The biggest problem with Plex (I'm a user) is that you need a network connection just to use it with your local media unless you do a little research to figure out how to bypass this. Why is this a problem? You don't notice it until there's a network outage and you want to watch something. Or if the Plex servers are glitching. It's needlessly complicating the process of watching your media.

[–] d00phy@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Not really sure what you’re getting at here. I’ve had a network outage for the past 2 days and was able to watch stuff on my local NAS just fine. I haven’t done anything special to make it do that.

[–] Zectivi@sh.itjust.works 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I believe what they're getting at is an issue if they're not already authenticated prior to the outage. Then they'd have no access to their media unless they look into the workaround for that beforehand. It has been an issue in the past, especially when Plex's auth servers go down. I remember plenty of Reddit threads complaining about it.

[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

if you have to ask someone else to access your own [local] data, youre doing it wrong. ack

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[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago

Yeah this is pretty much it. When it first happened to me I had no idea and just wrote it off as a glitch. Then it happened again or the Plex servers were out so everyone was talking about it. There should never be a reason for your home media server to need access beyond the local LAN.

[–] d00phy@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Ah, makes sense. Thanks.

[–] stratosfear@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 10 months ago

Ehhhhhh. I don't think anyone expects to be setting up their Plex server with an Internet outage. As long as you have been setup prior and you lose Internet you can still log in with the last local profile you used. It's not perfect but you're not locked out. No workaround (at this point in time) is necessary, assuming you've already authed and added your server to your "whatever" device.

And ultimately you just keep Kodi for the apocalypse. This complaint about "not being able to access your media" if the internet is out is misleading. Of course you can access your media if the internet is out, it just might not necessarily be with Plex which is ultimately an online service. Sure we can call it a limitation but that's just nit-picking since most everyone has their Internet up almost all the time, offline does work, and there's plenty of other ways to access your media.

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

the idea of signing up at plex is somewhat antithetical to a lot of selfhosters.. theres nothing plex is doing that cant be done for free with better software.

[–] TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page 20 points 10 months ago (14 children)

To be fair that's a pretty recent development. Jellyfin apps for smart tvs are only just becoming stable enough for real use. Plex was the only option for a long time.

[–] jasep@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

The Jellyfin for Kodi add-on has been out for 3 years. I use the Jellyfin app for content when I'm away from home, but I use Kodi for a front end for all my home based clients. Works great.

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[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Jellyfin was forked from emby (emby is similar to Plex, jellyfin is open source) in 2018 when emby went closed source, and they implemented sync and remote streaming if I recall correctly.

It's a principle thing mostly. Plex just keeps ignoring features users want and trying to push some monetization model.

They regularly implement what I'd say most would consider anti features.

For example, I remember the push back on the mandatory "recommended" tab. It's the first thing you see when navigating to a library. Wow. Neat. Some bean counter at Plex is "recommending" what I should watch on my own library. No thanks.

There was also the fiasco with emailing your friends things you've been watching. Just what you want where you store all your legally owned DVDs with your legal streaming rights to your friends.

Then there was also a thing where they began collecting data on your media libraries to their servers.

There's also mandatory Internet connection if you want to have local users :). Lots of people barked at this and they ignored it and tried to spin it as an ok thing. You cannot have other people in your family have different watched status and stats without connecting to the internet. Oh did your Internet go down? So did Plex. At that point how's it different than Netflix. Not to mention we're the ones doing the hosting. It's in our network. This should not be reliant on an Internet connection.

The list goes on.

It works pretty well and I've thus far been too lazy to change, but jellyfin is open source, and doesn't have evil people behind it.

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 11 points 10 months ago

I never messed with Plex but Jellyfin is pretty easy to muss with so it's definitely worth giving it go.

Jellyfin is FOSS as well, I assume Plex isn't since it's doing.......all this. lol

[–] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Jellyfin is great and open source. I've never tried Plex, but I've heard that Plex has apps on more platforms.

Also, I'd recommend checking out Findroid if your on Android. Its UI is native instead of the usual web interface in the official apps. Iirc iOS has a similar project.

[–] gerbler@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Plex is definitely more user friendly. I would like to try Jellyfin again but I host Plex for my parents back home and I don't want to troubleshoot Jellyfin internationally when I know they can just install Plex and log in on their devices and I don't have to deal with it.

Definitely different strokes for different folks but I understand Lemmy is very big on FOSS so it's no surprise Jellyfin has such a positive following here.

Ultimately I'm glad to have options regardless.

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[–] Steve@startrek.website 7 points 10 months ago

Its not better, but its worth it for not being dependent on internet

[–] Platform27@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Depending on your server, and how you install you might have a bad experience. I’ve had issues where it wasn’t finding the film/series metadata, having plugin issues, and being incredibly slow (slow UI when anything is being done, slow scanning folders, slow loading saved metadata, etc). Jellyfin, like a lot of open source software, feels like jank. The devs know about a lot of issues, but they’re swamped with so much, with this big of a project.

People criticise Plex, rightfully so with some of their bad decisions, but it still works better. For me, Plex runs so much better, and without issues. I won’t be moving away to Jellyfin in the foreseeable future, but I’ll be glad when I am able to.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I know plex has some features that jellyfin doesnt, but it was time few years ago, at least for me

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[–] Paddzr@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

As soon as they get xbox app that's not just a fucking browser....

Sure, you might be fine, my 7 year old and wife aren't. The ui and ux are hot barbage without a mouse. I just want to use my tv remote and simple arrows and for the play/pause button to work.

I paid for plex pass because jellyfin didn't pass the usability test in our household.

[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Does Jellyfin have a PlexAmp equivalent?

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[–] thoughts3rased@sopuli.xyz 69 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Hot take: If I get the actual MP4/MKV/whatever, I don't actually care about this and think it might be a good thing, hell, I might actually purchase a couple movies and TV shows through it.

If it's just the same "license" that everywhere else gets you, then I ain't buying shit.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 17 points 10 months ago

I don't know how it would even be possible with media files (since people know how trivial it is to relocate those) but I would actually be perfectly fine with a "license" if it used something akin to the GoG/GOO DRM model.

For those not aware, the gist of those kinds of DRM is that you authenticate with a server to get access to the file. The file may or may not be sent encrypted and then locally decrypted. After that, there is no DRM until you want a new version and you can copy it anywhere you want.

Unlike most here, I don't mind buying my media. Hell, I generally prefer it since I don't care enough to find a private tracker (and am not looking for that smoke on movies/tv...) and like having a proper 4k/hdr/whatever rip with whatever audio tracks I feel like ripping. Same with extras and so forth. With studios increasingly realizing they don't want physical media to cannibalize their service, we get nonsense of "Well... we might get Andor on blu-ray some day but, until then, enjoy a highly compressed and crushed version of what may be the greatest single season of TV ever made"

Theoretically, the various VOD services avoid that but... you still get the same shitty streamed copy for the vast majority. If I can get a proper 4k release that contains HDR data, actual 5.1 sound, and so forth for a reasonable price? Stick it in my veins!

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Search your feelings, you know the truth.

[–] kumatomic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 10 months ago

Exactly, there's no way the studios are going to let them sell actual ownership.

[–] jlow@beehaw.org 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but there is no way in hell they somehow convinced movie studios to let us have drm-free files. It would be amazing but I can't see it happening.

[–] nybble41@programming.dev 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

They could stick to public domain & indie titles. They won't, but they could.

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[–] TheaoneAndOnly27@kbin.social 47 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Ahhhh, So this is why they're really cracking down on banning plex shares.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I missed that news. What's happening?

[–] TheaoneAndOnly27@kbin.social 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Our plex share had to move over to emby. And then they were kind of going through in systematically banning people. So a lot of people just got banned for pirated content.

[–] harry_balzac@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

I went through the same thing with the share I was on.

Plex biting the hand that fed them. There's no reason to use Plex over anything else at this point.

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[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 10 months ago (13 children)

You know...
For lemmy being so dead set on replacing everything propietary with (F)OSS they are really firm on only using/stayung with Plex and pay a 100$ for their pass instead of things like Jellyfin...

[–] Aabbcc@lemm.ee 19 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I'm too lazy to get a DNS name pointed at my home server and setup the reverse proxy to get jellyfin publicly accessible

And then hope that I did it securely

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[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Lifetime member here. I'm good with Plex.

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

I paid for it years ago when it was like $50 mostly because the interface was simple enough for my non tech savvy family to use.

[–] eternal_peril@lemmy.ca 12 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I share Plex with friends

Here, friend. Plex will send you an invite, use it on whatever device you have because it probably supports Plex

I share jellyfin with friends

Now download this app, no that one....no this one. Why does this one not work . What do you mean it doesn't exist. Now you need my help getting you going....

Sorry, Jellyfin is great if tech people but I run a Plex server so I don't HAVE to help anyone anymore.

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[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 points 10 months ago

I use emby Plex and jellyfin. Plex just started it all so that's where my library began. It's clean and everything looks good. It will take me considerable time to migrate off it. I also paid 75$ for it in 2014, so I think that makes my point.

Jellyfin has always been on the back burner as a to-do, because I'm a huge advocate for open source.

[–] kumatomic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Not me. I set up my server last November and tried Plex. It reminded me too much of too many services starting to lose their way. Given recent events it looks like I was right. We use Kodi because my partner prefers it, but I really like Jellyfin myself. It was a learning process but really only took two or three hours with research time to set up. Costs me nothing and I don't have any ads, upselling, or any other BS that will eventually turn into more extreme attrition.

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I originally setup Plex and was immediately unhapy with their always online model as well as really poor support on their forums.

Pretty quickly moved to Emby and have been happy since (7 years). It's not FOSS but it's not locked down nearly as much as Plex, and they have a focus on keeping your info within your own systems. No telemetry.

I don't mind paying a bit to support development, especially when they offer lifetime options instead of being stuck with a monthly subscription.

Jellyfin has branched out more into niche features like watch parties, leaaving some stability to be desired. Especially with apps like smart TVs. Emby has focused more on its core reliability across all platforms, comming up with a product that's nice and stable pretty much everywhere.

Jellyfin was a fork of Emby when Emby went closed source as users kept removing the paywalls for premium features. Development time isn't free; that's not sustainable for a fulltime dev. Since, Jellyfin has barely kept up, lacking the resources/funding to really flesh out their code. (hell, ~75% is still embys code AFAIK)

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Regarding free dev time: Donations can be made as a means to thabk and compensate the project.

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[–] Resol@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If it doesn't work like Bandcamp then I'm not using it.

[–] ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

I was initially skeptical but if they actually sold lossless, Blu-Ray quality rips of videos, I'd pay more than a few bucks per movie or show for that.

[–] brandocorp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This would be awesome, but I just don't see it happening this way. They have to work with the copyright holders who set those kinds of terms and who have the majority of the leverage in negotiating those terms. Unfortunately, I don't see any reason this kind of deal would be made.

The business model is to force consumers to purchase and repurchase the same content over and over. Changing only the format, or distribution method, or platform of consumption. This kind of deal would undercut that business model.

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[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 14 points 10 months ago

It wouldn't be so bad if you could buy and actually own

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

🤣🤣

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