Hello all,
I have a specific need for needing VLC for IOS to play Plex-based videos.
I watch a lot of documentaries and like to watch them at 1,5 or 2 x speed, which unfortunately no Plex clients do (PHT can fast-forward at 2x, but without sound unfortunately).
So while I'm very happy with the various Plex clients to watch movies and series, for documentaries, I'm looking for something else, but preferably still using the Plex server... and it needs to support (.SRT) subtitles as well, so DLNA and directly opening the files on the NAS through SMB are out of the question as well (until external subtitle support is enabled there as well, even though I have a limited number of files with internal subtitles).
Now I found out that recent versions of VLC for IOS (I have 278.1) have included some form of native Plex support (Local Network -> Connect to Server -> Plex -> fill in details -> Connect) but I've never been able to make it work. I wasn't able to find any information on this on the net (anything I find is about using DLNA or SMB, but hardly anything about VLC's native Plex support).
When I connect using IP + port + username & password, the VLC client gives an error "Plex login error: check your Plex account in settings". Nothing at all appears in the Plex server debug logs when doing this.
The credentials used are correct (it's my Plex user ID & password; tried both the username and the e-mail address as well). On the same client device (iPad Pro), connecting through the Web Interface or Plex client using the same user Id work fine. I'm on the same local network as my Plex server so no firewall or routing issues here. I'm on the latest PlexPass server release (0.9.17.2).
When I connect using IP + port but no username & password, and have "List of networks that are allowed without auth" set to "192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0" on the (OSX) Plex server, I get the error "Server connection failed: please check your server address and credentials". But in that case, a few lines appear in the Debug log on the server:
Jun 22, 2016 22:51:25.679 [0x70000021d000] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.1.210:63888] GET /library/sections (4 live) GZIP
Jun 22, 2016 22:51:25.680 [0x700000635000] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.1.210:63888] 401 GET /library/sections (4 live) GZIP 1ms 349 bytes
Here's the log entries for another attempts using IP + port but no user or pwd:
Jun 22, 2016 23:03:05.028 [0x700000117000] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.1.210:63911] GET /library/sections (2 live) GZIP
Jun 22, 2016 23:03:05.029 [0x7000006b8000] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.1.210:63911] 401 GET /library/sections (2 live) GZIP 0ms 349 bytes
That's really all there is for this client's connections in the logs... all other entries I find relate to connections from my PC (Web interface) and other clients.