Plex has begun rolling out a preview of its new and improved video player in its Apple TV and iOS apps, replacing Apple’s own built-in AVPlayer that was previously used in the Plex app with the mpv video player framework that it’s already been using in Plex Media Player. By implementing the new player, Plex will be able to improve the user experience by offering support for many more video formats without requiring that they be transcoding into an Apple-compatible format by the Plex Media Server.
This will allow users of lower-end Plex servers, such as those embedded in NAS devices, to actually be able to use the Apple TV and iOS Plex apps with a much wider variety of video source material. The new player should also provide sharper video output for most formats, and promises to improve subtitle support, since it will now be able to read and play subtitles directly as well rather than requiring them to burned in at the Plex Media Server.
The new player also offers a new UI that provides Plex users with direct access to proper audio track and subtitle switching from the pull down menu that’s presented during playback. The new player was released to Plex beta testers last month, and is now being made available to Plex Pass users as an opt-in “experimental” feature, so users can choose whether they want to take advantage of the new player experience or retain the existing AVPlayer for now.
