Xbox one new app is trash!

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
81

Oh, I’m not ready to jump ship yet. I primarily use Plex as it was intended, as a way to serve up my files in an aesthetically pleasing and personalized way. I paid for that. I’d pay for that again.

On the reverse side… I’m really not looking forward to training my Mom (who is in a nursing home) to use the new interface. Plex has been the most perfect way to keep her entertained.

Can they just split the company into New Plex, and Plexi-cola Classic? Keep us people who are peachy keen with how things currently roll, and deliver the new things to the people that want them? I’m sure all three of them would be ecstatic.

82

@AmazingRando24 said:
Can they just split the company into New Plex, and Plexi-cola Classic? Keep us people who are peachy keen with how things currently roll, and deliver the new things to the people that want them? I’m sure all three of them would be ecstatic.

Yea, that’s probably not possible. :smile: An alternative though might be to pick up an older device that isn’t being updated anymore. I believe development has stopped on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Might be others too that have an older style. Hopefully they fix this one so it works for everyone though.

83

I have to agree. Plex on the XBox One is ugly, white text inside a box? Many times I cant even find which item is highlighted especially in “search”. My 13 yr old thinks it is really unusable and has started using Chromecast! This thing needs to go away fast. Anyway I can roll it back? Yes I have uninstalled it totally, and reinstalled it.

84

@mbarylski said:

@AmazingRando24 said:
Can they just split the company into New Plex, and Plexi-cola Classic? >
Yea, that’s probably not possible. :smile:

In all seriousness, I was joking when I wrote that… but then I remembered that Plex itself was a fork built by people that wanted to continue in a particular direction that XBMC was drifting away from. I suppose the circle is becoming complete.

85

Well to no suprise, I too do not like the new UI. I dont think i need to write why since everyone seems to dislike it for the same thing.

This UI is not working at all, is not efficient and not thet nice to look at.

86

Posted elsewhere… I’m less concerned about the redesign of the UI, and more concerned with the fundamental bugginess of the new app. Subtitles don’t work, playback stutters, frames drop… despite my servers being up to date and having been rebooted. It’s not a matter of design; the app is just flat broken right now. ¯(°_°)/¯

87

What an absolute sack of crap this app is. Aside from the stupid navigation method it’s just flat broke. All my stuff is now saying that video or audio are not supported on this device. It was playing fine. Put the “upgrade” on and bang back to plex 1999.

Did you even test this pile of crap? Did you ever stop and think hey I wonder if our users actually want this?

I seriously regret having paid for plex. How do i go about getting my lifetime subscription back?

88

@AmazingRando24 said:
Whoah whoah whoah…!!! Slow down. You mean this UI is rolling out to all of the other devices as well? I guess I breezed over it when I read the original blog post… I didn’t understand the storm that was inbound.

When they changed from Plex Home Theater from Plex Media Player (PMP V1) which was very similar to the XBox UI the only complaint was the horizontal scrolling of posters (which I like though). They tried to spread the UI to other clients, and then what happens?

  • They introduce Plex for Kodi, everyone loves it, they say that’s going to be the base for “future UI”
  • They introduce TV2 UI for PMP, the one you see now on XBone, many people complain for months about the bad UI/UX
  • They switch Fire TV UI from PMP v1 to Android TV, everyone starts complaining because they don’t like the new UI, but Plex answer is that “this is Android TV and it’s been out for ages on the shield so it must be good”
  • They switch XBone from “PMP TV1-like” to PMP TV2, everyone starts complaining the same way as PMP users, but still Plex treats the issue like it’s the first time they see them LOL

Ultimately there’s something that goes beyond the usual resistance to change: when you start longing for a UI that not everyone loved (PMP V1) it means that the new one is pretty bad on many aspects. The irony is that almost everyone loves Plex for Kodi UI, which doesn’t have the awful “up arrow” library menu and is much faster and cleaner than PMP TV2

89

I have to agree with what looks like the minority in here, I don’t care about the look and feel of it, yes the navigation is now terrible but everyone on the Xbox One has to put up with the new guide which changed everything from up/down navigation to left/right navigation anyway, I don’t care about that I’ll get used to it.
What I do care about is the sub issue, the playback issue, the fact I keep seeing those 3 yellow pulsing dots almost EVERY time I play a video, then the innevitable error screen and having to reload the video again. The app doesn’t work, I don’t know who beta tested it, I don’t know who approved it, but whoever it was they were obviously in a very big hurry and someone needs to take responsibility for that and roll it back.
This is not how I expect my plexpass money to be spent, I’ve seen homebrew plex apps made with better functionality and stability than this.

90

@zpaolo11x isn’t the Plex for Kodi interface very similar to the AndroidTV interface?
I only use Kodi on my ShieldTV and the interface inside Kodi looks very similar to the standalone AndroidTV client.

The AndroidTV client is my favorite of the bunch right now that I have. I like the left menu which auto hides when not in use. To me it makes navigation a bit quicker. I personally would have added a couple of tweaks to the left menu so if you hit the X or Y button it would change the view in that menu. Example hit X and it switches to a list of Libraries (with playlist) for even quicker navigation. I’ve always like my Libraries list alphabetical in a vertical list like in the web interface. It’s just a personal thing and I’m not sure it better per say. I just think vertical lists are easy to read and navigate quickly then horizontal lists but it’s a personal choice and subjective of course.

I doubt things like the flyout left menu could be implemented on all devices so it’s not a natural for trying to come up with a new UI that will look very similar and operate the same on all devices.

91

Vertical lists provide a natural rhythm to reading: end of line, end of item.
Horizontal lists, such as the library sub menus (and other elements), requires you to process additional information to determine where one item ends and another begins.

When we write a shopping list, do we just write it out as one big long sentence? Or do we write 1 item per line?

Additionally in terms of space and visual processing: more is more; What’s that curious test with interpretation of written content? We can write text and drop letters, even put them in somewhat incorrect order, and our brain, because it is seeing the whole much quicker than we are consciously understanding the words, fills the missing letters and rearranges the misplaces ones.

Now the vertical library menu allowed our brain to absorb all that information faster than we can comprehend, and as we scroll down our brain already knows what the next items are. And in vertical mode we were seeing far more than 3 library items at a time. This gives it a feeling of fluidity, of speed.

In the horizontal layout we’re stuck with just three items and we’re forced to process more data to comprehend them. It’s a double whammy that will make it feel a slower (and so more frustrating) experience.

I recall a few years ago when Windows 8 was Microsofts “next big thing” they really tried hard to push side-scrolling data on us. Anyone else remember recoiling from web pages going sideways?

Microsoft have somewhat learned the lesson the hard way: stop fighting human nature just so you can be ‘new’.

We prefer imagery horizontal, we prefer data vertical. Just accept it and make your UI and UX to suit and everyone will win.

It’s almost as though throughout this development process they’ve actively avoided using human interaction to inform their UI.

92

@cayars said:
@zpaolo11x isn’t the Plex for Kodi interface very similar to the AndroidTV interface?
I only use Kodi on my ShieldTV and the interface inside Kodi looks very similar to the standalone AndroidTV client.

The default skin of Kodi looks quite similar to Android TV (at least in Jarvis), but Plex for Kodi doesn’t use that and has its own look and feel. It’s actually very similar to the current TV2 UI but has all libraries in an horizontal button list and not in a hidden menu.

The AndroidTV client is my favorite of the bunch right now that I have. I like the left menu which auto hides when not in use. To me it makes navigation a bit quicker.

Actually for people coming from the TV1 interface on Amazon Fire TV the shift to this Android TV left menu was highly criticized. Of course one can get accustomed to it and overall it’s much better as far as usability is concerned with respect to TV2 UI. I think most Fire TV users didn’t like the overall “tablet-y” look of the new UI and the lack of many informations on screen.

I’ve always like my Libraries list alphabetical in a vertical list like in the web interface. It’s just a personal thing and I’m not sure it better per say. I just think vertical lists are easy to read and navigate quickly then horizontal lists but it’s a personal choice and subjective of course.

Of course if you have a list of things that are “large” (like Library names) it’s more efficient and easier to navigate if you stack them vertically. It takes up less space and is more clear. In the new UI when you go “up” you can see two libraries at most, with very small fonts, then you have to scroll horizontally.

I doubt things like the flyout left menu could be implemented on all devices so it’s not a natural for trying to come up with a new UI that will look very similar and operate the same on all devices.

In TV1 UI you had the library menu on the left and when you moved right it scrolled out of the screen. That kind of scroll-out-of-view menu was implemented on Roku, Opera TV, PMP TV1, Fire TV, XBox, Playstation, basically all clients except Android TV and Apple TV (but on Android TV it was at least feasible since FireTV had it). This kind of flyout is not the same way the “flyout-zoom” works on Android TV, but honestly while it’s nice as far as animation is concerned, the “flyout-zoom” of Android TV is not really “useful” ;D

93

I couldn’t agree more with you @jungwirth on all counts mentioned.

This is why the web page design is so effective. All your libraries and navigational items are right there on the left making it super easy to get to. The AndroidTV, and Plex for Kodi are similar but put the libraries horizontally in the right pane vs the left which is where I wish they would be put like in the Web Interface. No reason why they couldn’t be in both places. Those that like the left fly out window could access the list there and those not fans of the fly out window could still access the list up top. That to me is the way to build apps that can be used by people giving them a choice so it’s more appealing to more people.

But anyway I just wanted to comment on your great post!

Carlo

94

I would again like to mention the Playlist issue, since Moussa did not list it in the issues thread. This issue has been confirmed by me 3 times now…

I tested the same playlist again this morning. Remember, I have now tested this same playlist twice before:

When I go into my Halloween playlist (422 movies)and have it select a random movie, it WILL NOT select anything outside of the first 50 movies in the list (as if that were all that were in the list) until I have scrolled through the entire list on the right side first. I have literally pressed the next button on my remote to skip to the next random movie until it would no longer skip anymore, 50 movies, again, as if there simply weren’t any more. It NEVER chooses anything past the first 50.

This happens every time I start the Xbox and load the app. Even if the last time I ran the app, I scrolled through the list on the right in the playlist, the next time I start the app and load the playlist, I have to scroll though it again, or again I only get the first 50 selections.

In addition, I have my system play a trailer and then a pre-roll when I choose to watch a movie directly from my library, not from a playlist.

The system plays the trailer fine, and plays the pre-roll, but cuts off the pre-roll with about 3-5 seconds left on it, every single time. It never did that before the update.

95

I can confirm the playlist issue, the same happened for me last night with a 900 video playlist.

Edit: created a separate topic: http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/293378/new-app-not-playing-all-videos-in-a-playlist-on-shuffle/p1?new=1

96

Thanks @cayars - you also bring up another point that I believes warrants dissection: dominance in UI design of single-point of entry mechanics.

Who were the clever people that decided only having one option to initiate any action in UI was best practice? They should be chastised. Severely.

There’s been a massive trend in UI design in the past 6? years of whittling down the way users interact to only offering them the single most ‘popular’ way of performing a function. I understand the original intent, to avoid ‘confusing’ users by giving them too many ways to learn to do something. It sounds in principle like a good idea, however in reality humans thrive on diversity.

Sure, double the UI elements to maintain (eg: having to maintain working top and side menu systems) adds to the burden on the development team, however failing to provide an interface that allows people to do things the way they want to do them places a burden on your support and creates a poor public image.

It grates on me when UI is designed with this single-rail mentality, as it’s often based on what are ultimately flawed statistical analysis (flawed due to the sample size, the sample participants and then flawed by the analysis itself) and packaged as “Customer metrics show most people access things through this button, whilst this other button was rarely used.” Sometimes such analysis is beneficial, most often though that analysis should focus on why the underutilised element was underutilised. Sadly though it is almost universally used as ammunition to justify the removal of the element. That kind of cut-throat pursuit of single design might be appropriate for some hand held device interactions, but it cannot (and no designer should endorse it) be applied universally across varied platforms.

I’ve not had much issue with the UI on Android and iOS, which are the other two platforms outside Xbox that we use, and I’ve used the web front-end from time to time obviously, so I may have missed some “advances” in this common-UI being pushed out.

It’s a terrible decision to have the same UI everywhere. Personally I don’t care if the UI is different between platforms, so long as it works on every platform. Designers know this (or they should). An architect doesn’t produce one efficient house design and then just sell that to every client.

Which can all be summarised to: devolving the Plex client UI to a common design was never going to, and will never, work across all platforms.

97

Here’s a real bug for you, as much as the only thing I liked about it was my 1000 tv show playlist would load quickly, shuffle is useless, it only shuffles season 1 and maybe 2, if I want it to shuffle more I have to scroll down the list to manually force the playlist to load more items, playlists are a very important thing to me as say there are 20 something seasons of law and order with 20 something episodes each and that’s just the original when you combine svu and ci you have like 24 days of total programming, I want to be able to totally randomize an episode so I can see a new one I haven’t seen in ages instead of just the first few that quick load, introducing a new ui and working through issues is great but forcing it was a horrible move, there was absolutely no reason the other would not work also as long as you decided which to pair to your live account. That was the UNACCEPTABLE move right there, who’s more at fault, Plex, or MS I don’t know…

98

For the sake of all that is decent and good in the world, just roll back this update, file it in the trash under bad ideas and NEVER EVER **** with my roku. Been using it a couple days now, got more used to it, combined my libraries just to make it smoother, but playlist issue is horrid, I haven’t had any playback issues but I don’t use the controller I use the remote, and a have a huge rig that’s basically 10 times more powerful than the servers we put in the offices I work at, don’t know if that makes a difference, haven’t fired up my backup Plex server so it only had one to find I didn’t need to put an IP in, I also use manual port forwarding as the auto system seemed to have gone wonky awhile back on both my PMS’s

PLEX, I STILL LOVE YOU

But listen to us, we are the guru’s not the dummy users who couldn’t even start up Plex if given someone’s login information

99

Tell you what, here’s my idea if you want to keep the so called modern interface.

Just put the libraries including playlist back to the left like they were

Fix the large playlist issue

And make playback work as least as good as the old version.

And really let us run the old version if we prefer it, PMS is capable of hosting to so many clients there is no reason the old interface had to go???

You let us have a back door to Plex classic on roku which my 1975 zenith floor tv loves you for since the updated one wouldn’t support SD lol

100

Forcing a minimum server version on this new update without notice for users that have been required to use older server versions due to removed functionality (ie the LG down mix) is akin to highway robbery.