Plex needs a Lite version of its client.
A no frills, local content only version that is not weighed down by any outside online sources. Completely pure access to local media only.
- Movies
- TV Shows
- Live TV and DVR
- Music
Need more? Hit the big client.
The development advantages should be clear, as new functionality would barely if ever need to be rolled out to this completely stripped client. This client would return “our media, our way” back to the hands of server owners.
Plex, maybe consider this a challenge? Put this out there, and see how many people migrate to it over the current “feature filled” iteration. See how many people actually ARE interested in that lush fancy world you’re aiming for… because right now we don’t have a choice but to ride along with whatever you put in there.
Give those of us the freedom who want to return back to the roots the chance to do so.
Will likely never happen but have voted!
From a development standpoint might be better to have a plex lite server instead on each client being lite. That way development can create one client but the features exposed from the server are lite which the clients consume.
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The only issue I’d see there is that currently, and by design, users can download the current client and roll on forward with all manner of consumables without ever touching a content owner’s server.
100% Agree. They were once such a good local media player that I gave them $150. Now they are a swiss army knife of mediocre nonsense.
Give us pesky lifetime subscribers a lite version and then you can go nuts trying to court new users with your retro games, tidal, live tv, streaming integration, or whatever nonsensical revenue streams you have in the pipeline next.
I feel like we’ll get a client that can barf out NFTs before we’ll ever get one that can handle local media well enough to be a daily driver in a home theater again. I’ve mentally moved on to KODI and Emby for now.
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Plex already has a confusing combination of features across Plex HTPC, Plex for Win/Mac, Plex PMP, and Plex for Web. And we’ll all have pet features left out. Will Plex Lite do refresh rate matching, or tone mapping? What Lite means to you and me would probably be different.
I would think all of those things would be server side, no? I would think a Lite client would only strip to bare essential available sources, while the server side still handled transcodes and such as it does today.
Can’t you just remove the options you do not want from the menu? That’s what I do. I just removed the new “Discovery” because like everything with Plex it is half baked.
The idea of a Lite version makes more sense then disabling or removing things from your menu. When new features are introduced changes have to be made to the client which can introduce new code that can have bugs. I’ve seen programs crash before without any of the new features being called, but once rolled back to old code things go away.
Most people asking for this lite version is looking for stability, and less junk/calls home. I myself rarely use any of the non-local features so I would be onboard for this if it means better stability and support.
As they noted above this would give them a better idea of where to focus their attention in plex. Hell simple encoding features went months/years with out work by plex but third party individuals were finding solutions and providing them to plex but no progress was being made. Hell I recall plex didn’t even acknowledge their work and input.
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