"Mouse Support" - Where is it?

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

After trying out the new Plex Media Player i am majorly disappointed. I was very excited to replace the web-browser, allowing me to cast my media from my phone/tablet, and stop the constant - unnecessary - transcoding.

However, this isn’t an option for me as the mouse support is abysmal.
Yes, you can click… some things… But there is simply to much you can not click.

Seek through media
You can’t seek through media with the mouse, only by clicking the buttons which is in 30 seconds intervals. Being able to drag (or preferably click) the seek-bar is very important for usability, for us people who want to use just the mouse while sitting at the computer. A preview here would be nice as well, but isn’t as important.

Scroll wheel support
Also, support for the scroll wheel is VERY important.
Looking through my 1000+ movies library by seeing 14 movies at a time having to click a next arrow straight up sucks. The web-view is so much better. Please implement scrolling here, and possible an option to see more videos at a time.

Lists
This leads us to another issue, “lists”, being it showing the movies in list views, or looking through filtering, you can’t scroll. You HAVE to use the keyboard. In movie list view there is nowhere to click to scroll down (and the scroll wheel doesn’t work…). There are only the lettered buttons, so if you have more than 5 movies which starts with the same letter, you can’t select them in any way with your mouse.
Also, looking through the filtering, you can not scroll with your mouse. You have to click a couple of times with your keyboard arrow keys before the mouse control buttons even shows, making them completely useless - and there should be the ability to scroll with the scroll-wheel here as well.

Back/forward button support is also needed, as having to find the appropriate button is a hassle, and sometimes i don’t end up where i want to go.

These are just some of the issues i’ve run into with mouse support, but i only downloaded it like 5 minutes ago, so i am sure i am just scratching the surface of the mouse support problems here.

tl;dr features needed for a better mouse-supported experience.
Seek through movie with mouse without using interval buttons
Scroll-wheel doesn’t work anywhere, needed for lists especially
Lists can’t be scrolled, scroll-wheel please.
Back/forward support for mouse buttons

2

We might improve on that in the future. It’s still not our primary focus for this app.

3

Also, if i am watching the description of a movie, i have to go back to home, click in on my movies again, and scroll through 500 movies, before i can continue browsing, instead of just having a back button.

4

I just noticed a double-right click brings up a context-menu with a back button, i imagine this could easily be added to the “back” button of the mouse.

Also, this back feature works better than the current backspace aswell, as it goes back to the same exact page you came from, unlike backspace that goes back to the first movie with the same letter.

5

Okay… so this might just be me who is a ■■■■■■, but… Can i not search for movies by typing on my keyboard in this new and improved media player? Do i have to click the letters with my arrow keys and enter or my mouse?

I’m sorry there is a lot of complaints in these posts, i just bought lifetime looking forward to try out this media player, and so far it is a major disappointment making me stick to the web-browser with the limitations that brings me.

6

@Froziph said:
Okay… so this might just be me who is a ■■■■■■, but… Can i not search for movies by typing on my keyboard in this new and improved media player? Do i have to click the letters with my arrow keys and enter or my mouse?

Check the release notes. This is specifically called out there.

7

We appreciate the feedback. But it seems like you are expecting a desktop app when we are focusing on a HTPC app that is used from the couch with a remote. That’s our main focus.

8

@tobiashieta said:
We appreciate the feedback. But it seems like you are expecting a desktop app when we are focusing on a HTPC app that is used from the couch with a remote. That’s our main focus.

I think your main focus is an outdated paradigm, hence all the complaints you see posted (and keep dismissing).

Our HTPC is a PC. Yup, there is a remote. There is also a wireless keyboard w/touch pad on the coffee table. Both are used. This continued blind spot the Plex team has for real world usage is unfortunate, given how amazing your Plex Server is.

9

@pjmorley said:

@tobiashieta said:
We appreciate the feedback. But it seems like you are expecting a desktop app when we are focusing on a HTPC app that is used from the couch with a remote. That’s our main focus.

I think your main focus is an outdated paradigm, hence all the complaints you see posted (and keep dismissing).

Our HTPC is a PC. Yup, there is a remote. There is also a wireless keyboard w/touch pad on the coffee table. Both are used. This continued blind spot the Plex team has for real world usage is unfortunate, given how amazing your Plex Server is.

I would not say we are dismissing it. We have started to lay the ground work for working better with mouse and keyboard. But we have not focused on that since resources are limited and we want to nail the remote aspect first.

10

I for one will not be buying a remote when I have a perfectly good wireless mouse and keyboard. I get that’s the aim, but don’t forget it is a PC plugged into a TV.

11

@danjames92 said:
I for one will not be buying a remote when I have a perfectly good wireless mouse and keyboard. I get that’s the aim, but don’t forget it is a PC plugged into a TV.

Sure. And the app works just fine with a keyboard and “decent” with a mouse. We can definitely improve. I am merely here to communicate our thoughts and priorities.

12

@tobiashieta said:

Sure. And the app works just fine with a keyboard and “decent” with a mouse. We can definitely improve. I am merely here to communicate our thoughts and priorities.

And that is the crux of the issue, you are here to communicate YOUR thoughts and priorities, and not to listen to your users.

A significant portion of your users (if a minority) have asked for mouse support from your desktop client for years, back to the early days of PHT. Many of us have voiced objections to the priority on “discovery” you put over content access in PMP. I’m sure there are other examples of this disconnect.

You can’t please everyone, of course, but you also can’t expect happy users when their needs are being ignored. I asked you a while ago to post telemetry, user feedback, or any other hard data on which the Plex team based their priorities for PMP and you did not respond. Small wonder you find yourself in a defensive position so often on these forums.

I genuinely like PMS, and the mobile apps are generally ok for light use. PHT had a few weaknesses (e.g. lack of mouse support) but overall offered a great experience. PMP offers nothing over PHT, but is even weaker. When businesses prioritize one set of customers over another they take a risk, and doing so without a thorough cost/benefit analyses is a huge gamble. As a user I can only take one lesson here–that Plex is willing to lose users, and if you are not loyal to us we would be dumb to be loyal to you.

Of course you could pull a Microsoft and completely change priorities every few years, thus pissing everyone off equally! :wink:

Until I see a road map from Plex that gives me some confidence in where you are headed, however, no more Plex Pass for me. (Are the Rasplex/openPHT folks accepting donations?)

13

@pjmorley : you are right, mouse support is something that has been asked in PHT for a long time and it was not implemented.

PMP itself can use mouse, even if the gestures are pretty limited to click at this point (no mouse wheel and such), so i find it rather unfair to hear you say we don’t listen to our users.

We are still at a pretty early stage of PMP, and there is a lot of work still, limited ressources as well.
Mouse support could be improved with maybe some of the suggestions you mentionned in your initial post, but this post is turning into something different than a feature request.

Plex people browse forums every single day to collect bugs, feedback and bring support to their users, bugs are fixed, requests are debated and as you say, then some decisions are taken. I can understand that some people can get frustrated when their requests are not fulfilled, but sometimes they are just not consistent with the global picture.

Tobias never closed the door above to improve mouse support, but each user request cannot be put on top on the priority todolist :slight_smile:

14

@LongChair, i just wanted to point out me (created this topic) and pjmorley isn’t the same guy, theres multiple people who want this! :P. Just wanted to point it out as you mentioned suggestions from his initial post.

I’m not looking for a fully featured mouse supported media player, i just had some idea that the things i mentioned were simple. Having the back button do the already implemented back functionality, or making the scroll-wheel just go to the next page, even if it is a crude jump instead of smooth scrolling. As it isn’t my code, i obviously don’t know how much work it is though.

One thing i can say i am pleasantly surprised about, is the response time from the devs, although they don’t bring good news :P…

15

I’ll chime in and say that the first focus on getting the remote experience right is exactly what I think the Plex folks should be doing with their limited resources. I imagine that the vast majority of HTPCs are still primarily remote-control oriented, but it will be interesting to see how things change over time. Just my $0.02.

16

@LongChair said:
@pjmorley : you are right, mouse support is something that has been asked in PHT for a long time and it was not implemented.

PMP itself can use mouse, even if the gestures are pretty limited to click at this point (no mouse wheel and such), so i find it rather unfair to hear you say we don’t listen to our users.

Fair enough, but to me not supporting so much as the scroll wheel pretty much nullifies the concept of “mouse support”; plus I meant this in context of previous experience with PHT.

Tobias never closed the door above to improve mouse support, but each user request cannot be put on top on the priority todolist :slight_smile:

Ah, but it is really a question of putting “each user request” on a to-do list at all, or rather of making initial design decisions that match what users want? I see a failure to do the latter here.

17

I just wanted to throw a bump in here. I understand that the team has priorities, i just wanted to let other users voice their opinion as well.

18

So I tried this just to see how a mouse is used, and don’t understand how you guys use a mouse with a HTPC lol. Do you lean forward to a coffee table? Just drag it along the couch? The couch thing didn’t work very well at all, and I’m not leaning forward to control my little NUC. I’ll stick with my remote for now ha.

19

@timstephens24 said:
So I tried this just to see how a mouse is used, and don’t understand how you guys use a mouse with a HTPC lol. Do you lean forward to a coffee table? Just drag it along the couch? The couch thing didn’t work very well at all, and I’m not leaning forward to control my little NUC. I’ll stick with my remote for now ha.

Not everyone uses Plex on an HTPC, or at all times. In any case all three keyboards I use have a built-in touchpad where the numeric keypad would otherwise go. We also have a coffee-table between chairs in the living room, so using a keyboard and mouse is within easy reach.

Some UX designers forget that an HTPC is still a PC!

20

@timstephens24 said:
So I tried this just to see how a mouse is used, and don’t understand how you guys use a mouse with a HTPC lol. Do you lean forward to a coffee table? Just drag it along the couch? The couch thing didn’t work very well at all, and I’m not leaning forward to control my little NUC. I’ll stick with my remote for now ha.

There are many many other forms of “mouse” other that the one that you move around on a desk. I use a small hand held trackball and I have a neighbor that uses a finger mouse. There are also small keyboards that have a mouse pad as part of their structure that work well for many people. There are even “gesture” mice that detect hand movements in space.

Having said that I do not find using and of the mice I have tried to be comfortable when using my HTPC. I prefer to use an IR USB remote even though it is sometimes less functional that a true mouse or keyboard.