Well, it’s a mixed bag … I think that the final release version of Plex Media Player will be really good for casual users (which most plex users are) but there are quite some use cases where it will never beat KODI or even PHT.
But as always there is no general “X is better than Y”, it always depends on the person (user) of the software. Some people simply don’t care about “advanced” usage like customizing the home menu, weather and so on and for this group of people plex media player is going to be much “better”.
And then there are people like me who love to push the boundaries of what’s possible with a HTPC. I like to have my weather, custom home menu entries, favorites, auto pause when I get a call and a lot more fancy stuff right there where I wanted it to be.
Anyway, back to the OpenPHT updates :
Build environments are ready, I already successfully built the first windows installer package, so I might release a working version sooner than expected.
@bkury:
I’m really looking forward to your first release of OpenPHT for Windows.
This project becomes even more important now that it’s clear that the official PHT project is about to be terminated (abandoned by Plex Inc in favor of PMP). Like you I prefer the flexibility of PHT, and not only for its customization abilities, but also for its ability to deal better with a large number of library sections and some very large such sections, which are two things that the PMP app is very bad at handling (in common with ALL the mobile apps).
The goal of this project is to integrate KODI, PleXBMC (and compatible skins) into one easy install-able package while simultaneously providing a PHT like experience as accurately as possible.
OpenHT v1.0:
KODI 16.x (Jarvis), PleXBMC and Night v2.0
ETA: november
I’m really happy this is not dropped. Any Teaser you can give us
I believe bkury has put his ‘OpenPHT’ project on hold for the time being, in order to focus on the “Night” skin version for Kodi, and probably other things in his life. I expect he will revive the project later under another name, as he has given his ‘blessing’ to the use of the “OpenPHT” name for another project with similar goals, currently released as “OpenPHT 1.5.0” in its own subforum here at the Plex forums. This uses a slightly different approach than bkury’s project, being based on the same PHT source as the RasPlex project (for the RPi), re-ported for PC OS (as yet Windows and OSX). Both RasPlex and this OpenPHT project are now developed and maintained by the RasPlex team (== OpenPHT team).
Since RasPlex is based on original PHT sources, both RasPlex and OpenPHT have the original PHT GUI, plus a few improvements (with more to come). It can be used with all the same custom skins as the official PHT 1.4.1, though a few of the new improvements are only accessible in the menus of the default ‘Plex’ skin.
