Honest question, because I know multiple people who are not looking to jump ship since they already have the Plex Pass.
Problem is access outside your home for family and friends.
There are serious security gaps that make it a non starter to expose to the internet.
I’ve been using Jellyfin ever since they forked out of Emby, and honestly, it’s the biggest complaint that I have. It is incredibly difficult to make it available to friends and family who are on various devices, networks, so on and so forth.
Whereas Plex “just works.”
I say the following as a current Jellyfin user who stopped using Plex for privacy reasons: Plex making it easy to share your library outside of your LAN is an absolutely gigantic point in its favour. I don’t understand why so many Jellyfin people seem unable or unwilling to understand or acknowledge this.
I already paid when it was cheap. I’ll stay and get my full dollars worth and then some. I paid for it, I’ll use it. When it is unusable I’ll bail. Anything else is stupid.
Jellyfin is awesome for local use, Plex is better at sharing libraries with friends and family and jellyfin is total ass for music
I run jellyfin
TL;DR… Lowest common denominator stops people setting up tailscale or the like, along with sunken cost fallacy.
Reading this thread, it seems like two different groups of people are having two different conversations.
For me, self-hosting is just that, running my own stuff at home for myself (and my immediate family). My motivation is privacy and freedom. I want to use services that are free of commercial incentives against my interests whenever possible. That usually means self-hosting my services.
I’ve been a system and network engineer for most of my career and I like configuring and managing stuff. I like knowing how everything on my home network runs, where and what data is shared, etc.
As soon as people start talking about “my users need …” I’m out. That sounds too much like what I do at work. I want to relax when I’m at home. Jellyfin is perfect for me to do that with my content without needing any of my data to go to any companies.
For everyone who wants to be an IPTV operator, Plex is the best choice right now. Jellyfin isn’t really focused on that use case.
I don’t know if it’s improved, but I was only put off by the memory footprint on windows. Plex was running more efficiently and does look more polished. This was also impart as I now use Channels for my live TV purposes as nothing else really comes close.
It’s still installed and ready to go if I need to make the switch but I don’t really have a big enough reason to do it. Too many other things to tinker with.
As said in literally every thread here that ever mentions anything about Plex or jellyfin, biggest is remote library sharing.
No, I will not walk my in-laws through setting up a vpn gateway so their TV will connect to me
No, despite my extensive homelab setup, I am not going to set up a reverse proxy and go through the SSL/TLS cert bullshit and expose especially considering the security limitations the devs say likely will not be fixed
There’s others, but those are the main ones for a bunch of us
I had a real problem with the media scanner - turns out it was just very slow. :(
Last time I tried, there was no prebuilt client for Jellyfin on my Samsung TV. I had to put the TV in dev mode, cross compile and install their experimental code, and it honestly wasn’t that good a client.
I don’t use the paid features of Plex so I’m just holding my nose and keeping it until the alternatives become viable.
Jellyfin is miles better and Plex fucking spies on you
Ease of use for my users across multiple platforms with minimal tech knowledge on their end. I’m sharing my library with ranges from 12yo to 70. I need it to “just work” and it does that perfectly.
Same here. Plex just works for my folks with 0 tech literacy. I may try Jellyfin in the future, but I have a few friends that primarily access Plex via Playstation 4/5, and I know there’s no support there yet.
Yeah, lacking the client is not good. https://features.jellyfin.org/posts/2751/playstation-5-support
Couldn’t upvote this harder. Tried Jellyfin for 5 mins and was super confused why I couldn’t find sharing options. After googling and reading about reverse proxies and buying domains and shit I said fuck it and uninstalled
Totally understandable, however basic tailscale version is free and you can just have that installed on all of the connected devices as a “reverse proxy”. You then use the ip adress from the server or main computer with the files and connect to its tailscale provided ip adress after turning it on and as long as you have port 8096 open on the server computer (http:/with your adress here:8096) you can connect to the server through the jellyfin app on the device you’ve installed it on.
Yeah, I think you lost them after the first paragraph. 😉
I am tinkering constantly with my home setup, but I am lacking the time to set up everything to my liking.
So I am using neither Plex or Jellyfin, I am using Kodi and have a Webdav share available for when I am away on holiday. 😬😁
But then I am only sharing with my closest family in my home network. Somehow it seems everyone is providing a streaming service for half the neighborhood and the remote family (or possibly a polycule with the drama associated, IIRC).
I found that the most simplicity way of doing it if you want remote acess otherwise you can connect locally without tailscale
Yes. Same.
I never fully understood this argument as you would have to do that anyways with plex unless you’re using their proxy which would just artificially rate limit all of your users. But I do realize that jellyfin doesn’t have an email invite system in place which really is my biggest issue
What’s the “that” that you’d have to do anyway with Plex? I had to do nothing of the sort. I asky friends and family to make a Plex account and ask what email address they used. Then I give that email access to my library
This.
Did you try Jellyfin? I’ve had success with Jellyfin once I’ve been the one setting up the TV app, etc. It did just work, because users found it very simple in comparison to Plex. If anything, they like how Plex shows more things beyond the collection.
I’ve been the one setting up the TV app, etc.
That is exactly the issue. I can’t personally set up the app for all my users. Most of them are not in my household.
Me either, but I don’t expect them to setup any sort of app themself (including Plex).
That’s his point though, he does expect them to be able to set up themselves, and apparently Plex is good for that.
Yes, in my case I personally had to setup both clients (Plex and Jellyfin) for the family members myself.
And right back to https://lemmy.cafe/comment/17371392
Ah, the answer to that… I configured the server beforehand and installed it at their house as a gift, so I have persistent SSH access over VPN and can administer it remotely at will within tmux. Has worked for several years.
The extent of the setup for Plex is to log in with your email and password, pick which shared libraries you want to be pinned to your home screen, and then browse. My parents in their 70s were able to figure it out and all I had to do from my end was grant them access to the libraries I wanted to share with a simple check box.
Had to find it, but there is a new tvOS app that looks very nice: Moonfin
Thanks do letting me know about this. I tried it and it does look good. Sadly for me at least it does perform well. Moves slow between options and libraries. And the Live TV Guide isn’t working at all. That could be a me issue, but the slowness is unacceptable. Once I have more time I will play it more and probably reach out to the Dev.
I use both at home, mostly plex though and I have about a dozen people who watch remotely and keeping the remote access private and secure I’m not putting jellyfin behind a public reverse proxy. Not feasible to setup wire guard for a dozen people across 4 states and troubleshooting those tunnels when Plex does all that for me. Plus Plex allows them to manage and reset their password without my intervention
I’ve never understood this stance. You do you, but if I’m offering to host stuff for friends or family for free, they can at least learn to operate that thing on their end.
Edited to add, wow I did not expect this to be such a hot take. Fuck me I guess lol.
What do they need to even learn? How to login using the username you gave them?
Surely you haven’t exposed your Jellyfin to the open net, since even the devs admit that that is a terrible idea
Got a link for the dev recommendation? I hadn’t heard about that
My Jellyfin is exposed to the open net and it’s completely fine, but users don’t need to know any technical details about that. They just need to know how to login.
Theres a reason everyone uses a VPN to allow remote streaming for their Jellyfin. The things as open as a barns door, so you should not just open it to the public. Like I said, even the devs say not to do that, its just not secure enough
You’re just spreading fud. Jellyfin devs actually have documentation on how to expose it to the net. Why would they do that if it were unsafe?https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/networking/
I’ve been using it this way for a couple years now and we are good. Never used Plex. I’m using only Jellyfin. So, I’ll pass on your advice. Thanks.
According to your own link that you totally read : “Note that opening a port gives full access to that port to the next higher Network. Opening a port directly to the Internet is therefore insecure and not recommended.” and “forwarding its Ports directly to the internet (not recommended!)”
It seems to depend on how you are granting access and have configured the server… if they have to setup VPN access in order to access Jellyfin, as opposed to logging into plex website.
No, that doesn’t change anything about what I said really.
To me, if I’m hosting something for my friends and family, they can put in the effort to learn how to use it. Period. Whether that’s as simple as logging in through a browser, installing an app, or using a VPN. They can learn, or they can pay for Netflix (as an example, since we’re discussing a media server originally).
In my experience getting dozens of people on to my server, plenty will happily choose to pay for Netflix. I want people to choose my server over paid streaming, so I offer both Plex and Jellyfin, and to date not a single person has stuck with Jellyfin, and several have gotten my invite email, took a look at the FAQ on how to request media, and continued using paid streaming.
I’d want them to as well, but I’d also expect them to put in the bare minimum effort considering I’m taking over server admin duties and costs.
Lifetime subscriber when it was like $75 bux
Setup and runs on my NAS (unRAID) Uses a small GPU to transcode as needed Shared only with non technical family members
Has worked as is for YEARS.
So, the question is, am I looking for something to replace a working free (prepaid) solution I have? That answer is nope.
Having non-technical family on board is priceless tbh.
Yeah, my mom uses it. My mom. I have to remove search bars from her chrome like it’s 2005.
This is my POV. It already works perfectly, is prepaid, and is accessible to my nontechnical users. Switching would be a major pain for a worse experience.
Also, Plexamp.
Someday in the future no doubt Plex will enshittify for lifetime users such that it will justify a change, but that hasn’t happened.
+1 to all of this. I paid for it when it was $90 lifetime, before either Jellyfin was popular before I heard of it, who knows. It works fine. No reason to put extra effort into replacing something that I have no problems or qualms with.
WhatI’ve noticed is that people who prioritize privacy and just want to watch their downloads on their tv usually use jellyfin and people who prioritize ux slickness and want to run an IPTV service for their friends and family usually use plex.
It’s not a matter of privacy vs UX. I actually think Plex has ruined their UX. But if you have friends and family, some are tech-illiterate, some have their own media servers, and you all want to share with each other quickly and easily, Plex is the only viable option. Same if it’s just you, but you travel a lot, and want to watch something from your home server without lugging around a device that has access to your VPN and a screen/hdmi-out.
Jellyfin is really only viable if it’s just you on your own network.
I tried Jellyfin once about a year ago and it was… OK I guess? Certainly nowhere near as polished as the rabid fan base would have me believe, and there was something in my library that it flat out refused to play.
If I didn’t already have a lifetime Plex Pass, and it was just me hosting my own media for a user count of one, then sure, I’d use it. But none of those things are true. I need something that “just works” and Plex fits that bill.
Like most people here, I bought a lifetime pass when it was $75 and it’s paid for itself over and over again in the time since. I honestly think I’ve had more than $750 worth of value from my purchase. Sure they’ve made some odd decisions recently, but until they start actively taking away functionality or rescind existing lifetime subs then I will continue to use it.
Meanwhile, not to belittle you personally, but the fact that every thread that mentions Plex in any way, good or bad, is guaranteed to be dominated by people circle-jerking over their beloved Jellyfin has put me completely off the project, to the point that I’ve had to add the word to my blocklist. Obviously that’s not working too well or I wouldn’t have seen this post!
