Moving to Jellyfin or Emby is recommended. Plex has no interest in acknowledging or fixing issues with the Android/Fire version of the Plex client.
Hey,
Iām sorry for the lack of information shared about this (and other similar) issues but I would stress that it hadnāt been forgotten, or that we werenāt actually working on it - we have been.
Our understanding of the issue is a result of us consuming too much memory during video playback. The micro stutter is a result of Javaās Garbage Collector kicking in to try and collect enough memory to keep playback going.
We spent a significant amount of time trying to patch/tweak our old video player to use less memory but there were fundamental issues with it that we had little to no control over. This varied from the complexity it had due to evolving over many many years, as well as using Google/Leanback components for the UI that we had no control over.
As a result, we have re-written both our video player (to make it cleaner and hopefully more stable in the future) as well as built our own interface that we fully control. We have attempted to make good decisions around memory consumption to ensure that we can run smoothly on lower end devices, such as a Fire TV Stick v1.
The previous release of the Android app allowed users to opt-in to try the new video player for TV to allow us to get feedback, both in the design and to see how well it worked on different devices. We are still working on refinements based upon this feedback, but I hope it will be the default/standard player very soon.
This doesnāt mean we have finished the work here, as iām sure we have other ways to improve the playback experience. For example, I have spent the morning discussing with various members of the Android team about how to improve our general app memory consumption to ensure that once playback starts, we free enough to ensure we get as smooth as possible playback.
Ian
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Ian.
Whilst I honestly appreciate your response, and for taking the time to write a detailed response, and not a one line āwe cant be botheredā type response.
The bottom line is, the player in the latest version of the Android/Amazon client on Gen 1, Gen 2 and 4K firesticks, still results in micro stutter, which makes the client useless, and makes a very common device also useless for Plex.
Iām sure Iām not the only Plex Pass paying user, that is having to use a client from over 2 years ago, just to be able to use Plex on Firesticks, please please can Plex resolve this?!
What about giving the user the option to select the player, like you do on the standard Android App? Or Go back to ExoPlayer pre V2? Or just use a different player, that doesnāt have this issue.
I beg you to fix this for 1000ās of your users, it wont belong before Emby or Jellyfin provides the features most users use, and we all move.
Thanks
D.
Hey,
I appreciate the response, and also the honest feedback as well as the desire/push for this issue to be resolved. It sounds like we both agree that this issue is important and that we (Plex) should fix it.
I think the differences stem from our different understanding of what causes the actual issue which iāll try to detail what my own understanding isā¦
I believe that the micro-stutters are a side affect of Javaās garbage collection periodically kicking in, pausing all threads, to try and recover as much memory as possible. The app (both that navigational part, as well as the player) are consuming more memory than the device is comfortable with and itās running out/low. Rather than killing the application that is focussed (Plex) itās basically thrashing which leads to the degraded playback experience.
The Fire TV Stick v1 represents our target minimum device. It is the lowest powered and least memory device that we perform testing against internally.
What about giving the user the option to select the player, like you do on the standard Android App? Or Go back to ExoPlayer pre V2? Or just use a different player, that doesnāt have this issue.
Your comment here suggest that you assume that this is a ābugā introduced by the video player, whereas I donāt believe thatās the case. You are comparing an experience from an old version of the app to a new version of the app and attributing the playback difference to the player. My belief is that the app itself is now consuming more (too much?) memory in the background, and that our advanced video features (e.g. software video and audio decoding) are putting additional memory pressure on the device, which is resulting in the issue. Introducing an old (deprecated) video player would not fix the issue, and arguably would make it even worse by the fact that the more code/dependencies you bundle in your app, the more memory it consumes at runtime.
I donāt believe there is a silver bullet unfortunately to fix the issue, but to give some details of the fixes / improvements that weāve made (not yet released) since the new video player interface/code has been released include:
- Stripped out various unused dependencies/libraries
- Removed unused image assets, and compressed those which were unnecessarily large
- Adjusted image sizes that we request (e.g. chapter thumbnails were taking 1MB per image!)
This is just the start, and you should see evidence of this just in the APK release of our v7.28.0 release. The app memory consumption is one of our key focusses right now and continuing to chip away at the problem will hopefully eventually get us to a point where lowered powered devices do not struggle during playback.
Ian
Hi @IanDBird,
Thanks for the detailed reply, and apologies for the delay.
I can confirm that I have updated the Plex Client on my Firestick 2nd Gen devices, and the issue is still there.
I accepted that going back to an older player wouldnāt resolve the issue, if itās the app consuming too much memory, and it sounds like Plex accept that is the issue. That said, if your target devices if the Firestick Gen1, then you are seriously failing to deliver the experience expected by paying Plex Users.
I would fully expect this issue to be a main priority, if not the no 1 priority, on the basis itās been an issue for over 2 years, and Firesticks are a hugely popular device to consume Plex. PLEASE for the sake of all your paying customers FIX this issue!
To top this off, Iāve just found today that the Windows Player App now doesnāt support Auto Refresh Rate Switching?! Are Plex Serious?.. What are you lot doingā¦ What was once a solid Media System is slowing becoming a 2nd rate player in this fieldā¦ I beg you again for the sake of all paying Plex users, you fix these 2 problemsā¦
Thanks
Darren
Can you confirm what version of the app you are using? A change was added in 7.28.0 to lower the amount of memory used. Not sure if that version was available when you wrote your last comment.
Hi @anon18523487,
Just tried 7.28.xxxā¦ Same awful experience!!
Why on earth can Plex not fix this issue?
Slowly edging towards Emby right nowā¦ 
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Any update??? Iām now running Emby, and itās runs like a charm on all my firesticksā¦
Would like to give Plex another chance to fix this, before I cancel my PlexPass and go full Emby.
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