I believe I have 3 options. The UWP app, the Plex Media Player, and a web browser. By UWP I mean the “universal Windows platform”, “Windows store”, or “Metro”) app. I have been using the UWP app but every time my computer wakes from sleep, the app plays one song then stops. I need to go into the Apps control panel and reset it several times a day to keep it going. Also many features are missing in the UWP app. I tried the Plex Media Player but it just seems to be running a web browser control in an program window. My problem with it is that it doesn’t respond to keyboard audio controls like “pause”. I have a few questions:
What does Plex want users to use as the main client application in windows?
Is the Plex UWP app deprecated?
Is there a Windows app besides the UWP app that will execute keyboard player controls? Or a way to get Plex Media Player to use listen to these controls?
Is there an app that has all the Plex features? EG Live viewing of my HD HomeRun stream is not an option in Plex Media Player.
Plex UWP is terrible and hasnt had a major update in a long time.
PMP is the go to player. It has 2 modes, the web view which you’ve seen and a full screen view. You can switch in the upper right corner. There is also a new UI for that full screen view, but I think it’s still in preview.
“Yes, it’s a mess.” LOL That’s kind of the sentiment i was trying to solicit but didn’t know how to ask. “Is it just me or does this make no sense?”
Good to know about UWP. That was my suspicion. I have sent about a dozen bug reports and they were all apparently ignored.
I see the full screen in PMP. Definitely supposed to be a 10 foot interface and missing tons of stuff. Not what I’m wanting for my work PC.
So I will use the PMP. Now how to I get my keyboard’s play/pause button to work with it?
Thank you for responding so quickly with useful advice.
Well if I could find a solution to the music playback problem I would be content with the UWP app. It’s the only ‘real’ program. The PMP isn’t really an app. It’s just a WinForm program with a web browser control. If you right click in it you can see forward, back, and reload.
Are there so few Plex users using Windows that it’s not a priority for Plex to maintain a proper client?
@cory_jackson said:
Well if I could find a solution to the music playback problem I would be content with the UWP app. It’s the only ‘real’ program. The PMP isn’t really an app. It’s just a WinForm program with a web browser control. If you right click in it you can see forward, back, and reload.
Are there so few Plex users using Windows that it’s not a priority for Plex to maintain a proper client?
No, PMP has a completely different backend that allows it to play hevc and 4K and HD audio, amongst others. It’s not just a web wrapper.
I don’t know. I was just snooping the HTTP traffic when I hit “Refresh” and it’s making a GET request right off the bat. I can see in the parameters of the initial GET request it sets many capabilities. There is a lot of traffic and I didn’t try to figure it all out.
You might be right. But I think it’s more likely that it’s nothing more than a web wrapper (good term) and the reason it appears to have different capabilities is its’ requesting different capabilities. I know what web traffic looks like and this looks all like normal web browser stuff.
I’m thinking I’m going to write my own WinForm program as a web wrapper. I’ve done that a few times and it is simple. Then I’ll try and utilize the media controls on my keyboard. I looked online and found the Windows messages and it seems like I should be able to use them as a event then then interact with the web page elements.
Anyway thanks for all your help. I hope Pl;ex will provide us with a fully functional client soon.
There’s another Windows 10 client besides the ones mentioned? I looked quick and I saw the builds on RasPlex. Doesn’t that mean its a Raspberry Pi client? Is there a Windows build also?
unfortunately