I have encrypted some movies on my ACD. Is it possible to play them on VLC without having to download and decrypt the whole file first on Windows?
I’ve achieved this using a remote Linux machine, where I mount the encrypted content on a directory which I can access via FTP, and then I paste the ftp link of a certain file on VLC on my Windows machine. It works.
Now is it possible to achieve this without having a Linux machine?
There is currently no mount for windows, which is key for that to work
I solved it with running 400MB Alpine linux on virtualbox in headless mode with samba share.
400MB RAM? Also how much Hard Disk space will I need for this distribution?
400MB hard disk space 
not ram.
Oh. That’s… lightweight.
Thanks I will try it. Are there any tricks? I hope the Samba share is easy.
@amaklp I made you short guide how to do it. ( hopfully i did not forget something lol, its been a while since i set it up. )
Wow thanks very much Ajki this is very helpful! I’ll definitely try it 
If you follow the guide you should be done within 20 to 30 minutes.
Few times when my ISP had some problems with peering to Hetzner ( where my Plex server is ) I got frustrated and that made me setting up a backup plan how to watch stuff at home if Plex is down.
Plus I found it as great for rclone debuging and optimization since friends that are using my plex server go mental if server is down :P. More or less 16h per day server is running at least 1 or 2 streams and i people instantly call me if its down lol. ( that happens when tv show addicts cancle their netflix accounts lol and plex is only tv they have )
Wow, I pretty much have the same issue. The difference is that I just run rclone on my server because it’s a cheap shared seedbox that doesn’t have root access, so I can’t install Plex on it (I guess).
So I use the method I talked about in the first post here, but I wonder what will happen if my seedbox is down. That’s why I opened this thread.
Two questions.
If I want to run a Plex server too (let’s say in Hetzner) what are the minimum system requirements for 2-3 users (I don’t want to transcode the movies)?
If I set up this virtual machine from your guide, can I share it with my friends, so they haven’t have to build it from scratch on their own?
The problem is that its not up to you if it will be transcoded but up to client eg what will your friends use to watch it. So even if you have all movies in MP4 containers (most compatible one) with most compatible setting if they start watching it on phone you cant do much movie will be transcoded.
Iam hosting it on this server for 39€/month ( deduct tax from 46€):
The maximum amount of transcoded streams that I had was 17, however Plex suggest 2.000 passmark for 1x 1080 stream and this server have just a bit above 10K passmark. But in case of “Direct Play” there is almost no CPU requirement and you would probably hit bandwith limit before CPU one.
You could test Plex on some ultra cheap Scaleway VPS
The 9.99€ one should be able to ( cant confirm ) handle 2, 3 concurrent transcoded streams.
You can BUT i really would not as they will have your .rclone.config file eg they can delete all your files etc…
Maybe setup a WebDav so people can access files directly over internet or go nuts and expose 139/tcp and 445/tcp with port forwarding and open samba over internet ( keep in mind some ISP may block those ports ).
Probably the easiest way would be to setup VPN for your friends so they can connect to it and just use normal samba share. Here you have docs for Alpine linux ( but they will use your bandwith then) https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Setting_up_a_OpenVPN_server
I have same virtual machine on my notebook as well so if i travel i can watch stuff directly without plex.
Thank you very much for the help.
All my files are on mkv container so I guess Plex will transcode them anyway (?).
The Scaleway VPS seems very cheap, and since they can charge by hour, I guess the price would be very low for just occasional streaming. So I’ll give it a try.
As for sharing the VM, my friends actually know my ACD password and they’re 100% trustworthy, so sharing the VM with them will definitely be OK in terms of security.
Setting up a VPN unfortunately is not an option since my upload speed is very limited.
So the easiest way if my server is down is just sharing with them the VM I built. I guess I just send them the virtual disk I’ve created and they can attach it to VirtualBox?
Depends on client check here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PGzR4MZoBFni-ILLR9GklVycFTfqBTYidRs5bqT2onI/edit#gid=1011939368
No share .vbox file as well just tell them to EDIT the machine so they set their own primary Interface ( as its more then likely they dont have same network card as you ), also if you did not setup like public google DNS 8.8.8.8 but used your ISP one they will need to change it as well .
Thanks again Ajki you were very helpful!