[HN Gopher] Jellyfin: Free Software Media System
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       Jellyfin: Free Software Media System
        
       Author : marcodiego
       Score  : 66 points
       Date   : 2021-09-26 21:24 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (jellyfin.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (jellyfin.org)
        
       | sergiotapia wrote:
       | I've used Plex, currently on Emby - why should I switch to
       | Jellyfin, they seem identical? Almost a fork really. Appreciate
       | the info, this is a real question and I can make the switch
       | easily enough :)
        
       | hbcondo714 wrote:
       | One feature I would like to see catch on is having media center
       | software come with a router. Plex does this[1] which means you
       | can use the USB drive on a router to store and stream your media
       | files without extra components like a NAS. Simple setup, I would
       | like to see routers as clients[2] for Jellyfin.
       | 
       | [1] https://support.plex.tv/articles/230934267-netgear-
       | nighthawk...
       | 
       | [2] https://jellyfin.org/clients/
        
       | jchw wrote:
       | I switched off of Emby to Jellyfin a fairly long time ago. It's
       | pretty good. I've had some annoying issues upgrading my instance
       | over time, but otherwise it generally works. The ecosystem is
       | also a bit young, but I have no huge complaint about the apps.
       | Finamp is pretty nice for example; it's a Jellyfin client
       | optimized for music playback.
        
       | cookiecaper wrote:
       | Jellyfin doesn't run on FreeBSD because .NET doesn't run on
       | FreeBSD. This is sad.
        
       | querez wrote:
       | In contrast to most people in this thread, I don't find Jellyfin
       | to be an all-around great experience. Maybe because I run the JF
       | client on a Google Chromecast, and the "Jellyfin for Android TV"
       | app is very unstable. I get roughly one crash a day, mostly when
       | restarting a movie-watching. The UI is okay, but there are a lot
       | of small annoyances (why is there no "restart from beginning"
       | button? Why can't I use the "wheel/cursor thing" on my remote to
       | go forward/back?, why does it so often fail to automatically
       | recognize/parse filenames, or download cover art? Why can't a
       | folder contain both movies and tv series?).... All in all, it's
       | mediocre at best, but I'm still glad it exists: despite
       | everything, I still use it over other alternatives, because it's
       | open source and works well enough. I can live with having to
       | restart the client every now and then.
        
       | comice wrote:
       | I only use Plex because they have a native LG webos app.
       | 
       | jellyfin has one too and are currently in the process of getting
       | into the official LG app store, awesome!
       | 
       | it was rejected a couple of times for some bugs the LG reviewers
       | found, all of which are fixable and being worked on. looks pretty
       | much a done deal.
        
         | zain wrote:
         | Where do you keep track of the LG app status? I'd love to track
         | the progress too
        
       | jszymborski wrote:
       | I've been a Plex-to-Jellyfin convert for a long while now, and
       | I've nothing bad to say. I switched because Plex kept pushing
       | their streaming services, and the fuzzy feeling I get from
       | running FOSS.
       | 
       | Jellyfin used to run on my desktop which has a beefy CPU/GPU, but
       | runs fine on my puny Synology NAS.
        
         | awill wrote:
         | I'm with you. I wish Plex they didn't offer a lifetime plex
         | pass, because one-time payments are likely the cause of Plex
         | needing to do all this extra stuff no one asked for to further
         | monetize.
         | 
         | I check out Jellyfin periodically, but the last time I checked
         | it isn't quite ready to replace Plex for me. All the apps (ios,
         | Android, Android TV) aren't great, crash, and I don't think the
         | codec support or audio passthrough support was that good.
         | Hopefully in the future.
        
         | candiddevmike wrote:
         | How difficult is the transition from Plex to Jellyfin, do you
         | lose any capabilities?
         | 
         | Also what's the fuzzy feeling you get running FOSS? Do you
         | contribute to the project?
        
           | rglullis wrote:
           | Just being an user of a FOSS system is already a huge
           | contribution. It provides a good feedback loop for developers
           | and brings motivation for the teams to solve issues that are
           | sidelined when no one seems to care.
           | 
           | Granted, FOSS developers don't live off user feedback alone,
           | but if you depend on 1% of your user base becoming faithful
           | financial backers, the more users you have, the better it is.
        
           | executive wrote:
           | - no Samsung Tizen app yet, have to use FireTV/Roku app/DLNA
           | streaming. Have not tried development version
           | (https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-tizen)
           | 
           | - no offline download in iOS app. Can use browser UI and
           | download mkv to device.
        
         | endisneigh wrote:
         | I'm curious - why does it matter if Plex is pushing their
         | streaming services? Isn't it really easy to ignore?
        
           | executive wrote:
           | Jellyfin UI is cleaner, no upsell buttons and does not tie
           | everything to cloud account.
        
           | oliwarner wrote:
           | You can actually toggle them all off in the settings. You'll
           | never see them in a client after that.
           | 
           | I have no problem with Plex doing this. They're trying to
           | show value for a service rather than just gatekeeping premium
           | convenience features.
           | 
           | My problem with Plex is the utter distain they show for users
           | by not having any sort proper bug triage. Users throw
           | themselves at a forum that staff members rarely interact
           | with. It's desperate.
        
         | MikusR wrote:
         | Seeing how Jellyfin runs on raspberry pi 4 your Synology must
         | be very fast with lots of ram.
        
           | y4mi wrote:
           | It might just have hardware support for relevant codecs. They
           | often do, which gives them a massive advantage when playing
           | media files.
        
             | MikusR wrote:
             | It only hosts the files.
        
               | fragmede wrote:
               | Plex, its costs-money competition, transcodes files for
               | playback (using `ffmpeg` or `libav` iirc). Is `jellyfin`
               | less capable in this department then or something else?
        
               | wolrah wrote:
               | Hosting files takes almost no CPU power. If you're
               | running in to trouble on anything you're transcoding,
               | which means converting the files from the format they're
               | in on disk to something else for streaming (usually to
               | reduce the bitrate for internet transmission or because
               | the player doesn't support the native format).
               | 
               | If you aren't streaming over the internet, disable
               | transcoding and you're more or less only limited by
               | bandwidth.
        
               | MikusR wrote:
               | No transcoding. Jellyfin simply running uses too much ram
               | (like 10 times plex does) so pi runs out of memory and
               | starts swapping.
        
           | jszymborski wrote:
           | It's got 4Gb RAM and 4 cores at 2.2Ghz. (RPi4 has 1.5Ghz if
           | I'm reading Wiki right).
           | 
           | It's certainly not as quick as on my desktop, but it's rare
           | if 2 people in my household stream video from it so no
           | trouble so far.
           | 
           | I have only recently switched from desktop to NAS though, so
           | perhaps I'll notice the performance later on.
        
           | machrider wrote:
           | I'm running Jellyfin on a recent Intel-based Synology (they
           | also have cheaper ARM CPU models), and it can transcode
           | H.265->H.264 on the fly using about 50% CPU. It also runs in
           | a Docker container so it's pretty easy to manage. I'm a big
           | fan!
        
         | notesinthefield wrote:
         | How much of your use is audio streaming? I'm dying to make my
         | collection remotely accessible after leaving the Plex
         | ecosystem.
        
           | napkin wrote:
           | Just try Navidrome!
        
           | jszymborski wrote:
           | In the past I wasn't super thrilled by Jellyfin's audio
           | streaming (nor Plex's tbh).
           | 
           | I'm auditioning Subsonic at the moment, but I might give
           | Ampache a go soon (it's apparently having a bit of a revival
           | at the moment).
        
             | hardwaresofton wrote:
             | Also check out funkwhale!
        
               | rglullis wrote:
               | I want to say +1 for funkwhale, but I didn't get it to
               | work with the subsonic client and haven't found yet a way
               | to download/cache songs from my library on the phone.
               | Have you figured this out?
        
             | gh02t wrote:
             | Airsonic is also nice. I was a long time (paying) Subsonic
             | user, but got a bit fed up with it and migrated.
        
       | whoisburbansky wrote:
       | Tangential note about Plex; if you're like me and are
       | disappointed by the default buffering behavior in Plex basically
       | making it near-impossible to seek between already-buffered
       | positions easily, I've been using
       | https://github.com/iwalton3/plex-mpv-shim to cast Plex from my
       | phone to mpv on my linux media box with great success.
        
       | clutch89 wrote:
       | I love Jellyfin, but its inability to Chromecast from iOS is a
       | dealbreaker. I think they're working on a whole new iOS app
       | though that has a working chromecast button -
       | https://github.com/jellyfin/Swiftfin
        
         | jacobmischka wrote:
         | Sadly, Chromecast is essentially broken on Android too and has
         | been for about a year. Stable version of the Chromecast plugin
         | in the app is ancient and the nightly version doesn't work with
         | stable server.
        
       | reddog wrote:
       | I have moved from Plex to Emby and finally to Jellyfin to run the
       | Raspberry Pi media server in my camping van. The problem with
       | Plex and Emby (other than their business model of wanting to
       | collect a monthly fee for allowing you to watch _your_ _own_
       | media) was that they required the server to phone home before
       | they would work. This isn 't possible if you are camping and
       | don't have a cell/wifi signal.
       | 
       | And Jellyfin has worked well. The server and clients aren't as
       | slick as Plex but they work just fine and give me a lot more
       | flexiblity in moving media from my home server to the van since
       | the way they store the media metainfo is the same on the Mac OS
       | and the RPi OS.
        
         | napkin wrote:
         | If you're looking for a slick cross-platform Jellyfin client in
         | the Apple ecosphere, try Infuse. It's quite polished, and even
         | available for tvOS- my personal motivation for using it.
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-26 23:00 UTC)