This is gonna be generic feedback from what I’ve seen. I’m honestly happy with the old UI, and if you gave up and left everything as is, I’d be a happy camper.
I speak as a not very long time user. I’ve only used plex since 2018. But I love it. I use plex instead of jellyfin, largely, because it looks so much better. I do love the discovery features. I know a lot of people who use plex as I do disagree, but I do like the social aspect of plex, though admittedly, I rarely use it.
But the whole starting at the top then moving to the side just feels like a huge miss. I think I see what you’re trying to do. Provide everything it’s nice little menu on top, and then when you go into movies, all the sorting for that specific library happens on the left. But it just comes off clunky.
I do want to put out some positives. I do, contrary to maybe some others (I’ve seen voiced concerns over the toll it will put on people’s servers) LOVE the guide UI with a preview. That was one of the things I loved about the xbox and ps4 experience, and would enjoy seeing it broadly adopted. I will say as an enjoyer of linear tv, I’d love to see more support for custom plex channels. I know multiple projects offer the ability to take your plex library and run it as a linear channel using IPTV, and then port it into the live tv part of plex. Problem is, plex only allows a specific setup, so they usually have two ways to playout: The plex compatible way and the better way. I do wish plex would allow IPTV, but I think this would be too much of a liability, and I understand it may not be able to happen because of this. But I hope the addition of a live tv “tab” is a committment to focus more on fleshing out that feature, even for us server users.
But after thinking on it, I think my biggest gripe is the weird dual navigation. That and setting home as a category above libraries. to me, the Libraries menu is the bulk of plex. So I’d like to go to libraries on boot up, and a home category within libraries which curates all the stuff I’m watching from all my libraries, not just one. I love that about the existing home page.
What I don’t want from my home page, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT is an experience where it’s showing me only ad supported viewing, or mixes ad supported entries with my own library entries. Part of what makes plex so good is the little bit of extra it does with metadata. IE: Here, a bunch of Christmas shows because it’s December. I LOVE that. But I want it so it’s only my shows, not the ad supported entries. I don’t want to watch tv with ads.
Who knows, maybe the splitting of libraries into it’s own thing will allow them to do more with that, allowing people to go to libraries and see ONLY their shows sorted into this, where home has categories with shows from everywhere.
Also, while I don’t have other streaming subscriptions, I would love to see the ability to port your other subscriptions you pay for through plex. I honestly doubt such a feature would be viable, but as someone who’s made plex their one stop for Movies and TV, if I had a subscription, or got one in the future, I’d like to be able to search for the show I want to watch on plex, go to it, see it’s listed on, say, Netflix, put my Netflix account info into my account (assuming proper security, which is a HUGE assumption and should not be taken lightly) and watch it through plex. I think with some collaboration between Plex and the major streaming companies, this is possible. The question is, would plex put in the leg work, and would large streaming companies bother? Personally, as someone who’s gotten tired of streaming companies, I feel it’s a way to increase their relevance to those who left, but this is a small customer base. More food for thought.
I am miffed at what I’m seeing in the beta, but not because I’m blindly angry. I love plex, but I’m scared of the enshittification all these companies go through, and part of it is often change for change’s sake. Stem the tide here. Don’t screw around too much with ■■■■ that ain’t broken.
I appreciate all you guys do! Plex has changed how I watch media over the last 7 years.
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