A Plex app for Apple TV that plays the files I already have

The official Plex app on Apple TV is fine until it isn't. On a home network full of 4K remuxes, "cannot direct play" usually means the client is being timid, there's a bitrate cap, TrueHD is getting transcoded on the server, or subtitles are getting burned in. The 8.45 Enhanced Player even asked the server for HLS inside an MKV, which tvOS can't play. Add the bugs and the network flakiness and I stopped trusting it.

So I started my own client. Closer to Infuse than to Plex. Native tvOS, direct play whenever Apple can handle the file, an on-device remux when only the container is wrong, and a clear badge for which path you're on.

Mine end to end. Product design, the visual design in Figma, and the Swift. Sign-in, the playback decision engine, library browsing, title pages and the channels layer all share one player instead of becoming separate apps.

The first comps were basically print layouts, poster on the right and facts on the left on a white page. Home then became a floating card with one hero and no shelves. v0.3 dropped the card for a full 1920 by 1080 shell with a preview band and shelves, because that's what a remote from ten feet away needs.