We have 4 people in my family that watch TV, my wife, my 2 teenagers and myself. Logging out and back in to different plex user accounts is not extremely easy or fast when using a remote.
I would like to propose a couple of changes.
1. Allow you to add multiple plex users, and set a PINN to switch accounts. Thus the client would cache the user/password info and pass that when the correct numeric PINN was provided.
2. Allow you to set a timeout on accounts. So after xx minutes after watching a show or on system resume it would require you to select your profile and re-enter your PINN.
Then for a little more difficult idea, allow me to make a dynamic library based on rating. This way I could share Non R-Rated movie library just by specifying a filter that makes this library. or TV14 and lower, etc.
This would make they system very family friendly and the wife approval rating would go through the roof.
Thanks for the great product and great features to date.
+1. I am expecting something in the next bigger release on this. This has been suggested many times before. Like your idea about profiling users to ratings. Not sure tv shows have ratings today.
I bought Plex-Pass primarily for the multi-user support, apart from supporting the project. Took one look at it and ignored the feature.
As it is now, I'll never use two users from the same viewing device.
What I expected and what I still would like is a simple configuration of multiple users for different viewing history in the web interface, and on the Apps just a "change user" menu item, where I can select one of the configured users. PIN optional.
+1 so that I can easily allow my SO to watch the same shows at a different pace without confusing each other about who has seen what. Second so that I can hide all her movies / shows I don't care about by setting them all to "watched" in my profile.
I'd Recommend you use the Android/iOS apps and a Smart Phone to mainly handle this. It integrates well as you can "Cast" to just about any other Plex App in use. It Keeps the user stuff on the phone and not the playback device. You don't even need to login to the playback device to make this work.
IE : I have a Android Phone & my roommates have their phones. We each have our own Plex Accounts and use the chrome cast for our own accounts and don't have any cross over.
+1 for this. In fact, this is would solve my parental controls need as well. My household has three (and soon four) users. We also have a mix of mobile devices that are dedicated to a single user and Rokus and a Samsung TV that are shared by everyone in the family. Similar to how the latest Netflix clients work on Roku, I want to be able to turn on my TV (and Plex app), choose a user profile, enter a PIN in the case of an adult profile, and start watching TV. This solves two problems:
I actually think setting the "freely accessible players" (TV, Roku, etc) to the lowest age setting without a specific account, and controlling age restricted content from personal devices (phone, tablet) is the way to go. It solves many age restriction issues on the open devices, as well as a cumbersome scenario of switching accounts. Especially when kids have to select their own account it becomes messy.
Especially scenario's where people forget to log out of a freely accessible client (TV) would raise considerable alarm, with my 6-year old accessing my Terminator collection or the like. When a TV or Roku is controlled as a player from the phone, it would be harmless as long as the phone is not under control of the 6-year old.
I'd Recommend you use the Android/iOS apps and a Smart Phone to mainly handle this. It integrates well as you can "Cast" to just about any other Plex App in use. It Keeps the user stuff on the phone and not the playback device. You don't even need to login to the playback device to make this work.
IE : I have a Android Phone & my roommates have their phones. We each have our own Plex Accounts and use the chrome cast for our own accounts and don't have any cross over.
That is a great idea for many users, but won't work for users where not everyone in the house has a smartphone or tablet. Such as a family with young children.
The profile switching would be a valuable addition for my house.
+1 for this. I have libraries shared with my kids' PlexPass accounts and this would be much nicer than having to log off and on every time I want to switch.
Just to remind everyone on the focus here : to implement easier/fast account switching in client programs like Roku and Google TV so that you can use the Multi-User feature easier and better.
