I'm happy I locked in at $80. Jesus Christ. I mean, what exactly does Plex offer that's worth $750? I'm genuinely asking. I only use it to stream content I own to my own devices. I understand they...
I'm happy I locked in at $80. Jesus Christ.
I mean, what exactly does Plex offer that's worth $750? I'm genuinely asking. I only use it to stream content I own to my own devices. I understand they have their own streaming media offerings, but like ... are they trying to compete with Netflix? And if so, what do they think their users actually use their software for?
I suspect they know people wouldn't value their software at $750 and this is just a way to pretend to still offer lifetime passes while actually trying to push people onto the monthly/annual...
I suspect they know people wouldn't value their software at $750 and this is just a way to pretend to still offer lifetime passes while actually trying to push people onto the monthly/annual plans. If they just cut the lifetime offering altogether, I think they'd probably generate more negative headlines than even this will generate. It also makes it something people would likely only consider buying on sale and that's it. This also avoids any media from clickbaiting people into thinking they will lose their already purchased lifetime plans, like if they remove the lifetime offering that doesn't mean they are kicking people off the lifetime plex pass but it would be easy to generate clicks making an ambiguous headline that makes people wonder.
I don't think they're trying to compete with Netflix, they have just been using Plex server owners as bootstrappers to their FAST service, which is really more so where they're attempting to compete, not with subscription services. Plex server owners invite their friends and family in, and Plex was happy to adjust the interface of the software to make it harder for the friend/family member to find the family/friend's server content and easier to land on Plex's ad supported content. Suddenly, more revenue coming in from people that never would have known about Plex before, and cost them $0 in marketing.
Coupled with more people probably dipping their toes into piracy due to all the streaming services cracking down on password sharing, prices going up etc., it makes the timing of now more important to them to keep people off these lifetime passes and onto recurring revenue plans.
I think this is still less negative press than "Plex axes Lifetime Pass" or something like that. To people who already own the Lifetime pass, this headline is mostly a nothing. It doesn't really...
I think this is still less negative press than "Plex axes Lifetime Pass" or something like that. To people who already own the Lifetime pass, this headline is mostly a nothing. It doesn't really impact them. If I saw a headline saying they got rid of lifetime pass entirely, with a lot of the vague headlines that come out these days, I'd definitely click just to see if it's going to affect me or not. Now more so I'm equating that to what I would expect to be a general audience reaction, not necessarily about me specifically.
I'm not saying they get no bad press from doing this, I just think it's less than if they got rid of the lifetime pass completely.
I'd say that's a bit of an extreme. If you start from nothing meaning you don't have Plex Pass, is it reasonable? So then if you have to pay, is the monthly/annual price that will likely go up at...
I'd say that's a bit of an extreme. If you start from nothing meaning you don't have Plex Pass, is it reasonable? So then if you have to pay, is the monthly/annual price that will likely go up at some point in the future reasonable? I wouldn't call paying $70/year or more reasonable just to share media with friends and family.
At that point, I'm weighing the reasonableness of the cost versus the reasonableness of the technical hoops to jump through to get friends and family set up. To some those hoops are greater than to others. Arguably the price point is similarly a greater hoop to some than to others. Though I suspect if money is no concern then one would probably be less inclined to use Plex to begin with and they'd still be using paid streaming services.
You see, for me what makes the money a problem is that I can't charge people for access to my Plex server. I mean, I could, but I don't want the headache of that, because when people pay for it, then they expect professional service. If their shit doesn't work, I'm not going to drop what I'm doing to help them troubleshoot it. I'm not going to issue them a refund because it wasn't working for a few days. I could take it seriously, make it my mission to have 100% uptime or close to that, but I don't care that much and I don't want to care that much. Of course I can just cut them off whenever they act like a jerk and be done with them going forward, but again, that's just hassle I wouldn't want to deal with.
Anyone who has ever had access to my server has no expectations and I like it that way. Some stuff I have in shitty 480p quality because I don't watch it so I don't care. They can watch it if they want, or they can not watch it, or if they ask and I do it when I feel like I can change the quality if it matters that much to them. I could set it up so that they could do it themselves and with limitations to prevent them from using up all my storage but again, that's more work.
I can walk through some of the most incompetent tech people through many things. I did it for a living. Not saying I enjoy it, or that I'd want to do it, but then we're weighing what I think the work of doing that is, versus the work of trying to run some quasi-professional Plex setup and charge for it to recoup my costs or pay $70+ per year for it. The initial option starts to seem like the easier/more reasonable one to me. It would likely end up balancing out that the people I am willing to help set up are going to be the least trouble, and people who would be the most trouble I'd end up not bothering with.
Well, to be clear, I wasn't making judgement call about the overall value of the service. Just the interface. IMO it is still the only reasonable interface to share media with friends and family....
Well, to be clear, I wasn't making judgement call about the overall value of the service. Just the interface. IMO it is still the only reasonable interface to share media with friends and family. That doesn't mean that it is worth what they're asking (and at $750, it almost definitely is not).
Jellyfin (naturally, given its whole objective) asks more of the administrator and media owner than Plex. When I share my Plex server, I don't need to manage users or proxies or anything like that. It's all out of my hands, and the account control mechanics are all good enough by Plex that I don't need to worry about any of it.
But with Jellyfin, the users are my users. Any password resets become my responsibility. Any network issues are my issues.
Obviously it's still very much out of the goodness of my heart, and there's no real expectation of service from my users, and they all understand that. But at the same time, I want to provide them with something they enjoy using.
Honestly I guess my major hangup is just the user accounts. If I could share my Jellyfin libraries with a Google account that has a nice first-class OIDC login flow, that might solve all my problems.
Plex was a stepping stone for me. I started self-hosting and it offered an easy way to watch my media when I travel, but then they changed how the free tier works and I realized I just need...
Plex was a stepping stone for me. I started self-hosting and it offered an easy way to watch my media when I travel, but then they changed how the free tier works and I realized I just need Jellyfin and don’t care much for the extras.
That's the question indeed. Their marketing is entirely around that live TV stuff when it's obvious that people use and have always used it to host their own pirated media. I got the lifetime pass...
That's the question indeed. Their marketing is entirely around that live TV stuff when it's obvious that people use and have always used it to host their own pirated media.
I got the lifetime pass early so while I've been benefitting from it for years now, I'm not even sure I'd buy it now for the same price I paid then so $750 is insane.
@Grumble4681 is right, this is to disincentivize further lifetime sales.
There are people who basically run a Plex server as a bootleg streaming service for their friends and family. The data/tag standardization it does is also handy.
There are people who basically run a Plex server as a bootleg streaming service for their friends and family. The data/tag standardization it does is also handy.
I don't have a link for it and I'm on mobile so I can't easily search but on the Plex subreddit I've seen a former Plex dev say that they do see more people using their streaming offerings than...
And if so, what do they think their users actually use their software for?
I don't have a link for it and I'm on mobile so I can't easily search but on the Plex subreddit I've seen a former Plex dev say that they do see more people using their streaming offerings than people using Plex to stream their own media these days. It's been sounding like the personal media functionality is pretty much in just maintenance mode for a while now.
Edit: Thanks, @hungariantoast! Also, that's very expensive for what is being offered and I'd imagine that this allows Emby and Jellyfin an opportunity to come into their own.
NB: Can remove everything past the # on the URL, also this is the lifetime Plex Pass, other prices seem to be stable for now.
I gave Jellyfin a go a few years ago, but all my TVs are hooked up to Rokus, and while there is a Jellyfin client for Roku, it had so many subtitle bugs that foreign films and anime became...
I gave Jellyfin a go a few years ago, but all my TVs are hooked up to Rokus, and while there is a Jellyfin client for Roku, it had so many subtitle bugs that foreign films and anime became completely unwatchable for me. Subtitles would sometimes start out OK when starting from the beginning of the movie or episode, but would slowly drift out of sync. And if you had to pause, ffwd or rewind, or stop and resume something later, forget it... subtitles would sometimes be 30-60 seconds early or late, completely at random, with no way to sync them back up again without starting the whole thing over from the beginning.
I'm not sure if any of that has been fixed since I bounced back to Plex. I bought my lifetime pass back when they were under $100 so I don't plan on trying it again until Plex does something annoying that affects me personally.
How easy is it to connect to an Amazon fire stick? I currently stream my my plex server in my office to the plex app on my tv in my living room. I’m assuming jellyfin has some similar integration?
How easy is it to connect to an Amazon fire stick? I currently stream my my plex server in my office to the plex app on my tv in my living room. I’m assuming jellyfin has some similar integration?
Should be just as straightforward as Plex. Get the Jellyfin server up and running on your server in your office and then install the app on your Firestick.
Should be just as straightforward as Plex. Get the Jellyfin server up and running on your server in your office and then install the app on your Firestick.
It's not super polished but there is a jellyfin app for the firestick and it has worked just fine for me. I also stream to my Xbox, where again there is a jellyfin app that works but it's about...
It's not super polished but there is a jellyfin app for the firestick and it has worked just fine for me. I also stream to my Xbox, where again there is a jellyfin app that works but it's about what you'd expect from free software on a less popular platform.
The official Apple TV client, Swiftfin, seems to have performance problems as of the last time I used it (probably about a year ago). Infuse Pro is the better client to use on that device, but it...
The official Apple TV client, Swiftfin, seems to have performance problems as of the last time I used it (probably about a year ago). Infuse Pro is the better client to use on that device, but it does cost a few dollars.
If you follow the Swiftfin GitHub, their tvOS release is a joke. Literally multiple years behind. I don’t hold it against them - open source, all the devs have real lives, but for my use case...
If you follow the Swiftfin GitHub, their tvOS release is a joke. Literally multiple years behind. I don’t hold it against them - open source, all the devs have real lives, but for my use case (family, with multiple jellyfin users) the infuse lack of in-app user switching is a royal pain.
I actually settled on Emby which is reasonable implementation and is fully local without plex’s garbage, but I’d prefer to switch to jellyfin once they get their client stable.
Jellyfin mostly just worked for me, but the hard part was making it accessible off of my home network. Tailscale isn't very friendly to non-technical people.
Jellyfin mostly just worked for me, but the hard part was making it accessible off of my home network. Tailscale isn't very friendly to non-technical people.
You shouldn't need Tailscale or a VPN to make Jellyfin accessible off your home network unless you're stuck behind a CGNAT. If you are stuck behind a CGNAT, I'm not sure how Plex would be any...
You shouldn't need Tailscale or a VPN to make Jellyfin accessible off your home network unless you're stuck behind a CGNAT. If you are stuck behind a CGNAT, I'm not sure how Plex would be any easier unless they're running a proxy service
I seriously don't understand. Why would you pay for Plex? I've been using Jellyfin and it fills the same category Plex claims to offer: I have a server with storage that I install Jellyfin on, I...
I seriously don't understand. Why would you pay for Plex? I've been using Jellyfin and it fills the same category Plex claims to offer: I have a server with storage that I install Jellyfin on, I fill the storage with my personal media collection, and I can view it on my phone / Roku / desktop and create accounts for my friends and family.
The Plex Relay PlexAmp Skip Intro/Skip Credits Hardware transcoding Mobile client playback Mobile client downloads There are legitimate benefits to having a Plex Pass. For me specifically, the...
Why would you pay for Plex?
The Plex Relay
PlexAmp
Skip Intro/Skip Credits
Hardware transcoding
Mobile client playback
Mobile client downloads
There are legitimate benefits to having a Plex Pass. For me specifically, the mobile client features and hardware transcoding, were the push to do so. Since then, Plex Amp and skip credits/intro have been some of my favorite features. I'm not justifying purchasing it now, but at the time I bought a lifetime pass, the reasons felt pretty valid.
Haha So truly I used to be in this camp too and avoided Jellyfin for years, but I recently set up a new Homelab and gave Jellyfin a go and like Jellyfin has most if not all of those features....
Haha So truly I used to be in this camp too and avoided Jellyfin for years, but I recently set up a new Homelab and gave Jellyfin a go and like Jellyfin has most if not all of those features.
The Plex Relay
Tailscale's really easy to use and manage, and you can share it with people. There's other ways to manage this through Caddy, and reverse proxies and LDAP, but I already had Tailscale set up.
PlexAmp
Jellyfin has several mature music player specific apps for both android and iOS, my favorite being FinAmp, which I'm now just realizing is named FinAmp because it's supposed to have competitive features to PlexAmp. haha
Jellyfin has that as well, unless I'm mistaken on what you meant. I transcode on a GPU in my server.
Mobile client playback
There's actually quite a bit of Jellyfin mobile clients now, some are very good. I like having options, and to my surprise an app called Jellybook exists which actually gives me a valid reason to upload my ebooks and audiobooks to my Jellyfin Server.
Mobile client downloads
A lot of said client apps allow downloading as well.
Anyways, not trying to like shill for Jellyfin because I avoided it for years as subpar to Plex, but really at this point I've been very pleasantly surprised at how smooth and feature-filled Jellyfin has been out of the box, and through the multitude of plugins.
Or a good old fashioned Wireguard or OpenVPN server, less reliance on a third party proprietary service
Tailscale's really easy to use and manage, and you can share it with people. There's other ways to manage this through Caddy, and reverse proxies and LDAP, but I already had Tailscale set up.
Or a good old fashioned Wireguard or OpenVPN server, less reliance on a third party proprietary service
Good to know! I haven't looked at JellyFin since before (m)any of those features existed, it sounds like I could just as easily use that. My only hangup is that my wife complains when "[I] change...
Good to know! I haven't looked at JellyFin since before (m)any of those features existed, it sounds like I could just as easily use that. My only hangup is that my wife complains when "[I] change the technology [she] has finally gotten used to". But that aside, I'll look forward to trying out JellyFin when Plex finally does something irritating enough to me (personally) to drive me to switch.
Yeah as I said, I've been pleasantly surprised by how Jellyfin has matured. I also really like the fact that Jellyfin has themes and multiple client options, so if I don't like one I can switch to...
Yeah as I said, I've been pleasantly surprised by how Jellyfin has matured.
I also really like the fact that Jellyfin has themes and multiple client options, so if I don't like one I can switch to another without changing anything on my server side.
I set my friends and family up with my server over the weekend and I chose the best clients for each person to access my library at depending on how techy they were or what they were interested in.
I'm a little confused, so forgive me if this is a silly question- but has Jellyfin not had hardware transcoding capability for a long time at this point? I'm currently using an Intel GPU to...
I'm a little confused, so forgive me if this is a silly question- but has Jellyfin not had hardware transcoding capability for a long time at this point? I'm currently using an Intel GPU to transcode media with Jellyfin without issue.
I admit that the Plex app offerings have tended to be more comprehensive, but Finamp has become pretty good for music streaming! And the rest of the Jellyfin app ecosystem seems to be improving too. I entirely understand the choice maybe five years ago, but in a more modern context?
Remote access via Jellyfin is not easy to set up. It’s way beyond most people’s skills. With Plex, you literally just install it and they handle all the remote streaming. Just sign in and you’re...
Remote access via Jellyfin is not easy to set up. It’s way beyond most people’s skills. With Plex, you literally just install it and they handle all the remote streaming. Just sign in and you’re good to go. You don’t have to manually do anything.
If you are able to setup jellyfin you are also able to setup something like tailscale. Yes, it is not included with jellyfin, so it does require some extra work. But claiming it is "beyond most...
Remote access via Jellyfin is not easy to set up.
If you are able to setup jellyfin you are also able to setup something like tailscale. Yes, it is not included with jellyfin, so it does require some extra work. But claiming it is "beyond most people's skills" is simply a hyperbole.
Trying to explain to someone that they need to turn a VPN on and off to use their streaming app is a nonstarter for most people. It’s an extra step most people aren’t interested in. It takes very...
Trying to explain to someone that they need to turn a VPN on and off to use their streaming app is a nonstarter for most people. It’s an extra step most people aren’t interested in. It takes very little friction for someone to give up on something like that.
And adding Tailscale into the mix adds another failure point. What if they forget to enable Tailscale before they leave the house?
That is also moving the goal post. You made a claim about setting it up, now we have moved towards people making use of it. I suppose that means that you are agreeing with me then on your initial...
That is also moving the goal post. You made a claim about setting it up, now we have moved towards people making use of it. I suppose that means that you are agreeing with me then on your initial statement being a hyperbole :)
As far as the new location of the goal post, it also is hyperbolic and simply not true. Which I can claim with 100% confidence given personal experience with people who very much fall under the definition of "not all that capable with computers or smartphones". The only actual "issue" sometimes is having people remembering they need to toggle it back off. People might forget once or twice the first time, ask me, go "do'h!" when I ask if they toggled the vpn and have a good time after that.
I have both this experience with jellyfin as a usecase as well as general VPN usage to help someone access a streaming service from their home country.
Given that experience I am fairly confident in stating that a relay service not being build into jellyfin isn't actually a showstopper in a majority of cases.
Edit on edit:
And adding Tailscale into the mix adds another failure point. What if they forget to enable Tailscale before they leave the house?
Then they enable it later? It is just like turning on a VPN whenever you need it. On the server side it is always on anyway. I feel like you are arguing very much from a position of assumptions not actual experience. If you are a happy Plex user and somehow feel "attacked" on your choice, don't. Jellyfin wasn't always a viable alternative and tailscale has only been around since 2020 and took a little while to get traction as well.
So yeah, depending on when you first set up Plex remote access might have been a much stronger argument. And if you are happy with Plex, that's all cool nobody is telling you to switch. But for people looking for a solution now it would be cool if they can make their choice based on factual current information. Not mis information based on assumptions and outdated experiences.
No offense, but you spent your whole comment making assumptions about me. Two differing opinions on the usability of an app are by the very nature of the discussion, not facts. I would include...
But for people looking for a solution now it would be cool if they can make their choice based on factual current information. Not mis information based on assumptions and outdated experiences.
No offense, but you spent your whole comment making assumptions about me. Two differing opinions on the usability of an app are by the very nature of the discussion, not facts.
That is also moving the goal post. You made a claim about setting it up, now we have moved towards people making use of it.
I would include "maintenance" as part of the setup. It's not much use to set something up if you can't maintain it. That could have been clearer.
I feel like you are arguing very much from a position of assumptions not actual experience. If you are a happy Plex user and somehow feel "attacked" on your choice, don't.
I could care less about someone "attacking" Plex. It's a giant software company, not a person.
I've also have a Jellyfin server running for years now. It's great software and has quite a few features I love. Particularly the "Ends At" time on every video's details page. I'm saying this so you know that I'm up to date on using/maintaining both Plex and Jellyfin.
For some context, I was the first person to set up Plex/Jellyfin in my friend group, so I have helped quite a few friends set up Plex/Jellyfin over the years. Probably a dozen at this point? Usually I offer Plex first and tell them if they don't want to pay, they can use Jellyfin. Most were willing to pay for something, so I've definitely done more Plex setups.
The people I've set Jellyfin up for have had more issues accessing their content remotely than those who use Plex. Noticeably more. Regular people really just don't want to install or remember to use extra stuff. They just want to install the one app and have it work. That's been the universal feedback I've gotten. It hasn't been enough of an issue for any of them to ask about switching to Plex. But the most I've had to help someone with Plex remote access was telling them to sign in.
It would have helped to include all this to begin with. I also believe you countered your own argument here where you said it was too difficult for most people. Where tue reality is that while not...
It would have helped to include all this to begin with. I also believe you countered your own argument here where you said it was too difficult for most people. Where tue reality is that while not as smooth as Jellyfin it seems to work for a fair amount of people you know as well.
You can forward port 8096 directly to a Jellyfin host, no need to bring some for profit proprietary service into the mix. For added security, Caddy is trivially easy to set up for HTTPS, and VPNs...
You can forward port 8096 directly to a Jellyfin host, no need to bring some for profit proprietary service into the mix. For added security, Caddy is trivially easy to set up for HTTPS, and VPNs like Wireguard or OpenVPN are easy to run.
As a policy I try to avoid having any ports open on my home network to the outside world. There is also dynamic IPs to consider though a dynDNS type deal could also work around that. But yeah, as...
As a policy I try to avoid having any ports open on my home network to the outside world. There is also dynamic IPs to consider though a dynDNS type deal could also work around that.
But yeah, as I said in another comment I have been looking at WireGuard since I would like to not rely on tailscales infra.
I mean Tailscale really isn't that difficult to set up and you can share your tailscale machine with others and just give them the URL to your server. In my opinion it's safer too since you're not...
I mean Tailscale really isn't that difficult to set up and you can share your tailscale machine with others and just give them the URL to your server. In my opinion it's safer too since you're not giving a company access to your questionably obtained content library or exposing your server to the open internet. With Tailscale it's encrypted end to end from your server instance to your user's instance.
Not only is Tailscale far beyond the average person’s technical ability, it doesn’t really help with edge devices like smart TVs. Many people share plex servers with family and friends and it’s...
Not only is Tailscale far beyond the average person’s technical ability, it doesn’t really help with edge devices like smart TVs.
Many people share plex servers with family and friends and it’s doubly a no go to require them to install the Tailscale client.
Uhhhmmm... I'm not sure what you're talking about. You install tailscale and log in, that's literally it. There is no setup, at least not on the user's end. And if you've set up a Plex server then...
Uhhhmmm... I'm not sure what you're talking about.
You install tailscale and log in, that's literally it. There is no setup, at least not on the user's end. And if you've set up a Plex server then setting up a tailscale server's a lot easier than that.
On phones, it's just an app with a login and you turn it on. If you're ok with it, you can just give them all the same login so they all connect to the same tailscale network if sharing to multiple accounts and account set up is too complicated.
And you can install Tailscale natively on an Android/GoogleTV or AppleTV or even Firesticks/FireTV literally as easy as any other app on the TV. The only one it doesn't really support is RokuTV.
For the users it's literally just install it and forget it.
I literally just did this with friends and family this past weekend, some not tech literate in the slightest, and none of them had any issues and it was very simple and smooth.
The ONLY real extra hurdle there was is just telling them the first troubleshooting tip is "Is your tailscale running?" and they had to just go into the app and turn it on.
I disagree as I've done both. This is 100% a blocker for family/friends. Just not having a client called something recognizable on every platform is enough of a blocker. There isn't a chance in...
I disagree as I've done both. This is 100% a blocker for family/friends.
Just not having a client called something recognizable on every platform is enough of a blocker. There isn't a chance in hell that I can get my mother to connect to Tailscale when it disconnects. Too many moving parts with exotic names and functions. It might be everyday for me, but it's wizard magic to them.
OTOH, Plex lifetime means I don't have to help them at all. They log into Plex and it's just there. The app is called exactly one thing, and it's available in whatever App Store they're using. I don't need to be there to help them on, and I've never once had to hand hold them about it. I'd love to not use Plex, but it's still a better experience for both the clients and the person supporting those users.
I mean I'm not sure what you disagree with, it just sounds like we both just have had different experiences with neither of our experiences being the universal truth. For me, I'm just tracking...
I mean I'm not sure what you disagree with, it just sounds like we both just have had different experiences with neither of our experiences being the universal truth.
For me, I'm just tracking what app I told them to download and that's what they're calling it. The more tech illiterate family members just know it as whatever I told them to download, and "Jellyfin Server" doesn't come into play.
Sure, it's one extra step and one extra app, and that kind of pushes the limit of some people's tech literacy, but I manage it well by walking them through the setup and making sure that the final experience is smooth.
But I also wrote a one page PDF documentation for them to print out that has all their login and URL information with screenshots and icons, and a short troubleshooting section that basically says the first thing to do is to check Tailscale. That's what's helped my grandparents with other stuff I've set up for them and so that's what I used for this.
What's with the hyperbolic statements in the comments today? Setting up tailscale is not difficult, if you can set up plex you are also able to configure tailscale. Getting it installed on devices...
Not only is Tailscale far beyond the average person’s technical ability
What's with the hyperbolic statements in the comments today? Setting up tailscale is not difficult, if you can set up plex you are also able to configure tailscale. Getting it installed on devices for other people also is not all that difficult either.
it doesn’t really help with edge devices like smart TVs.
Sure, edge cases will be edge cases. This is an edge case on an edge case, for most people their smart TV will already be in the same network.
Many people share plex servers with family and friends and it’s doubly a no go to require them to install the Tailscale client.
Depends on what family and what friends. Also here I find this to be a hyperbole.
I am not going to pretend that Jellyfin is the perfect replacement for Plex in all scenarios. That would bring my argument to the same level as yours. But it certainly is more viable than you make it out to be.
It's a bit annoying because, at least as of when I set it up, Tailscale only has login providers that require 2fa. If you're having multiple people all log into an account, then approving the 2FA...
It's a bit annoying because, at least as of when I set it up, Tailscale only has login providers that require 2fa.
If you're having multiple people all log into an account, then approving the 2FA is a massive nuisance.
I can do it all just fine, but trying to get my mom set up to log in remotely takes a lot of time and effort
Most people have a login provider already in the form of either Google or Apple so that hasn't been an issue in the past. Generally I set it up for them and then show them what to do. To be fair,...
Most people have a login provider already in the form of either Google or Apple so that hasn't been an issue in the past. Generally I set it up for them and then show them what to do.
To be fair, most of these people also consume media on their tablets or phones.
I am considering making use of the wireguard functionality on my router and a subnet instead. Which actually would be more involved on my side and I am not sure how the situation is on iOS in that area. On Android devices it would make it even simpler as it truly would just be a toggle after I set it up for folks.
That means I need to drag them through OAuth setup, and not accidentally creating their own tail net instead of just adding mine. The free personal plan also only allows 6 users. To get more than...
That means I need to drag them through OAuth setup, and not accidentally creating their own tail net instead of just adding mine. The free personal plan also only allows 6 users. To get more than that is $8/user/mo
It's just a single port that needs to be forwarded. I think most people getting into self hosting can figure that out. If not, then they probably deserve to over-pay for Plex Pass.
It's just a single port that needs to be forwarded. I think most people getting into self hosting can figure that out. If not, then they probably deserve to over-pay for Plex Pass.
It's been a long time since I last tried, but one reason for me is that Jellyfin being written in C# made setup a pain. Not that Plex is perfect there either, its Python bits tend to crap out from...
It's been a long time since I last tried, but one reason for me is that Jellyfin being written in C# made setup a pain. Not that Plex is perfect there either, its Python bits tend to crap out from time to time.
I kinda wonder why there aren't Plex/Jellyfin type projects that are nice neat self-contained binaries written in Go or Rust or something. Those are usually options for most other self-hosted server packages, but not media servers.
When this completely stops sales, I wonder what they will do to make existing lifetime users pay more. Why anyone first getting into self-hosting would choose to use Plex at this point is beyond me.
When this completely stops sales, I wonder what they will do to make existing lifetime users pay more. Why anyone first getting into self-hosting would choose to use Plex at this point is beyond me.
I got my lifetime pass long enough ago that it's been well worth it (if it was $5/month I would have passed $750 total by now), though the main thing holding me to Plex now is inertia. I have a...
I got my lifetime pass long enough ago that it's been well worth it (if it was $5/month I would have passed $750 total by now), though the main thing holding me to Plex now is inertia. I have a few friends that use my server as well and I could probably figure out how to securely share with them through Jellyfin in a way that minimizes friction, but I haven't had to yet.
What the actual fuck. I first spun up Plex in 2019, and shortly after purchased a lifetime Plex Pass for $80. Over the last 7 years, I feel I have certainly gotten my value out of that purchase....
What the actual fuck. I first spun up Plex in 2019, and shortly after purchased a lifetime Plex Pass for $80. Over the last 7 years, I feel I have certainly gotten my value out of that purchase. But even if I'd paid $750 for it 7 years ago, I still would not feel that I had gotten the equivalent value out of that purchase.
Plex is fine, perhaps even more than fine, but not without its issues. Particularly for a product whose only support is community forums, and the vast majority of problems go without answer or solution, I don't see how they can try and justify such a price hike. That's enterprise level pricing for what I view as a well polished hobbyist project.
Moves like this only further my mentality that if and when JellyFin or another product comes around that offers those features of Plex Pass that I actually like and use, I'll have no motivation to stay loyal to Plex versus trying out the competition with (hopefully) crappy ideas.
I paid for lifetime at way less than this to get credit skip and intro skip. I would not have paid this much. In fact, I wouldn't have used plex at all, I'd have used something else
I paid for lifetime at way less than this to get credit skip and intro skip. I would not have paid this much. In fact, I wouldn't have used plex at all, I'd have used something else
Never used Plex myself, but as I understand it, it might be nice to organize my media? Like I can see what I've watched, how long I've watched it, etc? I have something like 4Tb of Media, but it's...
Never used Plex myself, but as I understand it, it might be nice to organize my media? Like I can see what I've watched, how long I've watched it, etc?
I have something like 4Tb of Media, but it's just a shared folder on my server, which I connect everything to. So if I want to watch something, I just navigate to it via File Explorer on whatever I'm using to watch what I want to watch. I know it could be easier, but I'm just lazy and don't feel like changing the way I work or trying to explain it to my kids or wife.
Yup, basically it works like streaming services do but for your own content. You can have individual accounts so each person gets to see what they have watched and easily track where they are in a...
Like I can see what I've watched, how long I've watched it, etc?
Yup, basically it works like streaming services do but for your own content. You can have individual accounts so each person gets to see what they have watched and easily track where they are in a series. It also makes it very easy to switch watching between different devices because of that.
As mentioned elsewhere in the comments Jellyfin is an open source alternative I'd recommend you check out first. Unlike Plex it isn't on a slow road to enshittification.
It basically Netflix-ifies your media, streaming it from your server to the player app, providing metadata, posters, watched status, etc. It can also transcode on the fly and provide remote...
It basically Netflix-ifies your media, streaming it from your server to the player app, providing metadata, posters, watched status, etc. It can also transcode on the fly and provide remote access. They lock basic functionality behind the Pass, moving more behind it each year while hiking the price of the Pass. They also try to push their free, ad-riddled content in front of your own.
The Netflix like interface with a native smart TV app was how I got my partner onboard for using my server to begin with.
My advice -- stay away, you've got a solution your family is already using after all. But look into Jellyfin instead if the features interest you. It's FOSS so no pay walling of basic features and folks are free to fork the code and write clients for any device. While it lacks some functionality compared to paid Plex, it also has a plugin system for extra features. Like Plex Pass has intro skip, Jellyfin has a plugin for it.
I am very happy to report that after years of being disappointed with Jellyfin, that, to me at least, it's finally matured enough that I think it's a very viable replacement to Plex. I've been on...
I am very happy to report that after years of being disappointed with Jellyfin, that, to me at least, it's finally matured enough that I think it's a very viable replacement to Plex.
I've been on a Homelab kick lately, and recently installed it after struggling with plex for a while, and the experience has been a lot smoother than it has in the past.
Plus, there's a lot of customization you can do with it too. I'm really impressed after finding the Awesome Jellyfin list of themes and plugins with things like skip intro, hover trailers, auto-generated subtitles, and more.
Anyways I hated Jellyfin for the longest time but have been pleasantly surprised.
Plex seems like it’s destined to continue to worsen. I just don’t see how it’s a viable business given their user base. Their recent controversial corporate retreat also makes me think leadership...
Plex seems like it’s destined to continue to worsen. I just don’t see how it’s a viable business given their user base. Their recent controversial corporate retreat also makes me think leadership is more out of touch than your average tech company.
I will never pay for Plex Pass. I use Plex for free a few times per year and I'm frequently pissed that they want me to pay for HDR -> SDR look up tables. I understand and am fully on board with...
I will never pay for Plex Pass. I use Plex for free a few times per year and I'm frequently pissed that they want me to pay for HDR -> SDR look up tables. I understand and am fully on board with charging for features that have an ongoing cost to them. NAT punching relays and stuff like that have a real monthly cost to Plex, so I am okay with them charging for it and okay with them making a profit. But they can go fuck themselves with a monthly fee to unlock a software patch.
I paid $149 for Plex over 12 years ago (paid yearly for two years before that). I’ve been using it daily since then. Would I ever pay $750 for it? Probably not. But I have definitely gotten that...
I paid $149 for Plex over 12 years ago (paid yearly for two years before that). I’ve been using it daily since then. Would I ever pay $750 for it? Probably not. But I have definitely gotten that much value out of it.
So I see the consensus is that $750 is too much, and that $80 was a sweet deal. Until the new pricing is introduced, a lifetime pass is still $250. How do the current holders of a pass feel about...
So I see the consensus is that $750 is too much, and that $80 was a sweet deal. Until the new pricing is introduced, a lifetime pass is still $250. How do the current holders of a pass feel about that price? I’m interested to hear if that would still be worth it or if that was already on the high side.
I'm happy I locked in at $80. Jesus Christ.
I mean, what exactly does Plex offer that's worth $750? I'm genuinely asking. I only use it to stream content I own to my own devices. I understand they have their own streaming media offerings, but like ... are they trying to compete with Netflix? And if so, what do they think their users actually use their software for?
I suspect they know people wouldn't value their software at $750 and this is just a way to pretend to still offer lifetime passes while actually trying to push people onto the monthly/annual plans. If they just cut the lifetime offering altogether, I think they'd probably generate more negative headlines than even this will generate. It also makes it something people would likely only consider buying on sale and that's it. This also avoids any media from clickbaiting people into thinking they will lose their already purchased lifetime plans, like if they remove the lifetime offering that doesn't mean they are kicking people off the lifetime plex pass but it would be easy to generate clicks making an ambiguous headline that makes people wonder.
I don't think they're trying to compete with Netflix, they have just been using Plex server owners as bootstrappers to their FAST service, which is really more so where they're attempting to compete, not with subscription services. Plex server owners invite their friends and family in, and Plex was happy to adjust the interface of the software to make it harder for the friend/family member to find the family/friend's server content and easier to land on Plex's ad supported content. Suddenly, more revenue coming in from people that never would have known about Plex before, and cost them $0 in marketing.
Coupled with more people probably dipping their toes into piracy due to all the streaming services cracking down on password sharing, prices going up etc., it makes the timing of now more important to them to keep people off these lifetime passes and onto recurring revenue plans.
Honestly $750 is such a ridiculous price hike that I'm not sure they're actually saving themselves from bad press.
I think this is still less negative press than "Plex axes Lifetime Pass" or something like that. To people who already own the Lifetime pass, this headline is mostly a nothing. It doesn't really impact them. If I saw a headline saying they got rid of lifetime pass entirely, with a lot of the vague headlines that come out these days, I'd definitely click just to see if it's going to affect me or not. Now more so I'm equating that to what I would expect to be a general audience reaction, not necessarily about me specifically.
I'm not saying they get no bad press from doing this, I just think it's less than if they got rid of the lifetime pass completely.
I don't know what they offer. I picked Jellyfin when I was setting up my media server and Plex just seems to be making sure I chose wisely back then.
Plex is still the only reasonable interface for providing your media to friends and family.
I'd say that's a bit of an extreme. If you start from nothing meaning you don't have Plex Pass, is it reasonable? So then if you have to pay, is the monthly/annual price that will likely go up at some point in the future reasonable? I wouldn't call paying $70/year or more reasonable just to share media with friends and family.
At that point, I'm weighing the reasonableness of the cost versus the reasonableness of the technical hoops to jump through to get friends and family set up. To some those hoops are greater than to others. Arguably the price point is similarly a greater hoop to some than to others. Though I suspect if money is no concern then one would probably be less inclined to use Plex to begin with and they'd still be using paid streaming services.
You see, for me what makes the money a problem is that I can't charge people for access to my Plex server. I mean, I could, but I don't want the headache of that, because when people pay for it, then they expect professional service. If their shit doesn't work, I'm not going to drop what I'm doing to help them troubleshoot it. I'm not going to issue them a refund because it wasn't working for a few days. I could take it seriously, make it my mission to have 100% uptime or close to that, but I don't care that much and I don't want to care that much. Of course I can just cut them off whenever they act like a jerk and be done with them going forward, but again, that's just hassle I wouldn't want to deal with.
Anyone who has ever had access to my server has no expectations and I like it that way. Some stuff I have in shitty 480p quality because I don't watch it so I don't care. They can watch it if they want, or they can not watch it, or if they ask and I do it when I feel like I can change the quality if it matters that much to them. I could set it up so that they could do it themselves and with limitations to prevent them from using up all my storage but again, that's more work.
I can walk through some of the most incompetent tech people through many things. I did it for a living. Not saying I enjoy it, or that I'd want to do it, but then we're weighing what I think the work of doing that is, versus the work of trying to run some quasi-professional Plex setup and charge for it to recoup my costs or pay $70+ per year for it. The initial option starts to seem like the easier/more reasonable one to me. It would likely end up balancing out that the people I am willing to help set up are going to be the least trouble, and people who would be the most trouble I'd end up not bothering with.
Well, to be clear, I wasn't making judgement call about the overall value of the service. Just the interface. IMO it is still the only reasonable interface to share media with friends and family. That doesn't mean that it is worth what they're asking (and at $750, it almost definitely is not).
Jellyfin (naturally, given its whole objective) asks more of the administrator and media owner than Plex. When I share my Plex server, I don't need to manage users or proxies or anything like that. It's all out of my hands, and the account control mechanics are all good enough by Plex that I don't need to worry about any of it.
But with Jellyfin, the users are my users. Any password resets become my responsibility. Any network issues are my issues.
Obviously it's still very much out of the goodness of my heart, and there's no real expectation of service from my users, and they all understand that. But at the same time, I want to provide them with something they enjoy using.
Honestly I guess my major hangup is just the user accounts. If I could share my Jellyfin libraries with a Google account that has a nice first-class OIDC login flow, that might solve all my problems.
Plex was a stepping stone for me. I started self-hosting and it offered an easy way to watch my media when I travel, but then they changed how the free tier works and I realized I just need Jellyfin and don’t care much for the extras.
That's the question indeed. Their marketing is entirely around that live TV stuff when it's obvious that people use and have always used it to host their own pirated media.
I got the lifetime pass early so while I've been benefitting from it for years now, I'm not even sure I'd buy it now for the same price I paid then so $750 is insane.
@Grumble4681 is right, this is to disincentivize further lifetime sales.
There are people who basically run a Plex server as a bootleg streaming service for their friends and family. The data/tag standardization it does is also handy.
I don't have a link for it and I'm on mobile so I can't easily search but on the Plex subreddit I've seen a former Plex dev say that they do see more people using their streaming offerings than people using Plex to stream their own media these days. It's been sounding like the personal media functionality is pretty much in just maintenance mode for a while now.
NB: Can remove everything past the # on the URL, also this is the lifetime Plex Pass, other prices seem to be stable for now.Edit: Thanks, @hungariantoast!
Also, that's very expensive for what is being offered and I'd imagine that this allows Emby and Jellyfin an opportunity to come into their own.
I switched to Jellyfin a while ago and haven't looked back
I gave Jellyfin a go a few years ago, but all my TVs are hooked up to Rokus, and while there is a Jellyfin client for Roku, it had so many subtitle bugs that foreign films and anime became completely unwatchable for me. Subtitles would sometimes start out OK when starting from the beginning of the movie or episode, but would slowly drift out of sync. And if you had to pause, ffwd or rewind, or stop and resume something later, forget it... subtitles would sometimes be 30-60 seconds early or late, completely at random, with no way to sync them back up again without starting the whole thing over from the beginning.
I'm not sure if any of that has been fixed since I bounced back to Plex. I bought my lifetime pass back when they were under $100 so I don't plan on trying it again until Plex does something annoying that affects me personally.
How easy is it to connect to an Amazon fire stick? I currently stream my my plex server in my office to the plex app on my tv in my living room. I’m assuming jellyfin has some similar integration?
Should be just as straightforward as Plex. Get the Jellyfin server up and running on your server in your office and then install the app on your Firestick.
I don't know about Amazon devices, but there are Jellyfin client apps for just about everything, as well as a plugin for Kodi.
It's not super polished but there is a jellyfin app for the firestick and it has worked just fine for me. I also stream to my Xbox, where again there is a jellyfin app that works but it's about what you'd expect from free software on a less popular platform.
Any serious friction points? I'm thinking about doing this as well.
The official Apple TV client, Swiftfin, seems to have performance problems as of the last time I used it (probably about a year ago). Infuse Pro is the better client to use on that device, but it does cost a few dollars.
If you follow the Swiftfin GitHub, their tvOS release is a joke. Literally multiple years behind. I don’t hold it against them - open source, all the devs have real lives, but for my use case (family, with multiple jellyfin users) the infuse lack of in-app user switching is a royal pain.
I actually settled on Emby which is reasonable implementation and is fully local without plex’s garbage, but I’d prefer to switch to jellyfin once they get their client stable.
Jellyfin is super easy to spin up. Infuse is the best client on tvOS.
Jellyfin mostly just worked for me, but the hard part was making it accessible off of my home network. Tailscale isn't very friendly to non-technical people.
You shouldn't need Tailscale or a VPN to make Jellyfin accessible off your home network unless you're stuck behind a CGNAT. If you are stuck behind a CGNAT, I'm not sure how Plex would be any easier unless they're running a proxy service
The proxy service is part of plex pass.
I seriously don't understand. Why would you pay for Plex? I've been using Jellyfin and it fills the same category Plex claims to offer: I have a server with storage that I install Jellyfin on, I fill the storage with my personal media collection, and I can view it on my phone / Roku / desktop and create accounts for my friends and family.
There are legitimate benefits to having a Plex Pass. For me specifically, the mobile client features and hardware transcoding, were the push to do so. Since then, Plex Amp and skip credits/intro have been some of my favorite features. I'm not justifying purchasing it now, but at the time I bought a lifetime pass, the reasons felt pretty valid.
Haha So truly I used to be in this camp too and avoided Jellyfin for years, but I recently set up a new Homelab and gave Jellyfin a go and like Jellyfin has most if not all of those features.
Tailscale's really easy to use and manage, and you can share it with people. There's other ways to manage this through Caddy, and reverse proxies and LDAP, but I already had Tailscale set up.
Jellyfin has several mature music player specific apps for both android and iOS, my favorite being FinAmp, which I'm now just realizing is named FinAmp because it's supposed to have competitive features to PlexAmp. haha
Jellyfin has that too as a plugin. It actually works really well.
Jellyfin has that as well, unless I'm mistaken on what you meant. I transcode on a GPU in my server.
There's actually quite a bit of Jellyfin mobile clients now, some are very good. I like having options, and to my surprise an app called Jellybook exists which actually gives me a valid reason to upload my ebooks and audiobooks to my Jellyfin Server.
A lot of said client apps allow downloading as well.
Anyways, not trying to like shill for Jellyfin because I avoided it for years as subpar to Plex, but really at this point I've been very pleasantly surprised at how smooth and feature-filled Jellyfin has been out of the box, and through the multitude of plugins.
Or a good old fashioned Wireguard or OpenVPN server, less reliance on a third party proprietary service
Good to know! I haven't looked at JellyFin since before (m)any of those features existed, it sounds like I could just as easily use that. My only hangup is that my wife complains when "[I] change the technology [she] has finally gotten used to". But that aside, I'll look forward to trying out JellyFin when Plex finally does something irritating enough to me (personally) to drive me to switch.
Yeah as I said, I've been pleasantly surprised by how Jellyfin has matured.
I also really like the fact that Jellyfin has themes and multiple client options, so if I don't like one I can switch to another without changing anything on my server side.
I set my friends and family up with my server over the weekend and I chose the best clients for each person to access my library at depending on how techy they were or what they were interested in.
Pretty sure they’re both just trying to whip the llama’s ass here.
Oh god the memories.
I'm a little confused, so forgive me if this is a silly question- but has Jellyfin not had hardware transcoding capability for a long time at this point? I'm currently using an Intel GPU to transcode media with Jellyfin without issue.
I admit that the Plex app offerings have tended to be more comprehensive, but Finamp has become pretty good for music streaming! And the rest of the Jellyfin app ecosystem seems to be improving too. I entirely understand the choice maybe five years ago, but in a more modern context?
Jellyfin has had hardware transcoding since the beginning, it was part of the initial feature set it inherited from Emby
You don’t need to port forward / have an open port. You also don’t have to deal with dynamic IPs.
Remote access via Jellyfin is not easy to set up. It’s way beyond most people’s skills. With Plex, you literally just install it and they handle all the remote streaming. Just sign in and you’re good to go. You don’t have to manually do anything.
If you are able to setup jellyfin you are also able to setup something like tailscale. Yes, it is not included with jellyfin, so it does require some extra work. But claiming it is "beyond most people's skills" is simply a hyperbole.
Trying to explain to someone that they need to turn a VPN on and off to use their streaming app is a nonstarter for most people. It’s an extra step most people aren’t interested in. It takes very little friction for someone to give up on something like that.
And adding Tailscale into the mix adds another failure point. What if they forget to enable Tailscale before they leave the house?
That is also moving the goal post. You made a claim about setting it up, now we have moved towards people making use of it. I suppose that means that you are agreeing with me then on your initial statement being a hyperbole :)
As far as the new location of the goal post, it also is hyperbolic and simply not true. Which I can claim with 100% confidence given personal experience with people who very much fall under the definition of "not all that capable with computers or smartphones". The only actual "issue" sometimes is having people remembering they need to toggle it back off. People might forget once or twice the first time, ask me, go "do'h!" when I ask if they toggled the vpn and have a good time after that.
I have both this experience with jellyfin as a usecase as well as general VPN usage to help someone access a streaming service from their home country.
Given that experience I am fairly confident in stating that a relay service not being build into jellyfin isn't actually a showstopper in a majority of cases.
Edit on edit:
Then they enable it later? It is just like turning on a VPN whenever you need it. On the server side it is always on anyway. I feel like you are arguing very much from a position of assumptions not actual experience. If you are a happy Plex user and somehow feel "attacked" on your choice, don't. Jellyfin wasn't always a viable alternative and tailscale has only been around since 2020 and took a little while to get traction as well.
So yeah, depending on when you first set up Plex remote access might have been a much stronger argument. And if you are happy with Plex, that's all cool nobody is telling you to switch. But for people looking for a solution now it would be cool if they can make their choice based on factual current information. Not mis information based on assumptions and outdated experiences.
No offense, but you spent your whole comment making assumptions about me. Two differing opinions on the usability of an app are by the very nature of the discussion, not facts.
I would include "maintenance" as part of the setup. It's not much use to set something up if you can't maintain it. That could have been clearer.
I could care less about someone "attacking" Plex. It's a giant software company, not a person.
I've also have a Jellyfin server running for years now. It's great software and has quite a few features I love. Particularly the "Ends At" time on every video's details page. I'm saying this so you know that I'm up to date on using/maintaining both Plex and Jellyfin.
For some context, I was the first person to set up Plex/Jellyfin in my friend group, so I have helped quite a few friends set up Plex/Jellyfin over the years. Probably a dozen at this point? Usually I offer Plex first and tell them if they don't want to pay, they can use Jellyfin. Most were willing to pay for something, so I've definitely done more Plex setups.
The people I've set Jellyfin up for have had more issues accessing their content remotely than those who use Plex. Noticeably more. Regular people really just don't want to install or remember to use extra stuff. They just want to install the one app and have it work. That's been the universal feedback I've gotten. It hasn't been enough of an issue for any of them to ask about switching to Plex. But the most I've had to help someone with Plex remote access was telling them to sign in.
It would have helped to include all this to begin with. I also believe you countered your own argument here where you said it was too difficult for most people. Where tue reality is that while not as smooth as Jellyfin it seems to work for a fair amount of people you know as well.
Just forward port 8096 to the Jellyfin host, no need for a VPN or third party nonsense.
You can forward port 8096 directly to a Jellyfin host, no need to bring some for profit proprietary service into the mix. For added security, Caddy is trivially easy to set up for HTTPS, and VPNs like Wireguard or OpenVPN are easy to run.
As a policy I try to avoid having any ports open on my home network to the outside world. There is also dynamic IPs to consider though a dynDNS type deal could also work around that.
But yeah, as I said in another comment I have been looking at WireGuard since I would like to not rely on tailscales infra.
I mean Tailscale really isn't that difficult to set up and you can share your tailscale machine with others and just give them the URL to your server. In my opinion it's safer too since you're not giving a company access to your questionably obtained content library or exposing your server to the open internet. With Tailscale it's encrypted end to end from your server instance to your user's instance.
Caddy is only slightly harder to set up.
Not only is Tailscale far beyond the average person’s technical ability, it doesn’t really help with edge devices like smart TVs.
Many people share plex servers with family and friends and it’s doubly a no go to require them to install the Tailscale client.
Uhhhmmm... I'm not sure what you're talking about.
You install tailscale and log in, that's literally it. There is no setup, at least not on the user's end. And if you've set up a Plex server then setting up a tailscale server's a lot easier than that.
On phones, it's just an app with a login and you turn it on. If you're ok with it, you can just give them all the same login so they all connect to the same tailscale network if sharing to multiple accounts and account set up is too complicated.
And you can install Tailscale natively on an Android/GoogleTV or AppleTV or even Firesticks/FireTV literally as easy as any other app on the TV. The only one it doesn't really support is RokuTV.
For the users it's literally just install it and forget it.
I literally just did this with friends and family this past weekend, some not tech literate in the slightest, and none of them had any issues and it was very simple and smooth.
The ONLY real extra hurdle there was is just telling them the first troubleshooting tip is "Is your tailscale running?" and they had to just go into the app and turn it on.
I disagree as I've done both. This is 100% a blocker for family/friends.
Just not having a client called something recognizable on every platform is enough of a blocker. There isn't a chance in hell that I can get my mother to connect to Tailscale when it disconnects. Too many moving parts with exotic names and functions. It might be everyday for me, but it's wizard magic to them.
OTOH, Plex lifetime means I don't have to help them at all. They log into Plex and it's just there. The app is called exactly one thing, and it's available in whatever App Store they're using. I don't need to be there to help them on, and I've never once had to hand hold them about it. I'd love to not use Plex, but it's still a better experience for both the clients and the person supporting those users.
I mean I'm not sure what you disagree with, it just sounds like we both just have had different experiences with neither of our experiences being the universal truth.
For me, I'm just tracking what app I told them to download and that's what they're calling it. The more tech illiterate family members just know it as whatever I told them to download, and "Jellyfin Server" doesn't come into play.
Sure, it's one extra step and one extra app, and that kind of pushes the limit of some people's tech literacy, but I manage it well by walking them through the setup and making sure that the final experience is smooth.
But I also wrote a one page PDF documentation for them to print out that has all their login and URL information with screenshots and icons, and a short troubleshooting section that basically says the first thing to do is to check Tailscale. That's what's helped my grandparents with other stuff I've set up for them and so that's what I used for this.
What's with the hyperbolic statements in the comments today? Setting up tailscale is not difficult, if you can set up plex you are also able to configure tailscale. Getting it installed on devices for other people also is not all that difficult either.
Sure, edge cases will be edge cases. This is an edge case on an edge case, for most people their smart TV will already be in the same network.
Depends on what family and what friends. Also here I find this to be a hyperbole.
I am not going to pretend that Jellyfin is the perfect replacement for Plex in all scenarios. That would bring my argument to the same level as yours. But it certainly is more viable than you make it out to be.
It's a bit annoying because, at least as of when I set it up, Tailscale only has login providers that require 2fa.
If you're having multiple people all log into an account, then approving the 2FA is a massive nuisance.
I can do it all just fine, but trying to get my mom set up to log in remotely takes a lot of time and effort
Most people have a login provider already in the form of either Google or Apple so that hasn't been an issue in the past. Generally I set it up for them and then show them what to do.
To be fair, most of these people also consume media on their tablets or phones.
I am considering making use of the wireguard functionality on my router and a subnet instead. Which actually would be more involved on my side and I am not sure how the situation is on iOS in that area. On Android devices it would make it even simpler as it truly would just be a toggle after I set it up for folks.
That's why you make them their own tail scale account and add them to your tail scale network.
That means I need to drag them through OAuth setup, and not accidentally creating their own tail net instead of just adding mine. The free personal plan also only allows 6 users. To get more than that is $8/user/mo
It's just a single port that needs to be forwarded. I think most people getting into self hosting can figure that out. If not, then they probably deserve to over-pay for Plex Pass.
It's been a long time since I last tried, but one reason for me is that Jellyfin being written in C# made setup a pain. Not that Plex is perfect there either, its Python bits tend to crap out from time to time.
I kinda wonder why there aren't Plex/Jellyfin type projects that are nice neat self-contained binaries written in Go or Rust or something. Those are usually options for most other self-hosted server packages, but not media servers.
Well damn, glad I got mine at $75 during the pandemic, $750 is a real tough fucking sell.
When this completely stops sales, I wonder what they will do to make existing lifetime users pay more. Why anyone first getting into self-hosting would choose to use Plex at this point is beyond me.
I got my lifetime pass long enough ago that it's been well worth it (if it was $5/month I would have passed $750 total by now), though the main thing holding me to Plex now is inertia. I have a few friends that use my server as well and I could probably figure out how to securely share with them through Jellyfin in a way that minimizes friction, but I haven't had to yet.
What the actual fuck. I first spun up Plex in 2019, and shortly after purchased a lifetime Plex Pass for $80. Over the last 7 years, I feel I have certainly gotten my value out of that purchase. But even if I'd paid $750 for it 7 years ago, I still would not feel that I had gotten the equivalent value out of that purchase.
Plex is fine, perhaps even more than fine, but not without its issues. Particularly for a product whose only support is community forums, and the vast majority of problems go without answer or solution, I don't see how they can try and justify such a price hike. That's enterprise level pricing for what I view as a well polished hobbyist project.
Moves like this only further my mentality that if and when JellyFin or another product comes around that offers those features of Plex Pass that I actually like and use, I'll have no motivation to stay loyal to Plex versus trying out the competition with (hopefully) crappy ideas.
I paid for lifetime at way less than this to get credit skip and intro skip. I would not have paid this much. In fact, I wouldn't have used plex at all, I'd have used something else
Never used Plex myself, but as I understand it, it might be nice to organize my media? Like I can see what I've watched, how long I've watched it, etc?
I have something like 4Tb of Media, but it's just a shared folder on my server, which I connect everything to. So if I want to watch something, I just navigate to it via File Explorer on whatever I'm using to watch what I want to watch. I know it could be easier, but I'm just lazy and don't feel like changing the way I work or trying to explain it to my kids or wife.
Yup, basically it works like streaming services do but for your own content. You can have individual accounts so each person gets to see what they have watched and easily track where they are in a series. It also makes it very easy to switch watching between different devices because of that.
As mentioned elsewhere in the comments Jellyfin is an open source alternative I'd recommend you check out first. Unlike Plex it isn't on a slow road to enshittification.
It basically Netflix-ifies your media, streaming it from your server to the player app, providing metadata, posters, watched status, etc. It can also transcode on the fly and provide remote access. They lock basic functionality behind the Pass, moving more behind it each year while hiking the price of the Pass. They also try to push their free, ad-riddled content in front of your own.
The Netflix like interface with a native smart TV app was how I got my partner onboard for using my server to begin with.
My advice -- stay away, you've got a solution your family is already using after all. But look into Jellyfin instead if the features interest you. It's FOSS so no pay walling of basic features and folks are free to fork the code and write clients for any device. While it lacks some functionality compared to paid Plex, it also has a plugin system for extra features. Like Plex Pass has intro skip, Jellyfin has a plugin for it.
I am very happy to report that after years of being disappointed with Jellyfin, that, to me at least, it's finally matured enough that I think it's a very viable replacement to Plex.
I've been on a Homelab kick lately, and recently installed it after struggling with plex for a while, and the experience has been a lot smoother than it has in the past.
Plus, there's a lot of customization you can do with it too. I'm really impressed after finding the Awesome Jellyfin list of themes and plugins with things like skip intro, hover trailers, auto-generated subtitles, and more.
Anyways I hated Jellyfin for the longest time but have been pleasantly surprised.
Plex seems like it’s destined to continue to worsen. I just don’t see how it’s a viable business given their user base. Their recent controversial corporate retreat also makes me think leadership is more out of touch than your average tech company.
The answer to this insane price hike is, and always has been, to use Jellyfin.
I will never pay for Plex Pass. I use Plex for free a few times per year and I'm frequently pissed that they want me to pay for HDR -> SDR look up tables. I understand and am fully on board with charging for features that have an ongoing cost to them. NAT punching relays and stuff like that have a real monthly cost to Plex, so I am okay with them charging for it and okay with them making a profit. But they can go fuck themselves with a monthly fee to unlock a software patch.
I paid $149 for Plex over 12 years ago (paid yearly for two years before that). I’ve been using it daily since then. Would I ever pay $750 for it? Probably not. But I have definitely gotten that much value out of it.
So I see the consensus is that $750 is too much, and that $80 was a sweet deal. Until the new pricing is introduced, a lifetime pass is still $250. How do the current holders of a pass feel about that price? I’m interested to hear if that would still be worth it or if that was already on the high side.