As a user who recently bought a lifetime Plex Pass, and uses PMP for Windows exclusively, I find the planned removal of Windows-based HTPC support completely unacceptable. How do I get a refund?
48 Likes
So, Plex is basically saying HTPC users and media power users can take a hike? If the new cross-platform codebase and interface are really so powerful and efficient, why is there no roadmap to maintain a reasonable HTPC UI for Windows (only the world’s most used operating system!)?
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@elan ??
I am pleased to see that proper download support is finally getting implemented, but killing the TV View in the new desktop app is a pretty horrible idea. 
19 Likes
I fully agree. Removing a feature is very stupid. I am very disappointed by this announcement.
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Can someone ELI5 what is happening here - I run a plex server on a HTPC that all my devices feed off of? Is that no longer being supported?
2 Likes
The Plex Media Player app is being discontinued. Plex Media Server is our nervous system; it’s not going anywhere.
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I am also very disappointed by the discontinuation of Plex Media Player and the TV interface. I consider myself a power user, and use PMP on an HTPC extensively in my home theater. I paid for a lifetime Plex pass with this in mind as well. I don’t want to have to find another solution, as this has worked flawlessly for the last 4+ years. This leaves a very sour taste in my mouth and feels like a gut punch.
35 Likes
Add another Plex Pass customer very upset about the dropping of the TV interface. It is the interface I use 99% of the time. Also, building PMP under Linux is pretty much the only way to have a reasonable Plex experience on that OS. And now you are dumping it with no path forward offered at all for advanced Linux users.
Plex, you need to reconsider who your community influencers are. The casual users you talk about that will use mostly streaming devices only have Plex because people like us steered them towards you (and likely helped them get started on it). Leave your tech savvy users in the lurch like this and we will stop recommending you to others.
48 Likes
I’m very disappointed with this decision. I love Plex and the TV interface but if they do this I think I’ll have to go back to Kodi (which I don’t like it) but it’s the only option right now for me.
Changing the simplicity of Plex for the messy interface of Kodi is not what I want but I love my HTPC for keeping all my media files.
But what else can we do? I was beautiful to have a media player so simple to use and with that pretty interface but everything come to and end and I think this will be my end with Plex.
Cheers.
13 Likes
keep in mind they are still supporting PMP until Jan 2020 that said. I think they made the right call. A sixty dollar mibox from walmart can do nearly anything a desktop can do and does it cheaper with less maintenance and work.
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I really am starting to wonder whether Plex enjoy having a disgruntled customer base. First of all you force a horrible UI on us all and ignore the negative feedback for months before realising we know what we are talking about, acknowledging it was terrible and creating something half decent in UNO only then to say you are removing this new interface from HTPC users.
Surely someone at Plex considered that, whilst these users probably make up a small percentage of users they also probably make up a significant proportion of server owners. Without these, users wouldn’t use the software without these power users. Not to mention, there isnt a single app out there that provides the quality a htpc provides.
Hopefully Plex will see these threads and see sense before they alienate more of their user base and later decide to change their minds. Sigh.
20 Likes
There is no OTT Device alive that will allow the use of the Windows Audio Enhancements or ‘Normalize Downmix’ Volume, so that’s yet another Feature blasted from Planet Earth… deemed unnecessary.
Cool… I guess.
(no, not cool)
6 Likes
Yes but I don’t want a server or a NAS. I prefer my HTPC with my HDDs on it and I only watch my content on my main TV.
But this is my personal opinion and preference. I understand that change is better for some people but not for me and leaving Plex it’s a sad situation that I never thought is going to happen.
I’m not angry, just disappointed. Plex was perfect for me.
6 Likes
Fair enough.
Obviously not your preffered solution, but Kodi could work?
To be honest, I’m going to miss Embedded PMP even more. I had held out diminishing hope that it would eventually get updated to handle recent hardware, but of course that hope is gone now.
Others have covered some basics, but here’s a big thing you lose by going from PMP to a device like Roku: PMP (Embedded or Windows) could play MPEG2 in real time without buffering. It made it easy to FF or RW as quickly and effortlessly as Windows Media Center. But for devices like a Roku, they always need to buffer, even if it’s direct playing. The closest we get is the Shield, and the interface kinda stinks, the remote is brutal, and it still isn’t as smooth as PMP was.
So I’ll definitely miss PMP as well, even if I hadn’t used it much recently.
5 Likes
Embedded was sweet, ran it on a nuc back in the day, but let’s be honest I never thought they would continue support once devices like the shield came around.
It’ll take a while (Jan 2020, to be exact), but wait until those guys find out they can no longer ‘Adjust’ (Murder) the aspect ratio in order to remove all bars, at any cost, from all their media.
Oh, yea… there’s gonna be trouble.
Will the Plex Kodi addon be maintained? If they keep that working, that’s an acceptable alternative for me.
Beauty of it is it’s cross-platform, and supports people running HTPCs on Linux or MacOS also.
