Both these solutions will break instantly as soon as Plex introduce the next changes required by the next set of predatory practices.
The server and whole ecosystem is closed-source. Meaning Plex can decide to kill anything it wants at any moments notice, without explanation. And nobody can do anything about it.
If suddenly the server refuses to communicate with “unapproved” clients, we’ll be screwed.
I’m sorry to say this, but do you know how arrogant and disrespectful that sounds?
You can continue to blah blah blah, or buy something else. It’s EXACTLY this tone that irritates people!
I am aware that you are an employee, and as such, may be limited to what you can say, but for the love of everything Media, have some empathy!
And at this rate, this WILL certainly happen at some point!
Just in case it hasn’t been mentioned in this thread, place your vote here…
Plex for Kodi is free. I’m not suggesting anything that would have any monetary cost here, and is also a HTPC solution, which you could use with your existing hardware. I’m sorry if it’s coming across that I’m not being empathetic. I also used to use PMP, although I migrated to another solution so I could play 4K HDR content, and better audio passthrough than I was able to get with my old Mac Mini and PMP.
I remember when Plex Home Theatre finally got to a place that it just worked really well with all the new audio/video codecs and out of nowhere plex goes BAM, and discontinued support for it. Plex replaced PHT with Plex Media Player which had way less features and and functionality and no ability to skin (which @tobiashieta promised would return).
Now we get used to Plex Media Player and users have started to accept it for what it is and Plex once again goes BAM, discontinued support. And again this time replaces PMP with the new “Plex app” which also has less features than PMP and no ability to truly be used for a HTPC setup.
Anyone see the trend here? Replace then discontinue.
At this rate we will be completely managing our servers from a roku in the future with this new Plex app being discontinued in about 1-2 years. You heard it here first!
That’s cool, and thanks for saying so. Didn’t mean to be sharp with you, but do be aware of how people are feeling right now.
These are fragile times 
What is your Plex setup like now? Curious because the new Mac Mini apple released is great for Plex and as far as I know, beats all the streaming devices as far as the quality of playing content. 24p refresh rate etc.
It’s sad to hear that even Plex employees migrate to other solutions.
Does anyone on your team have a passion for high quality media consumption and is driven to create great software they would love to use and not have to migrate to other solutions? I’m asking seriously, I’m just curious how this works and what’s the general vision for the product in the future.
I was previously on a 2014 Mac Mini, but that didn’t actually change to 23.976hz, only 24hz, and didn’t passthrough HD audio (no Apple device passes through HD audio, unless you install linux on it or something instead). My primary client now is an Nvidia SHIELD, as that was the only option I had for watching 4K HDR (with actual HDR), and audio passthrough. I also have an Apple TV 4K, but I use the SHIELD more often due to the audio passthrough.
So my current setup is Nvidia SHIELD --> HEOS Bar --> Sony Z9D 65" (no Atmos, but the HEOS Bar, sub, and sides do TrueHD and DTS-HD, which is more than enough in my apartment)
I’m interrupting this thread, because I’m just curious: What kind of problem does that create? I’ve never seen it in action.
Eek I hope you’re not having the refresh-rate switching issues we’re seeing over here right now.
Yeah, lots of us have passion for high quality media consumption! No one device is ever perfect (some come close, but there’s always room for improvement!), but I felt like the SHIELD came closest with HDR support (lacking on macOS and Linux when I switched, although it’s coming to macOS later this year), and HD audio passthrough. Rokus aren’t readily available for sale here in Australia where I am, so even though they also do HD audio passthrough, and HDR, they’re pretty hard to come by. I’m personally really excited for the changes UNO is bringing across all platforms, and all different screens, and I think it’ll really improve my personal experience with the SHIELD. 
It can introduce a little judder, with repeated frames, and cause the audio to be a bit out of sync. I’m really sensitive to A/V sync, so I wanted something that would be in sync.
I’ve not personally had any refresh rate switching issues, but I can believe others might with certain content. It could be that the file isn’t quite encoded or mixed properly, something on our side, or with the SHIELD itself. If you’ve got any particular files that aren’t changing refresh rate, feel free to send a sample or two, and we can investigate 
I appreciate it! It looks like a known problem with the recent Nvidia 8.0 update, and it seems to depend on the unit. You’re one of the lucky ones. 
Ah, well, fingers crossed Nvidia sort it out soon then! 
These things affect us Plex employees as much as everyone else. I might be lucky this time, but I’ve certainly had plenty of bad luck with other things (such as mounting my NAS on my Ubuntu server) that work for others. Got it working eventually though! 
Thanks for the reply Dave. Would you say you get better audio/video quality with your current setup over the mac mini?
I think many of us would be willing to embrace this change if equal or better alternatives are available. But to my knowledge the HTPC setup is still the way to get the best audio/video quality out of plex?
My entire server is standard blu-ray quality or UHD blu-ray quality (for TV and movies) so my server is built upon the concept of getting the highest quality possible out of plex. If I’m behind in my Plex setup for doing that, then I am willing to embrace the change.
It’s been said before, but basic HTPC support really only requires a few things:
These are things the new app should have anyway. The real question should be, “Why doesn’t it?”
Also, there’s a huge push to make apps more accessible. Doesn’t this essentially remove options for disabled individuals who may need to only be physically able to use a keyboard for navigation?
I do not think openness to disabled users is a valid reason to keep HTPC support.
Given all the different control options for different devices including voice controlled apps, apps that use voice to control other apps and apps that are gesture controlled I do not think that keyboard control is at all any longer important for companies that want to be open to disabled users. In fact even my relatively simple system can be controlled for almost all functions by voice or by simply tapping the screen of a smart phone. So almost everyone I know or know of with various levels of disabilities could control my set up with little problem and my system is not designed for users with disabilities but rather it is designed for one user with a sever case of laziness.
As I have said before I just see no real reason for Plex to expend time or money directed toward keeping a platform alive that is used by a very tiny minority of their users. Of course I do not think they should actively kill it, they should just let it die a natural death. Except for testing purposes, which I use the web app for, I do not see any reason for a computer to be used for playback.
Plex should be spending their time making each regular client as good as it can be not trying to keep support for HTPCs viable.
One other thing to remember is that HTPC is NOT one client but rather it has a very wide (finitely infinite) number of configurations that would have to be supported. That is probably a pretty good reason to remove support for HTPCs. They are just too complex to continue support for the very limited number of users that would benefit.
I would argue that the amount of users who use HTPCs are not “very tiny” at plex. I would argue that HTPC users are a large portion of users here at plex.
