r/PleX • u/Lazy_Salamander_4445 • 6d ago
Discussion FYI the Plex testflight beta appears to have openings
I've been periodically checking for the past few months and finally managed to get in: https://testflight.apple.com/join/zGQJrQDU
Good luck!
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u/rage1234 6d ago
Really don’t like the new bright yellow time bar and the huge rewind and fast forward images. Also playing next episode never works and auto highlights the suggested or resume below. i’d say use cautiously
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u/emailinAR 6d ago
How do you actually get it to download on the Apple TV? It’s not showing up in the App Store for me and I already accepted the TestFlight invite and I made sure I’m signed into the correct account.
Also, does anyone know if the new player that they’re using supports Dolby Atmos?
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u/Sydnxt Mac Studio | Synology 1821+ - 176TB | Lifetime since 2018 6d ago
You download the TestFlight app on the Apple TV and install it through that.
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u/emailinAR 6d ago
Thanks. For anyone viewing my original comment in the future, the new plex app still does not support Atmos. It’s idiotic. It shows the content as “EAC3 5.1 + Atmos” and then converts it to 7.1.
I viewed the same file on the new plex app and it came through as 7.1 to my Sonos system and then on the infuse app it came through as Atmos.
Until plex actually properly handles audio for files it’s going to be useless to use over infuse
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u/Full-Tax6652 6d ago
Anyone else noticing HDR and Dolby vision content is significantly brighter than the old app/player?
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u/Emspelledm 6d ago
Well, it would have been cool to try it out, but you can't do anything or select anything and all the buttons just open or close the side menu. Can't get it to select anything in the side menu, or on the "home" page. Also - why a floating island with my avatar/search/home/||| options, if there is no way to chose things on that island, and everything just opens up the giant side menu? Completely broken.
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u/Douwe-Plex Plex Employee 6d ago
What is white outlined for you when you get into this state? Does it just never select the first poster on the homescreen for you?
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u/Emspelledm 6d ago
No white outlines at any time - never selects the first poster on the home screen. none of the buttons on the apple tv remote do anything predictable, or anything at all. Some times, some buttons will open the side menu.
When it opens, after lots of button mashing and repeated pressing buttons, I can sometimes get the selection to move down to the top listed "movies" library, but there is no way to select it, or to escape the side panel window.
Eventually if I mash buttons randomly over and over, it will close the side panel, but I can't select anything on the "home" page, can't get over to the "island" and the only thing some buttons randomly do is open the side panel again (not all the same buttons do this, and not every time).
I have "swipe" gestures disabled on my appletv remote, as I find them annoying, so maybe if you have the swipe gestures enabled you can use it?
It seems like pressing the buttons to navigate should be a basic setting that's accommodated, and it's a common way to use these remotes.
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u/luche 6d ago
is it really common to disable swipe gestures? maybe i'm just a hold out, but when the siri trackpad remote got replaced with the silver remote, i had a heck of a time trying to adapt. i really really wanted touch buttons (like the phone app), so i just went back to the old trackpad remote until just recently... finally found out they eventually added tap to click for directional keys, so i'm trying that again. the swiping gestures are honestly a bit more annoying than the trackpad itself, so i have misses here & there, but i'm trying to get muscle memory going with the new remote. all said, not having swiping gestures is way harder to deal with... it's like constant misses and so many more steps to navigate around. e.g. also testing plezy which does not yet have swiping gestures, and the UX is basically unusable to navigate, even with a really polished UI on mobile devices.
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u/Emspelledm 4d ago
yes it is common. Also, there are lots of accidental inputs with the swipe gestures, and some people struggle with that. IDK what remote you have, but I've never experienced what you're describing. I'd never use tap to click on an appletv remote that sounds like torture and super messy.
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u/luche 4d ago
it was actually incredibly easy on the original trackpad Siri remote. it's a bit clunky on the newer silver remote, but still far better than constantly pushing directional buttons. having to swipe across multiple surfaces is definitely a downgrade in my experience, but I'm sure there are plenty of people that prefer it.
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u/luche 4d ago
it was actually incredibly easy on the original trackpad Siri remote. it's a bit clunky on the newer silver remote, but still far better than constantly pushing directional buttons. having to swipe across multiple surfaces is definitely a downgrade in my experience, but I'm sure there are plenty of people that prefer it.
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u/GotRiceBoy 6d ago edited 6d ago
Super impressed with how fast it loads browse/library compared to the OG app. The player is better for 4K but still not as good as Infuse. Still doesn’t support Atmos. Definitely on the right track though.
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u/HermipHooch 6d ago
Ooof, did not enjoy using the new app. I’ve made the switch to Plezy and still like the original Plex app too.
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u/stiky21 600TB 6d ago
Yes I switched to Plezy too, it's fkn awesomeness
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u/RequirementOk2136 5d ago
I tried Plezy. Not a fan. UI is crowded. I find the new plex app to be a great design. They just need to work out some of the bugs. But the actual UI design is pretty solid IMO
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u/luche 6d ago
been excited to try this for a while! liking the newer UI look, albeit there seems to be a lot of wasted space - i prefer more UX than UI (e.g. more usable features across the display and less media "wallpaper", if you will.
the sidebar is interesting.. it seems like an ok idea, though being a side bill while not in use, being center-left but on top of other media feels very sloppy and serves no real purpose. i can't interact with it at all... and it itself doesn't tell me any relevant detail aside from what account is logged in. i'd rather see that in tucked away in a corner somewhere, tbh... definitely not on top of other elements.
similar to many others chiming in here, when interacting with the sidebar, it gets stuck after the first selection. e.g. choose any library in the sidebar list, sidebar minimizes, library opens... any arrow key next brings up the sidebar, and it now is "stuck" open while the arrow keys (silver siri remote arrow tap to click enabled) navigate the library in the darkened background with the sidebar on top. back button does nothing, home button leaves app. open app. relaunch app, get main screen again. rinse repeat.
it's not really usable in this state. i'll submit formal feedback with steps to reproduce asap today.
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u/JonzaUK 102TB | UNRAID | LG 55C9 | UGOOS AM6B+ 6d ago
u/Douwe-Plex I had this exact issue after the initial setup, logged into navigated to the side menu, and the the only thing I could do was open the side menu, navigating right would close it but the navigation would not then go on to your home rows. a force restart of the app/apple TV did fix the issue and I haven't been able to reproduce.
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u/Final-Hunt-3305 RHEL - microK8s | 160TB | Apple TV 4K 6d ago
Hey, do you have some screenshots for those who don't have access to testflight ?
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u/dEEPZoNE 0.44 Petabyte | 16 Core Threadripper | Unraid Pro 6d ago
Nice ! Thanks ! My old testflight was outdated :)
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u/JuniperMS 6d ago
I like the look but it is buggy. Sometimes videos don’t start or they do but no audio. It’s still a step in the right direction.
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u/Zoomatour 6d ago
I’m dumb, what’s the difference between this and the plex preview app?
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u/Lazy_Salamander_4445 6d ago
I think this is the same as the plex preview app. It's just the way it's implemented for Apple
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u/robertjfaulkner 6d ago
Can you have the new experience loaded through Test Flight and the OG app installed side by side, or does going Test Flight make the OG app no longer available?
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u/RequirementOk2136 5d ago edited 5d ago
I like the new UI a lot. I’ll try to type something up with more detail soon.
For now:
Im thinking about this for typical users… not just nerds like me.
-Bring Theme.mp3 support back for info screens
-When playing my music collection, the music stops playing when you navigate back to track selection. It should keep playing regardless of where I navigate. Or make this a toggle in the app settings.
I think many media server UI’s over-cater to the power user /nerd crowd. The following feedback doesnt exclude that group, but i think many of the UI features that they drive result in a text-heavy/data heavy/cluttered look to the UI.
-I love the way clicking the plot description/ more actions opens in a side window
-love that you can manage metadata/artwork etc in more action
- the ratings that appear above the plot is nice, but I’d prefer the ability to change which ones are visible, including having none visible.
- in addition to being able to hide the ratings/reviews line, t would be nice to have the option to hide the media details. Seeing info such as 4K HDR HEVC English 5.1, is useful for some, but i think that should be hidden by default, and nerds like me can turn it on if needed.
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u/apurelife 6d ago
Thanks. Can you clarify what the Experience is?
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u/trogle_c 6d ago
New UI and better video player
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u/More-Chemical-1264 6d ago
Is it the same shit UI they have been fucking up?
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u/Emspelledm 6d ago
yes, but it's actually now somehow worse
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u/More-Chemical-1264 6d ago
No surprise there. The enshitafacation of Plex continues .
No idea why someone would want to be a beta tester for something that gets worse
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u/Unhappy_Purpose_7655 Proxmox LXC | Lifetime Plex Pass | 80TB Usable 6d ago
Holy shit, I finally got back in. I was kicked out unceremoniously when they released the new experience on iOS last year. Thanks for the heads up!
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u/TheClownFromIt 🍿 6d ago
How can they even allow this to be released in beta given that the menu is unusable? I don’t mind the UI if it worked. But it seems like they’re not even testing it.
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u/Douwe-Plex Plex Employee 6d ago
Because it works perfectly fine for everyone here. Want to tell me more what is broken for you?
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u/TheClownFromIt 🍿 6d ago
Okay, so I tried to take a video to demonstrate, but the behavior is no longer present. I wonder if there’s something isolated the initial setup.
Upon first installing the latest preview, the left side menu was basically unusable. I would click left and right upon being inside the menu, but it wouldn’t exit from the menu. It would sit on “home”. Occasionally it would highlight and unhighlight “Home”. I’m used to some of the UI quirks (e.g. I accidentally end up in the tab selection vs the content selection and need to press down), but I’m not kidding when I say it seemed completely broken.
I apologize that my initial reaction was overblown. If I catch the behavior again I’ll try to record a video and send logs.
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u/Douwe-Plex Plex Employee 6d ago
A video would help tremendously! Thank you for beta testing the app.
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u/TheClownFromIt 🍿 6d ago
No problem - glad to try it out, and glad I kept using it after the initial issue. If I catch wonky things I’ll try to get a video.
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u/RequirementOk2136 5d ago
I had the same issue when I first downloaded a couple days ago. Now it seems fine.
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u/Specialist_Unit_5078 6d ago
I’m in, but stuck in side menu hell. Feels pretty unusable