Felt the need to visit the forums and add to the many protests. The new UI is bad. Guys, come on. What are you thinking? This isn’t a case of not liking change. This is lunacy.
Any way to sideload the previous version and then turn off auto updates to go back to something that works?
The Android TV interface on the FireTV is terrible.
It looks nothing like the new interface a shown in the “A New Hope” article on their homepage - which is what I was expecting.
Like everyone else has said, it’s really ugly and hard to navigate. It’s like you accidentally released a beta version from 10 years ago.
Terrible look. It’s a mess. Change it back.
Well, my Fire TV is fucked but I booted up my stick and immediately turned off auto updates so hopefully that one will still be usable.
Hello everyone,
I know you are shocked by the new UI, but please give it a try for a little while before complaining. Then, please provide constructive criticism if you want something changed.
The new UI is the UI found on Android TV devices. This new UI should run faster than the previous version as well as it brings a few new features. These are just what I can think of off the top of my head
- you can rename your device, so if you have an Alexa, you can finally tell your devices apart
- for Plex Pass members, DVR and Live TV
- faster navigation, did I say that already
This UI is much better on memory and your navigation should fly compared to the previous UI
Yes, this new UI did lose the ability to hit the play button. That was something the Android TV UI never had. I’m hoping it will be added in a future update.
I was open to getting a new UI, but your own website led us to believe it would look like the images shown at the bottom of this page:
https://www.plex.tv/blog/new-hope-for-meda-browsing/
They are actually a fairly decent design and in high resolution. What we have actually got looks like a very crude earlier version of this. How you can hype up a new interface, show pics of it, then not actually give it us is very bad.
@mikehadfield said:
I was open to getting a new UI, but your own website led us to believe it would look like the images shown at the bottom of this page:https://www.plex.tv/blog/new-hope-for-meda-browsing/
They are actually a fairly decent design and in high resolution. What we have actually got looks like a very crude earlier version of this. How you can hype up a new interface, show pics of it, then not actually give it us is very bad.
That article is about Plex Media Player. Not the same thing unfortunately.
I see. Plex copied a BAD app just to make sure that everyone had an equal chance to use the bad interface.
The old app was pretty bad but this one is MUCH worse. Taking away the Play button was a stupid move and the FACT that it never was in the Android app is equally as stupid.
The Fire app was poor and the Android app was bad and now they are both bad.
Plex has shown once again that they will do what they want with zero concern for their customers. The people that made the decisions involved in this dumb move have shown that they will do EXACTLY as they want. The promises that were made in the round tables some time ago were simply lies. Plex’s only redeeming feature is its server and the remaining apps on the Roku and PMP and others on the Raspberry PI and both of those are apparently close to updates that may well ruin them as well.
I never though I would say this but I think I may well switch to Emby even with its weaknesses. I have monitored and even asked some questions over on the Emby boards and there the developers, mostly, engage with and listen to the users.
Plex is making me regret my previous mostly strong support. As I think about it Emby looks better and better. We will see. I know Emby’s apps on the Shield and the Fire are VASTLY superior to what Plex is now offering and, as I said, I expect Plex to ruin the remaining OK apps in the near future.
But I thought your intention was to bring the same UI to all devices?
This new UI may be fast, but it looks terrible on a large LCD TV. The fonts are too big, everything looks cramped together and it just looks like an early work-in-progress rather than the finished article.
I will continue to use MrMC as my plex player app on the FireTV for the moment, as the official app is vastly inferior.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
Hello everyone,I know you are shocked by the new UI, but please give it a try for a little while before complaining. Then, please provide constructive criticism if you want something changed.
Two things right off the bat.
- Way too many remote presses required to change servers. Used to be very simple quick and easy to change
- The player controls taking up almost half the screen. Way way way too big.
I have more but that’s a start
Logged on today and thought I had a old version somehow. Hard to navigate and the audio and video are messed up. Want to throw the remote at my TV!
@“MovieFan.Plex”
Discounting the feedback of enthusiastic and invested users is not a wise business, nor software development, move. I’ve turned several coworkers onto Plex for FireTV and iOS recently, but would not do so with the new interface.
I, like others, registered just to lodge a complaint. I have not found a way to even play different versions of the same video file.
At a minimum for users a migration guide would have been advised. To impose a design that isn’t desired, nor received well, just smacks of someone trying to meet their sprint goals without any user acceptance testing.
My own opinion is that now I might as well go back to using a DLNA client app instead.
In regards to constructive criticism, in brief it would be to not force a fundamental change on users who are already using the product; Reed Hastings anyone? There is good reason Youtube and Netflix UIs have changed slowly and incrementally. Ironic, since I found one of my kids watching Youtube on one TV, and the other kids watching Netflix on another today. They didn’t try to plow through and relearn Plex. Rather, they immediately discarded it, something they used daily.
From CIO magazine addressed UI fails that business do not recover from 6 years ago. More recently is the example of the Uber mobile app. Rides plummeted, and Lyft subscription increased. They reverted the UI quickly.
Regardless on the developer and product managers’ opinion on a UI, it’s the UX that matters. Poor UX, poor market penetration, and loss of user base. If those aren’t compelling points, I doubt there will ever be enough forum rants to move the needle either.
The new UI just isn’t scaled well. It looks like the icons and fonts are too large. Please fix this, this is the main problem that I can see. Or give the user a setting to change the scaling.
It’s like a video game where the FOV is incredibly narrow.
It also seems like it’s a lot more clicking to get to what I want. Used to just pick TV shows, pick the show, pick the episode and go. Now it seems like I’m always scrolling down the page to get to what I want. I’ll have to do some comparisons with my two devices since one has the old and one has the new.
Also, when I pause the show or press the center button, I can’t seem to get the UI to display that shows me how far along I am. Am I just missing something?
This is the android TV ui. Part of me wonders if they are trying to make it uniform across them
But live TV on it now so that’s cool
I think we can all agree that the new UI sucks, but they won’t do anything about it. Developers are notorious for refusing to admit a mistake. They’d rather have everyone mad than revert something. Thinking they’ll accept what the majority wants is just wishful thinking.
The biggest problem is how much longer it takes to select a TV episode. The fact that pausing doesn’t show an overlay is also very frustrating.
@amsheridan: same here.
How the hell could anyone think this is better than the old UI. Is noone testing new looks & stuff? Looks terrible and just shity…
@MovieFan.Plex said:
- faster navigation, did I say that already
This UI is much better on memory and your navigation should fly compared to the previous UI
Have _you _used the new UI? Navigating it takes a lot longer simply because the sheer number of clicks that are required.
