Thanks Plex team!

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
1

I just want to say thanks to the Plex team for publishing the new Xbox one app since every post I see says something bad about the new app.

Everyone was complaining about how sluggish the old app was and begging for a new app. Now we have it and no one is grateful. The new app was rebuilt from the ground-up and dependent on the fall Xbox update. I imagine we’ll see more frequent updates and UI improvements on this platform now. Give it some time people, it’s only a week old!!

2

I agree with @radman1984. People have been wanting a new UWP version of the app for ages, and now they are upset that it isn’t 100% perfect on release day.

3

+1

I guess the problem is just that there are a few bugs in this first release which were not present on the previous app. So affected people are obviously mad because the “new” app does something worse than the old one.

But give it 1-2 updates and I am sure most people will be satisfied.

4

The affected people would like some benefit other than ‘new’ as an excuse for the ‘upgrade’.
So far the only two improvements seem to be that multiple Xbox accounts can run the app and browse the server without having to log back in to Plex client each time the Xbox Live account changes, and that it has a search function (that is buried really badly in the UI).

Change for the sake of change always draws this form of criticism. None of us should be grateful simply by merit that we waited 18 months for it.

5

There are some good things about the new app.

  • Libraries load much faster.
  • Having episodes of shows to scroll through at the bottom is much better than clicking the next arrow(that only worked half the time).
  • Media info screen is much more concise and better laid out.
  • Settings menu is cleaner
  • Overall look is consistent with the rest of Plex.

But, the big issue here is that it took several years for this to come out. If this had came out around the same time the rest of the UWP apps came out, there wouldn’t have been near as much hand wringing. In addition, it’s STILL missing features, like background music, that people have been asking for years.

The lack of communication other than “It’s being worked on” all these years is also a huge issue, maybe the BIGGEST issue. Because now we’re told that fixes are on the way for this app, but how long is that going to take? Will there be any communication on that? Will anybody trust them if there is?

Plex made their own bed here.

6

@radman1984 said:
I just want to say thanks to the Plex team for publishing the new Xbox one app since every post I see says something bad about the new app.

Everyone was complaining about how sluggish the old app was and begging for a new app. Now we have it and no one is grateful. The new app was rebuilt from the ground-up and dependent on the fall Xbox update. I imagine we’ll see more frequent updates and UI improvements on this platform now. Give it some time people, it’s only a week old!!

Well said. I completely agree. Thank you Plex!

Adding to the list that @Goose1701 and @jungwirth started:

  • “Home” videos in the Photos library play now. Strangely, they wouldn’t play at all in the old app.
  • The actual time that a video will end shows up at the end of the on-screen menu when pausing a video. Tiny little benefit, but noticed that yesterday when watching a movie and I was debating whether or not to finish it before going to bed.
  • Watched shows can be filtered out of the TV Shows view.
  • Jumping to a letter in a list actually works. This never seemed to work in the old app, or was too slow. Nice benefit when going through a list of 100+ items.
  • Channels and playlists no longer take up space on the menu. I never use these so I prefer where they are now. I could see a customization making this better which would allow users to show or hide it higher up depending on their preference.
  • Combining libraries from multiple servers…I know, I know, this one has really gotten people riled up. And the way it’s done now will not work for everyone. But, if Plex adds the ability to select the servers to show, rather than automatically showing all of them, then I think it will work for most people. At least then if you only want to show 1 server, you can show 1 server. If you want to show 2, show 2, and if you want to show more you can do that too.

I’ll probably find more as I continue to use the app. But for me at least it’s a BIG improvement.

7

For me the main advantage is speed. The old app was always sluggish and felt slow especially when loading larger playlists. This version is quick and speedy. I also had playback issues with the old version that seem to be resolved with this version. Yes there are issues (Alexa struggles to see the player on a regular basis for me) but given that this is a complete rewrite, i’m sure they will be ironed out. Good to see dev interaction in the forums too.

8

I want to join, and say thanks. I like the new app even when I have some trouble with the audio tracks, and some other issues. I love the new design, sure because every thing is new, you have to get used to it.
I sure the app gets fixed step by step and hope the plex team provides more features updates in the future.
Thanks K3N

9

While it is not working correctly at the moment, soft subtitles without transcoding is a big benefit and once the bugs are worked out this will be great.

I also thought I read a comment somewhere (but don’t quote me) that with UWP they could look at bitstreaming audio as well. If this is true and they can make it work then that would be fantastic.

10

I never asked for a new app, and honestly I would embrace being a beta tester if I could use the original when I wanted also, I would nicely report back issues I find and go to the old app when I needed to, I was not given this choice but forced to use something that doesn’t work right for some of my stuff and is a navigational pain in the *** compared to the old one