So I just woke up on my sofa at 4.00am, and rather than go to bed because I have work in the morning, I thought I’d pop on here to see how things are bubbling along.
Now that’s dedication! Or stupidity, I’m not sure which! lol
Anyway, I am really pleased to see that you are still in this thread, and seeing comments like…
… gives a glimmer of hope!
Before I sign off for the night, @elan, here’s a question for you…
What WOULD it take to persuade you to do a U turn?
Until tomorrow… 
I don’t think that statement is fair. The users of the Mac, Windows, embedded apps have helped immensely those of us who wanted that experience or simply did not understand how to set up plex initially. I am not a power user or consider myself a “real plex user”: I simply choose, like many of the earlier adopters, to use one of your clients that gave me the best experience on the big screen. To do this I went to the forums and got help from those that had the knowledge. From that point I helped others and set many of my friends up with Rokus or Apple TVs with the plex app. We are not the “cool kid’s club”, just users that feel abandoned due to the tyranny of the majority.
Well Plex, you’ve finally done it. I’ve installed Jellyfin to start testing it for hopefully a good opensource alternative to your platform. I plan on also installing Emby to compare the two and see which direction to go. Sadly I liked some of your ideas but after this last change of killing the HTPC functionality of your app and before that removing plugins from the webUI so only admins can get to them. The time to try and find something different has finally arrived. I know this will fall on deaf ears but burning the people who have the more complex HTPC setups which also happen to be our servers (21TBs worth of space in RAID50) will be your undoing. I have encouraged quite a few people to adopt plex and or use your apps, but only 2 of them have done anything outside of just using my server when my server moves so will the majority of users who don’t have their own plex server. So thank you for proving your shortsightedness in making this decision. -ksharks
That’s totally fair. But that’s not what the problem is, in my opinion. The problem is one of designing a desktop app, and what that desktop app should bring to the client/players line-up. The new app just stands out next to the other players – I’m confused as to why… and guess what, the old “TV mode” was exactly what made it look like any other player, even as a windowed app on a laptop. Why not just keep that UI and remove the rest?
Now the HTPC people aren’t part of any club.
RIP Plex HTPC 2007 - 2019. Press F to Pay Respects
F
I agree, but on the other hand it’s pretty obvious that with your decision you’re basically saying “we don’t care anymore about our HTPC users”.
So the Shield cant rep[lace an HTPC nust the HT part of it
We don’t all live in the US and I definately cant afford an AppleTV, I notice you dont mention how much the Shield will cost to run
Broadband is required for some of the gainig on the Shield and mine is currently to slow
They have just wrecked it with UNO!
According to Nvidia I will to make gaming work on the shield
I don’t think anyone here is excluding streaming box users as almost everyone who uses Plex does use these in some form or another. It’s not even about the club. No one here is asking you to kill your streaming platform apps in favor of HTPC but, rather, you are the one who is making the move to exclude part of the ecosystem. People often look at bees as a nuisance even though there’s a lot of lip service paid to them but when it comes down to it if you get rid of the bees the rest of the ecosystem collapses around it. The point people have been trying to get across to you is that your pretty flowers running on the streaming boxes are “polinated” by someone who is heavily relying on HTPC or some form of PMP. Forcing bees to turn into flowers eventually kills it all.
Person after person has posted here trying to get this point across to you but it keeps falling on deaf ears. Yes, from a metrics standpoint you have TONS more streaming devices being used but a very large majority of those uses are somehow tied to that person or a family member using HTPC/PMP. For every single HTPC use that you see in your metrics you may have 6, 10, maybe even 20 streaming devices directly tied to that HTPC being available.
And if you want to talk about the cool kids club, I used to think that was people running Plex. It’s great that you let streaming box users remain part of that club but the people who use a computer (whether it be heavily or casually) are suddenly being excluded from your club.
In short, no one should be less important… no one has made it a point to say that streaming box users are less important but, rather, it’s Plex saying that HTPC users are less important.
I appreciate you showing up to discuss this, but the above is a strawman argument. I am not going to reread the whole thread to verify, but I don’t think anyone stated anything similar to the idea that only HTPC users’ opinions matter.
I think it is great that decent streaming devices exist and lower the complexity of entry into the ecosystem. I have recommended them to many people. And obviously, you should listen to all users’ opinions. But did any of those people tell you they want you to stop maintaining PMP?
The problem I see moving forward is that Plex is nothing without content. If you alienate the people that are providing the majority of the content and they take down their Plex servers, do you think casual users are going to step up and run their own servers? Or are they more likely to move to something else more convenient? Instead of a risky gambit with your fundamental business model, you could just pretend to care about the opinions of HTPC users and throw a couple of dollars at maintaining PMP. Since many people have already pointed out this easy compromise, I have to come to the conclusion that Plex already weighed this potential outcome and is willing to lose their HTPC users. Hope it works out better for you than when the “cool kids” started leaving Myspace.
Just tried EMBY and it has an HTPC environment to use and worked perfectly for me. Setup in about 5 mins and tested with passthrough for an ATMOS file.
Only problem is I’d have to pay for another lifetime pass in order to use it over the allowed 1 min test. Hoping that PLEX do realise the implications of their decision otherwise I’ll have no choice but to take my 12 users (could be so many more but I do restrict it) and server to EMBY.
Looks like you can get a one month license for $5 to evaluate. This is my weekend project too.
This is why I’ve not switched to Emby… it’s nothing against Emby but more that I’m afraid of history repeating it’s self. In a lot of ways I could see Emby going the way of Plex… while they may seem like the greener grass right now they’ve changed some of their business models to make the exact same struggles we are having with Plex become a reality. I’m not saying it will happen but I’m just saying it’s possible. Jellyfin was forked off of Emby with the specific intent of preventing a repeat of Plex and that’s what I anticipate I’ll be running in the next year or so.
@bblboy54 - Thanks for the heads up. I’ll look at Jellyfin as well.
The one thing I would say on this with regards specifically to HTPC. The Emby devs have stated they have no intentions of abandoning the HTPC users.
I actually found it pretty interesting that instead of the Emby dev saying something like “What!! Plex are abandoning HTPC… that’s crazy”
He actually said “Yep that’s pretty much the state of the HTPC market”
However your point is still a valid one.
This is just one client and it could easily be that the next “dumb move” comes from Emby.
Yea I am by no means saying that this stuff will happen with Emby. The difference is that both Plex and Emby have proprietary code mixed in the software which is something I didn’t use to worry much about until all of this Plex stuff started occuring a while back. With Jellyfin, the whole project is completely open so if the project decides that they don’t want to work with X anymore and there are a lot of people rallying around X then it can easily be picked up by someone else and they can run with it. With both Plex and Emby the open source community has it’s hands tied in certain areas – and that’s not even to say that it’s impossible but it has the potential of being more difficult.
Everyone has to weigh the pros and cons to each solution. Plex may still be the solution for a lot of people but the future doesn’t look that great without the die-hard enthusiasts that helped make Plex what it is today. My hope, above all else, is that enough information is out there so that people can make informed decissions and choose their own best path.
If you were the type to use an htpc you are better off with something like kodi anyways - you have much more control over every single part of the player and display
Except TrueHD / DTS- HDMA
You can test drive Emby for as many months as you like for $5 a month. It won’t take a month, or two, for you to make up your mind.
Emby - Great Online Support Presence where Users ARE, IN FACT, #1.
Emby - Developers who will literally bend over backwards in support of good ideas brought forth by Users (it doesn’t take a board meeting, or a Feature Request to know when a good idea has fallen right in your lap).
Emby - pretty much ALL of the parts (that don’t work in Plex) work fine in Emby (ya think they may have worked overtime on that bit? Maybe).
Emby - UI that looks like it was developed by your 8 year old… no, your 8 year old could have done way better.
…but given the more positive feeling I have about the other things above, do I think they’ll, eventually, hit on something great? As long as they keep listening to Users, instead of only listening to the internal logistics Users provide - I do have plenty of hope.
Just don’t go in there expecting to see something wonderful. The wonderful bits are the working bits. The UI is something only a Mother could love, but I wonder if this all doesn’t sound familiar -when I think of ‘Old Plex’?
