Yes I would be very happy with that, you click the force preroll, and I click no thanks and don’t see it - everyone is happy.
However there are idiots out there that don’t see it that way. There are idiots that want a forced preroll to mean just that FORCED and I will never agree to that, and any adult sain person sees this.
Is there an update on this?
The only people against it are clients mooching off shared servers. The truth is it’s my server, and I should be able to force prerolls. Don’t like it? Don’t use my server.
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Gee, do you have to practice to distort facts like that?
I am against the very idea of “forcing” others to view material that I want them to view. Since Plex is not used for making money and that would be a big reason for forcing videos on users I am opposed for that reason.
Also there are those that say, “It is my server and I can and should do what I want” I say do not share with those that you do not respect enough to stay out of their face.
Yes individuals should be able to do what they want with what the own BUT individuals should never be forced to consume what they do not explicitly ask for.
A “freedom of action” is always trumped by a “freedom of inaction.” ie. Your right to swing your fist stops where my nose starts.
BTW: I do NOT partake of anybody else’s server and I do not wish to and I do not share my server with anybody but, if I did, I would not feel justified making them view some self serving video just for the privilege of viewing my content.
Remember that sharing is supposed to be between close friends and family.
So you’re proposing a feature shouldn’t be added because people already using Plex in a violation of its terms and the law will use it? Really?
I also disagree with your idea that it will mostly be used for profit. Without a doubt the number one use of this feature would be to have friends and family be able to see prerolls who otherwise would not have the capability to turn it on themselves.
As to your last point, if you aren’t going to use it, then you don’t have to use it. Simple as that. Imagine voting against an option because you won’t use it. Freedom of inaction? Yeah, your freedom is to not use the server. Don’t like the preroll? Then don’t watch. Solved. There is not a single legitimate argument against this option besides Plex being worried it’ll draw attention to users already violating their terms and devices.
Finally, you do NOT have a “right” to view a Plex sever. Get over yourself.
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I agree with this completely. To the people that don’t – it’s an option, don’t use it. I’ll never understand people that fight so hard against CHOICE. If added it would clearly be disabled by default and absolutely nothing would change for your server, so why do you fight so hard against people that want it? I run my server, I paid to build and maintain it, I paid for the Plex Pass, I curate content and problem solve, and if I want my users to see a small preroll before watching a movie that is me prerogative. If they don’t like it, they can hit the “next” button just like you can with a movie trailer or they can deal with it for FOUR SECONDS in exchange for all of the convenience and free content I provide them.
Again, it’s an option. There is not a single OPTION I would be against. Customization and choice are never bad things, and as long as I can disable it I don’t care at all what is added that I may not want to use myself.
At the end of the day, this is my server and I should have more control over the experience. I’d also like the ability to “push” users to original quality, basically force a pop-up where they can easily change the setting by hitting “okay” (or hit cancel to not). Would be so much easier than having to remind every user, on every client they use, and guide people that don’t understand. That’s a different post, though.
Because originally they wanted to force it upon you - with no choice !
People need to read the entire thread! all what you have said is totally not what they originally wanted.
Please don’t, that sounds obnoxious.
I understand that, but I think you’re taking it a bit too technically and I highly doubt that if it was added as an option anybody that pushed for this would be unhappy with it. When we request a feature, we do so with the mindset that there’s a 99.99% chance it will be added as a toggle. Very few people EXPLICITLY want something done as a concrete, permanent change nobody can opt out on; I feel like it should be common sense that the best implementation for this would be to allow the server administrator to decide; in fact that’s the entire point, to give the server admin more control over how their media is consumed and presented.
Plex is not responsible for what users choose to have on their personally-hosted servers. You act as if hosting 20,000 pirated movies is okay, but this preroll is going to push it over the limit. Seriously?
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Dude, you are in the wrong place if you think Plex users care about sharing and hosting media of varying degrees of legality. Stop being a stick in the mud and go whine somewhere people are actually going to listen, because I assure you this is not it.
Getting back on topic, I would absolutely love for the ability to make it so that if someone watched a movie from my server I would be able to have a preroll that always played regardless of the settings on their player.
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Yeah, I’m sure your random internet legal advice is totally needed by the Plex team, thanks for your service.
In reality, it seems like you just like to hear yourself talk. We get it, you’re a super internet expert, LAWYERS ARE AT THE READY.
There is literally zero legal consequence to having a preroll play for remote viewers. If they are watching the content I provide them with, I want something to play first without having to edit it into every video file.
Sitting here turning this into a legal argument because people want to play a four second clip of their dog farting before a movie is stupid as ■■■■ and I think you’re aware of that.
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Please curb it down a notch and stick to the forum rules (e.g. not insult each other). You can disagree without starting to beat each other senseless.
You made your points, so let’s move on.
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To be honest I don’t mind anymore. Ever since plex cancel all future plans live photo uploads, i don’t mind it anymore. In fact i have gone and deleted all of my post. Heck I’ll even use a vote on it. Let’s get pre-rolls!
I agree with you 95%
Instead of forcing it on the users, I would just like to see it set to ON as the DEFAULT.
Then the users can DISABLE them if they don’t like it or are annoyed by my prerolls.
I never run cinema trailers, but I’ve made 8-10 prerolls of my own that are all like 10-12sec long- that are just cool animations that reveal my server name. (like the netflix title before you watch a movie- except cooler because I’m extra).
It’s just a fun way to take a bit of credit for curating my libraries for my users.
It might be dumb, but I’m proud of the intros I’ve made & I’m proud of the content on my server.
So I want to be able to show off the into and take 10sec to toot my own horn every now and then.
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Yep. Setting the default to ON would solve the original complaint about needing to walk technically challenged users through the process when they add a new device.
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As much as I like this idea I think there are likely way too many issues for it to ever be implemented. The biggest one I could see is the potential for someone to try to pre roll ads on their server which presents a massive legal issue. I also would really love to run a pre roll with a cool animation and server info, but I know that Plex probably will never do it because some idiot server admin will try to run pre roll ads and we all know that would end well…
We all just giving up hope on this one? Getting a big “screw you” from plex?
I for one am still waiting for this.
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Uh, what? I want you to think about this for a second.
You can pre-roll specific files you select in your config. The only way to play an ad would be to have a video file for it saved. There would be no tracking, no scripts, no insights.
Then you’d have to find a company willing to pay you to do this.
Is this something you think is a genuine issue? One large enough to prevent a feature tons of people have been clamoring for? Seriously, “people might play ads” is the last thing I’d expected to see as a counter-argument.
If people really wanted to play ads and force people to watch, they would do what people already do - edit them into video files, before the file, or with overlays during the file. They wouldn’t use an optional toggle that can be turned off (which is what is being suggested here), and even if somebody tried to I find it hard to imagine McDonalds paying Frank down the block to advertise Big Macs before his neighbor’s kid watches Paw Patrol.
Well first of all this is absolutely incorrect and shows that you don’t understand the deeper workings of Plex. The tracking and monitoring capabilities of Plex would absolutely allow you to do this.
Completely irrelevant as whether or not anyone would pay for prerolled ads on someone’s Plex server does not change that it would make it possible if server admins could force their users to watch prerolls.
It’s absolutely a valid issue and a serious one. Very likely the reason that the Plex team has no desire to even acknowledge it. Plex has gone to pretty extensive lengths to make for certain that their software is not used in any sort of commercial environment as that would kill every ounce of legitimacy they have and bring all kinds of legal nonsense to their front door. If you can’t see this as being a valid issue and likely the driving factor behind them not touching it, then it again is clear that you really don’t understand this platform. The bad news for you is none of the other big players in this space (Emby/Jellyfin) are going to touch it either for the same reasons. Also, tons of people? Really? 40ish people have commented in here and it has less than 200 votes. You realize that there are feature requests with thousands of votes and hundreds of unique users on them correct? Hell of the 40ish people in here only maybe half or so are even speaking in favor of this.
People very likely already do that and it does not present a valid argument as to why Plex should just allow prerolls. That’s like arguing that because people can pirate their media, Plex should integrate torrenting capabilities into their software. Or that they should just remove the 100 user limit on servers because you could just make another server that access the same content libraries and thus circumventing the restriction. Also your suggestion is unbelievably impractical for any server with a large library (mine is 3500 movies and 35000 episodes of shows). With a large library like mine it would take ages and a huge amount of work to edit into all the content on my library. Ultimately though even if you did burn ads into the beginning of your content the reason this would never work is because users can just skip right past with no mechanism to force them to view it. What is being suggested in here is FORCING users to watch it with no mechanism to skip it.
Your probably right, Mcdonald’s probably isn’t going to get into the business of that. But if Frank goes and tells the local dog-washing business that he can put eyes in front of an ad reliably every night and he would do it for a low fee, I’ve personally seen businesses pay for worse advertising. Especially since Plex does absolutely provide incredible metrics for everything from view counts, length watched, and hell even what device and IP they watched it from.
So in conclusion, I want you to think about it. Why has Plex not gone through with this? It’s an unbelievably simple thing to implement, the mechanisms already exist. Yet it has sat unimplemented and mostly ignored for working on 7 years now. So is it that they like pissing off a bunch of people? Or is it that they are worried about the legal ramifications of allowing people to FORCE users to watch prerolled content to view anything on that server? Also, in the future, maybe try being a bit less of a dick.
Yeah, its absurd to think the Plex team would just blow off simple changes for years without a viable legal excuse. There’s no way that happens.
If you think this is something they want to do but won’t because legal is preventing it, that’s cool. If I want to think that’s an absurdity, that’s cool too.
