/5.1 uncompress/7.1) but no dice.

19

Your file’s audio is DTS-MA (dca is the codec code for DTS). Microsoft hasn’t released any DTS decoders for third party apps so that file will need to transcode the audio just to play.

(This is where it gets tricky)
HLS currently doesn’t support HEVC as part of the standard which means the video needs to be transcoded to H264. However, there is a problem with the H264 decoder that makes it not work with 4K material. Because of that the video gets resized to 1080p.

What I have done to get around this is add an aac 2 channel track to my files so they can direct play. While it does lose the surround sound in my setup it works. You should be able to add a second AC3 5.1 audio track to keep the audio in tact. In my case I put the new track first so it gets auto-selected first.

20

@jmckee said:
Your file’s audio is DTS-MA (dca is the codec code for DTS). Microsoft hasn’t released any DTS decoders for third party apps so that file will need to transcode the audio just to play.

(This is where it gets tricky)
HLS currently doesn’t support HEVC as part of the standard which means the video needs to be transcoded to H264. However, there is a problem with the H264 decoder that makes it not work with 4K material. Because of that the video gets resized to 1080p.

What I have done to get around this is add an aac 2 channel track to my files so they can direct play. While it does lose the surround sound in my setup it works. You should be able to add a second AC3 5.1 audio track to keep the audio in tact. In my case I put the new track first so it gets auto-selected first.

Thanks so much for the input! It sounds like for the time being, the easiest way is to just play any 4K through the Samsung tv plex app. Oh well…