FYI re: development:
The hard work for Android, at least, has been done. Now it’s just to implement, and but a “beta” sticker on it for now, and to then do the same for iOS.
How do we vote for features? This is done thing I’d like to receive as well.
Why are people posting here?
If you want this feature, cast a vote in the Feature Request Voting section:
Bumping. I would very much like this feature too.
A while back someone wrote something (javascript maybe) that you can save to your browser bar’s bookmarks and it did work for change the speed, it no longer works however. But point is, if someone who doesn’t work for Plex can do this I don’t see why it would be difficult for Plex to make it a feature.
For anyone watch plex via a web browser, you can create a bookmark with the following snippet as the url:
javascript:(function(){document.getElementById(“html-video”).playbackRate=2.0;}());
This is called a bookmarklet – it’s a tiny bit of javascript code that runs when you click the bookmark. It works for me in Chrome on the desktop and Chrome on iOS, although you have to be make sure you click the bookmark before clicking the second play button if you’re trying this on mobile. On the desktop just click the bookmarklet after starting the video. You can adjust the 2.0 above to whatever you want (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.1, etc). Check out w3schools to learn more.
The example given by @marky421 works great! I’ve extended his work so that the current playback speed is appended to the video title, located above the player. That section autohides so if you don’t see it just mouse over the area.
javascript:(function(){var s=2.0,t=document.getElementsByClassName('video-title')[0],h=t.textContent.replace(/(\s\|\sSpeed:\s\d)(\.)?(\d{1,3})?$/g,'');document.getElementById('html-video').playbackRate=s;t.textContent=h+' | Speed: '+s}());
When adding multiple bookmarklets for various speeds, simply change the value of the s variable near the beginning of the script.
On my system, I added a Plex folder to my bookmark bar then added another folder to that named ‘Playback Speed’. That folder contains 14 bookmarklets ranging from 0.5 to 2.0. The only problem I’ve seen is that Plex will sometimes display a warning that it’s having a hard time with the audio playback. In spite of the warning, playback continues at the speed I’ve selected without error.
Dev Note: At first I prepended the speed to the page title so that it was visible at a glance, only to discover that Plex has a script running that resets the page title to its original value within a couple of seconds.
I am another plexpass subscriber who would like to see this feature implemented. Until it is, I have been able to hack together a solution that works for me, and I’ll share it in case it might help anyone else.
I watch Plex videos from my Chromebook and my Android smartphone. On the Chromebook, I use the previously mentioned Chrome extension to control playback speed. Note: you must use the Plex web app to use this extension, not the Chrome OS app from the Google Chrome web store.
For variable playback on Android, I play the videos using VLC player which supports native playback control. In order to play videos in an external player, open settings in the Plex app for Android and select advanced. Then select player. At the bottom of this menu, there’s a checkbox called “ use external player.” once you check this box, Plex videos will open in your player of choice. Note: when files are played in an external player the watched/unwatched status and your place in the file will not be synced back to the Plex server. You will have to manually toggle files viewed and write down your playback location if you want to resume playback on another device.
I hope this helps someone, and I highly encourage the Plex devs to implement this feature natively. Features like this make Plex much more attractive to power users who are Plex’s main apologists and probably a sizeable part of its user base (because who else would be able/willing to set up the server manually when they could just use netflix).
Cheers
I modified the script to prompt for a speed, defaulting to 1.5x
javascript:(function(){var%20s=prompt("Speed multiplier", '1.5'); var t=document.getElementsByClassName('video-title')[0],h=t.textContent.replace(/(\s\|\sSpeed:\s\d)(\.)?(\d{1,3})?$/g,'');document.getElementById('html-video').playbackRate=s;t.textContent=h+'%20|%20Speed:%20'+s}());I fully agree on this. Not only does VLC have this, but youtube is also capable of this function whilst streaming. Honestly once you have become accustomed to watching things at a higher speed, watching any other way is tedious. In fact that is one of the reason why I typically do not use the plex server for playback unless I can absolutely avoid it.
It is clearly possible. Hopefully we can get this addition, because I know I will be using my own server, instead of just providing it for F&F
I would like this feature as well. I have hundreds of video courses and webinars that I would prefer to watch through Plex, but I want to view them at a faster speed so I can still understand what’s being said, but time compressed. It seems that this should be possible to do with transcoding.
To anyone searching for a solution, there is one, but not perfect. First you need to be using chrome and download the “Video Speed Controller” extension for chrome. Then you can watch sped up plex through the chrome browser by utilizing the plugin. I just tested it and it worked pretty good while on my local network (I couldn’t tell you about playback when away from home). Like I said, not perfect since it only works in the browser and specifically chrome (I haven’t researched other browsers because chrome is my main). It does work though and if you just are watching a lecture or something I think it would work great. Also, if you don’t care about watching in a browser you are good to go. Hope this helps anyone.
tl;dr
1.Use Chrome
2.Download “Video Speed Controller” extension
3. Boot up Plex Media Server in Chrome
4. Use extension to watch at any speed you desire
I have been using the MediaPortal to record OTA TV and the VLC player to watch the recorded TV. VLC provides for changing the playback speed which I use pretty much for everything except movies, especially news broadcasts. I want to switch over to the Plex DVR and to exclusively use the Plex player. And, I want to start using additional client player devices such as my phone. The playback speed is a capability that I would miss. Please add this feature to Plex.
I’m not a plex pass member so can’t vote but I endorse this as well 
Absolutely essential for me to consider using it as my main media client.
+1 for variable speed playback, especially for audio only files! Please make this happen. Thanks!
+1 for playback speed adjustment feature on all plex clients - iOS and roku especially.
Keep up the great work guys
Looks like a change in the ui layer broke my script. Here is an update:
javascript:(function(){var%20s=prompt("Speed%20multiplier",%20'1.5');%20document.getElementsByTagName('video').item(0).playbackRate=s;}());Please add this feature to Web / iOS / Android client. If stream speed is not possible for faster playback, at least make the sync video do that.
Thank you
Me too. Might allow one to get to the end of a movie they were thinking of giving up on.
I’ve really come to rely on variable playback speed in other places like VLC and YouTube. It would be nice if Plex could catch up.
