Here’s a list of what I believe to be the best Plex clients that just work without issues 100% of the time.
PlexAmp: 10/10 (the perfect music player IMO)
Plex HTPC: 9/10 (no native HDR passthrough on macOS but tonemapping is incredible)
Infuse: 10/10 (plays everything outside of music without any issues)
And unfortunately, this is where the list ends. I tried the Android TV app on my Sony TVs, tried multi generation Apple TV 4Ks, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, multiple roku devices, and they all have some issue that makes using Plex a nightmare. Audio sync issues, codec issues, bandwidth limits, poor direct play support, frame drops are all things that make the Plex experience poor on these devices.
I was always an HTPC user but when I switched to streaming devices years ago, I started to experience major problems with playback. So now returning to the Mac Mini with Plex HTPC, the grass is green again.
Curious to hear what some of you consider the best Plex clients that work 100% of the time! Always heard great things about the Nvidia Shield Pro, but never purchased one to try.
I have never used HTPC but I hear good things from those that do. I haven’t played around with a lot of clients…
The last time I used the inbuilt client on a TV was Plex for VIDAA back in 2018 (probably 2021 to troubleshoot something with a server that I couldn’t see except on my laptop).
1. Plexamp (11/10)
2. Plex (Windows & Linux - I use interchangebly)
3. Plex for Xbox (I use this daily on an Xbox Series X - before it was Xbox One X)
4. Plex for Tizen (3 people who have access to my library have this, and one of the TVs in the house has it but again I watch on Xbox)
5. Plex for web (mostly in Edge, occasionally in FireFox)
The only issues I’ve faced recently with the players (someone uses VIDAA, and the Xbox player) have to do with ASS (SSA) subtitles. This is manageable as I have just converted the subtitles to srt and now ensure that I have that to avoid the extra work on my server. No one else reports any problems with their devices… One has a Sony TV, most access on their PCs via the web player. Also, most don’t watch with subtitles so the SSA thing didn’t even affect them.
I have a Xbox Series X and planned for that to be my main home theatre player/all in one machine, but direct play on that is a nightmare and certain MKVs exhibit green artifacts when direct playing. All of my content is sourced from either Blu-ray, dvd or 4K UHD blu-ray.
When direct playing it always goes out of sync and has to be restarted for things to go back in sync, and it also drops to transcoding since the recent updates for no apparent reason.
Since it supports full audio passthrough I’m hopeful the Xbox issues get fixed soon as I think it could indeed be a great client. As it stands right now though too many issues exist. Do you not run into any issues with direct play?
I recently stopped using Plex HTPC for Windows as my client in my projector room, and switched to a ShieldTV box. For me, the Android TV box “just works” whereas the Windows client would fail to play some files and I was always needing to re-set-up the audio passthrough settings. Then there were Windows specific issues like HDMI full/limited range settings, untimely reboots for system updates…
I am a “Windows guy” for sure and used Plex and then Plex HTPC for a long time but to just watch without hassles… my ShieldTV won me over. In another location with no ShieldTV I still use Plex HTPC and it still occasionally has problems, locking up totally during playback.
We all have to find our own path. It’s funny how everyone has such different experiences with the same gear.
The last time I had this issue on a regular basis I did some troubleshooting… it turned out that it only did that for me on HDR content and when I connected the Xbox to a different TV (I had moved it to a room with a very old TV) I have not had those issues.