this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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I consent to Plex to: (i) sell certain personal information (hashed emails, advertising identifiers) to third-parties for advertising and marketing purposes; and (ii) store and/or access certain personal information (advertising identifiers, IP address, content being watched) on my device(s) and share that information with Plex’s advertising partners. This data is used to deliver personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Your consent applies to all devices on which you have Plex installed. You can withdraw your consent at any time in Account Settings or using this page.

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I would probably still want to use Plex due to its superior interface, despite this shit they are pulling. But Plex on my TV is so UNBELIEVABLY slow. I have a large library, like almost 14 TB and still growing. But there's no reason it should take almost a minute (or more than?) for the first content to show after starting the app.

Jellyfin with the same library takes mere seconds before I see the first movie/episode poster cards. It's inexcusable how poorly optimized Plex is.

[–] MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not to rain on your parade, but the Plex App on my TV, with a library of almost 40TB also loads in seconds

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No rain here. ☀️👍

What TV is that? I have an LG OLED TV from 2019 running WebOS, so that's the version of Plex I am using.

My Plex library loads instantly on my phone and on the web.

[–] MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have a Philipps OLED TV from 2019, with Android 9 or smth. But WebOS is a different beast.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Ah okay. Yes, it seems to be indeed. 😅

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

sounds like a poorly optimized system tbh. My Plex instance loads within a few seconds. on roku, android, and web.

keep in mind I'm using nginx caching and some advanced configs.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I am using the Plex app on my LG TV, to be more precise. That's the WebOS version of Plex. On my phone and on the web, it loads instantly.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

haiyaaa...that explains it.

I have never had a smart TV worth a damn.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Yeah dude. Besides Plex, the TV is FUYOOOH! 😙👌

[–] Bread@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, that is just the system your TV runs on being slow. If you use a dedicated streaming device, you will have much better results.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Jellyfin with the same library takes mere seconds before I see the first movie/episode poster cards.

How do you explain this? Every other app is very quick to load on the TV... Plex is the only issue.

If you use a dedicated streaming device

What do you call a TV? The streaming isn't the problem, it's the loading or processing of data from the server, and/or transitions between views, that are the issues here.

Streaming is fine. Once I start a 4K HDR 5.1 movie with direct play (full quality), there is no issue, even when seeking. It's only the browsing and loading/displaying of data that is super slow. And only on Plex.

[–] Bread@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Plex is heavier, of course. They don't have the spending luxuries that Netflix or Disney has to optimize for every platform perfectly. That said, TV's notoriously use inferior hardware for the built in streaming portion so they can sell them at the prices they do and make higher profit. Sure, they can play the media they were designed to do, but that is the bare minimum requirement. They also sell your data to recoup more profit.

Unlike good dedicated streaming devices, they lack the processing power needed to make it go quickly. I have both and it is a night and day difference in responsiveness in the UI. It either lacks the memory/CPU power to work as well. Don't just take my word for it though, do your own testing or look at somebody elses. Plex definitely has improvements that can be made, but they are not at complete fault here.

If you pick a good dedicated one, it might not even sell you out to advertisers. Lol. You don't really want to connect your TV to the internet anyway. They phone home constantly.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This all still doesn't address the first thing I wrote:

Jellyfin with the same library takes mere seconds before I see the first movie/episode poster cards.

Why can Jellyfin perform perfectly on the same hardware? Very snappy. It's obviously not the hardware's fault, but more a lack of optimization — and testing. If they tested/dogfed their app on WebOS at all, they'd know it's ass.

Edit: I just did a quick research on this in the Plex forums, and it seems like a lot of posts detail the same experience as mine: Plex used to work great until a year or more ago where it just turned into an unoptimized mess where even stepping left or right to a different poster, or button, has like a 1+ second lag.

It's very clear this is Plex's fault. It wasn't always like this.

Every single post is ignored by Plex and automatically closed due to inactivity (from Plex). They don't care.