
Introducing the Plex Media Player - dtparr
https://blog.plex.tv/2015/10/20/introducing-the-plex-media-player/
======
Mithaldu
It'll be nice to have a media player that's native and not running in a
browser, but according to what i can see in the forums, the UI is the usual
brand of "our way or the high way" with little to no configuration or
customization and even at least in one way a step back² from Plex Home
Theater, which this replaces.

Not to knock Plex itself. The server/encoding/play-on-any-device pipeline is
_amazing_.

Just saying that their UIs need developers who actually care about what their
users want.

² [http://i.imgur.com/Ygde8Px.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/Ygde8Px.jpg)

~~~
speedkills
Agreed. I watch a lot of sports and have been disappointed that they removed
slow motion and frame by frame advance years ago and have little interest in
adding it back. Still, I am paid for Plex pass to support them because I find
it works better than anything else for me.

~~~
benologist
I find plex works "better than anything else" too but it's in desperate need
of an open source alternative.

~~~
bradbatt
The media player they just released _is_ open source …
[https://github.com/plexinc/plex-media-
player](https://github.com/plexinc/plex-media-player)

I suppose their server software isn’t … I’m not sure.

~~~
lighthazard
Correct, the server software is not open source. If you want an open source
alternative: [https://emby.media/](https://emby.media/)

------
codeaken
Plex was great until they forced the Plex Pass on us. I have now switched to
using the Kodi [[http://kodi.tv/](http://kodi.tv/)] and Emby
[[https://emby.media/](https://emby.media/)] combo instead.

~~~
ejdyksen
Plex is very usable without the Plex Pass.

~~~
codeaken
Before I could access my media server with the iPhone app. Then all of a
sudden I was forced to register for a Plex Pass to be able do this. For me at
least, that made the whole app unusable.

~~~
SG-
the mobile apps are free as remote or for $4-5 or so you can unlock the
ability to play and sync media without a plex pass like before.

~~~
majora2007
For iOS, they actually require Plex Pass for syncing, which is kinda a shame
as I, the server owner have it, but why should my users have to subscribe?

~~~
johnpowell
They don't. I have a plex pass and the people that use my server that don't
have it can sync fine.

------
patja
Took me a while...a long while...to wade through all of the fluff describing
how plex is so awesome and can do everything before I found it still won't
play ISOs. I guess it is awesome, it does all you need....as long as you
preprocess and encode your media to a format it accepts. I feel like they
really bury this key piece of information (as if, "who would even want
that?"), but maybe I am a dinosaur with my preference for the quality of
ripped vs. streamed media.

Anyways, I could do with a simple soup to nuts spec sheet and less marketing
fluff.

~~~
lojack
I would guess the majority of users follow less than legal methods of
obtaining their media, which is what I hear it handles well. It is unfortunate
that they don't support this though.

~~~
thomnottom
I'm not sure why ISO vs other containers would be a matter of legal methods.
I've ripped plenty of my DVDs and never thought for once to keep them in an
ISO. Using MKVs allows me to compress the size and still keep extra audio
tracks, subtitles, and chapters.

~~~
patja
Sometimes the extras, trailers, etc. on the disc are interesting, but not
interesting enough to go through separately processing them just to make a
media player happy. I'd rather stick the disc in, rip and have a perfect
simulation of physical media when using my media player. My Dune player does a
great job at this.

~~~
thomnottom
Even for that, can't you just rip the disk to files (as a VIDEO_TS directory)?
I believe Plex handles that, but I could be wrong.

Not trying to be a dick, just always interested in how other people handle
media and what works best for them. I am VERY familiar with software not
interested in dealing with the particular way that I store things.

~~~
patja
They don't support any media that is sequestered behind a menu system, so no
video_ts or bdmv folders: [https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-
us/articles/201426506-Why-are-...](https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-
us/articles/201426506-Why-are-ISO-VIDEO-TS-and-other-Disk-Image-Formats-Not-
Supported-)

------
zyxley
The most interesting new feature to me, beyond the UI itself - there's now
some algorithmic generation in the movie/TV screens.

It looks like the Movies screen will automatically offer up unwatched movies
with recent release dates, as well as groups of unwatched movies from the same
director ("Top movies by ..."). If you actually go into a movie and open the
Extras menu, along with trailers/features (if you have a Plex Pass), it'll
show you other movies by the same director and with the same lead actors.

Similarly, the TV screen has groups for recently aired TV episodes, and even
has shows grouped by the channel they're currently airing on (!).

It's a neat use of metadata, and it would be interesting to see it go further.
It would be really neat if I could, say, choose Star Trek TNG and get an
automatically generated list of the best 10 episodes (with data pulled from
thetvdb, IMDB, etc), or if I could go into Movies and choose an option to
group movies by randomized Netflix-like specialized genres.

------
joshstrange
I run Plex Home Theater on my Rasp Pi 2 and it provides the best experience of
any plex client I have ever used (Chromecast, AppleTV + PlexConnect, FireTV
Box, Xbox 360, Xbox One). I'm VERY disappointed in the new UI as I hate the
"Modern"/Xbox look it has. I do NOT want side scrolling or variable-sized
posters as it's very hard to follow. I want my on deck, recently added, and a
quick way to browse and entire section. This is a MASSIVE step backwards in UI
and I will hang on to PHT for as long as I possibly can.

------
mariusmg
Pretty cool of them to hire the mpv guy. Hopefully they'll continue to improve
it.

------
roderickm
The Plex app on the Amazon Fire TV (and stick) is fantastic. I'm a big Plex
fan, but I don't immediately see any incremental benefits to running Plex
Media Player, or why I would dedicate a Raspberry Pi 2 (much less a Mac or
Windows box) to my TV for the purpose.

~~~
untog
I have a Windows box under my TV that runs Plex. It also runs a web browser,
which means it's incredibly simple to look something up on Google Maps, order
some food from Seamless, etc. - not to mention be able to video chat on Skype
and play video on any web site out there, not just ones that have apps for
platform X.

If all you want to do is watch videos from Plex then no, there's no point
changing hardware. But you'd be surprised how much you end up doing through
the TV when you can.

~~~
Splines
I'm curious, what do you use for remote input in windows?

~~~
derefr
If you frequently sit in front of your HTPC-enabled TV with a laptop,
connecting the two together using [http://synergy-
project.org/](http://synergy-project.org/) is amazing, UX-wise. You don't ever
have to pick up a remote, or try to get Bluetooth peripherals to work over an
8' distance; you just flick your mouse up "past" the top of your laptop
screen, do a few things on your TV, and flick back.

It's a bit of the feeling of having a second (big) monitor hooked up to your
computer (or using Apple's AirPlay "extend display to this monitor" mode in
OSX) but having the two be separate computers is actually a good thing,
frequently:

• I don't have to worry about having something CPU-demanding (like a streaming
Flash player in Chrome) running on the TV while trying to compile on my work
laptop; neither one will cause choppiness in the other.

• I run all my torrents on the HTPC (because that's where I want to play the
videos from anyway) and have QoS enabled on my router, so my laptop's network
connection is never clogged.

There's also the benefit of the pixels of a TV being far-enough away that you
can get away with a lot of scaling. Presuming a 60" 1080p LCD at an 8'
distance, turning on Windows' "Extra Large" DPI Scaling, or force-enabling
OSX's HiDPI mode, looks _really_ good (e.g.
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47375701/ss20151022-1108...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47375701/ss20151022-1108am.png)).

You only get 960x540 effective pixels from a 200%-DPI-scaled 1080p TV, so some
things might not fit on the screen and will necessitate temporarily toggling
back to "regular" 1080p. Also, you'll probably want to full-screen most apps,
to get something like this
([http://i.imgur.com/YDN6VuZ.png](http://i.imgur.com/YDN6VuZ.png)). It's a lot
like using a netbook.

It's pretty great for reading long articles in particular; I find there's less
eye-strain than looking at my laptop—maybe because the glyphs are so clear,
and maybe also because I'm focusing on something farther than 2' away.

------
KevinMS
I just cannot express how annoyed I am by the concept of the "media browsing
experience" when I just want to watch some videos I have in a folder.

~~~
notatoad
So use VLC.

I cannot express how annoyed i am by the sentiment in this thread that every
app must serve the needs of every person. Plex is a media library first and
foremost. "I don't want a media library" is not a valid criticism of a media
library app.

~~~
0xffff2
I agree with you, but the title probably shouldn't say "Media Player" either.

The only reason I clicked on this post at all was because I've been using VLC
for so long I thought maybe this was an alternative I've never heard of.

------
jwr
This is good news. I'm using RasPlex on a Raspberry Pi 2, which for all its
shortcomings is the best home entertainment solution I could find. This has
the potential to be better (where better means more reliable, with better user
experience).

------
comrh
I really like the Home Theater but I really think the killer feature would be
adding Netflix/Amazon/Hulu seamlessly. I know they've tried but have limited
success.

------
Toenex
No mention of linux support on this page but it does talk about RaspberryPi.
[[https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/208050637-What-
are...](https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/208050637-What-are-the-
supported-platforms-for-Plex-Media-Player-)]

~~~
madaxe_again
It appears to be a complete machine image for the Pi: "Pex Media Player for
embedded devices is a small Linux based operating system that turns your
Raspberry Pi 2 or Intel HTPC into a dedicated media playback device."

~~~
lloydsparkes
FYI:

If you looking for the Raspberry Pi 2 downloads or the x86 download for
Embedded Device you need to sign into your plex pass account first, then
theres a button on the downloads page called "Plex Pass Downloads"

It seems as its a beta its only open to plex pass subscribers.

It's Taken me 30minutes to work this out (luckily I am a subscriber)

~~~
inetsee
When I went looking for the Raspberry Pi download I ended up here:
[http://www.rasplex.com/get-started/rasplex-
installers.html](http://www.rasplex.com/get-started/rasplex-installers.html)

~~~
fsckin
That is the RasPi port of Plex Home Theater -- the previous player which is no
longer being developed.

"Is Plex Home Theater still around? Plex Home Theater is still available and
open source. We’re no longer actively developing it and are focusing our
efforts on making Plex Media Player the best experience possible. (We’ll
continue to make bug fixes for PHT for now.)"

------
NelsonMinar
I don't understand this announcement. Is this Plex saying that the viewer will
basically no longer be free?

~~~
joshcrowder
This is exactly what I thought as well. I use Home theatre at the moment and
don't have a plex pass.. does that mean I can no longer do so?

~~~
bradbatt
No. They stated that Home Theater is still available and open sourced,
although they are not working on further development and are focusing on the
new Plex Media Player instead.

------
6stringmerc
_Best media playback engine in the world. Needs to play every format under the
sun._

So both SACD and Dolby Atmos work now?

~~~
cthalupa
Dolby Atmos doesn't really work anywhere where ffmpeg is used. ffmpeg
currently drops the extra info and sends the core MLP stream on.

Anything that supports bitstreaming Dolby TrueHD should support Dolby Atmos,
and you can already bitstream TrueHD with Plex.

No idea on SACD

~~~
6stringmerc
I'm just curious based on my noted dislike for hyperbolic statements / puffery
when there can be noted exception identified without too much effort.

------
click170
Does plex finally support reading files from network shares?

Plex is based on XBMC (aka Kodi), which supports reading from the network
natively, which leads me to believe they disabled this on purpose and I've
never understood the rationale behind it. It makes plex almost useless to me
and anyone else who uses a nas or similar to store files. Expecting that I
will run plex itself from my nas because they disabled network access is
laughable.

Also their UI has consistently been going downhill for the last several
versions.

~~~
cthalupa
Plex the server is not based on XBMC/Kodi. Plex the server has supported
reading files from network shares for a very very very (very) long time.

The Home Theater client was based on XBMC, but it only ever connected to the
server.

~~~
click170
Hm. I'll have to take another look at it then, last I played with it you
couldn't add network shared to plex.

Though I still prefer Kodi for its FOSS-ness.

------
madaxe_again
So, just snagged this, I've been using plex for about as long as it has
existed - went from XBMC (on a hacked original XBOX, of course) to Kodi to
PMC....

It's good. Makes the experience far more consistent with their current
offerings for devices, and as far as I can see, nothing particularly important
seems to have gone walkies - handles impressively awkward subtitles with
aplomb, channels all still work, in fact it's easier than ever to sling on
reddit videos and sit and stare.

All in all, approval.

------
nih0
I like Plex except the authentication.

~~~
lfgn
What authentication? If you just use it in your local subnet you don't need to
log in. I've been using the free version for years and I do not have a Plex
account.

~~~
unethical_ban
Wrong. On Roku, at least, if you want to watch Plex you MUST have an online
account now. And, you're not able to manually add your server if the Roku
client can't auto-discover it. For some reason I have to do that, but they
took that option away.

They've "streamlined" it to the point of unusability.

~~~
bitshiffed
For Roku, you want the "Plex Classic", instead of "Plex", channel if you don't
want to be forced to sign in.

That version is open sourced ([https://github.com/plexinc/roku-client-
public](https://github.com/plexinc/roku-client-public)). The Plex developers
have abandoned it, for updating the newer client only; but it's still
perfectly usable as the old-version.

~~~
unethical_ban
Thanks for that. I'll take a look. It's just such a shame they're alienating
LAN users and pushing their Plex Pass bloatware.

------
nailer
How do you get content for Plex?

~~~
joshstrange
Ripping DVD's/BluRays is a very popular way to do it. Plex also has "channels"
for streaming content but they are a crap-shoot on if they work any given day
and I've all but given up on them.

~~~
coldtea
> _Ripping DVD 's/BluRays is a very popular way to do it._

Is it really? Because I know nobody doing that of several Plex users. Maybe
with a few of beloved DVDs from their library, but not for 99% of what they
watch.

~~~
joshstrange
Ok, maybe "very popular" isn't the way to describe it. It's the most popular
LEGAL way to do it. The most popular way consists of:

* Sonarr/Sickbeard/Sickrage (TV)

* Couchpotato (Movie)

* Headphones (Music)

* Sabnzbd/Nzbget (Usenet download clients)

* Deluge/Transmission/etc (Torrent download clients)

~~~
deathcakes
Is usenet still going for that sort of thing? I found it started drying up
massively about a year ago, have switched to torrents ever since...

~~~
joshstrange
It's extremely reliable if you have something like Sonarr/Sickbeard constantly
running (checking rss feeds every 15min or so). A lot of stuff gets DMCA'd be
there is a still a ton of content there, it's by no means dried up or dead.
Sonarr/Sickrage can use torrents and usenet though so it can fallback to
torrents (or use them primarily if you desire).

------
the_watcher
The new UI for Plex Media Server is a big improvement over the old one, in my
opinion. Plex has some limits, but it does one thing better than any other
option, and I continue to be a huge fan.

------
beachstartup
the biggest thing i care about is title availability, not what my interface
looks like.

i would use the worst UI in the history of computing if it had every title i
would ever want to watch.

~~~
dmerrick
Well, once you start building your own library, you might find that the next
step is improving the UI.

------
impostervt
I use Plex on my Roku, and it works great (when my rather old laptop can keep
up with transcoding). It already looks like that new media player...

~~~
shostack
It was great until they redid their UI. Now it is absolutely painful.

For example, I don't always want to watch the next episode of a series--I
often want to see all the episodes I have in there. Yet I'm not forced to dig
for the option to find that. Combined with the fact that there are unhelpful
icons without tooltips (because its on a Roku) and my wife ends up helplessly
confused by their UI.

And that's just one nit. In general I now try to use the Plex iPad app (which
rocks), and then punt it up to my TV. Unfortunately the tracking doesn't work
great on that so I can't easily scan around the show in the iPad, and have the
TV instantly reflect that.

------
Shorel
Accurate determination/prediction of airspeed of various swallows
(laden/unladen).

Now that's a feature Kodi can't rival.

------
brotoss
If content owners want to stop piracy, knocking out this kind of stuff should
be step #1

~~~
Karunamon
What kind of stuff? Media players? Are you seriously implying the only people
that use media players are pirates?

~~~
peteretep
Certainly the only stuff I watch through a media player is stuff I couldn't
find on iTunes, Netflix, or Amazon. I'm sure there are legit use cases,
although none spring straight to mind, except for people who encoded a bunch
of their DVDs a decade ago.

~~~
nirvdrum
I record TV with Windows Media Center. While I can use an XBox 360 as a Media
Center Extender, buying a bunch of them is a bit ridiculous. We use Plex to
stream that content throughout the house. It's not as nice as having a native
extender, but it works quite well.

------
tempodox
This is really nice and all, but only bored billionaires can afford the kind
of data plan you need for movie watching. Ripping DVDs (legally) is still much
cheaper. And I can store them offline where I want.

~~~
soylentcola
Thankfully, Plex works great for local media as well. I run a Plex server on
one machine and that gives me a nice way to browse and cast media from my NAS
to multiple rooms in the house. It's actually the easiest and most functional
method I've found for watching local media in my living room via Chromecast
(using my phone just as a remote).

~~~
Cyph0n
Agreed. I got a Chromecast recently for media streaming from my PC. I've
looked at several options, including Emby which is mentioned in this thread,
but Plex is by far the best all-round choice.

~~~
lorenzhs
I also use the "Videostream for Chromecast" chrome app a lot. It's less of a
media library than a "play this on my chromecast" tool with an Android remote
that can also choose files from your hard drive. I have less buffering with
it, and it seems to know the media formats that chromecast supports natively
better, as it doesn't transcode nearly as many files as Plex does.

~~~
Cyph0n
I installed it actually but never tried it out.

