Plex has confirmed that it will require a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass for remote streaming on its TV apps. The change is going into effect for the Roku app first, followed by all other TV apps and third-party clients in 2026.

Earlier this year, Plex increased its pricing for Plex Pass and stopped supporting all options for free remote streaming in the Plex apps, such as adding a custom server connection in the app settings. The company said at the time, "The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature." That's also when Plex introduced the Remote Watch Pass as a less expensive way to enable remote streaming again.

Plex is now rolling out the remote watch changes to its Roku TV app. If you have Plex Pass, or the owner of the server you're streaming from has Plex Pass, you don't need to do anything. Otherwise, if you are streaming on a different network from the server's home network, you need Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass.

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[–] turdas@suppo.fi 20 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

It does not say that in the documentation. What the documentation does have, however, are extensive instructions on how to make Jellyfin accessible on WAN: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/networking/ https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/networking/reverse-proxy/

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Note that opening a port gives full access to that port to the next higher Network. Opening a port directly to the Internet is therefore insecure and not recommended.

It says so right there.

There are multiple ways of exposing Jellyfin to the outside - the most common ones are:

forwarding its Ports directly to the internet (not recommended!)

forwarding through a Reverse Proxy

using a VPN connection to enter the Network

use a VPS to Reverse Proxy to your home network

And there.

This smug mentality that security is unnecessary when exposing ports to the open internet reminds me of people who think its fine to drive drunk because "I've done it dozens of times before and nothing happened!" It also reminds me of the mentality of tech company VPs right before they have a massive data breach. It's quite absurd to read.

[–] turdas@suppo.fi 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

For some reason they recommend against directly forwarding Jellyfin's ports, but reverse proxies are fine. I expect this is because the default configuration doesn't use SSL.

This smug mentality that security is unnecessary when exposing ports to the open internet reminds me of people who think its fine to drive drunk because "I've done it dozens of times before and nothing happened!" It also reminds me of the mentality of tech company VPs right before they have a massive data breach. It's quite absurd to read.

I think you'll find without exposing ports to the open internet we would not be having this conversation right now. Which, I suppose, wouldn't be such a bad thing.

[–] Mondez@lemdro.id 3 points 38 minutes ago

I've not looked into it but presumably it's because whatever web server framework they are using might not be as bug free and battle tested as dedicated web server application like nginx so by limiting the actual web servers exposure you are limiting the attack surface.

[–] brewery@feddit.uk 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

This is good to know, thanks for sharing. I've only got it local for now after installing at the weekend and wasn't sure how secure it was for external access.

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

I'm just chiming in to say that while the documentation gives you information on how to do external access, there are multiple issues open on the github about unauthenticated endpoints that if you know what is on the server already, you can confirm that it's there

So I wouldn't use a standard naming convention because using that knowledge, someone who cares could use common names that could be on the server, followed by common standards of formats they would be in, and be able to confirm it's their via the end points.