"Plex for Smart TVs" for Fetch TV, why?

Plex Players
1

Hello

I was just wondering why the Plex app on the Fetch TV devices in Australia are the limited “Plex for Smart TVs” version?

The Fetch device is on your website as supported

https://support.plex.tv/articles/204080173-which-smart-tv-models-are-supported/

Fetch Devices

The Plex app is available on the following Fetch devices in Australia and New Zealand:

  • Mighty
  • Mini
  • Mini 4K

These devices can decode on the hardware level “MPEG4 HD, H.264 AVC, H265 HEVC” and “MPEG4 HD, H.264 AVC, H265 HEVC, VP9 & AV1” for the later versions

https://www.fetchtv.com.au/specs

So why does it have a generic version of Plex installed that only supports the following?

The “Plex for Smart TVs” app supports the following limited capabilities for video and audio playback.

Video:

  • Bit Rate: 4Mbps max
  • Resolution: 1080p max
  • Bit Depth: 8
  • Codec: H.264
  • Container: mp4, mpegts, mov
  • Audio: AAC, 2 channels

This causes the Fetch to not be able to Direct Play/Stream and causes it to transcode all my media which it shouldn’t have to.

?

Thanks

2

I just received a reply back from Fetch, it seems they use a 3rd party to integrate the Plex app into the Fetch TV box.

Is this something that Plex needs to resolve and provide Metrological a version of Plex that is designed for the Fetch TV? So that Fetch are able to select the version for their hardware instead of a generic one?

Thanks

3

Anyone?

4

Sorry for being blunt, but the alternative would be no Plex client at all.
The “potato mode” client is mainly for enabling the ad-supported streaming libraries from plex.tv

Due to the low demands of the limited player, it can be easily and quickly adapted to new hardware platforms.
Full support for the abilities of the hardware (and the intricacies of yet another app store) would require much more developer hours – both for initial development and sustaining operation over time.

At this time, it doesn’t look like Plex Inc. would want to make that kind of investment into the Fetch TV platform.