I am very excited to introduce Lumen, a marquee Plex client for tvOS. Lumen has been a total labor of love and necessity. Born out of just not being able to find the right tvOS app for me, I am hoping to find a community of like-minded Plex users to help me build the tvOS app for Plex power users.

So what is Lumen?

• A Plex experience that feels native to the platform, like skip-back subtitles, picture-in-picture, and Liquid Glass
• A playback experience that can handle the basic to the advanced – feel free to throw that Lawrence of Arabia remux at it, Lumen can play it
• Plex features available in no other third-party tvOS app, like pre-rolls, theme music, and profiles

The playback experience has been the number one priority, meaning the UI has taken a backseat. I am working through a multitude of UI quirks and I imagine the majority of feedback will be based there. That said, it's far from ugly. My family has used the app for weeks when it was far worse on the eyes.

Let's talk pricing.

Lumen will never use a subscription model. The likely model will be some sort of free trial with a one-time unlock in-app purchase. I'm waffling on the price now and will likely discuss this in Discord (details below). I view Lumen's development as a lot of upfront work with some yearly upkeep when new tvOS versions come out.

What you need

• Apple TV 4K (2nd generation or later) on tvOS 27 or later
• Plex Media Server 1.42.2 or later
• A Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass to stream away from home (Plex's rule, not Lumen's)

Join the beta

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/1jQWwJQk

The beta is capped at 25 testers, first come, first served.

All feedback goes through Discord. If you join the beta, please join the Lumen Discord too: https://discord.gg/cXhgven34. Bug reports, ideas and setup questions all go there (one post per bug in #bugs) so nothing gets lost. I probably won't follow up on feedback left in comments or DMs.

Images of the app: https://imgur.com/a/wZO7k9t

Thanks for taking a look!

I had absolutely no idea that "one Home Screen" was default, and deleted an app on the family TV that I use on my bedroom tv -- now it's nuked both places. That's a horrible default without some kind of warning to tell you "are you sure you want to delete this everywhere?" *sigh*. Apple, come on man.

Sorry it’s another one of these posts.

Do I buy the 3rd gen 4k 128gb for £180 or wait for the 4th for £300?!

Don’t currently own one.

Thanks in advance

They should have kept a lower cost, weaker processor, no mics, less add on version of the Apple TV 4k 128gb 3rd gen around. Maybe call it the AppleTV Classic or something.

Clearly, there remains a demand for it. Minus AI and minus the mics. I would have been happy with a dumb plastic remote with it too. Very happy. Maybe even just IR!

But I need the ethernet. It is just better than wi-fi.

As detailed earlier this month, you can now choose characters from the Apple TV catalog as profile pictures for local Apple TV profiles.

Apple’s server endpoint is now serving profile pictures of characters from The Snoopy Show, Frog and Toad, and Stillwater.

The change is rolling out across all platforms that support local Apple TV profiles, including iOS and iPadOS.

When using AirPlay to play a video from an iPhone or iPad to an Apple TV, if I pause the playback, the AirPlay will disconnect exactly 8 minutes later.

Is there any way to turn that off?

If I pause a video, I still want it to stay connected so that if I come back 30 or 60 minutes later and hit play on the tv remote, it should resume playback. Is this possible?