plex-mpv-shim VS plex-media-player

You could also use something like https://github.com/iwalton3/plex-mpv-shim

My best client experience is nvidia shield, and using plex-shim-mpv. It uses mpv as the client and supports every format I watch, specifically ASS subtitles for anime get direct played.

I found this thread: https://github.com/iwalton3/plex-mpv-shim/issues/31 It seems that changing the config to use http (insecured connection) may solve this issue. I have remote access enabled and I'm signed in to the Plex server, so maybe that's why I didn't have those issues.

I just don't worry about it until I try and watch the movie and it has black bars, then I just use plex-mpv-shim to watch it, and handbrake it after.

Have you tried this? I use it all the time when watching stuff on Plex. It direct plays every thing I have minus 4K. Note it doesn’t offer the Plex gui. Instead I used my phone to find what I wanted using the Plex app and then cast it to the player

The plex experience in a browser was never great for me, whether it was transcoding or subtitles. Once I started using plex-mpv-shim, all those problems went away and it's a fast and seamless experience with directplay every time.

Are you actually using Plex Media Player (a deprecated player that hasn't received updates for several years now) or Plex for Windows/Plex HTPC ([the currently available clients)?

I've tried both cables now, though the previous cable was able to push 4K@160Hz before. This appears to be an issue with the application causing rapid FPS fluctuations while gsync is enabled that the monitor can't keep up with. https://github.com/plexinc/plex-media-player/issues/1060

The last release of PMP was 2.58.0 (from May 2020), which you can download directly from Plex here: https://downloads.plex.tv/plexmediaplayer/2.58.0.1076-38e019da/PlexMediaPlayer-2.58.0.1076-38e019da-windows-x64.exe. 2.58.1 is technically the latest version, released in June 2021, but I don't think Plex released binaries for it, so you'd have to build it from source. The real issue though is trying to use Windows 7 with services still in active development. You'll likely run into more issues over time with a 2+ year old client attempting to communicate with the latest server version, so I'm guessing you'll eventually have to bite the bullet and change the OS, potentially to a Linux distro that supports Plex HTPC if you don't want to update to Windows 8/10/11.

Because we're specifically talking about Plex for Mac, Windows, and Linux, which, as you mentioned, is not the same as Plex HTPC or Plex Media Player. Both Plex HTPC and Plex for (Mac|Windows|Linux) are available to download here:

I'd normally advice just using the desktop app, but they still don't have a Linux client outside of the still-in-forum-preview Plex HTPC, or the essentially abandoned Plex Media Player that you have to build from source.

Plex for Windows is closed source. Plex Media Player is the closest you'll get, which hasn't seen active development in several years.

Looks like this github issue is describing what you're seeing (Plex blocked all external access to nightlies.plex.tv), and a reply mentions it's likely caused by the passed in DQTROOT not existing. Did you download the right version of QT from qt.io, or ensure you're passing in the right QT root?

I did however find this. As far as I can tell, the media player's UI runs on a local instance of their web client. When building, it fetches the web client using a build ID. Now the web client is not open source I think, but I imagine that it *should* be possible to choose which client we want to use.

Plex for Windows is different to PMP, it doesn't contain the TV mode, it's essentially just Plex Web App without the browser. As far as I know, there is no easy way to have it controlled by a remote etc. I actually still use an older version of PMP, several versions before support was stopped an update broke skipping forwards and backwards. It introduced a delay after the button press, (unlike Kodi there was no way to change the setting either.) After several threads popped up on the forums and it was announced to be fixed (and it not being fixed), I ended up finding the last version that worked and have stuck on that one and disabled all auto updates. One thread here. I understand apps will be slowly phased out etc, but at least have the replacements work fully before stopping support for the one platform that could do everything.