And RadioShack had more than a few problems, not the least of which was that they didn’t change with times and their ecommerce was basically non-existent.
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Well, we have our answer then I guess. Which is, ‘No, we’re not listening’. Stats and damn stats, ever heard of that?
Poor Boxee – it was way ahead of its time. I watch things like Apple’s TV App and remember the days when Boxee would snarf up Netflix and Hulu content to give users one interface / access point to rule them all.
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just downloaded the new app to my pc, seems that it will work perfectly fine for this htpc user, albeit i only use plex to stream my ripped movie collection, and the plex server for remote streaming… so why does this new app spell death to htpc users? why does it represent plex abandoning htpc users?
I guess I misunderstood that situation. I thought a lot of the debt had to do with acquisitions of other companies…
I’m not going to say RadioShack didn’t have some other problems but those problems wouldn’t have been their death. RadioShack had a very niche audience and those people were stuck with RadioShack. If you needed any kind of electronics component as a DIYer you could order online and wait or you could run to RadioShack and just buy what you needed. I, as many others, went to RadioShack frequently because, well, it was the only place to get what I needed when I needed it not to mention an employee that could actually help you find what you needed and knew what you were talking about. In their last years when you would walk in and ask for a capcitor they would point you to a stack of 8 drawers in the back corner that had barely anything you needed and an employee that had no idea what you were talking about but was more than willing to sign you up for a new cell phone plan. Today most of the nation has nowhere to buy the items that RadioShack was selling except for online retailers. It’s the equivalent of all hardware stores going out of business except they were the “electronics hardware store” and they were the ONLY one (for most of the nation). If they would have not completely thrown away the business and loyal customers that they had they would still have business… Maybe they wouldn’t have the billions of dollars they saw at Best Buy but, well, they’d still be around.
On 31 October 2012 Boxee posted a statement on their website saying they had to make a decision between releasing a device which was hackable, or one which was commercially viable with premium content. -From Wikipedia
… That sounds like many of the fears being expressed around the Plex community for a while
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It is sounding like the issue for most people is that they can get direct play from their HTPCs in a way they can’t get from other devices. My question is how has that changed? If you want a 10 foot interface with direct play, which not just get Kodi with the Plex addon? You don’t have to give up your 6 htpcs. Just install different software.
I have done exactly this, or at least a version of this - Kodi with PlexKodiConnect and Embuary skin. I have not used the official Plex plug-in because I have no faith it will be supported going forward.
It is a good set-up, in many ways far more powerful however it is more difficult to install and doesn’t give some of the Plex -specific functionality such as PVR guide.
Still, it’s a solution, just one I shouldn’t have to do.
Yeah, the PSx has a terrible media stack, which is somewhat surprising and super sad, given the raw power of the device. But also totally out of our control and NOT the device you want if you crave Direct Play.
The Roku has super good Direct Play support, AFAIK, it’s probably in 2nd or 3rd place with the Apple TV and SHIELD.
Remember, once you invite me over to your home, I’m allowed to bite you and your family or something like that.
That’s actually a piece of the puzzle, I think, given that 4K brings with it (on some media) HDR, and AFAIK HDR support on a NUC seems to be very tricky to get working properly, whereas on SHIELD and Apple TV it just works for me, Direct Play, brilliant.
HTPC by definition are Home Theatre PCs - the implementation of a 10ft user interface is vital if not necessary for a HOME THEATRE.
There are a good many of us with home cinemas who have dedicated high quality HTPCs that handle our media consumption - and PMP was the app of choice for PLEX.
Thats where is spells death, it all depends on your personal use case, but i dont want to drag out a keyboard and mouse just to watch a sodding move in my cinema, i want to grab my harmony and win.
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Try the sample files i posted, and watch direct play go away 
My HTPC IS my PMS. I don’t really think that’s rare. If you’re using Plex, then you definitely have a computer running PMS, therefore it’s not a hard jump in logic to see that a good chunk of us also have that same PC hooked up to a TV. It just works.
But soon it won’t. Cause apparently now I need to go buy a secondary device for no good reason.
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I’m one of those millions, and I use the Plex Apple TV app every night and it just works. The rare times when I have time to watch a movie on the bigger screen, the SHIELD works great and makes the 4k HDR movies look amazing.
I care about direct play and seeking quickly in the file, and especially the Apple TV with the new player is brilliant at that, I can tap-tap-tap my way around a UFC with surgical precision.
Well, I’m really sorry about that, but it shouldn’t be because don’t have options for really good Plex apps.
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To pick up on a post from Elan earlier regarding HTPC usage, I would comment that:
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In my household usability is key and that means one computer (in our case a Mac Mini) rather than separate streaming devices, which sit there unused because they cannot deliver the wide range of services we use. Our AppleTV cannot do Spotify. Our Sonos cannot do movies/tv. Our Mac Mini can do everything, so it gets used. One device also means less power consumption, less support, less space (a big factor in a UK house).
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Stats from within Plex are switched off. We don’t have the spare bandwidth or enough visibility of what stats are being used and by whom. Plex don’t know of our PMP usage, unless the option is not doing what they claim.
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Quality not Quantity. We may not watch TV/Movies or listen to music 24/7 but we want an easy to use, quality experience when we do. That’s provided by the Mac Mini as it elegantly handles everything.
I’m sure Plex really do feel they have a business case for dropping PMP support. Time will show us whether they are right.
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Lol. That is “almost” my scenario to the letter.
I don’t love the Shield. Its just a necessary evil for the latest Marvel blockbuster for Atmos.
Generally I can live without it though and as sceptical as I initially was, the ATV 4K doing lossless Flac 7.1 just works for me in most other cases.
The one thing we possibly differ on is that personally I find picture quality (more so with HDR) a far less impressive experience on the Shield compared to tvOS.
MPV for the win!! 
Again for me this.
tvOS is the main reason that VP thumbnails exist.
Something else that’s truly awful on the Shield.
I would be happy with Plex for Kodi as an alternative but from what I understand Plex are not committed to supporting this moving forward? So, a plex server update could kill this?
It could kill it one day. But that may be next week or in several years.
Plex today: everyone buy an NVIDIA shield as a PMP HTPC replacement
Plex next month: we have discontinued Plex on NVIDIA shield
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A sceptical view but one I totally understand.
Even more reason why you just don’t care about those of us that are tinkerers and fell in love with Plex because you let us do what we wanted to do and you made it easy for us. Now that we’ve spread the word about how great Plex is we are of no use to you anymore.
But that IS the problem. It wasn’t but it is now. All of the many plex apps that were out there just worked but now I never know when I’m going to wake up and all of a sudden an update was pushed to a client that changed everything and broke half of everything. The navigation interface on all of the new plex apps are terrible. I used to use Plex on Android to listen to music in my car but I can’t even begin to function with the new app layout and horrible response time when navigating. The Samsung app was broke for 6 months and still can be quirky at times… Roku might work but it’s annoying as hell to use. The only client that I am still comfortable with is RasPlex but that’s years old and I suspect will be killed with updates. I just can’t rely on the product anymore… I’ve had numerous days for relaxing that I picked up my remote and ended up spending the next few hours stressed out because something wasn’t working… and here’s the really really frustrating thing: The only real constant has been PMP that I could rely on.
All of this is without even getting started on things popping up on apps that I don’t care about and having to figure out if there is a way to hide them and get them out of my way.
This is irritating me… You expect everyone to go buy a Shield and an Apple TV. No… It seems that the only way to make sure I have an app that works is to use the same client that the CTO is using that way I know someone has an interest in fixing it. The whole reason why I have used plex for YEARS is because it just worked everywhere but that’s no longer the case… You say there are really good Plex apps everywhere but when someone says “but I have X and it’s not working” you say “well, go buy a Shield”… that’s an outright contradiction of what you are trying to convince us of. We should not have to go buy new hardware when we all have hardware that works perfectly for us except for when Plex starts killing things off.
I don’t expect you to understand… I’m sure your developers know what you use and make damn well sure those devices work and even if they don’t you have plenty of employees under you that can fix it for you… For us, however, all we can do is report it on the forums and watch as months go by without any action.
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