Allowing media share links for a watch together session or a single movie, episode, etc. that doesn’t require a plex account login. Just a direct link to a video would work.
I regularly watch movies and shows in VRChat with friends and would love to be able to just watch something with them from my Plex server. But basically the only way I know of would be a direct link to a video stream or file. VRChat media players can handle syncing playback positions on a video file so that is not really needed for this use scope on Plex’s end.
Sorry to bust your bubble on this. While I GET IT, I’m with ya, but the issue that I see from an administrator stand point is, well, how the hell would you know exactly who to cut off if you maxed out your server?
The issue I foresee is one that wouldn’t allow you to prevent those direct links to be locked after viewing. Plex would have to create the mechanics of having those links be disabled after its first viewing.
As annoying as it seems, the reason why Plex needs to have your friends sign up to have their own Plex accounts is so that way you, as a server admin, can remain in full control over your server and its ability to abruptly end streams to anyone who shouldn’t have access at all, despite being previously given permission.
There are more pros than cons here. You shouldn’t even be giving out direct access to your media anyways.
I’m not a lawyer but I’m certain there’s implications and some other nonsense in the TOS that would put you in your place as well.
This would be a neat feature to have in general. Sure, for general friends or family, having them with accounts and sharing libraries is one avenue, but there are definitely instances where just sharing a single movie/show can come in handy.
Codebases already exist for security tokens and time-limited URLs in a few different areas, but they would definitely have to tweak it.
If you’re worried about access, you can limit the time it’s active quite a bit. You can just buffer the duration of the movie/show in question to account for dwell time (when it actually starts playing vs. when the link was generated), as well as accounting for pauses/breaks.
Perhaps generate the share link, grab the duration of the movie, and add 40% time buffer to the link. So for a 90 minute runtime movie, you’ll get 36 minutes of buffer in case you don’t start it right away, or if you have snack/bathroom breaks in between.
