Plex users, why? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 08:57 Hello! I’m just a guy who saw plex is on sale. My current setup uses jellyfin, I use FLAC music and 4k films. I use Finamp on my iPhone and the jellyfin desktop client. Now my question is, why? Both platforms are great but I’m a guy who likes all free. No farm, no foul to the lifetime pass users of plex though. But I’ll scroll and I’ll see: “100% worth it!” ; “I could never go back”. Now this doesn’t capture everyone’s opinions, but out of the features they display that make lifetime unique is Transcoding (something I think you should have a right to after owning the processor) and plexamp which, I cannot rate its experience, but from what I hear it’s solid. But I’ve also heard it’s got its bugs and downloads can be finicky. So, as a jellyfin user, why might I care or want to switch to plex? (I’m not ignoring the issues jellyfin has, I don’t really experience any though and bugs are minimal for my case) (I’ve posted in this sub instead of plex because I want mixed, not skewed results and yes I’ve searched the history, but I don’t think any question truly validates why transcoding or similar should be a $100+ “feature”. That’s snake oil marketing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 09:07 "Plex" is not on sale. Plex in its basic form is free. Some special features require a paid "Plex Pass" account subscription, that is what is on sale. If you have no idea why you might want to use Plex, forget about the sale. Just install and use Plex and see if its for you or not. The sale is not a "once in a lifetime chance that you need to grab now". > No farm, no foul Uhmm... > but out of the features they display that make lifetime unique is Transcoding (something I think you should have a right to after owning the processor) and plexamp which, I cannot rate its experience, but from what I hear it’s solid. But I’ve also heard it’s got its bugs and downloads can be finicky. Very debateable if you should have "a right to" use hardware transcoding just because you bought a CPU... it has nothing to do with Plex. After all, they need to make money somehow. One big difference between Jellyfin and Plex is that Jellyfin is a opensource project, Plex started as one a very long time ago but today they are a company that needs to make profits. So some features are locked behind the Plex Pass wall. Afaik Plexamp is no longer tied to Plex Pass. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 09:15 What do you want to hear? Plex was first. I think it was 14 years ago a fork of KODI and then moved from there. I’m using Plex since back then, bought the lifetime license when they still did not have paid features but **everything** was free and they just needed VC to expand the business. Since the last 14 years it all just worked. Yes, they dropped the RPi client and the Media Center (Home) version they once had. Now every device has a Plex app. Every TV, every mobile, tablet, you name it. It just works, on all devices, since forever. I never had any issue with it. I never used anything else to add to that because I never had the need to because nothing is missing and it works. Once I used it even with a TV tuner to record TV shows like *Sandmänchen* and this worked perfectly. They constantly add new features. The only thing I would complain about is that their clients got slower over the years. What was once a very responsive and simple client, is now lagging when you skip around on a TV from 2019, but even that can be solved by disabling the new UI features and disabling all background images and what not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- paloalt · 2023-11-21 09:24 Honestly this seems like sealioning. "Give me objective reasons why your subjective assessment of value is different from mine!". But anyway I'll bite. I use Plex in a large part because of transcoding. It means that my kids (4 and 7) and partner (not tech savvy) can stream content in a way that, in the main, 'just works', without me having to lift a finger. If you don't think that's worth $100, then that's great for you friend. I am **more** than happy to pay just so that I don't have to fight `ffmeg` to manually transcode episodes of *Hey Duggee.* Dunno about you but in my experience you've got about 5 seconds of frustration with kids or non-tech people before they abandon something, and Plex has Jellyfin beat on idiot-proof usability. I mean at the risk of sounding like a douche... $100? When I'm hooking up to a $500 processor and a $1500 graphics card? Yeah I'm fine to pay. Like u/thekrautboy I'm also a bit befuddled by the assertion that owning a processor gives you a "right" to transcode. I mean see above, yeah, go nuts with ffmeg or tdarr or whatever. Not the same thing at all. You'd need to be an RMS level open source absolutist to argue that Plex shouldn't be able to sell a service given their value add relative to the above mentioned products. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -quakeguy- · 2023-11-21 09:31 Plex lifetime pass would be worth it for me even if it’s didn’t have ANY features related to video playback. Just for PlexAmp alone. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 09:50 Technically Plex was a fork of XBMC, which later became Kodi ;) I am a fan of Plex myself, used it for more then a decade now, its great. I wasted hundreds of hours not only watching media but instead managing collections etc. But to say "it just works" eh, sorry but even myself as a "hardcore user" of it has to admit it definitely has its flaws. And the company deserves criticism too for many of their decisions over the past few years. Still, i use it and enjoy it. Jellyfin has a lot of potential and i hope they get some more developers onboard and push forward. The biggest flaw imo there is the UI/UX, Plex is just years ahead on that alone. My current setup is to just run both in parallel. Plex is my main mediaserver and thats what i use day-to-day. But each time Plex (or Plex.tv) acts up for whatever reasons, i dont need to waste hours fighting it and i simply ignore it and watch whatever on Jellyfin instead. When Plex works again, i switch back. Simple enough. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bobbler23 · 2023-11-21 09:53 There is no Jellyfin client for the majority of TVs in the built in app stores - certainly no one in my family has it on their LG, JVC or Samsungs. I don't want to have to instruct my 70 year old parents on how to sideload some app onto their telly when Plex is right in their built in appstore. I don't want to have to do tech support in a similar fashion for my builder brother in law who is frankly a tech Luddite either. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 09:55 Ah yes, the famous first Xbox media center. Now I remember, but I never used it. I have over 400TB content in Plex (*arr suite) and it really just works, even the Anime of my kids which comes in so many languages and dubs/subs I can’t even count them. The only thing I can add that I use Tdarr with two A40 to convert all my media to x264 AC3 (because Samsung dropped DTS from their TV’s in 2018 or something). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 10:00 I absolutely believe you that you never had any issues at all with Plex and thats great! But within my circle of friends who have used it for years, we had all sorts of issues. Does that mean Plex is a bad choice or terrible software? No not really. Especially not when the only proper competitor is Jellyfin and sadly in its current state, it cannot compete with Plex on all fronts. Hopefully in the near future it will. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 10:02 What issues do you mean specifically? Transcoding issues? Streaming issues? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Krieg · 2023-11-21 10:08 \- Hardware transcoding is VERY good with modern Quicksync. \- Variety of clients. \- The GUI is actually really good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 10:09 I cant recall specifics over the years. Just ranging from being weird when recognizing new media files (even tho paths/filenames were perfect etc) to collections disappearing etc. But most annoying are of course playback issues. Thankfully ever since i bought a Shield Pro for playback those are mostly gone. What remains constantly tho are issues when internet connection is down, Plex behaves terribly, even with the known "fixes" applied. It just relies on cloud services too much, timeouts in the app are way too long which leads to crashes and a very bad experience. I can sort of understand that when i would launch the client app and internet is down, that the first start takes longer while it tries to connect, eventually gives up and then continues in "offline mode" but thats not the case, it eventually does start but keeps trying to load metadata etc from the internet (even tho the plex media server is of course available), and the worst of all, it even stops current playback if internet goes out while i watch something. And for that specifically there shouldnt be any real technical reason at all, imo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Vogete · 2023-11-21 10:15 I use both Jellyfin and Plex (years without any payment, now with lifetime pass), and while I do prefer Jellyfin, others in my family don't. We have both, Everyone has their own preference, but at the end of the day, we use whatever works. Sometimes one of them gets annoying or not work at all, so we switch to the other. Plex video scrubbing is so much faster than Jellyfin for example, but at the same time Jellyfin actually plays some movies that Plex doesn't want to (sometimes vice versa). Or I can switch accounts on my Android TV in jellyfin, but I can't do that in Plex. They both have their own quirks, use whatever you think is best for you. Or both. Or throw Emby in too, and use any of the 3 ones that work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ryck · 2023-11-21 10:19 Well, multiple reasons really: 1. Plex was first (by a long shot) 2. More (and nicer) clients available 3. Better UIs / more polished experience 4. Less friction for non tech users 5. Lots of nice tools (tautulli, PMM, etc) 6. Etc But the main reason for me to have a Plex pass is not the features (the core functionality is free after all) but to support a product I really like and use everyday, so to me a life pass is a no brainer, I don't want the guys to go away... That being said, nothing wrong with Jellyfin, is actually good to have alternatives (I also have Jellyfin installed so I can keep tabs on it). But if you are happy with it, keep using it! (or just spin a plex container to see what the fuss is about, is free!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SteveM363 · 2023-11-21 10:52 I use Plex so that my family can watch my media on their TV's. They all have modern TV's but none of them so far come with Jellyfin clients. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ArtificeAdam · 2023-11-21 11:03 I'm a quasi-techy with a userbase of one. I haven't tried Jellyfin or any of the alternatives, and I'm not a power-user with all the bells and whistles for things like PMM, Tautalli, Sonarr/Radarr etc so take what I say with a pinch of salt. "It's really nice." I wanted my own Netflix. It's super easy to add things, to edit the metadata, customise my libraries and display art. I tried it before anything else and because I literally just want something that manages my films and TV stuff, it does everything I need it to. If you ever had the satisfaction of going through an itunes library and tidying all the metdata from MP3s you pulled from Kazaa, Limewire, Soulseek etc, it's a bit like that for me. Dopamine-triggering organisation wrapped up in a pretty package that I can add prerolls to when I want that 'cinema' vibe. Is it the best? Yes? No? Maybe? Am I happy I got the plex pass? Absolutely. "There are many installations like it, but this one is mine." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BankjaPrameth · 2023-11-21 11:05 Plex app is better Jellyfin user management is easier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 11:05 Okay that I can agree on but you are aware that you can cache all of Plex’s web requests so Plex works 100% offline and does not need any direct internet access? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FormerPassenger1558 · 2023-11-21 11:21 you also pay with your data, perpetual ---------------------------------------------------------------------- makeitasadwarfer · 2023-11-21 11:26 It’s not snake oil marketing to charge for features so companies can pay for development. Youre free to code your own transcoder or spend the time to implement another open source back end of you don’t want to pay. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Shulya · 2023-11-21 11:39 Plex transcoding quality is better, simply. See my post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/zunq6l/comme nt/j1m7lgv/?context=3). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jqydon · 2023-11-21 11:41 Plex is still on top for sharing your server with others and offers clients on so many more platforms. My TV for example is a Samsung and there is no Jellyfin app for it. I run both side by side because I prefer jellyfin for use on my devices but there’s a time where having plex there is useful ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 11:49 No, my Plex is offline since years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-11-21 11:56 > Now my question is, why? jellyfin isn't nearly as polished as plex. it's like running windows 98. emby looks better than jellyfin! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jwiggins0123456789 · 2023-11-21 12:16 I bought the lifetime pass many many many many many years ago when it was cheap.. dirt cheap and love it.... my family uses Plex daily. We have no paid streaming services and no paid TV services just Plex. Only thing I cannot make work in Plex well is IPTV as xTeve just sucked and was constantly dropping channels because the Channel Guide Feed would have an issue when it was refreshed and Plex would say "sorry no guide no channel" and just mark it not available. It was a weekly fight. I have over 150,000 FLAC audio files and tons of 4k movies and TV Shows. Kids love to watch their shows and movies as do my wife and I. I have Jellyfin setup for IPTV and have used it off and on for years. The iOS client has remained "okay but clunky to me." I mean it works, but really gets no love no real updates and while I dont have a great need for Transcoding with Plex it is nice to have that feature. The Roku client is the same. I have mostly Roku TCL 4K TVs and streamers and that client has looked the same and clunky for years. Again it works (explodes occasionally but really it does work pretty solidly) but Plex just brings so much more to it to the media you are watching. Would I pay the higher price for PlexPass now if I did not own it or just use and live with JellyFin? I would most likely still pay the price (on sale when they send me the discount code) and get the deal. It is just worth it to me. Also the home user lock down features like I can share specific libraries or just specific TV shows or movies with my kids I like with Plex. Not sure If I can even do that with JellyFin (never researched it so it might be there). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tankerkiller125real · 2023-11-21 12:18 Plex uses ffmpeg for encoding/decoding... They didn't write the software to do it. They, like everyone else, used open source software and just figured out the correct commands to get it to do what they need. So that argument at least is BS. It should also be noted that the Jellyfin transcoder for the vast majority of people is "select the right GPU option, and you're done". The screen looks complex because they allow users to customize the hell out of the transcoding process. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacob_Evans · 2023-11-21 12:19 I do wish they would go back to the old way of downloading media to your devices, ever since they changed it over to their new system it has been absolute garbage for me. I can't sync anything to my devices because of it. Beyond that, I am super happy with my purchase of a lifetime plex pass. Got it years ago and am super happy with it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zn448sk39 · 2023-11-21 12:23 Jellyfin does not have a global auth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 12:33 What are you talking about. [This](https://ibb.co/qm8mhq7) works flawlessly, just tested it 5' ago. I used it once pre flight to have my videos offline available on my tablet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 12:39 Hmm interesting.You mean like a caching squid proxy? One example i just found: https://blog.mqbx.nl/2020/04/10/force-plex-media-server- to-use-squid-proxy/ Never thought of that, i have my doubts it would completely solve the offline behaviour issue but i love spending a few hours on trying stuff haha. I might give this a try tonight or tomorrow :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 12:43 Correct. I use Nginx with DNS for this to redirect all request for plex.tv to my Nginx, and there I have rules applied and caching headers to mitigate the need for direct internet access. Plex has internet access via that proxy for plex.tv, but I’m in control what I allow and what not and I can “fake” that Plex thinks it’s online. I know this is more advanced, and would be nice if it would work out of the box and there would be no need for such a “hack”, but technically, it works, Plex is offline and I still get metadata. By the way, it’s always a good and great way to think of the WAN as forbidden for all services and to check how you can take a system offline that needs access to WAN resources via caching or reverse proxies. [Here](https://github.com/11notes/docker-windows-update- cache) is another example from me, to take Windows Update offline (not WSUS!). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lopoetve · 2023-11-21 12:54 1. No app. Just web required 2. No user management - that's handled by someone else (Plex) 3. Stupid simple (app for everything) so end users (family) don't have to... figure it out. Thus fewer IT tickets for me. 4. Just works. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 12:56 > Plex uses ffmpeg for encoding/decoding... Thanks i am well aware what they, and also Jellyfin and Emby, use. > They didn't write the software to do it. They, like everyone else, used open source software and just figured out the correct commands to get it to do what they need. So that argument at least is BS. I disagree that "ffmpeg + a few commands" equals a media streaming server. And that extra effort is what i was refering to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 13:01 Gonna give it a try, thanks :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AtticusGhost · 2023-11-21 13:08 My Jellfin server has crashed a few times for no ryhme or reason without having touched it for a couple of weeks (no patches, no watchtower for docker, just dead). Plex has been fine. Plex has proper intro skipping. I was able to set up parental controls on Plex very quickly without any headache. The wife/kid factor. Plex was/is easier for them. The amount of time I have invested into managing Plex over the past decade is still less than I have into managing Jellyfin in the past 3 years. Lifetime plexpass was gifted to me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dcgog · 2023-11-21 13:57 I’ve never used jellyfin so I can’t compare. But plex has always worked well for me and I believe in paying for software that I enjoy using. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HTTP_404_NotFound · 2023-11-21 14:01 Why? Because I picked up a lifetime pass over 10 years ago, long before Jellyfin/Emby was even heard of. Back then, it worked perfectly fine, and now it works, perfectly fine. It has a good app on my Rokus/Shields. It just works. When, it stops working, or they pull something stupid, I have Jellyfin already ready to go. Until then though, plex reigns king. (Also, I like its interface more then Jellyfin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Feliwyn · 2023-11-21 14:19 My two cents. I was using plex for multiple years (hosted in hetzner DC). I got blacklisted recently. Then the question jellyfin or Emby was asked. The reply was simple. I'm not alone using it. My mother don't want to learn to install software or any other shit. She need to start the TV, go to the store and type whatever it is (plex,emby,jellyfin). The things is, plex was first, and there is plenty official app. Emby is following them. Jellyfin has almost no official app on TV, PS4/5, or what so ever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GratefulGolfer · 2023-11-21 14:23 PlexAmp is free now :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JaJe92 · 2023-11-21 14:26 I like Plex due to legacy compatibility. I have an old Samsung TV from 2012 and Plex still works on that. I don't need to pay anything and I can see my movies everywhere in the world thanks to vpn hosting. It does exactly what I need. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 14:29 Done setting it up. Tbh i never bothered with any caching proxies before, im only aware they exist haha. First thought was to deploy squid or nginx directly on the same host as PMS. But then i decided to make it a bit simpler just for testing and i enabled the squid that is builtin my OPNsense, configured it first as plain HTTP and added a fw redirect rule, tested with curl on the PMS host, working. Added a CA for selfsigned certs and HTTPS inspection, enabled that too, another fw rule, imported cert on the PMS host, test with curl... works too. Restarting the PMS and doing things like full metadata refresh on a library i see the activity in the squid access log and i see the cache folder growing in size. I think im going to leave it running like this for a while and then try blocking WAN to see how PMS reacts then. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- terAREya · 2023-11-21 14:47 For me plex just seems to be better in all aspects. It is more "polished". Quick example, I have more than a few movies that are in 2 parts (moviename\_cd1.mp4, moviename\_cd2.mp4). In plex I see one poster for the movie and when it plays it seamlessly plays both in sequence. In jellyfin I get two posters for the same movie. Very small issue but it is one of many that keep me in plex, ​ Add to this that the plex app on mobile, smart tv, appletv, toaster, etc just works. If I want to let my family or friends watch something its simple. Further, plexamp is fantastic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- purepersistence · 2023-11-21 14:54 I moved from plex to jellyfin. I was on plex at first because I was a noob at docker, and plex had a simple package install for my Synology. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jkirkcaldy · 2023-11-21 14:58 Same reason people pay for windows instead of using Linux for gaming. You can accomplish the same task on both but one has more support and is more mature. Plex has more quality of life features than jellyfin. And for most, that is worth the cost and closed source nature of Plex. If you’re happy with jellyfin there is no need to switch. Especially to free Plex. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 15:01 Redirect via DNS? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheRealSeeThruHead · 2023-11-21 15:05 Jellyfin isn’t even close to the level of polish and ease of use as plex. It’s junk when compared side by side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 15:13 That would be the easy option yeah :) But honestly i dont feel so confident that just a few domains that plex should contact will be definitely those that it ever will contact... something might sneak by etc. I just added those proxy lines from the link i mentioned before to the systemd on the plex host, disabled the fw rules, appears to work. Now PMS uses the transparent proxy for http and https with caching, but the Docker containers on the same machine dont. Going to run this for a day or two to build more cache, restart it a few times etc, and then "pull the plug" and see what happens offline :) Thanks for the ideas! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Diskfix · 2023-11-21 15:13 I used to selfhost both at once and try them but Jellyfin used a ton of RAM when idle. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire_Duchess · 2023-11-21 15:13 well the app is free and only allows to stream, if you want some features like DOWNLOAD your music, you need to pay for that. 🥲 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bonzai11 · 2023-11-21 15:17 It’s cheap, has more features and just works. The cost for me was <$100 at least 4-5+ years ago and my only issue has been a metadata DB corruption due to an unplanned shutdown. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 15:21 As long as it works. Glad to be of inspiration 😝. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 15:29 As long as it appear to work. hehe ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GratefulGolfer · 2023-11-21 15:38 Alternatively, you can just load the music on to your phone and listen to it when you're offline. But if you want a nice app and a convenient way to manage offline music on your phone then PlexPass is definitely worth it. I have never come across a community so resistant to give back. $100 is an absolute steal for a lifte time PlexPass. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PuckSR · 2023-11-21 15:48 First, lets get all of this cleared up. **Plex came first**. It was a fork of XBMC(which became Kodi). Technically, most users could just run Kodi with a central library database and get most of the same benefits. The problem is that would primarily work for local players and wouldn't work well for remote operations. Plex got ridiculously popular back in the day because it had the same attitude as Kodi when it came to addons. There were a ridiculous number of addons that essentially made piracy seamless. So, Plex was a popular option for people who wanted to pirate movie streams, organize media, and do a lot of other things. This is when Plex started to surpass Kodi in popularity. **Emby came second**, as an open-source alternative to Plex. One difference was that it never really allowed plugins in any significant way and therefore didnt get as popular. When Emby went closed source a few years ago, some people forked it off into Jellyfin. **Jellyfin came last.** Plex and Emby had closed source their products primarily because of remote transcoding. So for quite a while, the transcoding on Jellyfin was trash. It also had a number of weird quirks and bugs. It was fairly half-baked. I personally bought Plex lifetime after Jellyfin came out because Jellyfin wasn't mature and Emby cost money too. ​ At the end of the day, Plex has actually gone backwards in features because they are trying to be a more acceptable product. This means fewer mods for piracy features and they've killed some of the other features while adding in their "free streaming" options and some other questionable decisions. But Emby has died and Jellyfin is still a poor substitute. Can you use Jellyfin? Absolutely. Wouldn't even blame you if you do it. You can also run Kodi as described. But I absolutely felt it was worth it to stop fiddling with Jellyfin and just run something that worked and rarely crashed, had errors, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FormerPassenger1558 · 2023-11-21 15:52 Genuinely interested: how you do that ? (I had Plex and I needed internet to log-in) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- new_ff · 2023-11-21 15:59 >Beyond that, I am super happy with my purchase of a lifetime plex pass. Got it years ago and am super happy with it. Well I think the issue is that it's not working for some people as it was before. In my case some files will download but then error out on completion inexplicably. On top of that there's some issues with updating subtitles. It works ok most of the time but not all the time. Nothing comes close to functionality of Plex though and overall very happy about it! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tbleiker · 2023-11-21 16:01 I really like "Discover" in combination with the play/watch list. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- new_ff · 2023-11-21 16:03 I think it's a big trend with a particular slice of selfhosted users that just cannot possibly imagine making something that serves the majority of people with ease-of-use, which is an absolute corner stone of any technology, while sacrificing some level of customizability. The fact they posted this question like they did speaks absolute volumes. Why is it so hard to understand? It's not for everyone, nothing is. And let's be honest, $100 is not a lot of money for a lifetime subscription of anything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stolenpenny · 2023-11-21 16:28 Is this a jellyfin shitposting sub now? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrkesu · 2023-11-21 16:31 Plex has gotten worse and worse over the years. The second Jellyfin supports Tizen I will probably switch (Samung TV OS) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- theBird956 · 2023-11-21 16:37 As soon as jellyfin is as polished as Plex, I am making the switch. Seriously. Plex has very nice features, but I don't like where it is going. With Jellyfin it's the exact opposite. I think it will still take a while before Jellyfin is ready, but when it is, I'll make the switch. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 16:40 I was reading a bit below. This is very cool! Also, I appreciate everyone can respect the greatness and flaws of the software they use. I do have plex setup myself, but more in the reverse. Jellyfin is my main, plex is my backup. I don’t want to move my family to a different client if I don’t have to. I will consider deepening my understanding of why I might care for plex as a main! Cause it’s more or less what’s better, and is one of these services $150 better. Basically a year of a streaming service! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 16:44 Fair. Nice to know it’s free, just not the download part. Kinda like have Spotify just with partial premium. Finamp works, but from what I understand, jellyfin can transcode the file so it’s smaller no? I’m not sure how this affects FLAC but! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 16:44 Okay, so something I should consider is client support. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 16:45 Yes this is definitely seen! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- skc5 · 2023-11-21 16:46 Client support is pretty much the biggest differentiator. That and you don’t have to pay to get Jellyfin hw transcoding ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 16:53 $100 is just a lost for me to consider as a college student. On the contrary, someone else can tell me that it’s not hard to make money, and to just get a job. Otherwise, I’ve gone through the (minuscule amount of effort for setting up jellyfin) so it seems silly to me as why I’d pay for the other (easy to setup client that requires cloud integration) when I’m not from 10 years ago where one less option was available. Now let me make it clear there is nothing wrong with buying this if you enjoy it. Your money, your choice. I’m just looking for a little more user insight. A comparison of both ball parks and what they might offer. Fanboys will fanboy, I don’t think my option is better than there’s or vice versa. Just seeking mostly general thoughts of what made it worth it to others. Maybe I can relate and I’ll drop the $100! I apologize if I seem like I’m just here to stir drama or seem like I’m telling you you’re wrong or something else. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 17:00 Fair, and I get it! I guess I’ve just yet to experience issues regarding movie playback or transcoding considering I can’t do playback since my internet is too slow for 4k right now. Do I need 4k? Hell na. It does work when I downscale to 720p. In your experience though, does Plex have issues with transcoding where the image color changes? Not that this alone would make me jump ship but it something to consider. I think this issue is from HDR content though. I’m not here to say your choice sucks, I just want your by choice given reasoning why I might enjoy the product! Thank you. In a shitty way I’m asking for anyones unbiased opinion on both and how one doing x, y, or z better makes it objectively worth its money. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 17:01 Does quick sync only work with Intel cpus? I have a AMD so… Not that this makes Plex not an option. Just curious where it would measure up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 17:03 Thank you! I’ll give it another run. Just bought a hard drive to expand storage for media so if there’s a better time to debate what I want to mainly use. It’s probably now? Not that its difficult to setup either (from my experience) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 17:04 I’ve never used Emby. I will agree though, I just need to use Plex more to not be ignorant of these differences. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 17:12 User management does exist in jellyfin and you can control what library as well as ratings. You make a good point to. Plex being for profit, can do stuff with the money. In reality, I’d be making an investment into the company which yes incurs its own risks but that’s life. Thank you, and I will definitely give Plex another shot when I go home today! Will I buy the pass? I’m not sure. I’m more convinced it could be the better option though, even though one is free. I also would love to see jellyfin grow and although I have coding experience, I haven’t the time to invest in learning and adding to a project like itself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 17:25 Subtitles: Bazarr. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-21 17:29 Reverse proxy (Nginx) and DNS remapping all Plex url like plex.tv to that proxy. There apply rules for caching and filters to only allow metadata download and block the rest and fake that its online by providing a legitimate token. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jwiggins0123456789 · 2023-11-21 17:31 Well look at Plex as “Free with Paid Extras” you may not need. A lot of people do t pay for it. My father in law uses it and watches the free stuff from Plex cause he likes the old clean TV shows and he has access to my Plex server at no cost as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FormerPassenger1558 · 2023-11-21 17:33 ok, got it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wsamh · 2023-11-21 17:45 I've been a jellyfin user for the past 3 years and it's been great. I did not like the fact that I need a login to view my locally hosted media. It is also bloated. There are features that I wish jellyfin had, but I'm sticking with it and willing to wait. I'm not going back to plex. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JoeB- · 2023-11-21 18:07 In a nutshell, I have no interest in the feature bloat being introduced into Plex. I want a simple media server. Jellyfin provides this, and includes basic features like hardware transcoding and live-TV. I migrated from Plex \[free\] to Jellyfin a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. I also am in the Apple ecosystem and pay $10 USD per year for the [**Infuse**](https://firecore.com/infuse) app, which is more polished IMO than both the native Jellyfin and Plex clients. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Factual_Signage · 2023-11-21 18:08 Jellyfin is not ready for primetime yet. Plex just works still. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-21 18:31 Thank you for the explanation! I’m curious about the old Plex. I’ve heard the same about the new though. Installed first and sure I hooked up my libraries but I like jellyfin cause it doesn’t have all the “bloat” but I hear you can “disable it” as well so ---------------------------------------------------------------------- openbex · 2023-11-21 18:32 That sounds great! By any chance do you have any guide or reading material about your setup? I already have NPM set for plex and also AdGuard Home setup but I’d love to fake my online status! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- new_ff · 2023-11-21 18:47 Yeah of course it's great and i have it setup, but it ain't perfect. Some not so popular shows (i.e. french shows with English subtitles) ends up with some issues sometimes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MalcolmY · 2023-11-21 18:54 Would you explain how? I think we all want this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Qxt78 · 2023-11-21 21:04 I run Jellyfin on a pi4 with 9 users watching at the same time. My memory usage is never past 1.2Gb? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mixedd · 2023-11-21 21:15 Yes, it's by far biggest difference between them. Good example is, I use plex on my xbox from time to time (my TV can't handle some of the streams I throw at it) and there is no Jelly app for it, also same song for TV itself, old Samsung Tizen TV, that have only Plex app available. Second thing I would say it's user interface and maturity of client apps, for Plex they seem more polished then they are for Jelly ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2023-11-22 12:42 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrpink57 · 2023-11-22 23:34 I just switched with this latest sale to plex from jellyfin and here is so far as to why. * Subtitles just work * Remote play is seamless * This includes consistent transcoding * Chromecast works on iOS! * Clients are 1000% better * There are clients for almost every platform * Skip Intro! * Skip Credits! To add about my server, it is a xeon 1231 v3, 32gb ram, 20tb raidz1 and a nvidia p2000 on a 200/200 fiber connection (using pfsense). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrpink57 · 2023-11-22 23:37 [https://trash-guides.info/Bazarr/](https://trash-guides.info/Bazarr/) Recommend looking at this guide for bazarr and other arr's. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-11-25 04:10 Interesting. What would you say about the clients is better? I know the UI is more polished but again I hate all the extras shoved right at you before your media. (My opinion of course so not true for everyone) Also download music? Or videos too? Cause that’d be cool to download a movie. I hardly go without internet right now though but I like the thought of it! Awesome regardless though! Glad you’re happy! I’m still on the fence myself. The sale is tempting. I’d like the ability to refund though and I don’t know how I feel about somethings still. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrpink57 · 2023-11-25 04:38 Clients just work, no matter what I have tried with the jellyfin client on android tv it always fails on first or second load up, also subtitles never quite work as smoothly as they could. You can download movies or tv shows from your library so you could watch them while without internet, nice for road trips or flights. Also I use [https://trash-guides.info/](https://trash-guides.info/) for all my setup for subtitles and no matter what I tweak they just are always a little off with jellyfin, no so with plex.