Roku Preview has now been updated to the new experience (Plex would love to hear from us)

Plex Experience Preview
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update to the Plex preview channel - 8.5.0

NEW:

  • Add DVR Schedule and DVR Priority screens.
  • Add support to reorder favorite Live TV channels.
  • Implement dropdown style for Libraries & Live TV navigation.
  • Updated layout and styles for grid screen filters, sorts, scroll bar, and jump bar.

FIXES:

  • Fix a possible crash refreshing a screen.
  • Fix buttons sometimes overlapping summary on show screen.
  • Fix Delete button sometimes briefly showing when opening a DVR episode.
  • Fix missing icon and left alignment in activity footer.
  • Fix missing option to delete DVR content.
  • Fix navigation after voice search.
  • Fix text not displaying on expanded critic review page.
  • Fix duplicate and invalid playback controls on music detail screens.
  • Fix language setting not being applied.
  • Display the title on card for On Demand Categories.
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@Atomatth
Up to 8.5 and this simple bug still not fixed (not an issue in the Roku App, just the Preview App).

And I’ll keep mentioning this very minor bug only because if shows that the feedback here is ignored.

2 Likes
314

Not that anyone cares, but the 8.5 is crashing when scrolling through a shows Season (when there is a lot of seasons), Top menu bar crashes as Season 14)

315

I kinda hate the new 2nd horizontal row of the menu. in 8.5. Maybe because it’s so large and a different color scheme than the 1st row, but I’ll get used to it.

And with Libraries also below Continue Watching, do we need it in the 1st horozontal menu? (or really, why was it ever put below Continue Watching?)

Still can’t get used to not knowing what season I’m watching and can’t for the life of me understand why that still hasn’t been fixed.

316

This comes up a lot and the only response is that it was to address easier access - but it really doesn’t make any sense because it’s duplicative and redundant (particularly on Mobile which has a quick access option) and messes up the flow of scrolling the Home Screen (see my previous posts on that for way more detail of course). I have seen a few reps even agree. I assume some VP said “yeah do it” and now it’s there; like lots of other choices being made it’s clear that a lot of this isn’t intentional design decision but leadership appeasement for something “new”. At least that’s how it feels from my work experience. Particularly with zero response to design or layout feedback or questions and only engaging on functionality bugs.

We’ll get what we get and that’s that - user input or opinion is not being requested, only QA testing (sometimes). :slight_smile:

Though they did reverse on removing photos\music from the app so some noise has been effective. And if a rep confirms they’ve put broken function on a bug report I do believe they will get to it - eventually.

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Could you please provide what show you are looking at? Also, is this something you have seen on multiple shows or just a single show? Thanks for the feedback.

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Pretty sure that I have mentioned it elsewhere, but personal media in the apps is being looked at by quite a few eyeballs to provide more focus on libraries and make them easier to consume. This was originally added as a way to help people that didn’t favorite any libraries find them, but we recognize that it isn’t having the intended effect and needs some additional consideration.

Can you give me some context as to where this statement is referencing? I just double checked the player in 8.5.0 and it was showing the season number there.

1 Like
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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
App Crashes when scrolling the the TOP Horizontal menu (not when scrolling the Poster Row)
Only show I have with more than 14 seasons, so only one I can test

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Live TV, Plex Channels (for all channels)

IMG_4060
IMG_4060870×575 114 KB

1 Like
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Appreciate the report. Looks like a bug. Wasn’t able to re-create from the CW hub (since I am currently rewatching Sunny myself, great show) but from the browse screen on a library it crashed when passing the 14th season. Thanks for the catch here! Bug report has been created.

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Live TV, Plex Channels (for all channels)

for instance:

IMG_4060
IMG_4060870×575 114 KB

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Thank you for the confirmation. A bug report has been filed for this one.

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324

Glad to hear this is the case - there hasn’t really been any response to the extensive feedback related to design or layout.

Common problem with groups\teams\company focused on their stuff as their job and daily routine is they forget what it’s like not to know what they know or forget that customers\users\everybody else aren’t keeping your thing as focused in their lives as their own things. Just because a rep says something somewhere in a forum post doesn’t mean it gets seen by everyone - particularly not by people who weren’t in that specific thread that specific time or show up here after (y’know
 like new customers\users). Plex documentation is not setup to be very accessible unless you already know what to look for with the right words to do the right search (another common documentation problem) so even if you feel like it’s repeating yourself and you shouldn’t have to do that (evident by the opening line there), repeating is exactly what helps. That’s why I suggested y’all put a bit of summary reference somewhere for folks who maybe weren’t here when something was said in some random topic; my suggestion was edit the top post here with updates\info\etc (it’s not perfect but it’ll help cut down on repeating things). If someone is managing these feedback posts well, they know what points and references have come up regularly and can address those things.

As part of “criticism sandwich” I will say that overall I think the Preview is pretty solid and in some ways better; it’s definitely snappier even on my older\slower Roku devices. It just feels awkward in flow in some areas (like that weird show\season card), particularly when switching between it and the Public release, so for such a large revamp I think that’s pretty good honestly.

Just some thoughts
 I know I sound pretty critical sometimes, but selfishly I do want this change - which is going to happen no matter what - to work out so I don’t have to put in the effort of switching platforms (so glad the clock is back). :slight_smile:

1 Like
325

With the new “Season” card when a season is selected (used to be just the episodes), shouldn’t the Background be what the user selected in the Library card in the main listing? Looks like Plex is grabbing the 1st background, not what the user selected.


or am I missing a setting somewhere?

1 Like
326

Probably part of a different bug
 Season specific Backgrounds loading wrong
That one has been acknowledged and put on a bug report.

Guess besides just season backgrounds and loading screens this impacts that stupid season\show card thing. I have high hopes that if they actually try to implement this “card” anywhere but on their own Movies\TV service (which I will grant might actually need it but it’s still a dumb way to fix their problem there) that users will scream it down and the only reason it’s not already is because the Roku Preview is a tiny tiny fraction of users.

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The season ‘card’ is not that bad an idea as different backgrounds can be selected for different season, but if none selected, should revert to the background selected for the Series, and in any event, it should be a user option to have it.

1 Like
328

@McWanke
Probably already mentioned, but I just noticed that the Theme Music is not playing in the Preview App (I tried various vol levels in Settings->Experience)

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I think Plex Co knows very well that people use Plex for more than just a could categories, and they are hopefully going to address it by supporting nfo or other external metadata.

Re libraries (not just directed to your, but to others with many, many more Libraries than we have!)

I have these same ones as well and I have the other Library content as well and yes, they are contained within the above libraries.

You lose so much of the Plex’s search capabilities or content suggestions when you split your libraries up so much.

I understand that you think this makes things easier for your users, but does it?

I’ve struggled with this question myself and I’ve come to the firm conclusion that multiple overlapping libraries makes it more difficult, not easier.

Plex has features built into the server and clients to expose or block content where appropriate.

Fully utilizing Genre and Collections (which can bridge Libraries together) is so helpful.

Forgive me for not knowing, but if you lookup an actor who is in a Holiday a movie and a non-holiday movie, do you see results from both movie libraries?

How do you or your users know where to find the movie Die Hard or others? Doesn’t this add a lot of work on your part when you add new movies?

What makes, Marquee TV different from “TV”? Can’t you add them to a collection or restrict access to users with Restrictions? Ratings, Labels etc?

The same thing for animation. I use standard Categories as well as one I’ve added for LGBTQ+, Australia Collection, San Francisco Collection etc.

It makes discovery of content simple and a no-brainer. What to find a TV series, you know where it is. Want to watch a movie - it’s in one place too.

I think you’re in good shape and have not give down the rabbit hole of literally having 50+ libraries which is just lazy and very user unfriendly - IMO.

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I personally like the new addition of the Season Card


If you don’t like it, ignore it. Why do you want it removed? I’m curious why you have such strong feelings about it.

In you own words, why would other users benefit by this new Season Card being removed?

Plex, please keep this card.

331

I go into detail in that topic I linked earlier 
 but essentially it is redundant and it means season\show management is mixed in with episodes themselves which messes up the hierarchy structure present everywhere else around Shows\Seasons\Episodes. It just smacks of weird decision making plus they can’t defend why it’s “better” than the current way other than it solves a problem they have with their Movie\TV service where they don’t have that Show\Season hierarchy that is there for personal media. That’s why I mention that it seems like it’d be fine for how they have their TV service setup but it’s not really needed for personal media.

It also means the first episode on the episode list is the 2nd card on the screen
 feels weird.

Edit: They added “Show” to the top navigation which I think is a better solve for making navigation show\season levels easier to manage the show\season level stuff (particularly if they go ahead and add it for single season shows where seasons are not displayed).

I’ll grant that once you get watching a show you default to the most recent episode and such so it’s not a huge deal but the decision and navigation just feels so weird so it bugs me every time I see it. You’ll notice I’m usually pretty balanced even for things I get critical about most of the time but this one just strikes me super off; I rarely call something “dumb” or “stupid” but yeah, this one just bugs me and is the most likely thing to make me switch to Emby. :slight_smile:

That’s the bug - it’s supposed to do that but if you picked something else for the series background other than the original default then the season background (and that card and the loading screen) won’t show what you selected but that original default. It’s kinda minor but annoying once you notice it. Hopefully being on the bug report it’ll be fixed soon. :slight_smile: