Not sure why this thread is marked “closed”. Regardless if it will be entertained, users should be able to express/vote on what they want. Anyhow, on the off chance a PLEX employee finds the time to read this I thought I’d contribute my $0.02.
I understand and support refactoring and unifying the codebase to simplify development and minimize the variance in target deliverables. That is laudable and makes sense on a go-forward basis…HOWEVER, refactoring how the client works does not imply the GUI has to change dramatically. The new user interface is less intuitive, as tested by 4 pairs of elderly grandparents and “dumb” as commented on by no less than a dozen young children. Teens and middle-aged adults have even less complimentary things to say. There has not been a single positive comment about the change in the user interface.
Mapping of controls and having an optional “classic” UI is a small lift by comparison to the myriad extra-and-unneeded features that keep appearing. Behind the scenes the client does what the client does, but the GUI is what the user sees and after a decade of great success with the preivous UI, why mess with success?
The new UI is not good and does not offer a single arguable improvement in user experience. An option to have the old UI should be created.
I’m 100% fine with Plex adding new interfaces. People should get to use the interface they want! Plex shouldn’t just push out half-baked replacements that don’t even include the option to continue using an interface with a similar navigation flow. Maybe they need to let other people create and add new interfaces. Let us have skins, or themes, or whatever they want to call them. So many users are going to keep begging for the previous interface, or at least one similar enough that it looks like an upgrade to it instead of complete rewrite based around someone else’s idea of how they want everyone to use Plex.
I went ahead and unmarked it solved since some people were whining that I marked it solved. Plex is not willing to roll back, but they did make a compromise in the navigation and home screen. Is it what everyone wants, no! But it’s what they’re willing to give. I slowly started using my backup emby server, so there’s other options out there people. Is the new interface a lot better than when it was first released…. absolutely!! Should it have been released initially… most definitely not! But beating a dead horse is not going to change the outcome.
If enough people keep beating that dead horse, other people will come see why they’re beating a dead horse. Those people will then find out that they can use Emby and the only reason they need to come around here is because they like beating that dead horse.
Eventually maybe the dead horse will realize that all the top posts on the dead horse forum are about how the dead horse was so much better when it was alive. Maybe then they’ll resurrect the dead horse and perhaps some of those dead horse beaters will ride again. I, however, will just continue beating the horse whether it comes back from the dead or not because it has offended me so.
I just installed a Roku because LG’s Plex app beat me into submission. As flawed as the LG app is, it’s still the classic experience. The Roku may be heading back to Amazon.
I just voted, I am a little late to the party as I primarily use another device that still has the classic interface. However all my other TVs use Rokus and those are used by my wife and children. I was shocked when they mentioned they couldn’t find something and I opened it up and saw this change. I’m used to new interfaces and there being a learning curve to them. So I try to go into things with a perspective of maybe this might be better I just need to learn it. However I have played around with it for weeks now and I am tech savy as I would say most of use who started with Plex are, and this change is the worst GUI change I have ever been through. Even when you know exactly where a media is the navigation of menus is horrendous and you end up having to do it multiple times. Since this is something I only saw say late January and reading all 180+ posts it sounds like this is the “fixed” version from whatever was rolled out way back in September. Lifetime Plex member here and I have to say if this update ends up being the future of Plex. I will have to go with something else. I actually do like the idea of “Skins” or maybe more control over all Navigation. I mean I voted but I think the real way for them to listen is to know that they can generate more revenue by letting Plex staff create custom GUIs, Like others have pointed out this is just the interface, you can optimize everything on the back end. Let people preview them and if they like it they can purchase it for like $5. Hell I would pay $1 just to get the old version back. I definitely would pay $5 for a better GUI for mobile touch screen devices that has better management for playing downloaded files when in airports or in cars for the kids.
Long time user, first time commenter. The new-ish UI on Roku is atrocious.
The way it intermingles the same show’s episodes from multiple locations is actually the opposite of useful: it won’t distinguish between the local (very playable) copy and the (very unplayable) remote copy. This is just a dumb own-goal.
Also: if I favorite a remote library, the Home view then concludes it should display episodes of shows that I’ve already watched because … reasons?
Placing the library menu at the top actually makes it way harder to navigate around than when the library nav menu was a column on the left, and creates confusion in the UI when the thing you want to watch is in multiple libraries.
And for double bonus points, the app eventually stops displaying both thumbnails and the other glyphs for the UI buttons (!!), requiring a full restart of the Roku to get them working again.
I know that this is the result of many hours of hard work and it’s a bummer to hear non-stop complaints about it, but this update really feels like a miss. Hopefully you leave the browser interface alone, because it’s still way more usable.
I miss using plex downloads. It’s the only reason I paid for it in the first place. I’d happily buy someone’s Plex a coffee or energy drink to have those features back. Please?
I’ve been using the new UI for several months now. I’ve figured out how to do everything I need to do. However, it’s still so much worse than it was before. As a software developer myself with over 45 years of experience, I understand the need and desire to standardize a common interface. But why you didn’t standardize on the prior interface is beyond me. You took a nice clean interface that I could teach my 90-year-old father how to use and turned it into something that is impossible for him to understand. Simple is almost always better. Your new implementation sucks. I will never use this interface to access anything other than my own content. I bet that is true about 95% of your users. I have yet to find a single person that likes the new interface. That should tell you something. My recommendation to you is to migrate your new implementation toward your old interface. I’m sure you guys can figure out a way to get your new content integrated with your old interface look and feel without getting in the way of things most users do the majority of the time. Look at the simplicity of the Roku interface and home page. The things that are most important to the user are front and center. Yes, they’ve added a bunch of their own content, but it doesn’t get in the way of what their users want to do. So, do the right thing and fix this garbage.
That pretty much proves what folks here have been saying, You’re a minority, is this the way you would run your business? Building something for a smaller target audience?
Been waiting since day 1 of LiveTV for time shifting to reliably work. It still does not. If I had to place a vegas bet I’d put my money on this pshanew guy as either part of the same group or one of an alias that kept reporting it was working just fine so the Plex person would close the thread.
You’re really barking up the wrong tree. I have my own problems with Plex:
Poor management of EPG lineups and updates to them;
Transcoder issues;
I have to use JF as a backup server in the event of Internet outages since Plex doesn’t handle them well at all;
Inconsistent forum moderation policies.
So, if you’re implying that I’m part of some conspiracy to protect or enhance Plex’s image, you’ve got the wrong idea.
What I don’t have is a huge problem with the new experience interface. It was cumbersome to use initially, It took them way too long to address some concerns. But it has steadily improved. There are some who are never going to accept it and I won’t dismiss their concerns.
So let’s keep this constructive and not make assumptions about each others’ intentions. That never ends up anywhere good.
Glad I missed all the astroturf/strawmen. I think I was travelling when they rejiggered the interface but it’s better now. At least for me, I still don’t love where playlists show up but at least the pulldown menu is on the first screen. So thanks Plex folks if you read this thread.
let’s get the old UI back. Currently building moving to jellyfin as this Roku UI is sooo bad. But I’d really like to stay on Plex.
