Server Version#:1.18.4.2171
Player Version#: 1.4.1.469
I have been using Plex Media Server and Plex Home Theatre on my mac for almost 10 years. Last week, my Plex Home Theatre stopped signing into Plex. I had not kept track of what else has been happening at Plex and just stumbled across some articles suggesting that Plex Home Theatre had been discontinued and replaced by the Plex app.
Questions:
Is this correct?
If true, how can I get the new Plex Player to work with apple remotes?
Are there any community-led attempts to continue support for Plex Home Theatre?
PHT has been declared deprecated already for years . Now it is the time when the server and the cloud infrastructure behind Plex have evolved so far, that PHT cannot cope with it anymore.
If you need a 10-foot-UI and you donāt want to migrate to a nVidia Shield or a Apple TV, Plex Media Player in āTV modeā is your only option.
There was OpenPHT, but that is also dormant/dead since over 2 years now.
@jpmac - Otto and I have given you 2 different links for Plex media Player. His is the v2 release version and mine is the v3 preview version (so you donāt get confused).
Thanks guys, let me try Plex Media Player to see if this is what I am looking for. Basically, I just used the simple UI of Home Theatre on my TV to browse and play my local collection of movies and TV Shows and was able to use my TVs remote to do that. I never cared for any of the online features. Will let you know.
I had the same issue with PHT stopping working about a week back, no longer signing in and could no longer see the server libraries (even though the server and PHT client are on the same PC). I have been using PHT for about 8 years and found it the perfect solution to all my TV needs; liked it so much that I bought lifetime plex passes for a couple others and recomended to many more.
TBH I feel a little ripped off by Plex team on this one and will forever more be weary of purchasing any software that requires a cloud login for work that needs no external connection, i.e. playing content on a home network.
Gather the Plex team are all quite young and donāt understand that there is an entire generation (few actually) who donāt spend all their time on mobile devices, or ever, or that there are parents out there who donāt give their children mobile devices, but instead allow screen time to only occour on a television (my kids only have plex and videos/shows we put on to watch).
I also found plex to be the perfect solution to recycling old PCs. Have several televisions in my home, a couple projectors with ā10-Footā screens and many old MCE remotes. Plex gave life to all of them. Yes, have tried PMP and the kids hated it, as did I, to much un-nessesary stuff and poor layout for TV mode.
My only saving grace was that just yesterday I found OpenPHT and it still works! WHen this one goes out, it will be back to Kodi I guess. So much for the promice of a āLifetimeā of plex (as I bought it).
You can continue to use Plex, canāt you? Nobody promised you can use whatever software for a lifetime and you never bought PHT did you? 8 years is not a short time.
Come on, software gets discontinued all over the place, after 8 years one might upgrade to a new device/software so one can move on with their lives. Get your kids a streaming box with a modern client, doesnāt have to be something expensive.
Are you also running windows 95 and complaining that software XYZ doesnāt run anymore? Come onā¦
Depending on when you tried it, you should try again now. The introduction of the UNO user interface changed things around and allows a great deal of customization.
Purchasing Plex Pass grants you access to premium features, not the software itself.
I read this as if you expected development to stagnate (there has not been an update to PHT in 4 years ) I am confused that you would be upset about continued development instead of paying for software that hasnāt received any updates for so long.
Client and server updates are STILL being developed and released regularly. How does this not fit in the realm of Lifetime? Plex still has software offerings that will work for you (seriously give PMP another try it has improved greatly IMO)
If you wanted PHT to still work, then you should not have been updating your Plex Server.
When I first discovered Plex, I thought Iād found near perfection, the only glitch was download and sync. I thought Iād be able to use the software version, at least on my home network, with the same features as what convinced me to fork over cash for. I never expected continued support for software upgrades as everything was working exactly as I wanted it to, I only expected that Iād be able to log into my account and keep using for as long as Plex existed as a company - no need to fix something that wasnāt broken.
Iām glad to hear that Plex somewhat reversed course and decided to keep TV mode. Last I heard it was all coming to an end in January. Iām looking forward to checking it out and maybe Iāll find it to be an improvement to PHT.
Oddest part of this whole thing is even though I canāt get the PHT to log in and link, I can with OpenPHTā¦
Just installed the new PMP and guess I have to wait a bit longer. After logging in, got the āPlex is down for maintenance. Donāt worry, it will be back soonā. Shouldnāt really need this hassle to run software locally, could understand if I wanted to access on-line features, but not to just stream media on my home servers.
I havenāt tried that, but what does work for me:
Server Settings/Network - Change āRequiredā to āPreferredā (NOT Disabled).
PMP TV View Settings:
āFallback to insecure on same network as serverā
At my house, when Plex.tv is down (Iāll admit Iāve never actually seen it down), or the internet is out (NOT a rare occurrence), local access moves along as if nothing had happened (but my Rokus complain for a moment, but carry on after that).
Itās worth a try anyway.
Note:
This is really strange, but noteworthy, none the less:
Yesterday, when I was SURE Plex.tv was on itās last legs - along with various other internet things (which got me looking at something other than Plex.tv) in a total Hail Mary Play, I changed my DNS from OpenDNS (in place for YEARS without issue) to Googleās DNS (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4) - and the lights came back on (after rebooting everything) in a way that made me feel like I had internet again.
During this āBug Huntā - local access continued without issue - perhaps due to the security settings (yea, Iām quite sure).
I am glad to see a TV mode still there, but itās really lost the magic of the original PHT. The functionality and back end may be better, but what I see on screen is not (and lets face it, Plex is all about a visual experience). Here are some things I really liked about the original PHT and which I think any movie enthusiast would have liked as well. Maybe this can be considered for future releases:
The background randomly selecting screens from movies - this added a great nostalgia to the experience. Iāve got 1,000s of movies and seeing a scene from an old favorite always conjured good feelings. For me, losing this caused Plex to lose a lot of the magic that made it so perfect in the first place, itās now just feels like a sterile app made by people who have no real love for cinema.
Upon first entering TV mode, all I see is account name (which I really donāt need to see as I know what my account is), a home logo and more+. More+ takes me to my server list and only then can I start to see libraries. I always liked just opening Plex and seeing the default server libraries without additional options to clutter the screen; left push on the remote would bring up options and this was a great way to keep the home screen clutter free and focused on the libraries.
Smaller text and thumbnails, this was good as it allowed more of the background image to be seen (see point 1) and also more videos in a single window, making it easier to browse. Why not make sizing an option?
At least I can keep using OpenPHT until it too stops working. Maybe by then some of the subtle things that made Plex so great will be restored.
) I am confused that you would be upset about continued development instead of paying for software that hasnāt received any updates for so long.
