Yeah, I remember when it was $75 but didn’t jump on it then. Back then I didn’t think they’d ever charge for basic functionality that was offered for free for 10 years. I don’t regret not getting it though, this is the kick I need over to Jellyfin.
gilindoeslemmy@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 19:37
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SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 19 Mar 20:00
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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.
plaguesandbacon@lemmy.ca
on 19 Mar 20:39
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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
psivchaz@reddthat.com
on 19 Mar 21:40
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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.
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 21:48
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This is my experience too. The web interface is usable, but a bit rough. It is a lot like early Plex web UI. The options for clients are okay on Android / Google TV but they are kinda bad on Apple TV.
Hopefully as more people discover Jellyfin interest in development of both the server and the clients will surpass Plex.
I appreciate what Plex has offered for free for many years now, and I was once a subscriber, but I don’t love it anymore because I’m looking for the straightest path to watching my library on my devices. Jellyfin delivers this better most of the time.
Does Jellyfin have remote play? I’ve had a lifetime PP for years now, but most of my users don’t. I will be installing Jellyfin tomorrow to run parallel until it can be a full replacement, or just forever.
I just was asking someone on here a few weeks back if switching off Plex while already having a PP was worth it. I think the gist was no rush since it’s working, but this news is my canary.
As long as you have PP, users streaming remotely from your server can do so without PP (or the mobile app unlock). The client user charge is only for accessing servers that don’t have PP. Still insane they’re charging anything at all for streaming private content from a private server to a private client though.
Thank god for jellyfin. I have a feeling plex would have gone a lot harder with this update if there was no competition.
I missed that part of the article and had a user point it out. Still really dumb of Plex to charge more for something that has little overhead for them, greedy assholes.
roofuskit@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 00:30
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You have to set it up yourself. It does not have remote access through someone else’s servers like Emby and Plex do.
You can enable remote access through firewall rules, port fwding etc but I haven’t done that yet. There’s a service called tailscale that allows remote access to almost any app externally, works really well. Only drawback is that if you’re on mobile, the tailscale app needs to be running for access to work
I use tailscale and nzb360 to remotely access my arr suite and Plex, so I’m at least a bit familiar with it. Getting my other users setup with it might be a bit tougher, but not impossible. The fact that it’s doable is a good enough jumping off point.
Same here, the Plex app was super heavy on a lot of my devices and would slow them to a crawl. Jellyfin is lean and runs well even on my slow smart projector. It does everything I need it to and more. I also got sick of Plex trying to shove their content and rentals and streaming services down my throat. Couldn’t be happier with Jellyfin.
“We regret to inform you that your Lifetime Pass has died in a restructuring related accident. Consider easing your loss by browsing our other pass options.”
What they’re actually gonna do is release Plex 2 or something and then just invalidate all the old lifetime licenses, as they were for Plex and not Plex 2
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.
I am in the same exact boat. The PS5 is the media machine for us upstairs. I would switch to jellyfin if there was a PS5 client. Glad I’m not alone on this.
yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.org
on 20 Mar 04:12
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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.
That’s the biggest reason I haven’t switched to Jellyfin.
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
on 19 Mar 19:37
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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.
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub
on 19 Mar 19:53
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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.
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…
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
on 19 Mar 20:22
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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.
Jellyfin looks pretty bad on an iPad. Subtitles setting keep getting reset on their own, it doesn’t understand basic keyboard controls (spacebar to pause), the UI is overall tiny. Oftentimes it will forget to save the spot where I finished watching and on the next launch will happily play the movie from beginning.
eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de
on 19 Mar 22:38
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Was this with the first party Jellyfin app or with Swiftfin?
If it was with the first party app, I’d definitely recommend giving Swiftfin a try.
I had that problem when i first started using jellyfin- I would have to give my users some sort of default login which I couldn’t trust them to actually go and change within jellyfin. And then when someone forgot their password, they’d have to ask me to manually reset their password, and until then they couldn’t use their account.
My solution was to use the jellyfin LDAP auth plugin with an lldap docker container, so once I set up my users’ accounts, they have to do the password reset process themselves to initially set their password, and the only info I need from them is their preferred username and email address. Makes sure they’re familiar with the password reset process as well, and now if I get any questions/support requests related to passwords, I can simply direct them to the lldap password reset page.
It also makes it much easier to offer extra services such as mastodon and NextCloud which support LDAP, so users can manage their logins on all platforms from a central place.
Simple auth was honestly one of the upsides for me.
Plex claims to have an offline mode, but I could never got it to work, for some reason.
And I got pissed off one too many times when my Internet went down and I couldn’t watch anything from the NAS a few meters away…
For Android users there’s Symfonium which I find really great
audaxdreik@pawb.social
on 19 Mar 20:22
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I cannot upvote this enough. “Just migrate to X, it’s every bit as good!” when end users know it’s not is a disingenuous argument and even if they don’t have the technical know-how to explain exactly why they feel this way, they’ll feel the deception. It only reinforces a growing distrust in tech.
The argument has to be made honestly. It’s not quite as good, but almost. Those few things you’ll miss will require an adjustment, but the overall value (a lot of times just literally, it costs less!) will become evident.
I know we’re all Linux nerds here and enthused to get people onboard, but the battle right now we’re facing is one of trust and security and must be grounded in those notions because while great strides have been made in convenience and accessibility, big corps will always be able to bankroll themselves over those points.
Yeah, my problem with it is that it's always something. I've been giving it a go about once a year since they forked from Emby and everytime something has made me drop it.
If I'm having problems with it the handful of times I go to watch something using it, the people I share with DEFINITELY would and now I have to handle their auth crap myself as well.
I'll probably prioritize just keeping a server going side by side now for a lot longer than a month or two at a time and try to find solutions to my problems. it's never really been a priority before since Plex worked, but the writing has been on the wall for a while now that the enshittification is in full swing and now I need to make sure I'm ahead of it.
Its weird how people complain more with the current state of plex compared to if they just required a plex pass for everything.
My ONLY complaints are that they have new features enabled by default, and that it doesn’t work well if the internet breaks
Subdivide6857@midwest.social
on 19 Mar 20:42
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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.
thirteene@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 21:41
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I need client side apps and easily sharing libraries with remote friends. Both are pretty hard to give up and not quite there yet.
eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de
on 19 Mar 22:36
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Does Plex offer native apps (that aren’t just stripped down browsers) for more platforms?
thirteene@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 23:29
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Atm Xbox is my most reliable media player. PlayStation isn’t quite there, but would be a nice to have. My parents aren’t very tech literate and they use their smart TV/cable box. I have a friend with an older Roku/smart stick that’s incompatible. Have they added an app for Apple TV yet?
Subdivide6857@midwest.social
on 19 Mar 23:42
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There is an app, but it’s not receiving updates at the moment. They’re doing a complete re-write. The iOS app has been released, and it’s fantastic.
The Infuse app is a great band-aid for the time being.
JigglySackles@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 00:00
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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.
Only had to do it once. I don’t exactly do a lot of browsing on the PS4 so it stays open to Jellyfin when I open the browser app. Usually just have to hit the back arrow to close out of whatever I watched last and then I’m back at the main menu/Jellyfin homepage or whatever you’d call it to choose the next thing to watch.
JigglySackles@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 16:25
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Yep, always opens back up to whatever I watched last.
JigglySackles@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 17:44
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Nice, I’ll have to try it out
PmMeFrogMemes@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 13:04
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I’ve since switched to jellyfin, but I initially chose plex because it was the only option with a client for Tizen. It certainly felt native but very well could just be a web app.
What’s wrong with progressive web apps tho? If every device has a browser why bother writing native code for an app that doesn’t need it? A single code stream for numerous platforms is a win if you ask me.
eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de
on 20 Mar 17:58
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I find the Jellyfin webapp a pretty bad experience on mobile, compared to FinDroid.
I really like the webapp on my LG webOS TV (especially good with the Magic Remote) though.
So I guess it kind of depends on the platform.
Subdivide6857@midwest.social
on 19 Mar 23:45
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LDAP can be used, which isn’t bad. There are plenty of options. It’ll never be as easy as letting a 3rd party handle it for you. But, that’s a pro in my book.
I agree the client side apps are taking some time, but the developers are absolute gems.
Plexamp is phenomenal. To my knowledge, Jellyfin doesn’t have anything remotely comparable.
Subdivide6857@midwest.social
on 20 Mar 01:10
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Plexamp is a dandy. Managing music locally is pretty cumbersome, so it hasn’t bothered me much. There are a few decent Jellyfin music apps, but nothing quite as polished. Manet looks promising on iOS, but I haven’t tried it yet. Haven’t jumped back to GrapheneOS quite yet, so I’m a little out of the loop there.
The is just better rhetoric gets a bit frustrating tbh, it’s a great bit of software do not get me wrong, but sure still has a lot of issues with more exotic codecs and various colour space conversions. Among some other tech issues
atomicpeach@pawb.social
on 19 Mar 19:44
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I’m not sure I understand the need for charging to play media on a private server when not on the local network. Why is this no longer going to be free? I’m glad I bought a lifetime pass many many years back but I definitely wouldn’t pay for Plex nowadays with alternatives being comparable. What a silly choice they made~
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 19 Mar 19:50
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It reeks of “we’re routing your traffic through our own servers to check your media for piracy” to me.
Edit: this relies on the Plex system being secure/nice though.
fakeplastic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 19 Mar 23:31
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Why would they check for piracy when it’s not them you’re pirating from and stopping piracy would remove the most popular use case of their product?
thatsnothowyoudoit@lemmy.ca
on 19 Mar 22:23
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I’m not defending them because it’s a shit move, but they clearly understand the most valuable feature is not their ad-ridden free content but rather the original value prop of the service to make it easy to share personal media with small groups of friends.
Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 19 Mar 19:49
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How else would they continue developing their social features that no one fucking asked for?
OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
on 19 Mar 19:59
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I just run it in default config basically. To be honest it’s just the normal docker container I hadn’t noticed any crazy resource usage but then in not able to compare that to Plex itself.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 19:53
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I paid for a lifetime membership to Plex in 2012–$75. I stopped using it around 2015, mostly because I hated that I didn’t have access to software running on my server, meant to serve my media, without an internet connection. I knew that meant worse was coming in the future.
You can access locally when the internet is down. You just need to set the login bypass for the local network. IMO it’s kinda a stupid step needed in setup but it is available.
turkalino@lemmy.yachts
on 19 Mar 20:39
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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
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 21:54
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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.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 22:13
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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.
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 22:14
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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.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 22:21
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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.
eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de
on 19 Mar 22:42
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Jellyfin did some work on integrating the Skip Intros plugin a lot better, AFAIK you just have to enable it once on your server and then once in the settings of all Jellyfin web players.
As for apps, there are some good native third party apps which I mentioned here.
i’ve been struggling with what i thought was depression/anhedonia for a few years now. after multiple psychiatrists and meds accomplishing nothing i am starting to think i’m chemically just fine; the world is actually going to shit around me.
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 22:00
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It increases on April 29th, so if you still want to buy a lifetime pass at the current rate, you have until then.
spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
on 19 Mar 22:25
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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.
acosmichippo@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 06:27
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you can disable authentication on your local network.
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.
thatsnothowyoudoit@lemmy.ca
on 19 Mar 22:33
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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.
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 23:12
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I mean, that’s like, your opinion man… I prefer Jellyfin.
thatsnothowyoudoit@lemmy.ca
on 19 Mar 23:24
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But that’s exactly my point - we here in this bubble prefer Jellyfin - but it’s not ready for mass adoption. Even plex is a drop in the bucket.
Its free, its faster, less buggy, actively developed, etc etc
What does plex have? Google login?
JigglySackles@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 12:33
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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.
JigglySackles@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 14:59
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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.
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.
R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 20 Mar 00:49
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Was trying to get a friend to switch to jellyfin the other day and it turns out he’s got a weird Hisense projector that uses VIDAA OS, which does not have a jellyfin app, but DOES have a Plex app. I imagine setups like this are probably limiting Jellyfin’s adoption. VIDAA is actually less niche than I thought as well, heaps of cheap-ish TVs and projectors are running it.
superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 20 Mar 01:56
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It’d probably different for everyone, but in my case, its smart collections and playlists. My family lives off the home screen and pretty much never venture beyond it. Jellyfin cannot do smart collections and the home screen is very bare bones and unpolished. In Plex I have smart collections and playlists that build automatically for them all pinned neatly to the home screen.
The Jellyfin clients are also unpolished in general and buggy. The server works great though. No problems with that.
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 have a lifetime membership to Emby premium. I just switched to Jellyfin. Emby is kind of dead in the water as far as development. Not abandoned but not really forging ahead. And it doesn’t have as much community plug-in support. If you like the features as they are, it’s a good platform. I got enough years out of my premium payment to not fully regret it, but I’m not going to let it anchor me to a stale feature set. I don’t need the support and I can always fall back to it if I have to.
roofuskit@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 00:21
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Jellyfin is free. Your own domain is like $10 a year or less.
If you don’t mind connecting directly with your IP address, you don’t even have to pay a domain. Been doing this for around 2 years
nutcase2690@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 20 Mar 06:47
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Just shared in another comment, instead of doing this you can also use playit.gg to create a proxy without requiring an account and also not requiring port forwarding. They lease you a domain name, too
I didn’t say it wasn’t, but it does not make for an acceptable user experience when you are hosting things for friends and family. Most people expect web services to just work.
I felt it was worth people knowing before setting it up. Cloudflare is also free and all you have to do is pay yearly for a domain. It also has much better uptime.
It was my go to dynamic DNS provider for years, but after noticing that it would take a good few seconds for my Jellyfin instance (among all the other stuff I self host) to load, I traced the issue down to duck DNS taking too long to resolve.
I switched to using ddclient in docker which updates my own domain’s records on Cloud flare with my dynamic IP. Now things load instantly.
It’s deceptive because it leaves out the most important part. That is if you aren’t using the free version of Plex (AKA you have the lifetime pass), this doesn’t affect you. It’s a non-issue for anyone smart enough to get lifetime subscription.
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.
freetolearn@programming.dev
on 20 Mar 02:05
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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.
fritobugger2017@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 04:46
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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.
fritobugger2017@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 06:38
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Unable to set up a working server for outside of the home network. Also, the UI is terrible and didn’t organize things well.
nutcase2690@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 20 Mar 06:41
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i’ve been using playit.gg to set up a simple proxy that i can share with my friends! You just forward the port that jellyfin uses and share the link (and it works for all manner of other servers)
When I tried that service recently I found that it’s incredibly slow. It’s like all the ISPs in the Philippines intentionally throttle it or something. In contrast to that, using Zerotier to connect instead gives me normal speeds.
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.
fritobugger2017@lemmy.world
on 24 Mar 03:01
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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.
circuitloss@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 16:04
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Hard disagree. I think jellyfin is much better than Plex.
Plex still has more features and is a more mature product. However, the Plex ship is on fire and people should be looking to move away before it sinks.
I like how no one is mentioning that they removed the one time fees for their mobile apps to be able to play media at all. Also, only the server owner needs Plex Pass and anyone they share with can stream for free.
I paid for the app so that I can play media on the go. Now that payment meant nothing and now they want me to pay a monthly fee instead.
Anyone new to Plex who doesn’t want a subscription can only play media when they are at home. Whereas before it was a one time payment.
Jellyfin is the future. Plex is dead to me.
max_dryzen@mander.xyz
on 20 Mar 09:56
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Plex is the current war front. May it hold for many years
the idea of stockpiling a lifetimes AV entertainment being within normie’s grasp must have media congloms terrified. Problem is - that accessibility poses risks for us filesharers too, cause a panicked animal is an aggressive one
Jellyfin is so much better anyway. I used plex for years and it has steadily enshitified.
trashacct@lemmynsfw.com
on 20 Mar 16:26
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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.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 21 Mar 09:14
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You can disable the streaming completely if you really want to. It’s in your preferences, under the “Online Media Sources” section. You can disable it for only managed users, or disable it completely if you don’t even want access to it via the admin profile. Or just move it farther down the list, or hide it completely by unpinning it as a source.
Agreed. Started out in Plex when j knew nothing about self hosting, very quickly made the switch to Jellyfin and haven’t looked back. If I’m hosting my media, storing it locally, and running my own server, I’m much better off not integrating the software of some company that feels entitled to bleed some extra revenue from me.
JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 19:18
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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.
hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz
on 20 Mar 19:41
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i’ve had none of those issues and i’ve been a jellyfin user for the past 5 years or so, but I do use containers for the server.
Android client is not great, but there are alternatives like Findroid, which is pretty great.
Last point is literally a couple of clicks. You just need to understand what libraries are and how to add them.
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)
mintberrycrunch@lemmy.world
on 21 Mar 06:12
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I agree with this. Add in also Apple TV options aren’t great. Swiftfin is just ok and Infuse is $
I tried jellyfin but didn’t like it. Currently using emby and it works well.
BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works
on 21 Mar 06:35
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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.
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.
thermal_shock@lemmy.world
on 21 Mar 09:48
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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.
thermal_shock@lemmy.world
on 21 Mar 09:47
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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.
Teknikal@eviltoast.org
on 20 Mar 19:18
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So they think it’s acceptable to charge people to access their own files. Good Luck with that morons.
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.
thermal_shock@lemmy.world
on 21 Mar 09:44
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And if server host doesn’t have premium.
SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
on 21 Mar 08:22
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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.
dantheclamman@lemmy.world
on 21 Mar 15:10
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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
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
on 20 Mar 21:18
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Guess it’s time I listen to all those jellyfin Fanboys
Oh I’m sure, classic top gear is crazy accessible. There are multiple hours long compilations on YouTube of some of the best crazy shit they did. I just wanted to parrot Clarkson.
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!
LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de
on 20 Mar 22:42
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threaded - newest
Feeling glad I bought my lifetime license like two years ago
Was the price the same then as it is now? $120 USD? Based on the article, the price will only raise at the end of April.
I bought it for $90 in 2020.
Yeah, I remember when it was $75 but didn’t jump on it then. Back then I didn’t think they’d ever charge for basic functionality that was offered for free for 10 years. I don’t regret not getting it though, this is the kick I need over to Jellyfin.
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.
This is my experience too. The web interface is usable, but a bit rough. It is a lot like early Plex web UI. The options for clients are okay on Android / Google TV but they are kinda bad on Apple TV.
Hopefully as more people discover Jellyfin interest in development of both the server and the clients will surpass Plex.
I appreciate what Plex has offered for free for many years now, and I was once a subscriber, but I don’t love it anymore because I’m looking for the straightest path to watching my library on my devices. Jellyfin delivers this better most of the time.
I don’t know what the Apple TV app is like, but I would love if the Android and Roku TV apps were the same as the web and mobile application.
At this point I believe the server is superior to Plex, at least on my experience. Much snappier and streams flawlessly
Performance has been better for me too. I keep both installed on my media server, but I hope one day that I can easily ditch plex
there is no official apple tv app.
Does Jellyfin have remote play? I’ve had a lifetime PP for years now, but most of my users don’t. I will be installing Jellyfin tomorrow to run parallel until it can be a full replacement, or just forever.
I just was asking someone on here a few weeks back if switching off Plex while already having a PP was worth it. I think the gist was no rush since it’s working, but this news is my canary.
As long as you have PP, users streaming remotely from your server can do so without PP (or the mobile app unlock). The client user charge is only for accessing servers that don’t have PP. Still insane they’re charging anything at all for streaming private content from a private server to a private client though.
Thank god for jellyfin. I have a feeling plex would have gone a lot harder with this update if there was no competition.
I missed that part of the article and had a user point it out. Still really dumb of Plex to charge more for something that has little overhead for them, greedy assholes.
You have to set it up yourself. It does not have remote access through someone else’s servers like Emby and Plex do.
You can enable remote access through firewall rules, port fwding etc but I haven’t done that yet. There’s a service called tailscale that allows remote access to almost any app externally, works really well. Only drawback is that if you’re on mobile, the tailscale app needs to be running for access to work
I use tailscale and nzb360 to remotely access my arr suite and Plex, so I’m at least a bit familiar with it. Getting my other users setup with it might be a bit tougher, but not impossible. The fact that it’s doable is a good enough jumping off point.
Apple tv has a tailscale client, as does android. Both also have jellyfin clients.
I don’t think roku has either.
Roku can die in a fire, so that’s fine. I’ll need to do a little messing around and see what’s up.
Same here, the Plex app was super heavy on a lot of my devices and would slow them to a crawl. Jellyfin is lean and runs well even on my slow smart projector. It does everything I need it to and more. I also got sick of Plex trying to shove their content and rentals and streaming services down my throat. Couldn’t be happier with Jellyfin.
“We regret to inform you that your Lifetime Pass has died in a restructuring related accident. Consider easing your loss by browsing our other pass options.”
What they’re actually gonna do is release Plex 2 or something and then just invalidate all the old lifetime licenses, as they were for Plex and not Plex 2
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?
No, but to pay for a regular subscription in the time I’ve had it would have cost more money
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?
Who?
Wish they had a client for PS5.
I am in the same exact boat. The PS5 is the media machine for us upstairs. I would switch to jellyfin if there was a PS5 client. Glad I’m not alone on this.
Does it not have a web browser?
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.
That’s the biggest reason I haven’t switched to Jellyfin.
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.
Jellyfin looks pretty bad on an iPad. Subtitles setting keep getting reset on their own, it doesn’t understand basic keyboard controls (spacebar to pause), the UI is overall tiny. Oftentimes it will forget to save the spot where I finished watching and on the next launch will happily play the movie from beginning.
Was this with the first party Jellyfin app or with Swiftfin?
If it was with the first party app, I’d definitely recommend giving Swiftfin a try.
First party app, yes. Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll give swiftfin a try.
The reason I’m not switching yet, is that there’s no federated auth. If they had that, I’d switch in a heartbeat.
Same here. I have it installed, but I’m resistant to managing other people’s passwords.
I had that problem when i first started using jellyfin- I would have to give my users some sort of default login which I couldn’t trust them to actually go and change within jellyfin. And then when someone forgot their password, they’d have to ask me to manually reset their password, and until then they couldn’t use their account.
My solution was to use the jellyfin LDAP auth plugin with an lldap docker container, so once I set up my users’ accounts, they have to do the password reset process themselves to initially set their password, and the only info I need from them is their preferred username and email address. Makes sure they’re familiar with the password reset process as well, and now if I get any questions/support requests related to passwords, I can simply direct them to the lldap password reset page.
It also makes it much easier to offer extra services such as mastodon and NextCloud which support LDAP, so users can manage their logins on all platforms from a central place.
Simple auth was honestly one of the upsides for me.
Plex claims to have an offline mode, but I could never got it to work, for some reason.
And I got pissed off one too many times when my Internet went down and I couldn’t watch anything from the NAS a few meters away…
Plexamp. Genuinely my favorite audio player since Winamp.
There’s ‘finamp’ for jellyfin which I really like so far.
I haven’t used plexamp though, so I can’t vouch for it as an alternative.
For Android users there’s Symfonium which I find really great
I cannot upvote this enough. “Just migrate to X, it’s every bit as good!” when end users know it’s not is a disingenuous argument and even if they don’t have the technical know-how to explain exactly why they feel this way, they’ll feel the deception. It only reinforces a growing distrust in tech.
The argument has to be made honestly. It’s not quite as good, but almost. Those few things you’ll miss will require an adjustment, but the overall value (a lot of times just literally, it costs less!) will become evident.
I know we’re all Linux nerds here and enthused to get people onboard, but the battle right now we’re facing is one of trust and security and must be grounded in those notions because while great strides have been made in convenience and accessibility, big corps will always be able to bankroll themselves over those points.
Yeah, my problem with it is that it's always something. I've been giving it a go about once a year since they forked from Emby and everytime something has made me drop it.
If I'm having problems with it the handful of times I go to watch something using it, the people I share with DEFINITELY would and now I have to handle their auth crap myself as well.
I'll probably prioritize just keeping a server going side by side now for a lot longer than a month or two at a time and try to find solutions to my problems. it's never really been a priority before since Plex worked, but the writing has been on the wall for a while now that the enshittification is in full swing and now I need to make sure I'm ahead of it.
Blah, this sucks.
Its weird how people complain more with the current state of plex compared to if they just required a plex pass for everything.
My ONLY complaints are that they have new features enabled by default, and that it doesn’t work well if the internet breaks
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?
Atm Xbox is my most reliable media player. PlayStation isn’t quite there, but would be a nice to have. My parents aren’t very tech literate and they use their smart TV/cable box. I have a friend with an older Roku/smart stick that’s incompatible. Have they added an app for Apple TV yet?
There is an app, but it’s not receiving updates at the moment. They’re doing a complete re-write. The iOS app has been released, and it’s fantastic. The Infuse app is a great band-aid for the time being.
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.
Only had to do it once. I don’t exactly do a lot of browsing on the PS4 so it stays open to Jellyfin when I open the browser app. Usually just have to hit the back arrow to close out of whatever I watched last and then I’m back at the main menu/Jellyfin homepage or whatever you’d call it to choose the next thing to watch.
Gotcha, does that stay after you restart the ps4?
Yep, always opens back up to whatever I watched last.
Nice, I’ll have to try it out
I’ve since switched to jellyfin, but I initially chose plex because it was the only option with a client for Tizen. It certainly felt native but very well could just be a web app.
What’s wrong with progressive web apps tho? If every device has a browser why bother writing native code for an app that doesn’t need it? A single code stream for numerous platforms is a win if you ask me.
I find the Jellyfin webapp a pretty bad experience on mobile, compared to FinDroid.
I really like the webapp on my LG webOS TV (especially good with the Magic Remote) though.
So I guess it kind of depends on the platform.
LDAP can be used, which isn’t bad. There are plenty of options. It’ll never be as easy as letting a 3rd party handle it for you. But, that’s a pro in my book.
I agree the client side apps are taking some time, but the developers are absolute gems.
Plexamp is phenomenal. To my knowledge, Jellyfin doesn’t have anything remotely comparable.
Plexamp is a dandy. Managing music locally is pretty cumbersome, so it hasn’t bothered me much. There are a few decent Jellyfin music apps, but nothing quite as polished. Manet looks promising on iOS, but I haven’t tried it yet. Haven’t jumped back to GrapheneOS quite yet, so I’m a little out of the loop there.
Finamp is great.
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.
Isn’t this confusing, though? It’s free, as in libre (open-source AND costs no money). “As in beer” implies some sort of restriction.
The is just better rhetoric gets a bit frustrating tbh, it’s a great bit of software do not get me wrong, but sure still has a lot of issues with more exotic codecs and various colour space conversions. Among some other tech issues
I’m not sure I understand the need for charging to play media on a private server when not on the local network. Why is this no longer going to be free? I’m glad I bought a lifetime pass many many years back but I definitely wouldn’t pay for Plex nowadays with alternatives being comparable. What a silly choice they made~
It reeks of “we’re routing your traffic through our own servers to check your media for piracy” to me.
They do have a proxy service, but it is optional. I have it disabled because my server is faster.
I could see the proxy slipping behind a paywall as that feature has costs, but web accessibility? That’s basic function of a video server.
The proxy service is also encrypted end to end
Edit: this relies on the Plex system being secure/nice though.
Why would they check for piracy when it’s not them you’re pirating from and stopping piracy would remove the most popular use case of their product?
I’m not defending them because it’s a shit move, but they clearly understand the most valuable feature is not their ad-ridden free content but rather the original value prop of the service to make it easy to share personal media with small groups of friends.
How else would they continue developing their social features that no one fucking asked for?
People gotta justify their jobs!
There’s enough work without them going all social.
Meanwhile they remove the social features that people DO like and use like watch together
I run jellyfin in a container and it is amazing. Give it a try.
I’ve found it hogs a bit of resources so I shut mine off until Plex crossed a line
Looks like that day came sooner than I expected
What run command did you use? Any resource constraints?
I just run it in default config basically. To be honest it’s just the normal docker container I hadn’t noticed any crazy resource usage but then in not able to compare that to Plex itself.
I paid for a lifetime membership to Plex in 2012–$75. I stopped using it around 2015, mostly because I hated that I didn’t have access to software running on my server, meant to serve my media, without an internet connection. I knew that meant worse was coming in the future.
I don’t regret switching to Jellyfin.
You can access locally when the internet is down. You just need to set the login bypass for the local network. IMO it’s kinda a stupid step needed in setup but it is available.
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.
Jellyfin did some work on integrating the Skip Intros plugin a lot better, AFAIK you just have to enable it once on your server and then once in the settings of all Jellyfin web players.
As for apps, there are some good native third party apps which I mentioned here.
Yes, Intro Skipper plugin. It’s awesome.
Todays word of the day is…Enshitification!
That’s the word of this decade.
i’ve been struggling with what i thought was depression/anhedonia for a few years now. after multiple psychiatrists and meds accomplishing nothing i am starting to think i’m chemically just fine; the world is actually going to shit around me.
… with 3 Ts
So Plex just killed itself? Got it. Lmao bye Felicia nobody’s paying the middleman for shit they are hosting on their OWN FUCKING HARDWARE.
These seem like reasonable changes
They are updating the app at some point, which is removing the watch together feature. I wonder what else may disappear.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/7d3fcc52-61e2-4a18-a5d6-dd3610d6630e.jpeg">
It increases on April 29th, so if you still want to buy a lifetime pass at the current rate, you have until then.
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.
you can disable authentication on your local network.
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.
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.
I mean, that’s like, your opinion man… I prefer Jellyfin.
But that’s exactly my point - we here in this bubble prefer Jellyfin - but it’s not ready for mass adoption. Even plex is a drop in the bucket.
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.
jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/shows/
Thanks for the suggestion, I will review the docs and see what can be improved.
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.
Was trying to get a friend to switch to jellyfin the other day and it turns out he’s got a weird Hisense projector that uses VIDAA OS, which does not have a jellyfin app, but DOES have a Plex app. I imagine setups like this are probably limiting Jellyfin’s adoption. VIDAA is actually less niche than I thought as well, heaps of cheap-ish TVs and projectors are running it.
It’d probably different for everyone, but in my case, its smart collections and playlists. My family lives off the home screen and pretty much never venture beyond it. Jellyfin cannot do smart collections and the home screen is very bare bones and unpolished. In Plex I have smart collections and playlists that build automatically for them all pinned neatly to the home screen.
The Jellyfin clients are also unpolished in general and buggy. The server works great though. No problems with that.
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?
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No you don’t. I’ve shared with people and I’ve never had a pass.
No love for Emby here?
I have a lifetime membership to Emby premium. I just switched to Jellyfin. Emby is kind of dead in the water as far as development. Not abandoned but not really forging ahead. And it doesn’t have as much community plug-in support. If you like the features as they are, it’s a good platform. I got enough years out of my premium payment to not fully regret it, but I’m not going to let it anchor me to a stale feature set. I don’t need the support and I can always fall back to it if I have to.
Jellyfin is free. Your own domain is like $10 a year or less.
If you don’t mind connecting directly with your IP address, you don’t even have to pay a domain. Been doing this for around 2 years
Just shared in another comment, instead of doing this you can also use playit.gg to create a proxy without requiring an account and also not requiring port forwarding. They lease you a domain name, too
Thanks!
There’s always other free options like duckdns, etc.
Duckdns is not stable enough. You’ll have downtime multiple times a year.
It’s a free service, I think that’s fair.
I didn’t say it wasn’t, but it does not make for an acceptable user experience when you are hosting things for friends and family. Most people expect web services to just work.
I felt it was worth people knowing before setting it up. Cloudflare is also free and all you have to do is pay yearly for a domain. It also has much better uptime.
It was my go to dynamic DNS provider for years, but after noticing that it would take a good few seconds for my Jellyfin instance (among all the other stuff I self host) to load, I traced the issue down to duck DNS taking too long to resolve.
I switched to using ddclient in docker which updates my own domain’s records on Cloud flare with my dynamic IP. Now things load instantly.
Tailscale is also free.
Possibly a bit annoying for family members used to just logging in though. It’s an extra step.
Deceptive title. If the person hosting the server has Plex pass then it’s still free for other users to use remote playback.
How is it deceptive? No plex pass on the server? No remote streaming.
It’s deceptive because it leaves out the most important part. That is if you aren’t using the free version of Plex (AKA you have the lifetime pass), this doesn’t affect you. It’s a non-issue for anyone smart enough to get lifetime subscription.
I have Plex running but this change means I can no longer access my own shit remotely with paying for their shitty sub.
Thankfully Jellyfin is here. Plex can fuck right off.
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.
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.
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.
i’ve been using playit.gg to set up a simple proxy that i can share with my friends! You just forward the port that jellyfin uses and share the link (and it works for all manner of other servers)
When I tried that service recently I found that it’s incredibly slow. It’s like all the ISPs in the Philippines intentionally throttle it or something. In contrast to that, using Zerotier to connect instead gives me normal speeds.
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.
Hard disagree. I think jellyfin is much better than Plex.
Plex still has more features and is a more mature product. However, the Plex ship is on fire and people should be looking to move away before it sinks.
Fuck Plex.
Why not try emby it works fine no?
I’ll take a look.
New USD prices as of April 29, 2025 will be:
Monthly: $6.99
Yearly: $69.99
Lifetime: $249.99
Oof I paid $75 in 2013 for lifetime lol.
Me too 🫢
Paid 99, worst investment i did till now.
The US$75 Lifetime price has traditionally been their Black Friday deal, regardless of the usual price.
Anyone’s guess if that deal will still be a thing, given their recent behaviour, though.
I like how no one is mentioning that they removed the one time fees for their mobile apps to be able to play media at all. Also, only the server owner needs Plex Pass and anyone they share with can stream for free.
How so? My friends need to use my account or else they need to pay to watch my movie? Did that change?
Read the article
They are removing it to make money from a subscription instead. You’re making it sound like they are doing something good!
Before everyone had to pay for the apps. Im not saying this change is good but it’s also not all bad.
How do you work that out?
I paid for the app so that I can play media on the go. Now that payment meant nothing and now they want me to pay a monthly fee instead.
Anyone new to Plex who doesn’t want a subscription can only play media when they are at home. Whereas before it was a one time payment.
Jellyfin is the future. Plex is dead to me.
Plex is the current war front. May it hold for many years
the idea of stockpiling a lifetimes AV entertainment being within normie’s grasp must have media congloms terrified. Problem is - that accessibility poses risks for us filesharers too, cause a panicked animal is an aggressive one
Well, sounds like I have six weeks to spin up Jellyfin side-by-side with Plex to see if I can get away with not paying the $120 ransom…
RIP Plex
Jellyfin is so much better anyway. I used plex for years and it has steadily enshitified.
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.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a869a028-ca58-4584-a5c9-9d2e5e1da3ef.png">
You can disable the streaming completely if you really want to. It’s in your preferences, under the “Online Media Sources” section. You can disable it for only managed users, or disable it completely if you don’t even want access to it via the admin profile. Or just move it farther down the list, or hide it completely by unpinning it as a source.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/cd08ad00-5011-4639-99ef-f909a991f113.webp">
Agreed. Started out in Plex when j knew nothing about self hosting, very quickly made the switch to Jellyfin and haven’t looked back. If I’m hosting my media, storing it locally, and running my own server, I’m much better off not integrating the software of some company that feels entitled to bleed some extra revenue from me.
Honestly I’ve tried jellyfin and I have a hard time agreeing with this for a few reasons:
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’ve had none of those issues and i’ve been a jellyfin user for the past 5 years or so, but I do use containers for the server.
Android client is not great, but there are alternatives like Findroid, which is pretty great.
Last point is literally a couple of clicks. You just need to understand what libraries are and how to add them.
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 agree with this. Add in also Apple TV options aren’t great. Swiftfin is just ok and Infuse is $
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.
That $75 Lifetime Plex Pass is looking like a good decision by past me.
Until they remove or add something that this tier doesn’t get.
Jellyfin is the future.
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.
So they think it’s acceptable to charge people to access their own files. Good Luck with that morons.
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.
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.
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.
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
Guess it’s time I listen to all those jellyfin Fanboys
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.
Eh. There’s like 6 apps that provide free channels like that, with actual good content. Obviously there are commercials, but it’s really not bad.
Oh I’m sure, classic top gear is crazy accessible. There are multiple hours long compilations on YouTube of some of the best crazy shit they did. I just wanted to parrot Clarkson.
Well played lol
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!
Yea as expected
Well, that’s Plex gone from my server, then. I had switched to Jellyfin, anyway, but it was mostly “still there”.
No more.