First off, I’m really glad to see the Plex VR app!
My wife and I just purchased two Oculus Go headsets, and one of the first apps I downloaded was Plex VR. This is my review after using it for a few hours. My main PMS runs on FreeBSD and is at the latest version.
What was awesome
It connects to the PMS to play videos!
It’s nice to pick up the movie tiles and set them on the couch.
Watch together - Awesome and necessary concept IMO, but I think it’s broken (see below)
What could use a little fixing
slow app launch - other video playing apps available, e.g. Skybox, Netflix, Oculus TV, Oculus Rooms, launches really fast. Plex VR does not. It takes at least 15 seconds to see the room, and at least another 10 for the black bars to disappear and the server selection window to appear.
Selection screen is way too close - Move this back a few “feet”
Blurry text - All the text is blurry. And the room does this weird refresh thing where it isn’t very smooth like other apps
Resume play - This feels like a bug. After selecting Play, click back two times to get the movie selection list, then back again to see the play button. Clicking play does not resume the movie.
Support URL is incorrect (based on the link in the app) - it doesn’t exist on the plex.tv site
Add DVR Support - One of the Plex VR YouTube videos showed what looked like DVR channel selection screen. I’m not seeing it. Maybe that was for the Daydream device. If that’s the case, it’d be nice to see on all the VR devices.
popcorn on the table - I’d rather not see it. It’s distracting that it’s there, and time consuming to throw it across the room every time the app is launched.
PTT popup message - remove it. Create a quick tutorial on how to use the remote and leave it at that. Same goes for the “screen can get resized” message at the top of the screen when the movie is started.
Avatar selection - this is limited. And, there was only one woman avatar. Is there a way to just pull in the main avatar?
Drive in theater - remove the windshield frame - it’s just in the way. Or make an option to remove it.
Access to plugins - It’d be nice to have access to them. I think the last time I used plugins was about a decade ago when PMS was forked from XMBC. Then came the Roku, so I never used it, except maybe for NextPVR prior to DVR having native support. But, the Oculus is missing some core apps, so the plugins would fill that gap.
Pictures and Music - I read somewhere that it’s on the radar, but adding here as it would be nice to have.
Oculus Room replacement - I know it’s probably not the main focus for Plex VR, but it would be nice to use the Plex VR app instead of the Oculus Room. Plus, it’d be a lot more customizable such as adding different board games through “game” plugins. And, we wouldn’t have to pay ridiculous prices for movies that, from as far as I can tell, is only viewable within the VR headset on a per account basis.
Watch Together
This gets its own section. I know it’s new, so some bugs are to be expected. This was tested on the same access point (AC) while sitting on the same couch. The PMS is on the local LAN. I don’t have issues with multiple streams from my PMS. No transcoding was used from what I could see, and the PMS has plenty of resources available.
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Can’t sign in on multiple devices. I tried to sign in both Oculus Go devices with my account, but ran into lots of issues. Maybe it was something weird I did. I had to use my test account on my wife’s Go. This does make some sense, as why would a virtual avatar exist in two places. But, I still own (share) the other Go that’s being used to watch from our server.
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Lots of lag - We were sitting next to each other, and it took at least 5 seconds to receive the audio via PTT. When the movie was playing, our Avatar’s movement was very laggy. Eventually her Plex VR app crashed (video froze and she had to reboot the Go).
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When my wife had the drive in theatre theme and I had the apartment, she couldn’t join after accepting my invite. It was only after changing her theme to the apartment (and a restart or two of the app) before it connected successfully. This might have been something else, but it was definitely something.
