Well I already have jellyfin running in a container, just have to figure out how to get mum’s TV to work with it I guess
<edit> log in on a local IP and not the network name and it’s working again. but I’ll be moving to jellyfin from now
I got the Plex lifetime pass over 10 years ago for pretty cheap and Plex has served me well over the years. But it’s just so damn bloated now and the biggest recent change to their android app is atrocious. The app is so laggy and slow now. And downloading movies to watch locally on a tablet is just painful.
So I decided to start experimenting with Jellyfin this month and I am blown away at how fast and snappy everything is. It still isn’t as refined as Plex but there’s something to be said about privacy and using FOSS apps.
I’ll be using Jellyfin going forward now.
I’m glad I really only use it for music, but the fire TV app works decently well. Better than the fucking Netflix app, at least.
Something that’s getting glossed over in these comments is the ability to easily watch or listen to friends’ media.
I have my own library with about 1k movies, a bunch of anime and TV, and 10k albums. But I have like 6 or 7 friends with libraries even larger. My one friend has 37k albums, they all have thousands of movies I never even heard of, etc. It really makes it like my own mini streaming service, and I love throwing on a huge music library on shuffle via plexamp while driving to/from work.
I paid like $70 for a lifetime pass years ago, so I’m along for the ride I guess. I really rely on the music aspect of it, I haven’t had a spotify subscription in like 7 years.
I know they changed a lot lately, and particularly what pisses me off is how vague and how they intentionally obfuscate how their model works now. I have friends that for years used my library, and recently have been like “I saw Plex started charging now so I stopped using it” and I have to be like “no it’s still free because I have a lifetime pass”. It’s definitely just to trick people into getting monthly subscriptions.
the ability to easily watch or listen to friends’ media
Why do you think this can’t be done with Jellyfin?
My friends don’t have it set up. Some of them are friends of friends, and people I don’t talk to regularly. I’m not going to try and convert them. It’s also a bit more complicated via tailscale or VPN reverse proxies and Plex “just werks”. If there’s anything beyond just installing an app and clicking an invite, a bunch of people who use my library are going to have a hard time. Like my dad, he’s pushing 70. My friends would also have to do the goofy networking setup for it to work for me.
I’m also not even sure if people I share with have means of installing. My one friend who uses my library a lot does it through a Samsung TV. That involves sideloading the app to install jellyfin.
Lastly, like I said, music. Plexamp is one of my #1 used apps. There’s a lot that goes into that beyond just being able to play media. It curates playlists depending on what you just listened to or gives you similar artists, similar to how Spotify makes a “radio” after playing something.
the thing that everyone always glosses over is that jellyfin should not be run on a public network. it has known security vulnerabilities… that includes VPN remote proxy, so now you have to have external users on your actual VPN, and if that’s the case then plex will work fine because it’s “local”, and has a lot more features
(and my main issue: media segments don’t work on swiftfin)
Just use wireguard between the two devices
i’m not likely to wrangle installing and maintaining wireguard on my mums cheap smart tv
and if that’s the solution, as i said you get plex local playback so that’s free still anyway
Yeah, Plex makes it easy…other than dealing with their cloud data breach.
which they handled about as well as you can: prompt and clear notification without trying to pass the buck
the potential of a data breach is just a fact of life with any SAAS product - bugs happen… and it’s exactly the SAAS part of the product that makes the invites/login/aggregation of servers so smooth
You have to port forward a port and setup dynamic dns, for 99% this is a insurmountable difficulty.
You do not have to port forward. In fact, I would suggest against port forwarding. There are other options to access remotely
Are these options going to require installation of specialist software and then entering of special configuration parameters on the client computer as rather than just using any standard browser on any internet connected computer and typing yourjellyfindomainname.com ?
Just as an FYI, Jellyfin doesn’t charge money for… well, anything.
Imagine wanting to charge to stream your own media with your own hardware and resources… Hey wait, we don’t have to imagine it anymore, Plex already did it.
I forgot as I am a Plex Pass Lifetime user, and oh boy I’ll be sure to milk that out (actually after all these years I think I have already done that) just to keep being an annoying stat for Plex and nothing else 🤣
Aren’t they charging because it passes through their servers so you don’t have to expose your server directly to the public Internet?
Like, I pay $5 a month to access my Home Assistant setup remotely, although I could do it cheaper with my own AWS setup. But the money goes to development, so I’m happy to contribute.
Yeah… That only applies for non CGNATED networks, and as we are in 2025 I’d say most users worldwide are CGNATED or don’t have an IPv6 address… Or worse, both.
If you are CGNATED Plex approach is useless, as their relay sucks as it only lets you play up to 2 (or 4 can’t remember) mbps 720p files lol (server will transcode to meet those requirements), if they wanted to charge for remote streaming they should at least increase the minimum Mbps allowed in their relay, that way I understand they fall into server costs by proxying our media… But until that happens, charging for remote streaming is a completely joke (much more if we have free alternatives to keep doing so in a plethora of devices thanks to Tailscale and Zerotier, the true GOATS with a CGNAT environment).
I jumped ship early on. They didn’t include skipping intros (or removed the plugin or the capability to use plugins, I don’t remember).
Went to Jellyfin, took like 2 hours to figure out what’s different. I don’t even remember, are there any features worth it staying on Plex? At least I’m not missing anything.
Also for watch together you start a watch group and can watch a show episode for episode. Instead of having to open each episode separately and having everyone join again (but maybe Plex fixed this already, I wouldn’t know).
ur missing out on seeing 20 dollars a month go down the drain. fool. jumped ship before the good stuff
man, i remember paying like 40 bucks for lifetime premium on plex.
Same, I think deals on the lifetime pass still show up periodically, but I got it when it was about $40 too. It’s good software I use daily, so I’m happy with it.
Looks like on the last deal it was $120
Currently it is $250, which is too rich for my blood. Then again I just paid $70 for Doom the dark ages
That’s how you know it’s valueable! I don’t want some crappy product they give away for free. \s
my main issues
- jellyfin has known security vulnerabilities and shouldn’t be run on a public network. that means everyone using your server remotely needs to be on a VPN… and then you may as well use plex because it’s “local” so the remote streaming thing doesn’t apply
- swiftfin (which i need for apple tv) doesn’t support media segments
What are the vulnerabilities?
there are some admin endpoints that are authenticated using any local IP, but the method they use allows spoofing the IP so those endpoints become accessible essentially without authentication
there were some other issues to do with unauthenticated enumeration and playback of content i believe too
Aaaand that’s one of the reasons why I got rid of Plex. “Bought” it, then they found some other feature to paywall. Bought that, then another feature. Then it stopped playing files of certain extensions through chromecast. Fuck that. Put together Jellyfin and moved my collection over. Zero trouble since.
Fellow jellyfin user 😍
For a perfect pairing, Jellyfin + Tailscale.
Oh, this is so true. I set it up and now can watch things anywhere. Even my kids who live 6 hours away can just jump on and watch that stuff. Jellyfin is what plex wanted to be, like 10+ years ago. I remember how stupid it was when they first started charging people to watch their own local media, it was funny at first because it was only on iphones that you had to pay. Then it was everywhere. They will continue to take features away until you pay.
Can you do it from someone’s roku TV easily? Im worried about having too much networking trouble getting my mom’s TV hooked up to my jellyfin but don’t really want to open a port to the raw internet.
Genuinely Plex has become so obtrusive about NEW FEATURES, NOW WE HAVE THIS, USE THIS THUS WAY!!! and then also my libraries have somehow become even slower to load. I’ve been using jellyfin way more often
Jellyfin or Emby.
What’s plex better at?
Getting people to pay to watch their locally stored media?
It literally says ‘remote access’
I think the GUI is more refined and the initial setup a bit easier for casual users. I’m a Jellyfin user, because my online entertainment budget is exactly $0.
Yeah it took me a few hours of research and plugin setup to get feature parity with Plex, and then even so I don’t have anything to replace plexamp yet
Not sure how features compare, but finamp exists for jellyfin if you’re looking for a jellyfin-music-player-thingy
If I’m not mistaken Emby started to do some sketchy stuff which birthed Jellyfin.
I tried hitting the X thinking it was an ad XD
User error, at least you figured it out. It’s always free to stream in your own network.
the thing is I always use the network name. Once I used the IP I couls go back to using plex.<mylastname>.TLD
So now that you know the problem was user error, why exactly are you still switching to jellyfin?
how is using a FQDN user error when the logs show the access is from a 10.1.1.x address?
You’re using the wrong address, that’s how it’s user error.
If you just use the Plex app you wouldn’t have this issue either. Were you watching media on your Plex server machine through a browser instead of just opening Plex, and you typed in a url in the browser? Plex say to always just use app.plex.tv as it takes care of it all for you so things like this don’t happen.
There isn’t even a debate here though - it’s an issue with the way your network is set up, not with Plex. Plex’s networking is far more advanced and better technically than jellyfins.
- No where on the network page does it say to use app.plex.tv when you have a custom domain with ssl certs
- I wanted to cast to a dumb TV with a chromecast, the macos app doesn’t seem to support that
- if it was my network it would still not work, but it is again with no changes to the local network or to plex settings
- Plex is seeing a local IP in the logs when accessed via a FQDN
I would go with jellyfin, but my stupid old Samsung TV has tizen and can’t find a way to install it.
You could plug in a firestick or something similar as jellyfin has an android app.
You need to setup a developer account so you can install apps from local sources
I’m running Openelec on a Raspberry Pi… Awesome interface, high wife approval factor.
I tried that through network and an app on my pc, didn’t work.
I had a similar issue where I wanted to use my Xbox Series X to play Jellyfin but there was no client available. I ended up switching from Plex to Emby. I tested it for a month and then bought a lifetime pass, I’m quite happy with it. The client definitely isn’t as polished as Plex’s clients are but they allow me to do everything I want with much more control. I especially like the plugin system, being able to create my own persistent 24/7 faux tv channels is A++
I use an nVidia Shield for it. There’s probably cheaper ones, but you tend to get what you pay for, and I’ve got a few 4KBR remuxes that even that struggles on.
Is this an okd systen now, how does it hold up? Is it lacking anywhere?
It’s been pretty decent.
Supports Dolby Vision/Atmos etc. Image based subtitles (e.g. those ripped from a disc) end up getting transcoded, but that seems the only thing it doesn’t natively support. Had trouble with AV1 but I’m not sure if that’s a general thing or that one specific file.
Get an Onn streaming device from Walmart for ~$30
I don’t live in USA.
Can you get a firestick from amazon?
Surely they sell something similar in your country
Okay. What streaming devices can you order online?
People often involved with piracy probably love entering personal information in that context…
I used Plex about 12 years ago. The first time my internet went down, and I couldn’t use it, I stopped using it. Garbage. Not what I wanted.
I used Windows Media Center as long as I could, I loved it. But, eventually, I had to leave Windows 8 behind. Now I use Jellyfin and SABnzbd, it works okay most of the time, but I don’t serve media to the outside, so I don’t know if it works for that.
This is why I use emby.
