Think I’d rather pay that towards the development of Jellyfin
I used to curse and scream at my jellyfin software and apps, now I swear by them.
I took a day out of my life, not even a full day lol, and just watched countless YouTube videos on how to set it up and how to customize it how I like.
Now it’s my absolute favorite. I’m learning about building a home server and all that jazz now and I feel nostalgic, like a kid building his first computer lol!
So they think it’s acceptable to charge people to access their own files. Good Luck with that morons.
Yeah this is why I don’t use Plex.
At one point I installed it on my NAS. It goes through the setup, and then says I need to make a cloud account. Wtf? I am running locally hosted software on locally hosted hardware to access locally hosted files. Why do I need any cloud for this?
I don’t. I uninstalled it.
I thought I read that there’s no charge if on the same network. It’s just for accessing your files remotely from other networks.
And if server host doesn’t have premium.
It is enshittification for sure. At the core it makes sense to not have it free, since dynamic DNS is not free. However it is a very small cost
I pay a dude to access his files 😎
As long as their not Plex’s files I see no Issue that they should be compensated for.
So the media that I host is now no longer streamable when I am outside my home network? The fuck?
That’s my server, my bandwidth, my electricity and they are blocking it?
That’s enshittification for ya.
Meanwhile, all “lifetime pass” holders are encouraging this, while they have no skin in the game.
Anyone investing in a lifetime pass because of these changes is really making a really bad decision. Plex is not going to get better. These shitty decisions will keep coming and eventually it will be something that affects the lifetime users.
I got one a very long time ago, when it was cheap and seemed like a good investment in an up-and-coming ecosystem. It’s worked out for me, but I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone else, at this point.
I’m just waiting for them to find a way to reneg on the pass and then I’m off to Jellyfin like everyone else.
Yeah, one reason I hate lifetime anything, they’ll change the rules and give you the middle finger and they’ve already got your money so you can’t do shit about it, lost cause.
They dont have to renege on anything. Just create a new variant, an let the original stsgnate. 5 years is an eternity in tech, so if an app is not updated in 5 years, it will be pretty useless.
I’m not encouraging this at all. I’ve got a library of 5600 movies, 300 series, 300k songs I share with family. I have a lifetime pass I got last year, family doesn’t need anything, apps stream free on TV’s and browsers, only mobile had a few $ attached to it, which you can bypass using the browser. They all use tv/computer anyway.
Guess it’s time I listen to all those jellyfin Fanboys
https://jellyfin.org/ Great alternative to Plex!
I paid for a lifetime Plex Pass years and years ago now, I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth.
That being said, I fully expect more bullshit like this, up to and including ending my “lifetime” pass.
When that comes to pass, I’m so glad Jellyfin will be available for me to use.
I also paid for a lifetime pass and still switched to Jellyfin last year. I find it’s quite a bit better than Plex. The UI leaves a bit to be desired, but the performance for me is way better.
I’d suggest giving it a try
Lifetime pass for Plex too. A few months ago, it bubbled up an ad-filled version of a show I was watching in front of the show on my server. That is, it showed up in Continue Watching. I was briefly baffled when I started watching an ad on a show that I thought was streaming locally.
Anyway, I switched to Jellyfin. There’s some imperfections, but so far it hasn’t tried to trick me into watching ads.
That’s pretty bad, but I’m not that surprised.
Never EVER pay for lifetime subscriptions
, unless you have lawyers on retainer.I mean mine has already paid for itself
You bought a lifetime subscription. Are you dead?
The word “lifetime”, when talking about permanent subscriptions, always refers to the lifetime of the service (or provider), rather than the lifetime of the subscriber.
Are they dead?
Wish they had a client for PS5.
Unfortunately, Sony seems to be really hostile towards allowing most any video player apps on the PS5. They specifically went out of their way to remove DLNA support, and they only just allowed a DLNA-enabled video player on the store 7 months ago… and it’s subscription based.
Well, that’s Plex gone from my server, then. I had switched to Jellyfin, anyway, but it was mostly “still there”.
No more.
I installed Plex a couple years ago and when I found I actually had to sign into their servers to access my own content it was immediately uninstalled. It was only a matter of time before they pulled this kind of shit.
This was my exact experience as well. I’ll never know how Plex compares to Jellyfin because I immediately noped out when I ran into the account creation.
Frankly baffling to me that anyone with the wherewithal to self host thought that was okay.
you can disable authentication on your local network.
I have a lifetime Plex pass.
I tried out Jellyfin last month.
Now Plex is uninstalled.
Even if we ignore the differences when it comes to matters of FOSS, cost, corporate control, privacy, etc, Jellyfin’s performance is just so much better.
Setting it up to run over https while fully self-hosted was a learning process for somebody who isn’t a web dev, but holy crap was it worth it.
I tried Jelly Fin last month based on a thread here and it was a damned dumpster fire. As bad a Plex is for remote streaming, JF is far worse for the average person.
In what way? I share my server with 8 friends/family and it does everything I need it to.
Unable to set up a working server for outside of the home network. Also, the UI is terrible and didn’t organize things well.
Setting up remote access is the same for Plex and Jellyfin so I’m confused. All you need to do is to forward port 8096 or use a reverse proxy like nginx if you want a domain.
I have plex.domain.com and jellyfin.domain.com and it was the exact same process for both.
None of that is needed if the server app for plex works as intended.
You have to port forward Plex in some fashion for it to work properly. If you don’t you are limited to 1 Mbps streams on their relay. That is lower bitrate than YouTube at 480p.
If your router has UPnP then the port fowarding is automatic on both Jellyfin and Plex. It’s the exact same setup for both.
Why not try emby it works fine no?
I’ll take a look.
Hard disagree. I think jellyfin is much better than Plex.
It’s just not the same. If all you need is local access or tailscale to your instance it’s fine, sure you can cancel Plex. If you’re sharing with friends or family or like the easy access to it that doesn’t require being part of the private network. Also I like subtitles and Plex handles this way better than Jellyfin. At least last time I played with it
There were some hoops for me to jump through in order to get secure remote access working for sure. Fortunately for my family that connect remotely, it’s transparent for them and doesn’t require any kind of VPN or tunnel. They just need URL, user, and password.
And for subtitles I’m not sure what the differences are between the two, but I’ve used them plenty on jellyfin and they seemed to work well and render nicely.
This might be a good time to remind everyone that Jellyfin is open source, free (as in beer) and is, at this point, a better media streamer than Plex. No fees, no ads, no constant pushing of their streaming content, and still has the watch together feature that Plex went and removed.
TBH Plex is years ahead on maturity, their dev team is excellent, unfortunately it seems like enshittification has begun for them.
Support Jellyfin not because it’s better, but because it’s open source and it puts users and tech first. Don’t expect it to beat Plex’s performance, quality, or cross-platform availability yet, but expect it to become better as more people donate or get involved.
What’s better, exactly?
I switched years ago from Plex to Jellyfin, and while the UI wasn’t quite as nice, everything else is better.
And I don’t have to pay to use HW transcoding on my own hardware…Honestly, I don’t really understand how people prefer the Plex UI to Jellyfin. No shade, it just doesn’t make sense to me. Plex is incredibly cluttered and busy. Jellyfin is simple and clean. I like the latter a lot more.
The only thing Plex has on Jellyfin are client apps. Sever-side… Jellyfin hands down. I was super surprised to see av1 transcoding support… In Plex we JUST got HEVC.
I’m not hating on Plex by any means, but when I have an issue with Plex, Jellyfin picks up the slack. I’ll be using Jellyfin full time after the ATV app re-write.
I am curious, though, what is it that makes you think Jellyfin’s software is inferior? Since I’ve been following, Jellyfin has released new features long before Plex.
I need client side apps and easily sharing libraries with remote friends. Both are pretty hard to give up and not quite there yet.
Jellyfin has native apps for Android, Android TV and iOS.
Does Plex offer native apps (that aren’t just stripped down browsers) for more platforms?
Not sure whether they are stripped browser versions, but I can use plex on ps4, xbox. I use my ps4 for all my streaming so jellyfin not being in there means more annoyance for me. I have Jellyfin setup side by side with plex, accessing the same content and Plex displays it all properly while jellyfish does funky shit like displaying multiple entries for a single show (it had nearly 50 entries until I manually reworked a ton of filename shit), or fucking up and showing box art and a title for a porn movie instead of the actual movie which was Princess Mononoke. There may be settings that help with this buried somewhere but for now it’s definitely more of a pain to use.
Jellyfin works fine on PS4, I use it all the time. Just have to open it in the browser.
So you open the ps4 browser and use the controller to type in the address each time? Sounds like a pain in the dick honestly.
free (as in beer)
wut
There are 2 types of “free”. Liberty, and price. “Free as in beer” means they mean the price version of the word. It’s a really old saying now.
That blows. I just use the Plex app on my TV for free streaming channels. 24/7 Top Gear reruns FTW!
Right now I’m watching Jeremy Clarkson drive a Peel P50 through a BBC office space.
And on that terrible disappointment, back to piracy.
Jellyfin is so much better anyway. I used plex for years and it has steadily enshitified.
Honestly I’ve tried jellyfin and I have a hard time agreeing with this for a few reasons:
- UI generally more unresponsive than Plex;
- changes to correct a show/movie being assigned the wrong show/movie metadata very slow to propagate if at all, same for changing other library options like title language preference;
- generally slower to buffer and get into videos;
- very rough android lollipop UI;
- not as easy to set up tech illiterate friends for play together.
I’ll give you that morally jellyfin is less customer-adverse than Plex management is at the moment and it is more open in some ways so you can have more plugins and add-ons that Plex lacks, and sure it’s a free product so it should be given some leeway.
… but if I just listened to all of the people saying jellyfin is just so much better I’d think it was an objectively better offering, but it’s not. When it comes to what I care about, it fell short, so just giving my 2 cents. Still worth trying, considering you can just point it to the same media folders, and maybe there’s a good proposition if you don’t already have a Plex pass, but if you do and you’re looking to migrate it’s a tougher sell.
I agree with this. Add in also Apple TV options aren’t great. Swiftfin is just ok and Infuse is $
Thats fair. I haven’t really noticed any of those issues. For my use case of just organizing and streaming my desktop’s media library to my TV, its fantastic.
Oh don’t get me wrong it does the job and if I didn’t already have a lifetime Plex pass I’d highly consider it over Plex for being free, I just don’t think it does it better than Plex (with a Plex pass)
I tried jellyfin but didn’t like it. Currently using emby and it works well.
I used Plex before I got tired of it requiring a remote network connection to work in my home network (no remote). I switched to emby a few years ago, and I’m tired of it too: Subtitle is a pain, filtering is a nightmare, integration with sonarr/radarr and configuration is annoying…
I’ve started developing my own streaming server, playback is working nice through the browser from server to tvlaptop. I’m going to integrate Transmission UI into it, and show/movie management, to get rid of sonnarr/radarr and maybe I’ll manage to get rid of jackett too, so tired of this cumbersome stack. I want it all integrated into a single server with a single interface.
That sounds cool. You’ve got a much higher technical acumen than me.
Could you explain why you feel that Jellyfin is a lot better? I’ve seen lots of folks saying it lately, but as someone with an unraid server running plex to back up and view my music and movie collections for years, I don’t get it. I’ve tried Jellyfin twice now. The most recent time was a couple of months ago. While it is good, I honestly have a hard time seeing what makes it much better than Plex. While I disagree with a number of things Plex has done, I still recommend it to friends who want a personal media server or place to rip and backup their CDs to. It’s still the easiest to setup and most intuitive imo. Am I just missing something?
The most infuriating thing about Plex for me was when they shifted to force you to start with their BS streaming service at open. I only used Plex for my personal media collection. So having to jump through a bunch of menus to get to the only thing I want to use in their app was the biggest reason to switch for me. Maybe there is a way to fix that, but I could never find one.
Jellyfin just does your personal media library and opens right up into it when the app starts. Its simpler, faster, and FOSS.
For Plex just unpin the default channels, and leave your local media libraries pinned.
I see Jellyfin suggested as an alternative to Plex here. I hope it is one day.
At the moment it’s nowhere close.
I’ve been running Jellyfin side-by-side Plex for two years and it’s still not a viable replacement for anyone but me. Parents, my partner, none of the possible solutions for them come anywhere near close to the usability of Plex and its ecosystem of apps for various devices.
That will likely change because plex is getting worse every day and folks can contribute their own solutions to the playback issues. With plex it’s more noise, more useless features. So one gets better (Jellyfin) and one gets worse (Plex).
But at the moment it really isn’t close for most folks who are familiar with the slickness of commercial apps.
Even from the administrative side, Jellyfin takes massively more system resources and it doesn’t reliably work with all my files.
Again, Jellyfin will get there it’s just not a drop in replacement for most folks yet.
And for context I started my DIY streaming / hosting life with a first gen Apple TV (pretty much a Mac mini with component video outs) that eventually got XBMC and then Boxee installed on it. I even have the forksaken Boxee box.
jellyfin > plex
Sure. Except in the ways it isn’t.
Its free, its faster, less buggy, actively developed, etc etc
What does plex have? Google login?
I have another comment in this thread about my own experience so I’ll copy that here.
I can use plex on ps4, xbox. I use my ps4 for all my streaming so jellyfin not being in there means more annoyance for me. I have Jellyfin setup side by side with plex, accessing the same content and Plex displays it all properly while jellyfish does funky shit like displaying multiple entries for a single show (it had nearly 50 entries until I manually reworked a ton of filename shit), or fucking up and showing box art and a title for a porn movie instead of the actual movie which was Princess Mononoke. There may be settings that help with this buried somewhere but for now it’s definitely more of a pain to use.
It’s probably more related to you maintaining both side by side (for sure they have incompatibilities) rather than jellyfin. I have absolutely none of the issues you have.
I highly doubt that. Neither instance has permission to alter the files, that’s managed separately. Neither instance has any interaction with the other. Jellyfish is fine for playback thus far, but it has shortcomings on library management and client app spread.
Just because you’ve been lucky enough to not encounter them, has nothing to do with whether issues or shortcomings exist. I’m glad you like Jellyfish and that anecdotally it works well for you, but you don’t have to blindly defend it and make up excuses for why it doesn’t work as well as plex in some cases or work as well for other people’s situations.
could be an issue recognizing the show on jellyfin’s side. I would recommend labeling the folder with the tvdbid and re-adding it.
From this thread it seems Plex has astroturfing capabilities
I’m not trying to be a dick, but in what ways is Jellyfin vastly inferior to Plex? I haven’t used Plex before but Jellyfin does everything me and my family need from a streaming service.
I tried Jellyfin a few months back as a Plex replacement, but I can’t seem to get reliable playback on iPad/iOS. I’ve tried the native app, Infuse and Swiftfin to no avail. On the rare occurrence the app finds and connects to the server(over local network), they don’t seem to support transcoding of non-native formats such as x265. Can anyone confirm they have this working on iOS?
I mean, that’s like, your opinion man… I prefer Jellyfin.
Jellyfin is free. Your own domain is like $10 a year or less.
Does Jellyfin have good skip intro functionality for TV shows? That was the main thing keeping me from switching last time I considered a couple years ago
There’s an extension/plugin that you can install for that. I have been meaning to do that, but I keep forgetting, so I can’t say how good it is.
It’s this sort of fiddly stuff that gives me pause with Jellyfin. And the fact that people say their apps aren’t that good.
I’m not the sort of nerd who wants to fiddle with plugins or hook my laptop up to every TV in the house.
But I’ll give it a try just to see.
I get that. I prefer to use what just works. Plex has for a while been moving towards putting barriers around using it locally. Jellyfin has less polish, but none of the bullshit.
Yeah, I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. Jellyfin makes it hard because, let’s face it, open source doesn’t do UX very well. Plex makes it hard because they’re enshittifying.
And I can’t make my own media server with blackjack and hookers because I’m too busy.
Todays word of the day is…Enshitification!
