Photon Player vs Crucible for Plex

Photon is a native player for the library you already own. Connect your media servers, your cloud and network storage, and your Live TV subscription, and everything you can watch appears in one place — on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac, from a single purchase. YOUR OWN LIBRARY, TOGETHER • Works with Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Photon and Silo • Connect a server free, or as many as you like with Pro. Home and Search bring them all together; the Library tab keeps each source's own shelves separate, so you can still ask what is on one server. • Play straight from an SMB, NFS, FTP or WebDAV share, a UPnP server on your network with no media server at all • Live TV from an Xtream Codes subscription, M3U: a full programme guide, favourites, and a channel list built for thousands of channels • Open a video from Files or the Finder and it becomes a title like any other — with a resume point, artwork and a name you can match against your servers AS IT WAS MADE • Dolby Vision and HDR, with AVPlayer driving the display for real HDR output • MKV and 4K play as they are. Nothing is quietly downscaled or re-encoded behind your back. • Subtitles drawn as overlays, never burned into the picture • Standing choices for audio language, subtitle language, and when subtitles should come on at all • Skip intros and credits, and go straight into the next episode EVERYWHERE YOU WATCH • Download for offline with Pro. Transfers carry on while you are elsewhere, with a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and a notice when a title lands. • Handoff picks a film up on the next device at the frame you left it • Spotlight opens a title directly • Top Shelf on Apple TV, a real menu bar on the Mac, and one design across all four platforms BUILT FOR THE PLATFORM Written in SwiftUI for iOS, tvOS, macOS and visionOS, with full Dynamic Type, VoiceOver labels on every control, and Reduce Motion respected throughout. There is no account to create and no service of ours in the path: Photon talks to your servers and to your own iCloud, and to nothing else. PHOTON PRO The free app is the whole player: one media server and one Live TV subscription, every drive and network share, and every format — 4K, MKV, Dolby Vision, TrueHD and DTS — with browsing, search, Handoff and SharePlay, no advertising and nothing to sign up for. Pro adds: • Every source at once: as many servers and Live TV subscriptions as you like, together in Home and Search • Downloads, for watching offline • AirPlay to an Apple TV or any AirPlay screen • Your servers, settings and the way you have arranged Home, on every device you sign in on Available monthly, yearly, or as a one-off Lifetime purchase, with a free week on either subscription. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. Photon plays the media you already have on servers and storage you control. It is an independent client and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Jellyfin, Emby or Plex. Terms of Use (EULA): https://photon.oliverwalton.uk/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://photon.oliverwalton.uk/privacy/

Crucible is a native client for your Plex Media Server on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. It is built to feel like part of the system: the system player, native menus and context menus, Liquid Glass on the newest software, and a library that opens exactly where you left off. PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Home opens on a Resume hero, then Continue Watching, Up Next and Recently Added. Library grids have filters for Unwatched and In Progress, genre and sort, an A–Z scrubber and folder browsing for unindexed content. Search groups results by type with a Top Result. A PLAYER THAT RESPECTS YOUR TIME Skip Intro and Skip Credits from Plex markers, audio and subtitle menus, adjustable speed, lock screen controls and Up Next that rolls the next episode as the credits start and carries on through the end of a season. On iPhone and iPad: Picture-in-Picture and background audio. Direct play when your device can handle the file, automatic transcoding when it can't. MADE FOR IPAD A sidebar with every Plex library, layouts that fit every window from Slide Over to a full 13-inch screen, and several windows at once: open any title in its own window from its menu, or drag its card to the edge of the screen. With a Magic Keyboard, a full menu bar and shortcuts: Command-1 to 4 for the tabs, Command-F to search, Space to play, S to skip the intro, N for the next episode. Posters lift under the trackpad and Apple Pencil, and right-click opens every menu. MADE FOR THE COUCH The Apple TV app is built for the Siri Remote: a cinematic Home that follows focus, one tab per library, native context menus, search, and Top Shelf with Continue Watching and Up Next. Liquid Glass on tvOS 26. TAKE IT OFFLINE On iPhone and iPad, download movies, seasons or single episodes in the quality you pick. Transfers continue in the background, stay on Wi-Fi by default and, on iPhone, show a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. Offline playback uses the same player. KNOW YOUR VIEWING Watch History grouped by day, Statistics with streaks, heatmaps, binges and taste built from your own Plex history, and a Year in Review poster you can share. FREE TO USE, CRUCIBLE PRO TO GO FURTHER Browsing, search and playback are free on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, and so is the Statistics view for the last week. Crucible Pro unlocks unlimited offline downloads, the full Statistics screen with every range and library filter, the Year in Review poster and Top Shelf. Pay once for lifetime access, or subscribe yearly. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, and Family Sharing is on. TRY IT WITHOUT A SERVER No Plex server yet? Choose Try the demo on the welcome screen to explore a fictional library with everything unlocked, guided by a short tour. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No sign-up, no ads, no analytics. Crucible talks to plex.tv and the server you choose, and records Crucible Pro purchases with an anonymous Midgar ID, with no sign-up. OPEN SOURCE Crucible is free software under GPL-3.0: https://github.com/guitaripod/Crucible Crucible needs a Plex Media Server. Plex requires a Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass to stream from your server away from home. Crucible is an independent app and is not made by, endorsed by or affiliated with Plex, Inc. Plex is a trademark of Plex, Inc. Crucible Pro Annual: billed yearly at the price shown in the app. The subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage it in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://midgarcorp.cc/crucible/privacy