My question is simple: Who is responsible for the client apps? I assume it is not Plex, because all the client apps out there are just so different. Let me explain:
I have used Roku for the longest, and love it’s client interface of the Plex app.
Then i switched to NVidia Shield, and wow - the plex client app has some major improvements over the Roku one. It gives a new modern feel. But why the difference?
One feature i love using on the Roku: While playing, press ‘down’ and you see the 'Cast & Crew. On the Android TV App (Nvidia Shield) that feature does not work. You have to stop the show/movie and you can see the ‘Cast & Crew’ section on the Episode summary screen. - Why the difference?
On NVidia Shield enabling subtitles opens an overlay menu with the episode still playing visible. Depending on format selecting a subtitle will go without interruption of the movie/show. On Roku the show gets stopped when opening the subtitle menu.
From what I’ve seen, Plex are working to harmonize the basic functionalities and look & feel per client archetype:
big screen
mobile
web/desktop
There’s differences around platform requirements and restrictions, e.g. some platforms allowing deep-links to jump to content within another app while it’s forbidden with others (used by Plex Discover)
Roku handles subtitles oddly compared to other set top boxes (like Shield or AppleTV) - it’s technically a system wide change when you flip subtitles on or off in Plex so Roku is essentially turning on and off the system setting and then resetting it back to the original setting when episode\movie is over (or something like that if I remember correctly from helping with some community testing of the Roku subtitle settings years ago). That’s why Roku has to drop out and come back in while Shield can just load it directly (plus Shield has a lot more computing resources). At least that was a thing for quite some time; might have been changed but that’s a good example of why the apps work differently on different platforms.
