Picture in Picture transition very clunky in enhanced player

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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Plex Server Version: 1.19.2.2673
iOS Plex app Version: 6.10.1
iOS Version: 13.4.1

This has probably already been asked but I was unable to find this while searching the forums.

On my devices I have gotten into using the enhanced video player (experimental) almost exclusively due to how fast and responsive it is in playing all of the formats.

The original/standard player sometimes takes 30 sec - 1 1/2 minutes to even load a movie (or to the point it never loads) :frowning_face:

The original player’s behaviour for PiP:

  • clicking home automatically creates the small mini-player and closes Plex, no hiccups/extra screens/spinners
  • clicking the enlarge button (to close the mini-player) opens Plex and expands the player back, no hiccups/extra screens/spinners

However, with the enhanced player for PiP:

  • clicking home closes Plex, no mini-player
  • clicking on the PiP button at the top, shows the background poster for what I am watching with an embedded spinner and keeps Plex up but does create a mini-player
  • clicking the enlarge button (to close the mini-player) opens Plex, then shows the background poster of what I am watching with an embedded spinner but eventually does restore the video to Plex

I know that the player says “experimental” (and has said so for awhile) but…

  1. Is anyone working on correcting this issue to make the transitions smooth like the original player (and like other applications)?
  2. Is it a limitation with the enhanced player that cannot be fixed?
  3. Is the enhanced player development not a thing anymore?
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It’s unlikely to be possible to make it as smooth. As far as I’m aware, PiP is only supported with Apple’s native player (AV Player), and not with custom players (like our enhanced player). So when we initiate PiP, we need to swap to AV Player, which can mean it needs to transcode (audio, video, or both), or it might Direct Play, depending on the codecs and containers used. We didn’t want to entirely remove the PiP experience, as we know some users really value it, but it’s a trade off against the improved capabilities of the enhanced player. The enhanced player is definitely still seeing active development, but they’re not all changes that are immediately user facing :slight_smile:

3

@DaveBinM,
Thanks for the fast response and detailed explanation :smiley:

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