- cross-posted to:
- technology@hexbear.net
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@hexbear.net
- technology@beehaw.org
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It would seem we can’t have a civil discussion about this, so I’ve locked the post.
Before the influx of “just use jellyfin” bros come in let me get ahead of it.
I ran Plex for a decade and loved it, had the subscription, was happy to pay for software I found value in. This however was the kicker, not because it i was directly affected (not because I had a lifetime subscription), but it signaled the end of Plex that I knew from before.
So I did switch. It was not easy or painless like people here claim. Metadata is stored in different ways that made conversion difficult. I tried multiple conversion tools and none of them worked for me, or left my library in a half state. I ended up just staring from scratch, and it was a couple of months before I was happy with it.
That being said, I think it’s worth it. It’s pretty much at feature parity, but mostly because Plex hasn’t been doing anything for server owners while jellyfin devs have been for years now. I’m happier with jellyfin than I was with Plex.
So, to the “I use jellyfin LOL” guys here, no that’s not helpful, and it’s condescending. It pushes people away, but I have a weird feeling they want to push people away (and honestly if that’s your only comment it’s the same energy as crypto bros).
Instead, I empathize with Plex hosters, I was there, it’s not a fun place to be anymore, and I am here to say that yes you can switch, no it’s not as easy as Plex, but I personally think it’s worth the effort. With all open source things the user interface and experience is definitely lacking, but if you’re willing to put in the time it will be worth it.
I swapped to jellyfin and it was worth it but it was a lot of work. I had to pay for a static ip, set up my home network properly, and redo all my metadata. and months later I’m still finding missing or incorrectly tagged media. plus it doesn’t auto update. also I had to tell my friends and family to download a new app and make logins for them.
Same experience for me. I teetered on the edge of “Was it worth it” and now I think yes, yes it was - but it was not as easy as the bros here say when they comment “Just switch to jellyfin”
Until Jellyfin is as easy to use for Normals AND it has an actual appleTV app, it’s a nonstarter for me.
Plex is enforcing a change they announced months ago and ONLY requires the server owner to have plex pass which you should already because it’s absolutely worth it. Now, if they made it that my mom and friends and everyone else I share to needed a pass, that’s a different story.
Supporting plex with a pass makes sense. The software is stable and constantly worked on (regardless if you like the changes or not) so Pass is worth it for the features it unlocks.
Jellyfin is great for single users watching on non-Apple hardware in their own home. For me (and I suspect many others) I’m not jumping ship unless Jellyfin either significantly improves on what I need or Plex enshittifies to a point where it’s untenable.
Not arguing with any of that. For me personally it was enough for me to switch and it was worth it
What is wrong with the current AppleTV app? I use it Daily.
There’s no Jellyfin app for my TV, and it’s shit in the TVs browser
What TV? There is one for WebOS one for Tizen. Android tv and Roku have them. So what other OS are TVs running.
Use a Roku or another streaming box
The conversion is not the biggest issue. For my dad or Grandmother to stream my content, Plex as a streaming app is something they can easily understand and digest (though Plex’s new streaming app has done quite a bit to undo that -_-). I have the subscription, I acquire the content, I choose who to share it with. Now they need a subscription, too? Where’s the value? Why wouldn’t they just pay for a streaming service at that point? I’m using my hardware and doing all the work and they are paying Plex? And if I accepted payment for the same thing it would be a crime! BUT I’m not sure I’m comfortable opening Jellyfin to the internet, even behind nginx, and I don’t want to have to spend time setting things up for them or troubleshooting their issues w/ Jellyfin. I put enough labor into this thing already.
So yes obviously everyone should switch to the FOSS option, but in reality it’s not that simple because the services aren’t 1:1.
Every single person I had managed to switch and they where not tech literate. But really it’s putting a url in a box.
No, you’re mistaken. If YOU have a subscription on your server, they do not need to pay anything to stream from you.
They only need a subscription if you do not have one associated to your server.
They do not need a subscription, assuming you (the server owner) have a plex pass.
That is what I thought, until this article. I’d be pleased to find out I misinterpreted.
The title of this article is vague.
Here is the important part
Under the new rules announced in March, a server owner needs to have a Plex Pass subscription, which starts at $7 per month, to grant users remote access to their server. Alternatively, someone can remotely access another person’s Plex server by buying their own Plex Pass
TLDR; there has to be at least one pass in the chain
BUT I’m not sure I’m comfortable opening Jellyfin to the internet, even behind nginx, and I don’t want to have to spend time setting things up for them or troubleshooting their issues w/ Jellyfin. I put enough labor into this thing already.
This is still where I’m at too. It’s a great service, but the fear of messing something up when opening it up to the internet is too worrying. I’m usually pretty good picking up new tech with easier setups, but when there are 4 different networking techniques with their own pros and cons, at that point it’s just easier to just run as a local service.
Yes! I’m glad you mentioned the crime! If you own a DVD and rip it - that itself is a grey area that is mostly acceptable now. However, sharing it digitally is another grey area that providers have been skimming under the radar, but by requiring a subscription that is 100% illegal. You cannot pay for shared content. I think they’re trying to get around it but personally, I just want to avoid the whole thing. Jellyfin was a no brainer from that aspect.
If you own a DVD and rip it - that itself is a grey area
In some countries. In others it is legally protected.
Yeah, switching isn’t that easy. Especially if you have a lot of “unique” media types with different requirements for scraping metadata. Things like anime, audio books, or comedy albums.
TBF Plex doesn’t handle those all that well either from a stock install. It was a lot of work to get it to handle everything well.
But also, Plex’s proxy service for remote streaming, is it’s killer feature that prevents me from switching. I need to access my media from networks where my private domain is blocked.
fair assessment. there are two major features i still miss from plex:
- bulk editing metadata
- smart playlists
also setting up users with tailscale is a struggle, even the ones relatively tech literate.
So three features, with security being #1
Security is definitely a tradeoff, and you have two good features missing. I think they’ll make their way over, but it’s a pain for sure.
How are you doing remote streaming with Jellyfin?
With the security vulnerabilities and the difficultly of setup, I use Emby.
tailscale is the easiest option. learning curve isn’t too bad, but definitely a hurdle for users.
I can write my own iptables so the learning curve isn’t really a problem, but making it easy for users is a lot more important.
I’m in the open, but have a proxy and a nested domain so it can’t be automatically port scanned. It’s a tradeoff I made for simpler setup for my family, and so far it’s been fine. I could do tailscale, but there’s no way my family would be in favor of it.
I never once found plex to be user friendly for me, it required me to leave my laptop running at all times or buy a dedicated pc for it. I find it infinitely easier to just Pirate what I want and put it on a usb stick or hdmi the laptop to the tv. For me plex was always a thing I felt I never had a use for
The server is indeed meant to be ran on a server by someone comfortable with running servers. I was referring to the clients mostly and connecting new clients.
it required me to leave my laptop running at all times or buy a dedicated pc for it.
Yeah, that’s not exactly a software issue … you can’t stream data out of thin air.
find it infinitely easier to just Pirate what I want and put it on a usb stick or hdmi the laptop to the tv.
That’s pretty cute, but get’s kind of tedious when you have thousands of movies and tens-of-thousand TV show episodes. That’s when you’ll see the need for a software like plex.
I can’t view thousands of movies and episodes at once, why would I want it all on my HD? Anyways, plex just seems like a bloated solution to a problem it invented.
Maybe you want to watch them later?
Anyway, I suggest you don’t use it then and keep on shuffling around with your usb stick.
As someone with too many shows and movies on my Plex, I agree with his methods.
My life would be simpler if I torrented, watched once, and deleted.
I disagree. What if you want to rewatch some old obscure show? Also I share my server with a bunch of people, it would be very hard to keep track of what everyone wants to watch with an on-demand system.
Also streaming services removing shows is one of my pet peeve, so I’m really against deleting anything.
I have moved my library to Jellyfin as of a few weeks ago. It’s really a step backwards in terms of polish and feature parity. It’s extremely annoying because Plex was such a set and forget app for me, especially because I was only using it to host content locally on my home network for streaming. I wasn’t able to move any of my metadata, poster images or subtitles over so I’m starting from scratch on over three thousand media files.
I’m glad there’s an alternative but what’s gonna stop Jellyfin from doing this same problem once their user base has grown and is firmly entrenched?
The march towards enshittification rolls on.
Jellyfin is fully open source, and GPL licensed. If the current maintainers start making it worse, the community can just fork it and keep going. They also have no control over what you do with it, unlike Plex which has centralized auth servers they could ban you from.
wasn’t able to migrate so much metadata and polish assets
Yeah, that’s what you get for taking the corpo solution.
If you paid for it, you don’t own it.
Hey look it’s One-Face.
tried JellyFin, and it’s just not there yet. lots of little things…
Good thing i got a lifetime PlexPass, like, 15 years ago when it was on sale for $35
The tons of bugs, there’s no Apple TV app, remote streaming is janky, the entire interface feels rough and cheap compared to Plexes shine and polish.
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that jelly fin is nowhere nearly as mature a piece of software as Plex is, and it really really shows. I’m not interested in “roughing it“. I’m sure I’ll try jelly fin later, maybe when it’s much more mature, but for now, I’m not interested.
Plex meets all of my needs, and I have a lifetime Plex pass, so I don’t have to worry about subscriptions.
$99 for “lifetime” infuse? No thanks.
Yes, I know there’s monthly but I had being slowly bled dry by subscriptions.
What little things? I’ve been using Jellyfin for a while now with very few complaints, but maybe I don’t know what I’m missing.
Plexamp.
Actually security out of the box.
A decent iOS app (including the TV) that is free.
Plexamp.
A server that doesn’t seem to forget my logon almost every time I try using it instead of plex
Tautulli
Strange, Jellyfin doesn’t log me out that often. Maybe a configuration difference?
I’ve heard about Jellyfin’s security before but my, admittedly limited, understanding is that it’s pretty limited in what an attacker could do. Granted I host behind tailscale anyway.
What’s Plexamp and Tautulli?
As a former Plex user who is on Jellyfin now, I’d say Smart Collections and playlists. Their are tools out there you can use to try to achieve similar results, but the Plex implementation is far better.
Unless I’m missing something, Jellyfin can do playlists just fine for my liking anyway.
What are Smart Collections?
You can essentially create a filter of any media type and then save it as a collection, as new things are added if they meet the criteria they are auto-added to the collection. So an example could be if you want documentaries to be their own collection you could create a smart collection with a filter of genre=documentary.
Some people are using their media servers way more intricately than I am hahaha. Wild to know what features are being implemented to enhance these services.
Interesting. Jellyfin doesn’t have something exactly like that afaik, but it does have genre categories. I don’t think a more robust category feature is really something I need personally though, so I don’t think I’m missing out.
The prices aren’t that bad. What is bad is the direction plex is going as a company.
I recently tried using the new Roku interface and holy fucking shit I’ve never wanted to buy a new TV and switch off of plex more in my life. Plus no /link or qr sign-in option? I am never. Ever. Going to use that app. Ever. My only hope is that it’s not a sign of what’s coming to other platforms, but if it’s not, then they are ok having inconsistent UX across platforms which is also concerning.
It’s obvious that plex is actively making user hostile choices in favor of short term profits.
Everyone is either saying I’m staying on plex or Move to jellyfin and I here just enjoying Emby. Its functional, easy to setup, and is a good middle ground for sharing without having to train people how to use it.
Yes, I paid for the license, and I know it isn’t foss so the potential for enshitification exists, but for now its fine.
My kids can use it, so can my inlaws, and its been reliable.
Emby would absolutely be my next move when/if I leave plex.
Good thing I moved over to Jellyfin
I got the lifetime Plex like 13 years ago. I gave up on it about five years ago.
What kind of moron uses a paid service in 2025?
If it’s paid, you do not own it.
Edit: lol power tripping asshole sad I criticized the decision they know was shit looking for an excuse to ban me. But we both know why.
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a “power tripping asshole”, just someone that has a different perspective on paid software.
I appreciate your views, as they lead to good discussion, but I won’t tolerate childish insults. I won’t ban you, but I will ask that you conduct yourself properly while sharing your opinions.
I use multiple paid services, including Plex, and I wouldn’t consider myself a moron.
I also don’t use derogatory language in a forum to make a point. Be civil or you’ll be removed.
If it’s paid, you do not own it.
Did you meant to say “free” here? Because that makes no fucking sense.
Nope. You’re just brainwashed by capitalism.
You pay, that shit’s proprietary, you didnt make it, you can’t see the insides. Why would any self respecting sociopath give you something without including a backdoor, data logging/tracking, and a string to pull it back?
You steal something, or download more anonymously, it isn’t immediately connected to you, it may not have the backdoors activated, and you probably cut that string when you acquired it. You might even have to fuck around in the guts and modify shit so it can’t be remotely bricked tracked etc.
Applies to housing too. The state wants me out, I’m out. Can happen for a lot of reasons, and no amount of obedience keeps you 100% safe. In a squat, ive already defended myself, proven their power, at least what they’re willing to exercise, cannot dislodge me. The place is truly mine.
You buy from the company store, you don’t own shit.
I never thought of it that way but you are 100% right. The “market” they love so much IS the company store!
Thank you for broadening my horizons.
Alright buddy, make sure to keep on that tinfoil hat.
Removed by mod
With happiness and glee they will follow to their deaths.
The only thing taken for me was the time and braincells from having to read your mental diarrhea.
Plex’s remote play works for me when I’m away from home - which is on starlink. Jellyfish does not, because starlink uses cgnat. 🤷
Find a proxy?
Can you share a free proxy that would work for them?
Otherwise you’d be recommending them use a paid service “like a moron”
Do you have friends? With internet connections? That’s how you do this.
So your suggestion is to convince a friend to let me tunnel all my Internet traffic through their connection, with no concern of uptime?
I mean yeah, I guess that works, but is unreliable, and in some cases unobtainable.
Seems like a paid service would be easier for quite a few folks.
(Not you, the other guy)
Or just the traffic you need to
I’ve done this for people. With a good connection, it’s fine.
This may shock you, but noncommercial relationships can be be helpful for fighting the oppression of corporate oligarchy.
My non-commercial relationships are fine. I just don’t have the time or energy to teach non-self-hosters the ramifications of me connecting tailscale or wire guard on their machines.
I guess you get a star sticker? Good for you that you have a solution that works for you, however it won’t work for most folks, and that doesn’t make them morons.
You mean like the one that Plex provides with Plex pass?
I haven’t been able to find a free proxy provider that is ok with streaming video. Closest I’ve found is CloudFlare, and video streaming isn’t permitted on their free tier.
Plex pass is a lot cheaper for me than paying for CloudFlare’s non-free tiers, especially since I got myself a lifetime pass 3 years ago.
deleted by creator
I’ve basically warned the people who use it that if they enshittify further I won’t be doing anything to try to maintain it.
I gave them a PSA not to get a subscription, because I got a lifetime pass ages ago, but if they do much else I’m out. I’ll maybe, depending on the changes, keep hosting it in case they want to keep using it, but I won’t maintain it properly (it auto-adds stuff from my folders, ofc, so that’ll still happen, but I won’t fix any mismatches and stuff). I’ve already stopped giving new people access to it, as the writing is on the wall.
I’m in the process of setting up jellyfin, but I have zero intention of making that available to anyone other than my partner (in IT, and already has access to my home VPN) because I’ve read how risky that is, and how you need to VPN them back to it or some shit and I’m just not willing to do any of that. Too risky and too much work cuz I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.
I’d love a middle ground, but I’m not sure I’m willing to pay for another closed-source platform, and Idk if any open source platforms are ever going to be particularly good for remote sharing for non-techie users.
Idk why so many people are afraid to share jellyfin servers. Mines been open to everyone and anyone for over a year with zero problems.
If you do that, great! Genuinely good for you. You probably know the risks and how to mitigate them, or fix them if they become problems. Or don’t care, that’s a valid option too.
I absolutely do not know the risks or how to mitigate them. I don’t want to fuck myself over doing something stupid against the consensus advice of basically everyone who ever talks about it. I don’t even fully understand how to make it accessible in the first place, despite having spent a few days looking into it on and off (same issue with sharing my calibre library, as it seems to be the same process). It’s way beyond my experience level, it’s intimidating, and frankly I’m not super interested in doing something that far out of my understanding comfort zone if it has any significant risks.
I know the risks. The most somoene could do is gain access to the things im already sharing without having to create a login first. Or i suppose they might be able to intentionally break things, but that would really be only minor inconvenience for me.
Most abuse i see these days is from LLMs ans automated scripts completely unrelated to jellyfin, fail2ban mitigates most of that easily.
Yeah, so like… those are mostly pretty big problems for me -and likely a whole lot of people who might want to get off Plex- that I don’t have a clue what to do with without dedicating probably weeks of time to learning properly, so… hard pass until the whole process is significantly safer or more streamlined.
This whole thing feels like this :p
