After implementing all those goodies to help generate income, I’m not surprised to see a concentration on squashing bugs. Having been with you for many years, it feels odd not seeing any major feature enhancements. Of course there comes a time when this would inevitably slow down, but is now that time???
I stuck my toe into the FEATURES discussions and found some interesting things.
Audiobook Support Requests - Combined nearly 5,000 votes since 2013. Better Playlist Support - over 1,300 votes since 2014. Sending Server Messages - nearly 1,100 votes since 2012. Google Home Integration - Over 2,400 votes since 2018.
You could use a little balance when dealing with your base. I’m not asking you to share your current direction. I’m suggesting that you add a little ‘sweet’ to the ‘sour’. Otherwise you further risk your reputation.
A year or so back they had that “fireside chat” thread and they promised to do better, and I really think they have.
We’re not all getting the features we want as individuals, but here are some things they have fixed or added recently – and this is just from memory.
Transcoder improvements with support for new output formats on the roadmap
Adding tone mapping to Windows hardware acceleration
Per-track genres in music
Many Plexamp improvements (guest DJs, track downloads)
Credits skip
Multiple fixes for problems with library scanning
Playback speed adjustment, though it’s not on all devices yet
Beta program for iOS playback, with actual progress being made as far as I can tell
I sure don’t agree with everything they do, there are some really high priority things that they are stubbornly refusing to tackle, and some bugs are so old they appear to be pets now. But I also don’t think it’s fair to say that nothing good is happening, even though my own pet peeves are not addressed.
I selected the features based on votes - not my pet peeves. My point wasn’t to be hyper-critical - “nothing good is happening” are your words not mine. I was just noting that there appears to be a shift in focus, and the foot has been lifted off the gas pedal regarding feature roll-outs.
You read way too much into my post. Shifting concentration to bugs can be a very good thing - obviously. It’s always a battle of resources between bugs and features. I’ve read too many hyper-critical rants and too many blind defender rants of everything plex. Both extremes are exactly that - extreme.
I don’t think a little elbow into the ribs in an attempt to hear something regarding goals/visions for the next period in the life of plex is out of bounds. What’s the worst I could get? Ignored? Insulted? I asked because I’m a fan and a paying customer. Regardless of responses to this post, I’ll be using Plex tomorrow.
My impression for a while is that the company is stalling. It started right after they dropped the kitchen sink approach of turning Plex into the app of everything. I was glad they did that thinking that they’d rather focus on the perennial bugs. But that happened only partially and updates have been slowing down noticeably. Those old, old bugs? I just got used to live with them.
The core functionality of streaming video locally to non-mobile clients is still pretty reliable. Outside of that (remote mobile streaming, organizing music…) it’s a different story. And let’s not talk about photos.
