Not sure if I’m in the right area, if I’m not please direct me to where I should be posting.
I need a greater level of security around the PIN in Plex home. I have a user setup for my wife and I with no restrictions, and I have a user setup for my kids which allows them to see content rated up to TV-Y7.
Problem is, the PIN entry is not secure, meaning it is very easy to tell what is being entered (even for my 5 year old) which defeats the purpose. Here are some things that would make it more secure:
Have an option/setting to disable the asterisk filled on each number entry.
Have an option/setting to disable sounds on each number entered.
Optionally, allow entry from the keypad on my remote. Not sure if this is an option. I use Plex on my Roku, and I have a universal remote so this is likely a fringe case.
Number one and two together would make it more difficult to know what PIN was entered. As it is now, I have to tell everyone to look away from the TV when the PIN is entered. Even with that, they still manage to figure it out.
I agree it would be great to work out a way to securely enter PINs for devices like aTV & Roku that are in public spaces. Unfortunately those devices do not allow for numeric input via IR (aTV for sure, and I suspect Roku as well) since their remotes do not have number keys.
The only real immediate solution here is to use PMP as your player in public areas of the house. That allows full control of IR input and you can simply press number keys on your remote and they come up as a dot/asterisk on screen. So I have PMP in my living room and master bedroom as those are the two TVs in areas where my kids tend to be. For the guest room, office, garage, etc I use aTV/Rokus and the PIN entry mechanism isn’t much of an issue there. PMP can be loaded on all sorts of low end devices and you could probably spend < $200 (maybe even < $150?) on a NUC or something similar. I use the 2820 NUC and it’s been great. I guess you could also use a Chromecast as all login would be done on your phone.
The true solution I would envision for all Plex players is that when you attempt to log into a Plex player with a PIN protected account, Plex should send an alert to the Plex app on your phone prompting you to type in your PIN (or better yet, use Touch ID! ). You could either log in from your phone or if you are using PMP, just key in the PIN from the remote.
While this is all technically possible, I’m not sure it would benefit enough of the user population for the amount of effort required to implement. But who knows… Plex may surprise me
While this is all technically possible, I’m not sure it would benefit enough of the user population for the amount of effort required to implement.
Ahh, the life of a geek!
I use a Harmony remote, so I might look into PMP. I replied to your other thread asking what PMP is, but after reading your reply here I believe I understand. Do you have any experience w/ plex on Raspberry Pi?
The only real immediate solution here is to use PMP as your player in public areas of the house. That allows full control of IR input and you can simply press number keys on your remote and they come up as a dot/asterisk on screen. So I have PMP in my living room and master bedroom as those are the two TVs in areas where my kids tend to be. For the guest room, office, garage, etc I use aTV/Rokus and the PIN entry mechanism isn’t much of an issue there. PMP can be loaded on all sorts of low end devices and you could probably spend < $200 (maybe even < $150?) on a NUC or something similar. I use the 2820 NUC and it’s been great. I guess you could also use a Chromecast as all login would be done on your phone.
I would love to know how you managed to get the number keys on the remote to work with PMP. I have two PMP installs in the house with two different Harmony remotes. Each remote has number keys but PMP does not respond to them.
As the OP has pointed out, the PIN is a waste of time with children if they can easily see which numbers you are entering. Being able to use the numbers on the remote would at least solve this problem for me.
@jyoseph said:
I use a Harmony remote, so I might look into PMP. I replied to your other thread asking what PMP is, but after reading your reply here I believe I understand. Do you have any experience w/ plex on Raspberry Pi?
Not yet but I have a RPi3 sitting on my desk waiting for a free weekend.
I would love to know how you managed to get the number keys on the remote to work with PMP. I have two PMP installs in the house with two different Harmony remotes. Each remote has number keys but PMP does not respond to them.
I run the embedded PMP and iirc I ssh’d in and ran the irw command to see what keys my remote was sending and then edited a lirc or inputmap file.
Edit: Here’s a tutorial that essentially explains the same route I took
One thing that would be nice is an alternate entry method for numbers that hides what is being pressed. For instance, I’ve seen a method that lets you choose between 5 digits at a time using the arrows & OK buttons as direct-entry buttons plus a way to switch between the 2 sets of 5 digits. I think using the play button for the swap would be a good choice. For instance, here’s one possible pair of mappings:
The screen would show the current button mapping values, but not indicate what button was being pressed. Using that, we could enter the number 1992 by pressing up, play, right, right, play, left on the remote. Someone looking on could see that 2 digits come from each page (as the asterisks show up), but not which digits were being selected (due to the direct mapping of button presses to digits).
). You could either log in from your phone or if you are using PMP, just key in the PIN from the remote.
but I have a RPi3 sitting on my desk waiting for a free weekend.