Plex: Stream Movies & TV

Description of App

Plex for iOS brings the power of Plex to your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. With Plex, you can stream your music, videos and photos from your home computers running Plex Media Server (available from http://www.plexapp.com/) and access content from a wide range of channels. Channels are available for apps like Aperture, iTunes and iPhoto, or online services like YouTube, Vimeo and Revision3. There's also a remote control feature for Plex Media Center. Additionally, you can sign up for the myPlex service, which lets you connect to servers shared with you by your friends, queue videos from your web browser to watch later, and connect to your Plex Media Server at home wherever you are in the world via Wi-Fi or a celluar connection, with no configuration necessary! Plex Media Server streams your media directly from your computer, so there's no need to convert before viewing. Plex is smart, too - if your media isn't already in a format your device can play, it'll convert it on-the-fly. Limitations:

DRM-protected content (TV shows, movies and older music tracks from the iTunes store) is not supported.
ISO images are not supported.
VIDEO_TS folders are not supported.

Server Requirements:

A Mac running OS X 10.6 or later, a PC running Windows XP or later (Windows Vista or Windows 7 recommended), or an Intel machine running Linux.
In order to transcode to 720p (for the iPad and iPhone 4), you need at least a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor. For 1080p content (for the iPad 2, iPad mini, iPad with Retina Display (3rd and 4th generation), iPhone 4S and iPhone 5) at least a 2.4GHz Core i5 or Core i7 processor is recommended.

Version

3.5

Free or Paid

Paid

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

Accessibility Comments

At this time, the app is partially accessible. There are times when you have to turn voice over off and tap around to open sections of your library, which is a pain at first, but gets easier with practice. I've contacted the developers, and they seam very willing to work on fixing the accessibility issues, so hopefully we'll be seeing a fix soon.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

Most buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some accessibility issues with this app, but it can still be used if you are willing to tolerate these issues and learn how to work around them.

Other Comments

Despite the accessibility issues, I love the app. It works well, and the server is very easy to set up and configure on any opperating system.

App Store Link

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/plex/id383457673?mt=8

Developer's Website

http://www.plexapp.com

Developer's Twitter Username

@plexapp

Options

Comments

Agreed, Plex is Great, if...

I have used Plex for some time now, and wish they would solve the accessibility issues. THe app works fantastic, is a great way for those with non-iTunes based media to play or stream it to your devices. It pleases me to read that they actually may consider accessibility improvements in the future, as I received the opposite feedback from the developers some time ago.. I wonder if Plex will be able to handle movies obtained from the new Walmart service for changing DVD's and such into digital media for $2 per movie...

Have there been accessibility improvements?

This IOS app was updated April 2014, are there any improvements to VoiceOver usability?

Nothing to update

Nope. To illistrate the point, I informed the developers and cancelled my Plex Pass subscription. At least this provided me with a prompt and human response from the developers. However, their comment just stated they understand and would try in the future.

Hey thansk for that review.

Hey thansk for that review. When the app bwecomes more friendly I might look in to using this in the future. I'm glad the developer is very reseptive in terms of accessibility. Nice job again and this app can be good for class room use as well.

Channels

Hey guys. Does anybody know how to cycle between channels you've added to Plex? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. :-)

Plex

I thought I would try out Plex to see what would happen. It is great, or could be, if the developer would fix a few things, such as when you double tap on your library, you could actually see your files. If I turn off VoiceOver and tap where I think the My Library is located, I can pull up my files, but it is very very sluggish and hard to find what I am looking for. This is a great concept and if the developer cared enough, it could be made totally accessible in future releases. Since Tonido is not accessible anymore and the developers don't seem to care, I do really hope Plex takes the initiative to work with the blind community to make this app usable for VoiceOver users.

I don't use the app, how ever

I don't use the app, how ever have you contacted the app devs to see what kind of feedback you get? If you include key areas that might need work they might be more receptive. After all devs cannot yet read minds. lol!

Plex

I would, but I have been unable to find any contact information. Everything I see says to read through their forum. Even in the app when you double tap on help and support, it says read their forum. Do you know how to contact them directly? It does give a Twitter name, but I do not use Twitter. You'd think they would make their contact information more easily found. I doubt if I read all through their forums that there would be anything at all about using VoiceOver with the app.

Contacting Plex

Hey guys. I have contacted the developers of Plex but haven't received a response yet. If you would like to contact them as well, go to support.Plex.tv and click on the my requests link. Hope this helps. :-)

Ah zendesk. Yep I'm all too

Ah zendesk. Yep I'm all too familar wiht tha tinterface. Good for the customer, not so joyfull accessibility wise from the agent side of things. lol!

Yeah everyone who uses the app and can contact them please do. even if you do not refer them to theis thread.

Good luck to all.

my requests link?

Hi, I looked on the support page, and don't see a my requests link or anything similar. Also, as an update on my communications with the developers of plex, despite the initial positive response, I haven't seen any improvement, as I'm sure is obvious.

Agreed. ther is no my

Agreed. ther is no my requests link. Ar eyou sure you were in the right page? I clicked support then contact but there was no requests link. The emails provided are not for support.

I should have been more specific.

Hello again everyone. I'm sorry, perhaps I should've been more specific. In order to locate them my requests link, you will need to create a Plex account. Log into your account and you can find a link at the bottom of the page. I just received a response from the developers and although they said they are working to make the app accessible for all of their users, they had no definitive details they could give me at the present time. I still think it's worth it to contact them though, after all, the more people that let them know about problems with voiceover, the more apt they are to fix them. Hope this helps. :-)

Ah thanksfor that. No

Ah thanksfor that. No worries I make mistakes in detail like that all the time. lol!

Take care.

update on accessibility

Hi, just an update on my efforts to make this app a little more accessible. I've posted a topic on the plex forums, so that will hopefully get the developers attention. If those who are also interested in this chime in there, to show the developers that it's not just one person asking them about this. The link to the topic is https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/117066-accessibility-of-plex-for-ios-with-voiceover/ I know the way I worded things on the topic isn't the best, but hopefully I at least got the message across :)