- It’s a commercial product, what else could you expect?
Should be a full stop with “profit”. All the shitty things that go with companies chasing it.
It’s going to be super funny when plex gets sued for directly profiting from piracy.
If they were going to get enshittified, they should’ve been smarter about it to gradually introduce lock-in. The switching cost of going to Jellyfin is almost zero. Did it in an afternoon about a year ago. Ya done goofed, Plex
Clients suck on non plex
The thing it replaced… XBMC? O_o
Xbmc was renamed Kodi and it’s still revenant. It has a totally different use case than Plex or jellyfin and there’s plugins for both.
Did you mean to type ‘relevant’ or are you suggesting it’s a zombie project?
It’s sad but at least it’s still competition where desperately needed.
Jellyfin is great :D
Does jellyfin have an easy way for remote streaming? I have a couple dozen people on my Plex server, most not very tech savvy, so setting up tailscale and running remote that way isn’t an option. I have a Plex pass so I haven’t been screwed by Plex yet, so I’m not rushing to get out, but I could see myself running both.
Yes-ish, it’s harder for you than the users. But you will have to secure a URL and they will have to remember that URL. Also there’s some security issues with some unsecured endpoints on Jellyfin. That said I have mine out there exposed to the net and am comfortable enough with it.
I already have to expose my Plex Media Server with a Tailscsle funnel (for IPv4 only) for IPv6 I use my Synology NAS reverse proxy which can be accessed globally.
I have been maining this setup for years now that I forgot if I can access my PMS outside without either those solutions lol (I am GGNATED but IPv6 works fine as stated).
The main thing here is that I don’t need my users to do anything, they just open the app and access it, no need to remember IPs/URLs or install VPNs to my server… Is that possible with Jellyfin as well?
Yes you can do the same thing for Jellyfin. I use Synology ddns and setup subdomain in reverse proxy to jellyfin port. For tailscale, I previously use this but needs to add the jellyfin port after the tailscale IP.
No, there’s not centralized host server to connect your users with your server. They need a fixed IP or URL to access your server from outside your network.
So how do they access from, let’s say a Smart TV/Android TV device?
Jellyfin apps ask you for three things in order to login: URL, username, password.
Thanks, that clears everything up for me…
Now if you could set that URL from the server itself and not the client apps… Certainly I don’t think that’s an impossible task.
I have mine behind a caddy reverse proxy that forces https. I think that handles most sniffing concerns
no, tailscale is still the easiest option.
Bummer… unfortunately, that’s a deal breaker for me to completely drop Plex. Maybe someday.
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Can you fly out to my MIL every time her router breaks and fix it for her?
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I swear every single Plex related thread has the same Jellyfin fanatics coming in. Same energy as “my MIL has trouble with her computer” “just install Linux bro!” comments.
Still better than the army of Plex fanboys that all claim to have dozens of senior citizens streaming from their Plex server.
Yeah that’s totally how it works. 👍
e: lots of 🤡 in here
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So I don’t get it, I have mine up with a domain without tsilscale… The clients are quite happy wherever. I don’t even see that much “crawling” traffic that goes to the domain, most just hit the server by ip and get a static 401 page that the “default” site is hard coded to give out.
At some point, somewhere on the internet, someone authoritatively claimed that tailscale is the one and only acceptable solution to getting your jellyfin server outside your LAN and it just kind of took root. nginx has worked perfectly fine for me.
I’m so confused why so many people think a VPN is the best solution. It’s easy to implement, but hardly optimal, and certainly not the only solution
You could just get a domain and set up a reverse proxy. Or use Cloudflare tunnels.
All possible, but currently I have lifetime Plex pass and just need to share with people I want to share with. No extra config. Once Jellyfin can do that or something similar, I’ll look at jumping ship. Until then, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Fair enough. I doubt Jellyfin will ever offer something like that. Its designed to be completely self hosted and not rely on a central server, which I dont see changing.
Once Jellyfin can do that or something similar
Once Jellyfin does that then it’ll be time to look at jumping ship to something else, because that’ll be the indication that Jellyfin is going down the same road as Plex.
The first one, yes. That’s what I do. But IIRC hosting media via cloudflare tunnels goes against the TOC and they reserve the right to ban users over it
They changed their TOC a while ago, the only thing they have in there now is boiler plate stuff about not hosting pirated content.
https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/terms/
You agree not to, and not to allow third parties to use the Services to ... post, transmit, store or link to any files, materials, data, text, audio, video, images or other content that infringe on any person’s intellectual property rights or that are otherwise unlawful;I just set up a cache rule to ignore my jellyfin subdomain and they won’t ever care about me and my half dozen users.
Oh that’s good news! I really only use it for myself, so that sounds like I can stream my music without worrying
I set mine up with HAProxy for TLS offloading and ACME for the server cert. Restrict your access to just your country/region by GeoIP and you are pretty good to go.
I moved away from plex as well. I do have remote access but had to set up Tailscale on the accounts that access it. It’s a bit of a hassle initially but works well.
Except the sync / group watch feature is pretty broken which makes me sad
I’d love Jellyfin if not for their incredibly infuriating seek behaviour. Why do I have to press play to start the video again?
In case this helps, for me when I use it on Android TV with said TV’s remote, the arrow buttons on the direction pad for anything require pressing play/OK button after. But if I use the fast forward buttons, it does seek and then just keeps playing.
For me I just want a fast forward button. They have something they call fast forward, but it seeks instead.
Agreed! I stayed with Plex for a long time because Jellyfin had a rough time with live TV (antenna) and I already had a PlexPass because of a sale a long time ago. Now Plex is only still running because I love Plexamp.
Dude, yeah. Plexamp had me keeping my server up far longer than I should have.
I struggled to find a decent plexamp replacement and ended up using symphonium, if you’re looking for any suggestions. Its been working out pretty well with jellyfin.
Symphonium is awesome. Still looking for a nice desktop alternative to Plexamp, which I can’t stand for its interface on desktop.
The way you switch between two servers you own is more than inconvenient; it’s what keeps Plex in my life.I wish things would change because everything else is better.
Thats how I describe Jellyfin, it works fine, its just inconvenient to use.
That’s why I use Emby. Paid for lifetime within a day of switch from Plex (which I also have has lifetime for like a decade) because it has a ton of plugins that have been useful and has a cloud server switch function.
Just to think of replacing the mount points in the docker container from Plex to Jellyfin (in order for it to read my Riven and Decypharr symlinks) scares me… Mostly because after I finish a docker project my mind seems to go blank lol.
At least they still kinda honour the Plex Pass lifetime users…
At least they still kinda honour the Plex Pass lifetime users…
for now.
Yeah I know, but Jellyfin is gonna be around when they stop doing this… I can hold a little longer 😁
For the love, as a Plex alternative, they don’t even have a native app on all major tv stores. It should be a P1 feature. I would throw money at them if they get Apple TV support. Right now, there are no functional apps running on the latest Apple TV OS.
I haven’t used apple tv in a few years, but like, swiftfin worked just fine for me??
For the love, as a Plex alternative, they don’t even have a native app on all major tv stores. It should be a P1 feature.
Are you really bitching this hard about a completely free and open source project?
It’s not technology or finances that kill most FOSS projects and burn out the devs. It’s this kind of shitty entitled unappreciative demanding attitude from users.
As others have pointed out, there are fully functional and good quality frontends available, such as Swiftfin.
I maintain open source projects too, and I fully understand the burnout, the pressure from supporters and such. What I was saying is they can do better from a project management perspective. Otherwise I love their work :3
Swiftfin is buggy atm, like my other comment.
I maintain open source projects too, and I fully understand the burnout, the pressure from supporters and such.
Then you should know better than most that your wording and approach matters.
Swiftfin?
For me the audio is desynced and subtitles are completely broken. :(
Oh weird. I would guess a transcoding issue, maybe double check those settings to make sure you have the right config for your hardware.
Theres also Infuse, its a video player that supports jellyfin, but I think some features are behind a premium purchase.
Yeah. The entire jellyfin support is behind subscription.
I believe Infuse has Jellyfin support on Apple TV. But they want like £100 for a lifetime license or £2 a month / £13 a year.
Yeaaaaaaaah, I mean it’s a good app, but I don’t know if it justifies a $100 license.
No, it’s not.
No shot you linked to fucking sora
Playing devil’s advocate, I understand one point of pressure: Plex doesn’t want to be perceived as a “piracy app.”
See: Kodi. https://kodi.expert/kodi-news/mpaa-warns-increasing-kodi-abuse-poses-greater-video-piracy-risk/
To be blunt, that’s a huge chunk of their userbase. And they run the risk of being legally pounded to dust once that image takes hold.
So how do they avoid that? Add a bunch of other stuff, for plausible deniability. And it seems to have worked, as the anti-piracy gods haven’t singled them out like they have past software projects.
To be clear, I’m not excusing Plex. But I can sympathize.
I wish more people understood this perspective
It’s really nice of them to fight the good fight while I use Jellyfin instead.
You may (half) joke, but MPAA attention on Jellyfin would suck.
I’d like to call this “the Ubuntu buffer”.
Maybe a dumb question: What exactly could go wrong? Has the MPAA done anything to stifle Kodi?
https://www.comparitech.com/kodi/kodi-piracy-decline/
Based on our research, comparative search volume for “Kodi” has fallen around 85 percent from 2017 to 2022. Google Trends data reveals the dramatic decline started in Q2 of 2017 and has, for the most part, continued that trend up to this point. Consequently, the decline in people searching for Kodi directly relates to the appearance of the coordinated attack against piracy in the form of ACE.
And this is with Kodi furiously distancing itself from pirates at the time.
Attacks don’t have to be direct. Though they absolutely can be, too.
Which doesn’t have half the features and crap security compared to Plex/Emby.
The security thing is ironic because my personal Jellyfin server (nor anything else on it) has been hacked, but Plex itself has had their database leaked recently. It’s actually the main reason I switched because I don’t like their auth servers being a giant common target. (Also, technically it theoretically means Plex employees can just let themselves in to people’s private servers)
… my personal Jellyfin server (nor anything else on it) has been hacked…
And I’ve never been attacked by a bear while wearing my goose feather headdress.
Call it survivorship/selection bias if you want, but basically every hack I’ve been exposed to is from centralized servers getting exploited that serve millions of people. Plex, along with any other public facing service with lots of users, receives targeted attacks constantly. All my server receives is automated bots looking for 10-year-old Wordpress .php exploits (I don’t even run php on my server).
There is that but it’s primarily that they’ve taken over 40 million dollars of venture capital. They are almost certainly under immense pressure to turn profitable asap and converting lifetime pass users into revenue streams somehow, converting new users into SaaS, etc are going to be things they pursue more aggressively.
Don’t take the devils money if you don’t want the devils stipulations
Sure, apart from charging for remote access.
That serves the purpose too. It’s harder to pin Plex as an “illegal distribution service” when you have to pay for access. Either the streamer or “distributor” can’t be very anonymous, which makes large scale sharing impractical.
On the other hand, the more money they squeeze out, the more they risk appearing as if they “make money from piracy,” which is exactly how you get the MPAA’s attention.
Remote access via their servers.
I admit I’m very out of the loop, but my understanding is that remote access via their servers is the only supported remote viewing solution? Anything else is a “hack” so to speak.
If you have a static IP, or dynamic DNS set up, you can set up your own remote access with a reverse proxy like nginx. The nice thing is I get to use my own SSL certificate and all the actual streaming goes directly to my server, not through their proxies.
The only “hacky” part about it is that the Admin dashboard shows “Not available outside your network”, even though everything works perfectly.
Everything else is “a hack” in the sense that it is literally just the way to get Jellyfin working outside your network too.
It’s really not. They handle authentication but then everything is sent to your server.
Dynamic DNS does cost money. But not $8 a month. Development also costs money which falls under the $8 a month, but really not my problem, which is why I use Jellyfin. I used to run Plex off of my Nvidia shield, which was a cool gateway drug to self hosting and I’m grateful to them for that, but I like handling the technical stuff myself.
The writing was on the wall when they started getting American VC money.
American VC culture is anthenema to truly user focused products.
I prefer open source, but if I’m buying proprietary software, let’s do it fairly and sustainably. Don’t charge me a 1-time fee and then enshittify what I bought because your business model isn’t working. On the other hand, don’t charge me multiple times for the same software with a subscription. The most fair arrangement to both of us is to sell perpetual licenses for a specific version and then charge me for major updates. If your newer versions introduce massive improvements, then I might give you more money. It’s also fair to do free upgrades for a period of time and then charge for major upgrades. Finally, don’t force me to use your software always online and if you must have an activation process, provide a way to activate from a different machine by uploading an activation file or whatever.
If jellyfin was easier to use and had the same options as Plex, id switch over. But I’ll keep my Plex lifetime pass as long as I can until they make all lifetime passes null in the next 2 years and make us all pay monthly.
If jellyfin was easier to use and had the same options as jellyfin
Just guessing here, but I think it just might.
Individual user accounts, so multiple people can use the same device without needing to log into a new account each time. For example, User A watches a show on the TV. Then User B opens the TV, and has to log in to be able to access their own watch history. Then User A returns, and has to log back into their account.
Braindead remote access. I use a reverse proxy so it’s not a need for me, but plenty of people don’t understand how to properly set something like that up.
Single Sign On. It flies in the face of what Jellyfin stands for, because it would require a centralized authentication server that everyone’s servers phone home to. Just like Plex. With Plex, you log into one account, and can see all of your available servers, because they’re all tied to the same account. With Jellyfin, every server requires its own authentication, because there is no central server to manage all of the “Account XYZ has access to libraries A, B, and C” stuff. If I want to watch something, I can’t easily just search all of my servers at once; I need to individually log into and search each one to see if it has the content I want to watch.
not sure your logic here. Why would Jellyfin have the same features as Jellyfin?
3 Things stop from using jellyfin 100% of the time.
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TV tuner is janky and loading a guide for local channels is garbage. I like watching the morning local news and jellyfin just does not cut it.
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I want sub accounts. They used to have something similar but took it out for security reasons. I want to log all my TVs into one account but then have each user select their profile. So I can easily have a restricted profile for say kids then another for my parents then one for me then one for SO under the same roof. It will track each persons watched profile so when someone watches ahead it doesn’t mess with someone else’s.
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On the same note, controller/ HTPC remote configs feel janky. I know its there but its not a smooth and easy as Plex. This goes along with above for anyone who says just make another account. You try entering half decent passwords with small HTPC remotes or controllers. Every time you go to watch TV.
If they could fix these things I would ditch Plex all the way. But as it stands I use Plex for my TV and jellyfin for my phones, tablets, PC.
You can already do number 2 (with some restrictions). You have to set up your networking tab correctly, use blank passwords, and uncheck “allow remote connections” for the “local” accounts. i have things set up so that external users are forced to log in and local users just pick a profile. If you also add your external users’ IP addresses to the LAN Networks box, they’ll be treated as an internal user too (though how you keep that up to date is a bit more challenging). It’s not precisely the Netflix experience but it works well enough for us
I’ll have to look into that. Last I remember they removed that and local simple pin. Because it could be used to bypass security even from outside network. You are running current version right?
Ya - or close enough (10.11.3). My LAN networks are my server and workstation subnets (both /24s) and my external NAT (my public ip). I also have my reverse proxy address (from jellyfin’s perspective) in my known proxies. From there, my external users are set to allow remote connections, have passwords set, and are set to “hide this user from login screens” and my internal users are set to NOT allow remote connections and to NOT hide from login screens. After that, i just use my public dns for every device whether it’s internal or external and call it a day
TV tuner is janky and loading a guide for local channels is garbage. I like watching the morning local news and jellyfin just does not cut it.
I DVR local stuff with Plex and play it back in Jellyfin.
I do that sometimes but I like the morning news and I feel it should be current so not a great solution for me. Jellyfin just needs a bit more polish. Its great I like it but also at the same rate the appear to fix some things like their security bugs I’m not going to hold my breath. I do hope they push through though like Immich.
Jellyfin has local channels? Why don’t you just watch local channels?
Does plex have local channels? Seems like that is a use case that doesnt make any sense to me.
In the US there is still a thing ad broadcast TV. Stick a TV antenna up in the air, free TV. Get a tuner card for PC and TV for your PC before streaming was ever a thing. Used it on my laptop when I traveled more. But with setting it up in jellyfin it works but is janky and needs polishing, and setting it up to download the TV guide is kinda a nightmare. With Plex life pass ( this is the feature that made me get it and dropping Comcast cable TV) it just works auto scans for channels and auto downloads TV guide, easy to flip throughout channels even my mom does it.
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it is proprietary software behind a paywall… need i say more?
Yeah, their survey is missing the “never used Plex because I saw this coming a mile away” option.
Yeah, it’s odd the survey assumes everyone has used Plex. When I was looking for an actual server to replace Kodi back in 2018, it was like Plex - nope, Emby - nope, Jellyfin - ah, we have a winner.
Dude, I think your client broke.
lemmy.lol has been having a lot of issues the last couple of weeks where it’s unusable slow and requests keep timing out. I tried posting this multiple times and kept getting errors, but it seems it actually was succeeding, so apologies for the duplicate posts. I might end up moving to a different instance.
I’m kind of surprised Lemmy allows duplicate comments like Reddit. Super easy to prevent the issue, because there really isn’t a case where a person would want to post the same comment multiple times
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laughs in Jellyfin
I want to like jellyfin, but it’s authentication sucks
So does a lot of the rest of it.
Capitalism.
Yeah, only one reason. It’s always capitalism.
Enshitification has entered the chat
Not in this case. “Getting shitty” and “enshittification” are different.
One reason: It’s not FOSS, and because of that, it’s not protected from the Capitalist profit motive that’s always pushing the creators/owners towards enshitification.
The same forces act upon FOSS too, but the difference is that FOSS has structural immunity built into it. If the software enshitifies, it can be forked and maintained by a community that values software freedom.
We’ve seen it happen time and again. Terraform, CentOS, RHEL, The Xen Hypervisor, etc. When companies try to take freedom away from FOSS, they fail, because their users and maintainers are empowered by FOSS licenses (especially restrictive ones like the GPL) and can fight back.
With proprietary software, the users are powerless, only the owners have control.
Don’t trust promises, good intentions, or corporate slogans. Trust free software and the open ecosystems they thrive in.
PS, Jellyfin is amazing ❤️
I just need Jellyfin to fix their subtitles issues on Apple TV and I’ll be all set. Swiftfin needs some work yet, though I’m told the fix is in the pipeline for release soon^™ (probably by Q1 next year?).
