I have been a PlexPass user for almost a decade, I have used Plex on Android TV for over 5 years and it seems to be getting worse with every single update. So I’d like to know what is going on with Android update, specifically Android TV.
Everything isn’t bad, obviously. The interface got some great improvements, the player is overall much better than it used to be, BUT… There are way too many problems every time there is a major update, and most of them aren’t fixed by the time the next major update comes out with it’s fair share of problems. It ranges from lags to constant crashes, videos being unplayable when they worked perfectly fine the day before the update.
Long story short, it feels like constantly being a beta tester and I hate never knowing if I will be able to play a video when I get home. Can’t you create a separate app for testing purposes and only release it when it is properly working?
Yeah, 8.12 was one of the worst that I’ve seen. Already couldn’t use Live TV/DVR in 8.11 but then 8.12 added the “feature” of not being able to play HEVC videos with 5.1 AAC on my brand new firestick. Worked the day before with 8.11.
HEVC and H264 are the two most common video codecs and AAC and AC3 are the most common for sound. That only makes for 4 combinations. And they couldn’t test that before releasing?
That’s not just an issue of poor quality control. That’s an issue of not even caring if it works.
I totally agree with both your omments. My remote audio constantly transcodes to mp3. No 5.1,. AAC etc… Direct play worked before. Using Nvidia p2200 card. With this new Arcade crap that they are focused on I doubt very much if thing’s ate going to get any better.
They don’t care about what we want, just worried about themselves and how much more cash they can generate regardless whether the software has glitches. One person mentioned there’s so much extra garbage in this software it has just ruined it. I originally purchased this software to manage MY MEDIA, not Plexes… I have setup Emby because I don’t see this getting any better. If I have to I slowly move my users over so be it. It’s a shame because this software has potential… Turning it into a very busy and bloated software. This might work for some people which is great. Not what I was expecting.,
Yes, like 5 releases in a row now. All 5 of the 8.12.x have been utter trash. Either obvious problems like common formats not playing or undocumented changes that break customization of the home screen which has made many upset. Combine this with a hopeless Live TV/DVR product that we paid to have that has never worked properly. Plex needs to get that we have valid reasons to be unhappy with them.
I feel the same way. Every update causes me issues. I have worked through them for about 10 years myself. I even just bought the lifetime pass. That said, I tried to launch the program and had to download the server again and every time I launch I get the same error asking me load the server again. I cant access any of my downloaded media. Any guidance would be appreciated.
I’m sure beta users are reporting the issues. If you spend 5 minutes browsing around these forums then it should be painfully obvious that plex does not care about fixing bugs and they just continue on with the release regardless of how much new stuff is broken.
Whatever the reason, they are doing an awful job fixing bugs. I really wish they would stop releasing broken features for a while and focus on fixing what is already implemented instead of making it worse with each release.
Lately it feels more like they are competing with Crunchyroll for the all time worst Android TV app.
They only problem I’ve had with the Android app, which is a pain now on a lot of apps, is It won’t upload my photos’ unless it is open. I’m able to watch my recorded shows, my saved movies and live tv without issue. (assuming I have good signal on my phone). I was watching live tv yesterday from my phone actually.
There are two parts to plex, maybe some of the issues you are having are not the app, but the server. (Coding or Hardware issues)
I agree with many of the replies on this post. I have been with Plex for over a decade now. And even at the start I have said it feels like Plex is more concerned with adding features that the majority of users did not request and did not want instead of fixing the bugs and problems that the majority of users did want fixed. And many times a new “feature” is added with the seemingly bizarre nature of trying to circumvent a known issue (burying it) than actually fixing it. I think of it as “don’t look at that, look at this pretty new problem.”
So to try to provide some kind of suggestion instead of only criticism I make this suggestion. Release one major update with not one single new feature. Just one major bug fix.
The Android app works fine, so does the server and the web interface (I have deactivated everything I could of the new crap they implemented). And I haven’t used the Windows app in years.
I’m talking about the Android TV app which is a train wreck.
As pluxology said, the app having a common page on Google Play means nothing. You can see on the web page that the size and Android version requirement says “Varies with device”, meaning the app varies with the type of device.
No I don’t usually as I have Roku’s for my TV’s. But I have used a DEX cable on my phone to use it on a tv. And I just did so and was having no issues with Live TV.
and really the only difference in UI is the layout, and lack of touch support. Literally every similar button would call to the same hook in code. Even the player is the same.
@elan is there any input you can add to this constructive topic? Seems like a lot of users love this app, yet are left in the dark when reporting beta bugs, only for those bugs to get released in the wild.
Most of the bugs I see are easy to trigger with basic testing. There is no reason why they can’t be found by the Plex team before the app goes out. I paid a membership to be able to use live TV and the DVR and I expect a minimum of quality with the app. There are always hard to find bugs but if I can’t watch more than an hour of TV without buffering, or fast forward and back more than a few times before the app crashes, then it’s on the devs. This looks like an issue with the Android TV app because I don’t have any issue with my iphone.
Can you watch more than an hour of live tv from the web or have issues FF. I had similar issues across all devices before I put my transcoding folder on a dedicated SSD.
I have had my phone running live tv for the last 30ish minutes just to test. Well see if I experience any buffering issues.
my only FF issues happen when I leave it paused too long and try to skip commercials on a recording.
This Latest Plex Players topics - Plex Forum area of the forums is for reporting issues with the clients. Lots of folks there that will help, test with their own etc.
