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

[jfreiman]

@rossinior

BTW, just pass along the wish for an ABC nav for collections. I have libraries with hundreds of collection. Plex Web has that nav, the old clients did not. Room for improvement. Please implement it for all platforms.

I would REALLY appreciate the ABC to extend to Collections as well, as I to have hundreds of Connections on multiple libraries.

I would think that all Alphanumeric sorting in Plex and and other apps should include a ABC jump list.

[jfreiman]

Now for driver polarizing feedback.

I am a dedicated Plex user and have used Plex nearly exclusively every since Windows Media Center was abandoned by Microsoft.

For the most part, I like the new interface. Yes, their are to many clicks in some places where they don’t need to be or are redundant. Artwork, like backgrounds etc need remove cropping or alert it to display better without chopping off so much of an image, etc.

But overall, the new design works for me - and I LIKE IT BETTER THAN WHAT IT’S REPLACING.

I might be alone in this, but I think a lot of users will like the changes as I do.

[Cafe_Diem]

@Taligent

Preserving the libraries and their display order should be default behavior. If this happens when the new UI is pushed to the regular app, I’m not looking forward to the tech support calls I’ll be getting from family just to get them back to where they were.

Yup. I didn’t bring it up in my earlier post, but this happened to me, like everyone else:

I’d previously set up the left side with pinned content.

I opened the new beta, and the pinned content was not considered my “favorite” media libraries for some reason, and magically the front page was only Plex’s services.

Actionable item for Plex Devs: Items pinned to the left menu, prior to the upgrade, should automatically be “favorited” by the app during the upgrade, and visible on the new home page. That’s important data that was intentionally created by the end user that is being dismissed.

[EricD1973]

I would say that switching users is pretty clunky. Highlight user picture and then clicking down goes into the profile area instead of the options under the user picture.

[Tony_T]

Using the Clear Logo from TheTVDB for the Series Name is a nice touch, but it”s inconsistent. Although the artwork is listed on thetvdb, some shows are not showing the logo for the name.

[Lazarus_Long]

Yeah I was more thinking of others (IOS and Android mobile devices) where the new update was pushed out earlier and you can’t have both running side by side now.

[Insomnic_1]

I miss the clock.

It was handy and really convenient.

@Lazarus_Long

It would also allow us to provide a lot better feedback about use cases that no longer work correctly, etc. That was supposed to be the whole deal with the Plex Preview Experience being released, but it went public way too quickly.

I’m doing this now though? I have both the Preview channel and Public channel on my Roku and flip back and forth. You don’t have to pick one or the other. That’s one reason I noticed the missing clock.

This confusion was brought up in another thread; none of the Experience UI - except on mobile - are actually in public release, they are all on test releases.
AppleTV had some other beta issues but still Experience is still only on voluntary test apps.
If you don’t want to do Experience then don’t use the beta. If you don’t want to test and provide feedback, don’t use the beta, stick with the public channel. I thought it was all pushed to public - as did others - so just wanted to clarify if that was the misunderstanding.

The mobile push was, in my opinion, disastrous but that’s covered in other threads.

I’m not trying to defend anything just that in that other thread about this, a bunch of people, including myself, thought Experience was pushed to Public based on the AppleTV and Android TV threads and that isn’t true.

I’m really hoping reported functional issues that didn’t get “we’ve confirmed and filed a bug” responses from Plex, while others do, are still getting noted and not missed is all.

[Lazarus_Long]

@Insomnic_1

I’m doing this now though? I have both the Preview channel and Public channel on my Roku and flip back and forth. You don’t have to pick one or the other. That’s one reason I noticed the missing clock.

Yeah my comment about having them side-by-side was mainly due to the Android and IOS versions where you can’t do that now.

[Frostwolf]

Agreed what used to take 2-3 clicks is now 7-9 clicks.

I did find the setting Experience> Default library view set to browse reduced it to 4-5 clicks. Still more than before.

Bigger issue where is everything, Music and Photos are gone. My wife is going to make me gone if I don’t get those back for her.

DVR is gone, and I 'm in the process of setting that up..

[Frostwolf]

Where is the Music Library for starters? 2-3 times more clicks to do what we used to.

If no Music Library, time for me to move on to something else, before the wife makes me move out.

[D_eight6]

@Frostwolf
Music and Photo libraries have been completely gutted entirely from all TV platforms. Roku, AndroidTV/GoogleTV, AppleTV, etc.

PlexAmp and PlexPhoto apps are separate singular apps. PlexAmp is only available for Mobile/Tablet devices and Desktop environments and PlexPhotos is strictly available for Mobile/Tablet devices.

What used to be the Plex App, has now been entirely used for Movies and TV Shows.

Here’s a recap -
Plex, just like how Apple did with iTunes, has now separated the apps into three.

1. Plex Movies and TV - Movie and TV Show Libraries
2. PlexAmp - Audio Libraries
3. PlexPhotos - Photo Libraries

From what has been shared with the forums, it has been said that there have been no plans on having Music and Photos return to TV Platforms.

The feature WatchTogether also has been deprecated from the Plex ecosystem.

[ljunkie]

@Cafe_Diem

I opened the new beta, and the pinned content was not considered my “favorite” media libraries for some reason, and magically the front page was only Plex’s services.

Actionable item for Plex Devs: Items pinned to the left menu, prior to the upgrade, should automatically be “favorited” by the app during the upgrade, and visible on the new home page. That’s important data that was intentionally created by the end user that is being dismissed.

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. We completely agree that pinned content is important, and it should have been reflected in the new experience.

This wasn’t an intentional omission. Favorites are now shared across all devices, so pinned items should have been seamlessly migrated. However, due to an unforeseen bug in the migration logic, there were cases where that didn’t happen. As a result, some users may need to manually favorite those items again, but only once since the data now syncs across devices.

We’re actively working on a solution to fix this for users who haven’t yet opened the new preview version, so the migration works as expected going forward. Unfortunately, we can’t retroactively fix this for users who have already launched the new version, but once you favorite your libraries, that data will now be shared across all your devices.

Really appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Feedback like this helps us catch things we missed and improve the experience for everyone.

[ChristianKent]

@ljunkie

Favorites are now shared across all devices

This is awesome.

[Frostwolf]

@D_eight6 thank you for catching me up

No Music is a deal breaker for my family. Not everyone has or can use cell phone/tablets. My parents don’t have soundbars to stream from the one phone they have, Grandfather is 96, he doesn’t have a mobile phone at all.

Parkinson’s disease prevents one family member from using mobile devices. And Dupuytren’s contracture (Vikings Disease) prevents another from using mobile devices, Remote controls are difficult enough, Mobile phones are impossible.

Nice that Plex has no consideration for those with handicaps. We’re very disappointed. I guess I need to find out what other media servers have available now that Plex is only half media server.

[D_eight6]

Agreed. While the previous UI known as UNO was not 100% perfect nor fully complete at launch when it was introduced, things eventually got ironed out and became easy enough for all ages to navigate. I too found convenience and usability abruptly ripped from users such as your family. I have a family member who has some visual impairment but found great use of controlling content on the tv via the Plex remote companion that lets them choose a film off the tablet and zaps it to play on the tv. Several use cases like yours and mine have surely now been affected or will soon be when these apps reach public release. And yes, the news that Music and Photos does sting as well.

[nx6]

@ljunkie

Favorites are now shared across all devices

Uh, we can opt out of this, right? Some of us don’t want the same libraries pinned on every device. I seem to recall the old apps had a setting for syncing stuff you could turn off.

[Tony_T]

As far as additional clicks go…
For Continue Watching:

• Old: Already on last watched
• New: One click down (100% more clicks )

For Movies, TV..:

• Old: Click left, select Library, Click right
• New: Click right, Click, Click down, Select Library (100% more clicks )

So, for me, one more click. I have no problem with than.

[Tony_T]

I also like the menu at the top, but Plex meeds to be consistent with this.
For Live TV, the Guide has Favorites, Featured, etc on *the left. This needs to be put above the Guide (where it used to be).
Also, put the Hide Guide selection back.

In short, return The Guide to the prior layout

[dokuro]

@McWanke

Within this comment a plex employee commented that tmdb ratings are “not good” New Experience Public Release Feedback - #282 by drzoidberg33 and we were left with the impression that these are gone.

However, within this screenshot above Roku Preview has now been updated to the new experience (Plex would love to hear from us) - #17 by ItsThatJA I can clearly see imdb, rotten and tmdb ratings.

Also, look at that screenshot again and you will see the certification is “gb/12A” which is with the gb locale represented in the UI. Roku has always been like this and I called this out years ago so I’m surprised to see this still here.

So, what going on ? Isn’t this meant to be a single code base, at least that is what plex employees keep saying. How can the design be different ?

[Insomnic_1]

@Lazarus_Long

Yeah my comment about having them side-by-side was mainly due to the Android and IOS versions where you can’t do that now.

I don’t have AppleTV or Android TV but TestFlight apps in iOS are separate from the Public apps on iOS. You can use both at the same time. Since Experience for AppleTV is only in TestFlight - you can’t have both apps installed? The Experience for Android is a separate Beta app, you can’t have both the Beta and Public installed at the same time?

Sorry if this is off-topic a bit but clearing this up might help.

@dokuro

So, what going on ? Isn’t this meant to be a single code base, at least that is what plex employees keep saying. How can the design be different ?

I remember hearing the “single code base” stuff too and in a different thread when this came up, it was said by a Plex dev (I think by McWanke and in a reasonable way) that it’s not a single code base because app platforms work too differently but there are a lot more API functions being built in that will let the different apps work and be managed more universally. My guess is the person who was touting the “single code base” or “universal code base” was more marketing\PR person like in those Firesides than a dev and didn’t understand it to communicate it correctly. At least, that’s my grudgingly given possible scenario.

That’s not giving them a pass on the number of avoidable bungles, miscommunications, and disrespectful to customer base decisions being made but for me there have been fewer personal negative impacts than I expected. It probably helps my perspective that I paid a lifetime pass long ago so I don’t have a financial consideration about it.

I’m spending time reporting things here because maybe by doing so it’ll all still work well enough for me to avoid having to put in the heavier effort involved in switching platforms entirely is all. It’s very self-serving.