I just came up with an idea of what I think would be the an absolute unique and extraordinary cool feature:
How about the possibility to watch stuff with your plex friends together. For example: I start a movie or tv-series and can add friends to that "stream". Friends can watch along simultaneously and leave whenever they want to. Also they can join later on during the playing content.
You would basically create a sort of temporary tv-channel for friends.
Does this seem possible in any way?
Kinda implemented? Could you clarify and possibly refine your thought in regards to what has already be done and then we can isolate a specific feature(s).
http://elan.plexapp.com/2013/06/04/plex-media-server-0-9-8-a-giant-step-towards-1-0/
Now Playing
The other feature that is requested more than any other is the ability to see who is playing what from a server. This is especially important when multiple users are accessing the server. We’ve added rich functionality to allow monitoring your server, which is available in Plex/Web (or of course via API). When your server starts streaming, you’ll immediately see a notification in your Plex/Web dashboard which tells you what’s playing, and if it’s from a shared user, who’s playing it.
If you dive into the Now Playing screen, you can see even more details. And with a click of the play button, you can start playing the media locally, starting exactly where the other person is.
This feature is also only available to PlexPass members.
Yes, this indeed looks a bit like what I mean. However, what this does not do is allow any user the library is shared with to "join" the watching session using the MC / HT. It also does not allow the "host" to for example pause the stream for everyone, and resume it for everyone. The whole idea of this is to "watch a movie apart together". Does this make any sense?
Makes sense, I don't see too much traction though. The idea behind sharing your library is that others won't have to deal with your bathroom breaks or popcorn refills. My film watching tends to be alone or with other people in the same room but there could be something to watching something 'with' someone else in another city.
Me and a friend create an application that works with VLC, Plex and Quicktime that creates the behavior you're describing (sync timestamps and everyone controls play/pause).
https://github.com/PickledCode/ShowSync
There are a few drawbacks that make this much harder to use for the average user:
- Mac only
- One person needs to run the server (KBProxy) and forward a port.
- Everyone needs to run ShowSync.app and connect
- All people involved are required to have their own copy of the media file
While I did have a need for this type of behavior (so much so that we created an application for it) I do not think it is something that need be incorporated into Plex Media Server. I'd rather other features and bugs be focused on over this.
Early 2021 clean-up: implemented (watch together)
