I've been in a multi year process to move my users off plex onto jellyfin. They just keep doing things I'm not a fan of
Selfhosted
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
-
No spam posting.
-
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
-
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
-
No trolling.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
Jellyfin has much better Syncplay than plex
release announcement:
Is there some trick to get it to work properly? Everytime I tried to use it, it works fine for like 10 minutes and then everyone desyncs to hell.
It's still better than Plex's which didn't work at all though.
"We’ve spent two years requiring our apps from the ground up to boost our development speed, which should enable us to bring new features to you more efficiently, across more platforms,"
... "and that's why we're deleting a bunch of features never to bring them back. Because we're just so efficient!" Crazy how many companies use this awful excuse.
Also is that a misquote by the author or did they really write "requiring"?
More often than not that is corporate speak for "we fired the old team and replaced them with cheaper workers. And we didn't want to pay them to learn the old code/they tried but failed, so we are dumping features now"
Removing old features so we can bring them back as paid features later on.
Misquotes are unlikely thanks to copy-paste. The post from Plex has been edited, so I think it was to correct that typo.
Lack of feature parity is the number one thing holding so many people back from switching to Jellyfin. Of Plex is going to start deleting beloved features, a lot of minds will be made up very quick.
This is a feature that Jellyfin natively has already. So now Jellyfin exceeds Plex in some areas.
Although Plex is running on your server it isn't there to do what you want.. unless Plex's real owner permits it.
That's how proprietary software works.
people still use plex after the last sneaky they pulled?
I paid for a lifetime pass like six years ago or more. It was definitely before Jellyfin was well known or well developed.
I'm probably gonna keep using it until they do the whole "lifetime is over" crap these kind of companies usually do.
I'll at least have gotten my moneys worth.
I paid for the lifetime pass maybe, 10 years ago? I dunno, it's been a very long time. It's still my primary. I've been trialing Jellyfin, but there are still enough quirks that my wife (non-techie at all) won't put up with, so yeah. That, and Plex makes it too easy to share outside my house, not sure where Jellyfin is at with it. I appreciate Jellyfin for what it is though, it has a lot of potential.
Just because you paid for it doesn't mean you can't switch to the better, free option.
Jellyfin is nowhere near the better option, it’s just a not-terrible dev.
Plex is refined and easy to get external users not familiar with tech up and running. Plex looks better. Plex transcodes better.
No hate for Jellyfin, just calling it how I see it.
What sneaky?
Got a plex lifetime sub like 7 years ago… As soon as Jellyfin allows downloads for offline viewing, I’m jumping ship. I know I’ll have to figure out TV listing data for OTA recordings, but that seems like a small price to pay. I’ve already got Jellyfin setup and running in my Kubernetes cluster for my video backups, but plex thus far “just works”.
Just an FYI that you can definitely download shows/movies to any device via Jellyfin - just did so on my tablet yesterday...jump ship!!
I know Findroid allows easy downloading and offline watching. Fladder (another newer Android client) also has downloading, haven't tried it myself yet.
As soon as Jellyfin allows downloads for offline viewing
Time to jump ship then...
Lame. I’ve used this feature a lot. It feels like such a basic thing to include.
SharePlay is a standard feature in Apple devices, and it handles it. But only in supported apps.
The pandemic showed how nice such a feature can be for a lot of people.
I'll sadly have to keep using Plex until jellyfish makes library sharing simple.
I have like 10 different family members using my server. If I have to do anything beyond just letting them log in to a plex account on the app to get access, they just won't.
I have like 10 different family members using my server. If I have to do anything beyond just letting them log in to a plex account on the app to get access, they just won't.
Umm that is all you need to do with jellyfin. You can setup wizarr and give them invites to create an account or just manually make them and give out the info to people.
Obviously they got outside pressure to remove this because of muh ease of piracy sharing
Honestly I really don't like how self hosted streaming services have been lumped into the same category as piracy. I have no issue buying media. If the law says I can't share it outside my household I will comply without arbitrary software locks.
My concern is that media companies will go after Jellyfin. They don't really need to win all they need to due is bankrupt everyone involved.
Switch to jellyfin, it's really at the point where it's ready for everyone
I run both Plex and Jellyfin. Jellyfin is ready for everyone who doesn’t have to deal with the Mother-in-Law Factor. Plex has an easy setup process, and I could walk my MIL through it on my phone. In 5 minutes, her TV was connected to my server.
Jellyfin isn’t to that point yet, and likely never will be. Since there’s no centralized server for an app to phone home to, there’s no way to create a unified account creation/login experience. Jellyfin is nice as a “just for me” server. But as soon as I have to help others use it, it becomes a nightmare. Walking my MIL through setting up Jellyfin on her TV was the reason I re-installed Plex in the first place.
I had finally converted my wife away from using paid streaming apps, and dealt with all of the “Why do I have to use three different apps to access it on my three different devices? They all look different and are harder to use” complaints. By the time it got around to my MIL, I was tired of dealing with it and just reinstalled Plex so people could have a consistent experience.
I still use Jellyfin for my personal viewing because I prefer it. But saying “just ditch Plex, Jellyfin is ready now” is a little disingenuous. Jellyfin is ready for the people who want to use it. But if you’re trying to convince people to ditch their streaming apps, you’re fighting a lot of social inertia. You need to be able to provide a consistent experience across their different devices, with a decent login experience. And Jellyfin definitely isn’t there yet.
I'm seeing a lot of love for Jellyfin in the comments. Seems like Jellyfin is finally mature enough to give a real shot.
Does anyone know how Emby is doing in relation to Plex feature parity?
It was a cool idea, but I could never get it to sync everyone's playback properly without constant buffering for all involved. We just sync manually by counting down from 3.
Good thing I chose jellyfin over plex. This is the main reason I got jellyfin.
Dang that's sucks, I never used it but it's neat in concept