I have many issues with Plex and their lack of support and failure to fix/address bugs is a large part of those issues.
I also have a lifetime Plex Pass and I believe it was a great purchase on my part.
I even left Plex for a while in favor of Emby, Plex’s only real competition. However I returned to Plex because Emby had even more problems and the Emby problems impacted me more than the Plex problems do.
The reason I feel my Plex Pass purchase was a good purchase is simply that, for me, the server software works perfectly and that is a VERY strong point in its favor. It is the clients were I have some Plex problems and most of those are usually pretty quickly fixed.
My real problem with Plex is that they keep adding crap that I have no interest in, like VR and fancy picture handling, and the failure to have good customer service. (Even though I do not run into many problems) Emby is MUCH better in those areas, particularly customer service, but their clients do not work as well as Plex’s and there are more little irritations for me with Emby.
If anyone wishes to leave Plex they should do so but they also should be aware that the alternatives are not a robust or diverse and Plex.
@Elijah_Baley said:
If anyone wishes to leave Plex they should do so but they also should be aware that the alternatives are not a robust or diverse and Plex.
Depends on your use-case. For me Emby is much more robust and relilable than Plex. It isn’t as divers, but all my platforms are supported.
Plex on the other hand drives me nuts every single time I’m using it. It’s either with simple bugs (that haven’t been fixed in years!!!) or useless transcoding or terrible playback performance.
I couldn’t agree with the OP more I am about to repost a basic feature request from almost a DECADE ago for something so basic that like it seems most other things with Plex, falls on totally deaf ears.
Plex does - eventually - incite user rage from even the most mild mannered, but in the end it just doesn’t matter.
They simply don’t care about users, their opinions, or needs.
If it works - enjoy it while it lasts.
If it don’t work - invent or discover a previously invented work around.
or
Deal with it the best you can.
and when necessary…
Rage Out.
… and to respond to the OP’s querry…
I haven’t yet opened my mattress savings plan in support of Plex because:
- HELL hasn’t frozen over yet
- late-stage dementia hasn’t kicked in
- Plex continues to treat users like last week’s seafood
B)
I have been using Plex practically since day 1 when they first launched with DLNA only service. It was rough and inconsistent at the beginning and I switched over to Mezzmo DLNA service. Then came plex proprietory client/server software architecture, and I switched over to be pleasantly surprised. More frustration arrived as the plex account service went cloud based, and the previous local client/server software architecture lost its ease. This was mostly resolved as time went on.
The point I am trying to get to, is that Plex evolved over time, and when they had a focus on a few platforms, and oddly before the plex pass launched, plex really did great at launching relevant feature sets and fixing bugs rather timeously.
Something I also really liked, was how Plex launched almost at the same time as any new platforms launched (android tv, roku, samsung smart tv), but now everything is slower.
Probably because plex now needs to cover a numerous number of platforms in their support, and development, and also because they seem to have a much bigger focus now on curating content, rather than just providing an excellent platform for me to curate my own content.
My biggest frustration, personally, is how the basic navigation features like skip forward/skip backward/track ondeck videos are broken on android tv. I would forgive bugs in non-essential areas that are unresolved for months, but for foundational interactions, this is not acceptable.
And how about giving the player a aspect ratio / screen resize option? It is 2018, and we have videos of different aspect ratios, so would be nice to be able to change aspect ratio directly in the plex player.
