I’d just want to express my and concerns of thousands who use PMS daily.
I see that plugins are dying kind, they’re underdeveloped and there are no upstream solutions to problems like subtitle management.
Yes, Plex supports OpenSubtitles but thats just one, and not best subtitles source for good portion of the planet. What about Podnapisi, Titlovi and others that plugin like SubZero provides? More importantly, what about UTF-8 encoding of subtitles uploaded via Plex UI?
I fear that plugins feature is getting slowly deprecared as said multiple times already and that it will leave us without viable solutions upstream.
Also, not having other mean of getting support than community forums is kinda BS move for paying customers at least.
Releases are fixing minor issues and introducing more of them, there’s lack of QA even with multiple betas. I can’t but asking myself, do any of you actualy use PMS at home? How can you not see the real problems? How come icons and UI is more of a priority than fixing core problems? Do any of you even use Android TV player?
I’d like for Plex developers or product owner to answer these because as a paying customer I feel somewhat left in the wind with problems I and loafs of others are having. Comments from other users are greatly diacouraged.
How about a comment from one who is both a fellow user but also knows some of the inner workings?
I can speak to two of your points; the two I know first hand.
I started out as just a user some 7 years ago, liked the product and where it was headed, so dove in the deeper end of the pool. I’m not an employee. I just swim in the deeper end of that pool as part-time staff.
I’ll address what I think is the most pressing of your points first then the elephant in the room.
QA & Testing
- Test Engineering never stops evolving / improving. The product is a moving target with every release. T.E. has to keep changing with it. We don’t know what to test until Engineering is done developing and it’s in our hands. Only then can the iterative test, break, fix, test again cycle begin.
- Every change made by Engineering requires more automation be added to the test suite. It must also be vetted. Some tests are easy while others take days of soak time to complete.
- To this mix, introduce bug fixes that cause internal changes to protocols/outputs. These type changes alter the “Send/Expect” handshake of the tests because PMS’ responses. The existing test(s) are now invalid and either updated or rewritten and the entire test vetted again.
These three, which are the most obvious, are only part of what goes on.
Support
This Community-based support was/is intended for the free users.
When the paying customers were asked, via email survey, if they would be willing to pay for that ‘next level’ of support, the resounding reply was “No”.
It appears the expectation is:
- I pay $5.00 / month
- I expect 1:1 tech support when I need it, regardless the problem.
What folks fail to realize is what that monthly Plex Pass fee pays for:
- Infrastructure (the Plex.tv cloud which makes it all work)
- Codec licensing
- Operations staff to keep it turning
- Engineering staff to develop and fix problems
5,. Support personnel, like myself, who are here on weekends and after hours to answer questions.
Now, just which of the above pools of limited funding should that 1:1 support cost be taken from?
Plex isn’t Apple, or Microsoft, or Google.
1 Like
To be perfextly honest. I dont mind paying $10 if it’ll work the way it should. Right now, I dont see enough of effort to fix burning problems and I see cosmetic changes nobody cares about.
If $5 is not enough, raise the price but treat paying customers the way they expect. Community support just doesn’t cut it for me and I’m sure plenty of others too.
Right now, what bugs me the most is functionality that project threatens to eliminate: plugins.
On the other sidethere are no upstream alternatives as a features replacement. This way they basically force me to Emby, Jellyfin or god forbid Kodi which are all worse IMO.
Chuck, regardless of our discussion, nobody or rarely anyone from dev team answers as you can see.
The dev teams are usually about “eyeballs deep in the swamp”.
If they need something and I’m not getting them what they need,
they will come here and jump in.
The server team doesn’t usually need jump in however,
which not many may realize, there are many of the player dev team members in the forums for their respective player apps.
So that’s it, selective “support”? Nobody to ask stuff and get some honest answers?
These forums are “Community Support” based and always have been.
That base has grown.
There are those of us here who are in the forums all day long – plus after hours and weekends.
The term “selective support” is rather unfair imho.
There are limited resources, time is limited, with nobody willing to pay for premium support services (yes, it was offered but nobody was willing to pay for it).
That thing blows my customer mind into pieces.
How about the financial mind?
“Just how far should that monthly Plex Pass $5.00 be stretched?”
People, time, resources… all have innate costs. Without something to cover those costs, Plex won’t be in business very long, would it?
3 Likes
Poor business model and infrastructure aren’t excuse to compromise on support IMHO.
Compromise on time spent on useless changes.
To that end, include cessation of useless discourse which does not lead to a solution.
1 Like
