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End the Streaming Struggle with Plex

195 points by sp8 5y ago

ldiracdelta 5y ago
The Kodi plugin interface is a giant pain. Any time I'm trying to do a Kodi plugin I spend 30% of my time searching for an alternative to Kodi.
smm11 5y ago
No longer works with my VPN. No thanks.
- Stephen304 5y ago
  Did you try adding your VPN subnet to the trusted / local networks setting? I use OpenVPN in opnsense to access my local plex, though I can also use app.plex.tv which usually automatically uses direct connect using my forwarded wan ip which is fine for me.
quaintdev 5y ago
I am just gonna live this here - https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin - https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin
- dont__panic 5y ago
  Jellyfin has been really nice in my experience for audio streaming. I'll also plug Finamp, my mobile audio jellyfin client of choice, and Sonixd, my macOS jellyfin client, two amazing little pieces of software. Haven't tried it much for video though. I love the fact that I can manage my own logins and self-host -- if the media has to live locally, after all, why not handle the whole thing?
  - xanaxagoras 5y ago
    These are both great! Especially Sonixd. Finamp appears to be missing a "recently added" section but I'm going to test drive it for a week or so anyway.
    - dont__panic 5y ago
      Finamp is missing a few features, but it's a work in progress so I can forgive it. Planning on making a couple of PRs myself, for things like fixing the reverse sort order of album view and implementing other views offline. Oh, and for some reason local storage deletion doesn't work for me on iOS -- need to investigate that. But if you want to listen to music that's stored on Jellyfin and store some for offline use, it's great so far. Just needs some small stuff built out!
- tenebrisalietum 5y ago
  Jellyfin is awesome. The DLNA support enables streaming to my local TVs without having to install apps on the TVs themselves, though I haven't heavily tested it with video yet (works great with music). Also the visibility of libraries can be managed per account, so not everyone you give a login to has to see all your content.
  - TruthIsHeresy 5y ago
    Plex also has DLNA support [1]. [1]: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200350536-dlna/ https://support.plex.tv/articles/200350536-dlna/
  - brimble 5y ago
    The Roku app is tolerable (so, about as good as anything not from one of the companies that's big enough to gain access to the lower-level SDK) The Android app works really well on a Shield, and is much more pleasant to use. Can't vouch for other devices, and Android experience, especially Android TV, can vary a lot with the device. The Shield also handles more video codecs and can pass through more audio formats than my Roku can, which means less transcoding, which means my poor, weak old server doesn't get abused while still only barely managing to generate a slideshow. In fact, I'm not sure I have any files that the Shield can't handle natively. I love, love, love having a Web interface to use when I want to change things. Mixing the library & settings management interface with the "6-foot" remote-friendly interface, as on Kodi/XBMC, is a UI disaster. It's also very nice as a fallback streaming option, and works way better than I'd have expected.
  - dundarious 5y ago
    I have a decent size library and accessing Jellyfin via DLNA from a PS4 was unworkable for me. There is no search, and I couldn't find any way to select specific movies other than scrolling through the entire library by title name, or finnicky categories like genre or release year. Plex's DLNA implementation provides a "By First Letter" listing so you can find it via "By First Letter > M > (scroll down past a dozen entries to 'The Matrix')" instead of "By Title > (scroll down past a few hundred entries to 'The Matrix')". I don't think I'd be able to stomach that amount of scrolling to watch "Zardoz" on Jellyfin.
- zeruch 5y ago
  The literal only thing that keeps me from moving to Jellyfin is that I cannot seem to get it to work with a Chromecast. If that worked (and I'm not sure if its a cert problem or something else) I'd be happily away from Emby/Plex and every other option I've used in the past.
  - flimsythoughts 5y ago
    Interesting. I recently installed jellyfin and have no issues streaming it to my chromecast. It works beautifully.
  - majora2007 5y ago
    I could only get it to work when I was out of the house, but inside, it never connected. You can ask on their Github for support, but I wasn't able to solve even with their help.
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      This could be a whole lot of causes. For example, our home access points by default isolated each wireless client, so they couldn't even see each other, much less a central server.
  - Goz3rr 5y ago
    I believe this might be caused by Google. Chromecasts will only cast from URLs that have a valid HTTPS certificate (self signed will not work). If you're accessing your Jellyfin over the local IP it will be impossible to get a valid certificate for it.
    - xanaxagoras 5y ago
      > If you're accessing your Jellyfin over the local IP it will be impossible to get a valid certificate for it. I just made a domain name for all of my local network services. Each service gets a subdomain that resolves to a local IP address, so like jellyfin.mydomain.com -> 10.x.x.x. Then just do DNS validation with letsencrypt. Boom, valid cert.
- manifoldgeo 5y ago
  I'm genuinely rooting for Jellyfin to overtake Plex in functionality and popularity; someone needs to. Plex isn't even fully FLOSS. That said, I don't actually like Jellyfin, and I wish it weren't implemented in such a Windows-centric language framework. Once I found out that Jellyfin existed, I excitedly spun up an instance and put all my media on it. It can't handle any AVI videos and lags a lot more than my Plex VM with exactly the same specs. Worst of all, it can't detect my external Chromecast, only the one built into my smart TV. After assessing how well Jellyfin worked, I had to hang my head in defeat and return to using Plex. I can see that Jellyfin has a very active user / developer community on Matrix, and I bet things will get better. EDIT: I accidentally said Windows-centric above, but what I meant was Microsoft-centric. I meant the company and not their OS. Leaving it the "wrong" way above for posterity.
  - achn 5y ago
    C# and .net 6 are not windows-centric.
    - manifoldgeo 5y ago
      Here is the very first sentence of the Wikipedia entry [0] for .NET Framework: "The .NET Framework (pronounced as 'dot net') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows". The official documentation for both C# [1] and .NET Framework [2] live on Microsoft.com. I would say the above constitutes a pretty Windows-centric existence relative to some other vendor-agnostic languages, but maybe we're saying different things. What did you mean? Refs ---- 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework 1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/ 2: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework
      - spencerhakim 5y ago
        The .NET Framework is not quite the same thing as .NET, and they have separate Wikipedia pages which reflect that distinction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET
- horsawlarway 5y ago
  Having used both - I also strongly prefer Jellyfin. You get the whole service, open source, easy to run as a docker container or on K8s, love the web UI.
  - brimble 5y ago
    Indeed: #/bin/bash docker run -d \ --volume /opt/jellyfin/config:/config \ --volume /opt/jellyfin/cache:/cache \ --net=host \ --restart=unless-stopped \ jellyfin/jellyfin:10.7.7-amd64 That's "docker, run this and detach the console..." "Also, mount these two directories in the image, to where Jellyfin expects to store its config, so that stuff persists across container restarts and upgrades..." "... uh, I don't remember what --net=host does, I think maybe it directly exposes the container's ports on the host interface, because I was being lazy when I wrote this? Anyway, it works..." ".. restart this unless I explicitly stop it..." "... and run this official Jellyfin image, at this particular version" Then after the second "--volume" insert more lines for every folder you want to map in, like so: --volume /mnt/storage/movies:/media/Movies \ --volume /mnt/storage/tv:/media/TV \ --volume /mnt/storage/kid-movies:/media/Kids \ --volume /mnt/storage/music:/media/Music \ Add as many as you like. You'll see the directories on the right of the ":" show up in the Jellyfin UI, where you can add them as media sources and tell it what's in them, who has access (say, granting some users access only to that "Kids" library), et c. Save as "jellyfin.sh" or whatever, and chmod +x. Run it. Done. To upgrade the version, change the last line to the new version, kill the container with a docker command, and run the script again. Do the same if you want to add more directories. (might want to check the version, that may not be latest, it's just what mine is running right now) You could also do it with docker-compose, I just tend not to do that unless I'm dealing with a container that depends on other containers. Works ~anywhere that can run Docker containers. Doesn't matter which distro you're using. I'm pretty sure it even comes back up on system restart, and I didn't do any extra work to make that happen. Self-contained, simple, and clean. [EDIT] To be clear, you also need to create those "/opt/jellyfin/config" and "cache" directories. The left side is what's on the host filesystem. But, you can put those anywhere, they don't have to go in "/opt". Helpfully, the "--volume" list is also a complete list of everything (aside from the shell file itself) that you might want to back up. Which is one of the things I love about configuring services with Docker.
- throwanem 5y ago
  How's it compare with Subsonic and allies? I like the interface and the clients for Subsonic, but I've never had good luck with its indexing and transcoding from network sources like my NAS.
  - Macha 5y ago
    It depends whether you care more about music or movies. Jellyfin is a movie-centric solution that happens to have options for music. Subsonic was a music-centric solution that has apparently grown the ability to play video in recent years.
    - throwanem 4y ago
      Turns out I don't much care for Jellyfin's approach to music, but for videos it's pretty solid, and I found it very easy to set up. Thanks for the recommendation! (As for music, I ended up just running Airsonic in another container on the same box, so all set there till something better comes along. Navidrome, maybe...)
- davemtl 5y ago
  This is disappointing: "Note that this project is supported on all major operating systems except FreeBSD, which is still incompatible." Considering both Plex and Emby support FreeBSD, I'm sad to to learn that Jellyfin does not.
  - FDSGSG 5y ago
    Is FreeBSD support really something worth worrying about? Perhaps it's also disappointing that Jellyfin doesn't run on AmigaOS?
    - terrabitz 5y ago
      In my case, I'm running FreeNAS/TrueNAS for storage and a Plex jail. I'd imagine there are a number of people in the same boat considering the popularity of TrueNAS.
      - cassianoleal 5y ago
        TrueNAS Scale is Debian-based. It's easy to migrate from Core to Scale [0]. You do lose your jails but there's both an official Plex chart for the underlying k3s, and a community-supported one in TrueCharts [1]. There's a Jellyfin chart on TrueCharts as well. [0] https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/gettingstarted/migratingfromcore/ https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/gettingstarted/migratingf... [1] https://truecharts.org/ https://truecharts.org/
      - FDSGSG 5y ago
        TrueNAS is a pretty small niche, no? Not only that, but the usual way of using NAS involves doing compute tasks on a separate server. Besides, the FreeBSD based TrueNAS Core will almost certainly be deprecated and replaced with Linux based TrueNAS Scale within the nest couple of years. Further strengthening the idea that this is a pointless platform to support.
- izacus 5y ago
  It's great that you left this here but can you also leave a few words about why is it better than Plex (or Emby)?
TameAntelope 5y ago
The latest Chromecast w/remote has this kind of functionality, and it's a real gamechanger. Kind of funny how we're right back where we were, price wise, but at least now you do the bundling yourself and can dial in what you are paying for.
- ensignavenger 5y ago
  Except it doesn't support all services in the "global" search, and you get spammed with all sorts of ads. I like my Chromecast with Android/Google TV, but the software experience could be a lot better.
  - mpalczewski 5y ago
    yes, Chromecast with Android/Google TV is all ads all the time on home screen it is rather unpleasant. I changed my home launcher to one like this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cosinus.launchertv https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cosinus.la... it has made the experience much much better.
    - TameAntelope 5y ago
      I've got YouTube TV and I haven't seen a single non-broadcast ad in my time using it with my newest Chromecast.
      - ensignavenger 5y ago
        You don't get ads for various shows on various different streaming services on you Home screen in Google TV?
        TameAntelope 5y ago
        No, just a list of available shows and movies from the various platforms I'm signed in to. Not sure what else they'd show there. My Plex does the same thing; a list of things I can watch.
stuff4ben 5y ago
So how would I use this when I have an Apple TV? Is there an app I download and then I use Plex to find what I want to watch and then it launches whichever streaming service has the content?
- asabla 5y ago
  That's how I've interpreted it. So basically what their Apple TV+ app does but with the addition to your local content (and what's been shared with you through other plex servers)
ghostpepper 5y ago
I stopped using Plex when it started requiring a cloud login to access my local media
- morganvachon 5y ago
  Same. Several years ago I was a happy Plex user, but our Internet got knocked offline and we wanted to watch some local content, no dice. I canceled my Plex Pass sub as soon as I had Internet again. I use Emby now which offers pretty much the same experience without the need for a permanent Internet connection. Their subscription offers a few bonus features but it's not required for LAN streaming.
  - enobrev 5y ago
    Not that I'm trying to convince you to come back, but Plex does work without internet access. The Roku app allows you to set up a fallback ip when it happens as well. I don't love the cloud login either, but I do still use it. Just wanted to point out that the server and (some?) clients work without it.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
asabla 5y ago
They've been hinting this for a while now. It kind of is one of those missing features which I would have wanted back when I was subscribed to several streaming services. But now there is only one at the time + plex.
ggoo 5y ago
I manage a Plex instance for my whole family (old). Plex keeps adding "online" features like this and each and every time I get evening messages confused with the changes. I'll be getting a couple tonight it looks :)
ryandrake 5y ago
I predict a "Streaming Day of Reckoning" happening one day, where a critical mass of users suddenly loses access to a critical mass of content, because they became utterly dependent on streaming instead of physical media or local media storage. We occasionally read news of a handful of users losing access to a handful of content, and just shrug saying "Oh, well, streaming isn't perfect and this is growing pains." Maybe a user loses access to all their purchased Amazon movies because they got banned from the platform. "So sad," we say, as we continue to depend on streaming more and more. A niche streaming platform goes out of business and its small user base loses access to content. "Oh, well, there's still Netflix and Hulu," we say, as we keep switching to these platforms. One day, a big one is going to go dark, and millions of people will suddenly lose access to the hundreds of movies they got used to accessing, and maybe we'll start waking up and looking for better alternative business models than streaming the same bytes over and over from centralized services.
- zapataband1 5y ago
  can we all please just go back to bitorrent
  - recursive 5y ago
    What's stopping you? We're not all going, because I'm not going. For me, it's netflix and done. I don't have time or inclination to mess around with torrents.
- brimble 5y ago
  We ought not allow production companies to own distribution channels (and vice-versa), nor long-term exclusive deals with distributors. That's how we solved this when similar issues arose with studio ownership of movie theaters—those restrictions just ended a little while ago, IIRC. But then, that was back when we, like, ever told companies "no" when it was clearly in the public interest. Not sure we can still do that. Ideally, a production company shouldn't give a shit where you watch their stuff, just that you do. That'd remove most of the friction that makes creation of a universal streaming UI difficult. It'd push distributors to compete on price and features, not exclusive access to content. All around a win for viewers, creating a healthier, more robust market. So, probably won't happen :-(
EricE 5y ago
Channels-DVR blows Plex out to of the water for live content, including live streamed content from services like YouTube-TV. Will have to see if Plex can aggregate the rest now!
- rdudek 5y ago
  That and I have over-the-air antenna to get local channels hooked up to HDrunner and Channels-DVR makes easy work watching local stuff and record as needed.
- thedougd 5y ago
  Thank you for this as I'm ready to try something new. Used MythTV, then tvheadend, and now plex for LiveTV/DVR. I absolutely loathe Plex, nothing but problems with transcoding. I shouldn't need to have a transcoding server in 2022 with hardware accelerated devices. Kodi + TVHeadend had me 90% of the way there, but a handful of persistent bugs around PVR destroyed it for the family.
  - julianlam 5y ago
    This looks really cool! I have a MythTV setup curreny, but the sheer amount of hoops I had to go through to make it work with the tuner card and SchedulesDirect meant that I was loathe to change anything lest the house of cards breaks. Perhaps it's time to check this alternative out.
judge2020 5y ago
I feel like Plex is late to the game with this given that all the new, up-to-date smart TV/streaming stick interfaces already have this feature - either they allow downloaded apps to register the movies they can stream, or there’s a central directory that surfaces apps that can stream certain content even when they’re not locally installed. See the TV app on iDevices or Google TV for an example.
- datavirtue 5y ago
  I have my personally owned media on Plex so this is natural progression for me--to use it as a hub. I have been using Roku TVs for years and if they have this feature I'm not aware of it. I also have various TV's around the house that have different OSes and apps...Plex can simplify that cruft.
  - ghostly_s 5y ago
    You've never used the search on your Roku? This is exactly what it does.
    - philote 5y ago
      So it's just a search feature? This Plex feature is more than just search. It seems it also allows browsing and discovery.
    - datavirtue 5y ago
      Never searched with Roku. It's basically the OS that runs streaming apps, and I never thought much more about it.
- swores 5y ago
  Anecdote of one, but personally I found the Apple TV app on my physical Apple TV (and yes I add my name to the long list of people asking how high they were when naming overlapping but not nearly identical hardware and software products the same as each other) to be so bad that I never use it. I love the idea that it can pull all my media into one place, but realistically it doesn't work with all apps - a particularly relavent example in this thread being that it completely ignores my plex - and is buggy with the rest, such as BBC iPlayer which usually correctly shows up in Apple TV app (all be it with a worse UI than BBC's not-amazing-itself app) but doesn't always show my latest next-up info. I dislike it so much that I have watched illegal rips of Apple TV+ shows on plex despite having a valid subscription to watch them in the Apple TV+ section of the Apple TV app on my Apple TV device.
nerdjon 5y ago
I am annoyed that somehow Plex got this to work but Apple TV app does not with Netflix. Also annoyed that Plex does not integrate with Apple TV App itself. I wish I could make the TV app my goto. It's great for the things that support it, but sucks that not everything does. I wish apple would be "brave" and force any apps to integrate with it. I keep looking for a good alternative (especially given the online requirement), but it seems like Plex is the only one with a decent Apple TV app. I have jellyfin running but the app situation is less than ideal. If anyone has any recommendations with good Apple TV support?
- Phlarp 5y ago
  Get Infuse for Apple TV, it's just a front-end app / media player, but it works much better and leverages your existing Plex server installation.
  - nerdjon 5y ago
    I tried infuse maybe a year ago? maybe more, idk... it was around that time that Plex had that big outage that stopped you from even viewing your own local content. I didn't hate it, but it had some quirks that annoyed me coming from Plex. But maybe I will give it another shot. Pretty sure my Jellyfin server is still just sitting there running alongside Plex.
  - AnonHP 5y ago
    Assuming the devices are all from Apple, I’m curious to understand what Plex provides when it’s serving Infuse on the frontend. In other words, what does Infuse lack when it’s connected to a plain file share or file server as compared to having Plex in the backend? Infuse is already able to transcode various formats as necessary. It’s also able to index media, fetch cover images, etc. Other than offloading the power usage for transcoding (which may be important in battery powered devices), what benefits does Plex or Jellyfin (or anything else) provide here?
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  > I am annoyed that somehow Plex got this to work but Apple TV app does not with Netflix. I have a feeling that this is because Apple has some onerous little line in their contract that Netflix was not willing to accept. There's certainly no technical reason that it can't happen. And it annoys the hell out of me.
watermelon0 5y ago
Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30919220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30919220
- trevcanhuman 5y ago
  I'd argue that the post you link to should be flagged. The title is editorialized. If it were indeed the original title, I'd flag this one.
toastercat 5y ago
I got so fed up with Plex constantly shoving their streaming service and nagging me to log into Plex servers when I just want to stream my own files locally that I threw my hands up and installed Jellyfin[0]. It's severely lacking in the same polish and functionality as Plex, but I'm pleased that I can run Jellyfin without ads or having to create a non-local account. [0] https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin
- ineptech 5y ago
  Ditto. Plex was great but I'm not creating a web account to use local open source software that decided to be something else.
  - branon 5y ago
    The Plex software that you'd be running on your local machine (server) is closed-source/nonfree anyway, so yeah. Jellyfin is a much nicer alternative.
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    Can't emphasize this more: Plex was awesome compared to the alternatives years ago. XBMC (Kodi now) was my goto, but all media was played locally, Plex not only transcoded and streamed, it has native clients even for smart TVs. I'm still annoyed that by default it requires a login to their cloud to stream locally, which I found when my Internet failed and Plex refused to stream locally. Also the useless third-party stream channels, and the insistence on enabling DRM on Firefox when none of my media needs it to play. I've installed Jellyfin in parallel, and I agree it lacks polishing compared to Plex, but it gets the job done without getting in your way.
    - flatiron 5y ago
      As you said it’s not the default but a simple check box to disable local auth.
      - 5y ago
criddell 5y ago
How are they indexing Netflix? Are they scraping or does Netflix have an API?
- STRiDEX 5y ago
  I assume they've either partnered with a service like reelgood or justwatch or built their own version.
poxrud 5y ago
I'm curious if this displays the content in Plex's media player or if it simply launches the streaming service's own player.
- dstaley 5y ago
  It's the latter.
MisterBiggs 5y ago
Looks like Plex Pass (paid [1]) features are all aimed towards people running their own media center and Plex is targeting casual users with free features that the core audience of Plex doesn't care about or use. I understand that the market of people running their own media server is pretty limited but if growth means totally alienating your core (paying) audience then maybe the approach is wrong. [1] https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass
- bsagdiyev 5y ago
  I bought the lifetime pass way back, when the price was lower than it currently is. No regrets, Plex serves me well at home and when we go out. Paw Patrol can follow us so my son is happy.
mdoms 5y ago
I tried to find these features on my Android TV and it's nowhere to be found. Same on my Android phone. Great work team.
cerebralfrog 5y ago
This is a neat feature to introduce alongside what Plex offers. It seems pretty similar to what JustWatch [0] does; I'm interested to see how they compare in practice. [0] https://www.justwatch.com/us https://www.justwatch.com/us
- hadrien01 5y ago
  Plex uses the JustWatch API
  - cerebralfrog 5y ago
    Ah, I didn't know that! Just wondering where they document that?
- janeerie 5y ago
  I love JustWatch, but it's frustrating that they don't have a Roku app. It looks like this will be a good substitute.
gadders 5y ago
Plex is nice if you have one of the TVs they support, but they recently pulled the Panasonic client over a falling out over certificates (iirc) and their attitude in their forums seems to be that they are doing you a favour.
- willcipriano 5y ago
  I use Nvidia Shield's on all my TV's to run Plex. It's the only way I have found to reliably stream 4K HDR content.
  - hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
    Similar experience with chrome cast, the Samsung app was slowly dying and cc mostly fixed it. Don’t mind the occasional hard crash though.
  - gadders 5y ago
    For now I use the Panasonic TV's dlna browser. It's janky, but it does the job and saves me £100 per TV. Even a Plex app for the Sky TV satellite box would be good but I doubt if that will ever happen.
zapataband1 5y ago
f2movies.to
traspler 5y ago
I‘m assuming this is at least partly a client feature so every user has to add their own subscriptions to their Plex account or does this allow to share subscriptions through a server with multiple users? So so you could add your subscriptions to your server and anyone with access to that server will also be able to use your subscriptions?
- traspler 5y ago
  Ok scrap that, you only indicate what services you have access to and this is only the search engine part, it will simply redirect you to the services app/site when you select play on something, it is not embedded.
- Markoff 5y ago
  r/plexshares is the way to go nowadays for certain group of lazy pirates personally I watch everything downloaded offline, streaming is still too unreliable
zzzeek 5y ago
I hope plex devs read this thread and get the clue that their system is totally ripe to be replaced with something else, I've used plex for many years and the technical quality of the server has just declined. people who use plex, who are therefore the types of people with an appetite to "run their own server", have absolutely no interest in having to sign up on a website, or get ads, see anything "streaming" (insane! the streaming market has tons of huge players, plex...) or any other kind of crap, all of which has been added to plex over the years, while meanwhile the server uses tons more disk space and memory than it used to and still fails to classify some very simple content quite often. I havent bothered to look at alternatives in a long time and it seems there are more now than there used to be. will be looking when i next have time.
- mdoms 5y ago
  So you think they should stake their whole business on pleasing customers who not only don't pay for the product but who make a hobby out of not paying for media? How do you supposed they keep the lights on?
  - tbyehl 5y ago
    Keep taking VC money? /s
  - parkingrift 5y ago
    Remove the login requirement except and unless users try to access PlexPass features.
  - hnaccount141 5y ago
    That's the strange part though. The streaming service and most of these new features are free. Most of the major features they charge for via Plex Pass are geared at people running their own servers. So they seem to be alienating the only people who have any reason to pay them in the first place.
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      You realize they sell those tv spots and/or share ad revenue. Every 5 minutes a 1 1/2 minute ad appears.
unknown2374 5y ago
Slightly off-topic, but I have been interested in setting up Plex (or similar) in my homeserver but never figured out a good workflow or source to add movies/shows to it? Are people generally just torrenting, or are there DRM-free stores that I do not know exist? Or if there is an efficient workflow for ripping blurays?
- flatiron 5y ago
  I personally use private trackers and sonarr/radarr apps to manage the content. You could probably use public trackers if you want. There is a nice docker image that runs deluge and wireguard. Works great with my VPN. Keeps a port open and everything. Has the firewall set to prevent using anything other than the vpn. It’s also nice I don’t have to play with my servers network settings as it’s all in the container.
- Macha 5y ago
  I don't believe anywhere is selling DRM free movies. iTunes DRM used to be pretty easy to crack, which may be legally piracy in some jurisdictions but at least for me I felt morally pretty ok with it. Bluray ripping is not too hard these days either, you basically need MakeMKV and a bluray drive with the right firmware (which is actually most "LG" drives). And yeah, plenty of piracy also.
- autoexec 5y ago
  I don't know of a store that offers DRM free movies for general content, but there are places you can get very specific things DRM free. RiffTrax is DRM free for example.
compsciphd 5y ago
this broke plex for at least the non US users that is me on my shield. it insisted on throwing up the configuration screen for selecting the streaming services that I am subscribed to. However, since I'm not in the US and they didn't test where I am (unsure how many places they did test) it failed and crashed the app on startup. A redditor found the solution that you needed a vpn into the us to get past the initial configuration. One still can't reconfigure the streaming services, but that doesn't matter as at least it doesn't crash once one gets past the initial configuration. I wonder how much plex devs get paid, because my job wouldn't be happy if I broke peoples usages like they regularly do.
- mattl 5y ago
  This is a beta feature
  - compsciphd 5y ago
    except, one that one couldn't opt out of without it first crashing. that's not a good beta feature.
    - mattl 5y ago
      Yeah that’s no good.
mark_l_watson 5y ago
The Apple TV+ app gives me a dashboard with Netflix, HBO, etc. material at the top of the screen - even before their exclusive content. I just wish Apple supported all streaming services with this.
- dewey 5y ago
  > I just wish Apple supported all streaming services with this. I believe this is not an Apple thing but something that the third party app has to do, they can "offer up" their content to the Apple TV app but bigger ones like Netflix want to keep people in their app. Just like third party apps can integrate with Siri and provide Siri with a list of titles / podcast episodes if they want.
op00to 5y ago
I use Plex for my whole family, storing all our content on a cloud provider. I don’t mind at all the internet connectivity/login requirements. I enjoy the “channels” Plex adds, if only to add a little background noise so I feel less lonesome when home alone. If the internet goes down, we’ll read a book or play a game.
Markoff 5y ago
I was surprised to find out recently there is even whole sub dedicated to paid plex sharing r/plexshares I don't use it personally, but I guess it can have some appeal for some, I'm fine with no nice UI for my downloaded files from USB stick, I do all my research prior downloading so I'm in no need of fancy UI.
unethical_ban 5y ago
I, for one, still enjoy the plex server and plex app. The new version on nvidia shield fixed 4k performance issues, and plex.tv being an IdP for friends to login to my server is cool. I don't think logging in locally with a cloud account should be required, but IIRC it isn't strictly required... just a dark pattern.
phil21 5y ago
I do wish Plex would focus more on technical aspects of their ecosystem than features at this point. I run a server for family, and use the Nvidia Shield as the client for pretty much any "nice" TV or sound system. This worked great for a couple years until a software regression made all 4k content have a 70% chance of locking up the Shield - which exists to this day. There are other small annoying bugs like that that don't make much sense, things like transcoding being weirdly laggy (minutes) on a quite idle machine that I never fully tracked down. I suppose writing this I am on the "bleeding edge" in that I expect to have "gold" 4k remux copies on-server, and then transcode down to whichever device is playing it. The Plex Kodi plugin is a workaround for the above mentioned 4k "original quality" playback bug, but that is not a great option for most end-users.
NoblePublius 5y ago
Just show me the movies on my services sorted by box office gross and I’m good.
conceptualspace 5y ago
if anyone streams plesk on a browser, i made an extension that adds 21:9 ultrawide support, a dynamic audio compressor (night mode), library shuffling, and links to trailers. its open source and cross browser too! enhance-o-tron for plex: https://github.com/conceptualspace/enhance-o-tron-for-plex https://github.com/conceptualspace/enhance-o-tron-for-plex
umvi 5y ago
All I want Plex to do is serve some MP4 files from a raspberry pi. I had it working at one point with some hidden setting. But now it keeps trying to transcode and such. And it'll randomly just stop working and I have to reboot the pi. Looking for something simpler, something I can use to just Chromecast MP4 files without all of Plex bells and whistles that seen to make it fragile.
- ihuman 5y ago
  If you set the stream to "original quality", then it shouldn't transcode (unless the file format is incompatible)
joecool1029 5y ago
Surprised on HN that nobody complained yet that Plex's media server is python2 for life with no intention of going to python3 codebase. Source: https://forums.plex.tv/t/when-will-plex-media-server-shift-to-python-3/600689 https://forums.plex.tv/t/when-will-plex-media-server-shift-t...
- dewey 5y ago
  Because not many people actually care how things are implemented if they work well. If some closed source iOS app is in Swift or ObjectiveC doesn't really affect me as a user.
bobf 5y ago
For local media streaming to Chromecast or Apple TV devices, I highly prefer Airflow app[0] over Plex. The experience for playback really is a night and day difference. Scrubbing/seeking is instant and it basically avoids transcoding whenever possible, including when using subtitles. [0] https://airflow.app/ https://airflow.app/
deltaonefour 5y ago
Is plex like stremio? Stremio has torrent plugins which make it function like popcorn time. Absolutely and totally illegal if you use it with a VPN or not! That's why I avoid it. Just wondering if plex has anything similar so I know to avoid that too. Also if anyone knows of any other things that could be similar to stremio that I can avoid please let me know. Thanks.
- c0wb0yc0d3r 5y ago
  By itself, you wouldn't have access to pirated content. You would have to make the conscious action to access illegal material. Plex doesn't enable it on its own.
tomcam 5y ago
> On average, viewers in the US alone spend over 600 million minutes every single night trying to figure out what to watch Fake news. I spent barely 300 million minutes every night trying to figure out what to watch. And my friends are usually down under 200 million.
incomingpain 5y ago
I would LOVE the ability to have a unified place. I have Amazon, Netflix and Disney+. Obviously Plex is entirely offline. I disable all those streaming and plex stuff they keep trying to force. I tinkered with this last night. This is false advertising in my books. Took me awhile to discover this: >Does this mean I can play [streaming service] content in Plex? >If you select an available Plex Media Server or Plex’s own streaming service, then you can obviously play the content in Plex itself. Content from other streaming services does not play in Plex, though. Not only was it hard to find this new feature, it was worthless.
- Terretta 5y ago
  AppleTV has universal search and playlist w/ up next across all brands mentioned in Plex’s writeup.

195 points by sp8 5y ago

The Kodi plugin interface is a giant pain. Any time I'm trying to do a Kodi plugin I spend 30% of my time searching for an alternative to Kodi.

smm11 5y ago

No longer works with my VPN. No thanks.

Stephen304 5y ago
Did you try adding your VPN subnet to the trusted / local networks setting? I use OpenVPN in opnsense to access my local plex, though I can also use app.plex.tv which usually automatically uses direct connect using my forwarded wan ip which is fine for me.

quaintdev 5y ago

I am just gonna live this here - https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin - https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin

dont__panic 5y ago
Jellyfin has been really nice in my experience for audio streaming. I'll also plug Finamp, my mobile audio jellyfin client of choice, and Sonixd, my macOS jellyfin client, two amazing little pieces of software. Haven't tried it much for video though. I love the fact that I can manage my own logins and self-host -- if the media has to live locally, after all, why not handle the whole thing?
- xanaxagoras 5y ago
  These are both great! Especially Sonixd. Finamp appears to be missing a "recently added" section but I'm going to test drive it for a week or so anyway.
  - dont__panic 5y ago
    Finamp is missing a few features, but it's a work in progress so I can forgive it. Planning on making a couple of PRs myself, for things like fixing the reverse sort order of album view and implementing other views offline. Oh, and for some reason local storage deletion doesn't work for me on iOS -- need to investigate that. But if you want to listen to music that's stored on Jellyfin and store some for offline use, it's great so far. Just needs some small stuff built out!
tenebrisalietum 5y ago
Jellyfin is awesome. The DLNA support enables streaming to my local TVs without having to install apps on the TVs themselves, though I haven't heavily tested it with video yet (works great with music). Also the visibility of libraries can be managed per account, so not everyone you give a login to has to see all your content.
- TruthIsHeresy 5y ago
  Plex also has DLNA support [1]. [1]: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200350536-dlna/ https://support.plex.tv/articles/200350536-dlna/
- brimble 5y ago
  The Roku app is tolerable (so, about as good as anything not from one of the companies that's big enough to gain access to the lower-level SDK) The Android app works really well on a Shield, and is much more pleasant to use. Can't vouch for other devices, and Android experience, especially Android TV, can vary a lot with the device. The Shield also handles more video codecs and can pass through more audio formats than my Roku can, which means less transcoding, which means my poor, weak old server doesn't get abused while still only barely managing to generate a slideshow. In fact, I'm not sure I have any files that the Shield can't handle natively. I love, love, love having a Web interface to use when I want to change things. Mixing the library & settings management interface with the "6-foot" remote-friendly interface, as on Kodi/XBMC, is a UI disaster. It's also very nice as a fallback streaming option, and works way better than I'd have expected.
- dundarious 5y ago
  I have a decent size library and accessing Jellyfin via DLNA from a PS4 was unworkable for me. There is no search, and I couldn't find any way to select specific movies other than scrolling through the entire library by title name, or finnicky categories like genre or release year. Plex's DLNA implementation provides a "By First Letter" listing so you can find it via "By First Letter > M > (scroll down past a dozen entries to 'The Matrix')" instead of "By Title > (scroll down past a few hundred entries to 'The Matrix')". I don't think I'd be able to stomach that amount of scrolling to watch "Zardoz" on Jellyfin.
zeruch 5y ago
The literal only thing that keeps me from moving to Jellyfin is that I cannot seem to get it to work with a Chromecast. If that worked (and I'm not sure if its a cert problem or something else) I'd be happily away from Emby/Plex and every other option I've used in the past.
- flimsythoughts 5y ago
  Interesting. I recently installed jellyfin and have no issues streaming it to my chromecast. It works beautifully.
- majora2007 5y ago
  I could only get it to work when I was out of the house, but inside, it never connected. You can ask on their Github for support, but I wasn't able to solve even with their help.
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    This could be a whole lot of causes. For example, our home access points by default isolated each wireless client, so they couldn't even see each other, much less a central server.
- Goz3rr 5y ago
  I believe this might be caused by Google. Chromecasts will only cast from URLs that have a valid HTTPS certificate (self signed will not work). If you're accessing your Jellyfin over the local IP it will be impossible to get a valid certificate for it.
  - xanaxagoras 5y ago
    > If you're accessing your Jellyfin over the local IP it will be impossible to get a valid certificate for it. I just made a domain name for all of my local network services. Each service gets a subdomain that resolves to a local IP address, so like jellyfin.mydomain.com -> 10.x.x.x. Then just do DNS validation with letsencrypt. Boom, valid cert.
manifoldgeo 5y ago
I'm genuinely rooting for Jellyfin to overtake Plex in functionality and popularity; someone needs to. Plex isn't even fully FLOSS. That said, I don't actually like Jellyfin, and I wish it weren't implemented in such a Windows-centric language framework. Once I found out that Jellyfin existed, I excitedly spun up an instance and put all my media on it. It can't handle any AVI videos and lags a lot more than my Plex VM with exactly the same specs. Worst of all, it can't detect my external Chromecast, only the one built into my smart TV. After assessing how well Jellyfin worked, I had to hang my head in defeat and return to using Plex. I can see that Jellyfin has a very active user / developer community on Matrix, and I bet things will get better. EDIT: I accidentally said Windows-centric above, but what I meant was Microsoft-centric. I meant the company and not their OS. Leaving it the "wrong" way above for posterity.
- achn 5y ago
  C# and .net 6 are not windows-centric.
  - manifoldgeo 5y ago
    Here is the very first sentence of the Wikipedia entry [0] for .NET Framework: "The .NET Framework (pronounced as 'dot net') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows". The official documentation for both C# [1] and .NET Framework [2] live on Microsoft.com. I would say the above constitutes a pretty Windows-centric existence relative to some other vendor-agnostic languages, but maybe we're saying different things. What did you mean? Refs ---- 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework 1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/ 2: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework
    - spencerhakim 5y ago
      The .NET Framework is not quite the same thing as .NET, and they have separate Wikipedia pages which reflect that distinction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET
horsawlarway 5y ago
Having used both - I also strongly prefer Jellyfin. You get the whole service, open source, easy to run as a docker container or on K8s, love the web UI.
- brimble 5y ago
  Indeed: #/bin/bash docker run -d \ --volume /opt/jellyfin/config:/config \ --volume /opt/jellyfin/cache:/cache \ --net=host \ --restart=unless-stopped \ jellyfin/jellyfin:10.7.7-amd64 That's "docker, run this and detach the console..." "Also, mount these two directories in the image, to where Jellyfin expects to store its config, so that stuff persists across container restarts and upgrades..." "... uh, I don't remember what --net=host does, I think maybe it directly exposes the container's ports on the host interface, because I was being lazy when I wrote this? Anyway, it works..." ".. restart this unless I explicitly stop it..." "... and run this official Jellyfin image, at this particular version" Then after the second "--volume" insert more lines for every folder you want to map in, like so: --volume /mnt/storage/movies:/media/Movies \ --volume /mnt/storage/tv:/media/TV \ --volume /mnt/storage/kid-movies:/media/Kids \ --volume /mnt/storage/music:/media/Music \ Add as many as you like. You'll see the directories on the right of the ":" show up in the Jellyfin UI, where you can add them as media sources and tell it what's in them, who has access (say, granting some users access only to that "Kids" library), et c. Save as "jellyfin.sh" or whatever, and chmod +x. Run it. Done. To upgrade the version, change the last line to the new version, kill the container with a docker command, and run the script again. Do the same if you want to add more directories. (might want to check the version, that may not be latest, it's just what mine is running right now) You could also do it with docker-compose, I just tend not to do that unless I'm dealing with a container that depends on other containers. Works ~anywhere that can run Docker containers. Doesn't matter which distro you're using. I'm pretty sure it even comes back up on system restart, and I didn't do any extra work to make that happen. Self-contained, simple, and clean. [EDIT] To be clear, you also need to create those "/opt/jellyfin/config" and "cache" directories. The left side is what's on the host filesystem. But, you can put those anywhere, they don't have to go in "/opt". Helpfully, the "--volume" list is also a complete list of everything (aside from the shell file itself) that you might want to back up. Which is one of the things I love about configuring services with Docker.
throwanem 5y ago
How's it compare with Subsonic and allies? I like the interface and the clients for Subsonic, but I've never had good luck with its indexing and transcoding from network sources like my NAS.
- Macha 5y ago
  It depends whether you care more about music or movies. Jellyfin is a movie-centric solution that happens to have options for music. Subsonic was a music-centric solution that has apparently grown the ability to play video in recent years.
  - throwanem 4y ago
    Turns out I don't much care for Jellyfin's approach to music, but for videos it's pretty solid, and I found it very easy to set up. Thanks for the recommendation! (As for music, I ended up just running Airsonic in another container on the same box, so all set there till something better comes along. Navidrome, maybe...)
davemtl 5y ago
This is disappointing: "Note that this project is supported on all major operating systems except FreeBSD, which is still incompatible." Considering both Plex and Emby support FreeBSD, I'm sad to to learn that Jellyfin does not.
- FDSGSG 5y ago
  Is FreeBSD support really something worth worrying about? Perhaps it's also disappointing that Jellyfin doesn't run on AmigaOS?
  - terrabitz 5y ago
    In my case, I'm running FreeNAS/TrueNAS for storage and a Plex jail. I'd imagine there are a number of people in the same boat considering the popularity of TrueNAS.
    - cassianoleal 5y ago
      TrueNAS Scale is Debian-based. It's easy to migrate from Core to Scale [0]. You do lose your jails but there's both an official Plex chart for the underlying k3s, and a community-supported one in TrueCharts [1]. There's a Jellyfin chart on TrueCharts as well. [0] https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/gettingstarted/migratingfromcore/ https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/gettingstarted/migratingf... [1] https://truecharts.org/ https://truecharts.org/
    - FDSGSG 5y ago
      TrueNAS is a pretty small niche, no? Not only that, but the usual way of using NAS involves doing compute tasks on a separate server. Besides, the FreeBSD based TrueNAS Core will almost certainly be deprecated and replaced with Linux based TrueNAS Scale within the nest couple of years. Further strengthening the idea that this is a pointless platform to support.
izacus 5y ago
It's great that you left this here but can you also leave a few words about why is it better than Plex (or Emby)?

TameAntelope 5y ago

The latest Chromecast w/remote has this kind of functionality, and it's a real gamechanger. Kind of funny how we're right back where we were, price wise, but at least now you do the bundling yourself and can dial in what you are paying for.

ensignavenger 5y ago
Except it doesn't support all services in the "global" search, and you get spammed with all sorts of ads. I like my Chromecast with Android/Google TV, but the software experience could be a lot better.
- mpalczewski 5y ago
  yes, Chromecast with Android/Google TV is all ads all the time on home screen it is rather unpleasant. I changed my home launcher to one like this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cosinus.launchertv https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cosinus.la... it has made the experience much much better.
  - TameAntelope 5y ago
    I've got YouTube TV and I haven't seen a single non-broadcast ad in my time using it with my newest Chromecast.
    - ensignavenger 5y ago
      You don't get ads for various shows on various different streaming services on you Home screen in Google TV?
      - TameAntelope 5y ago
        No, just a list of available shows and movies from the various platforms I'm signed in to. Not sure what else they'd show there. My Plex does the same thing; a list of things I can watch.

stuff4ben 5y ago

So how would I use this when I have an Apple TV? Is there an app I download and then I use Plex to find what I want to watch and then it launches whichever streaming service has the content?

asabla 5y ago
That's how I've interpreted it. So basically what their Apple TV+ app does but with the addition to your local content (and what's been shared with you through other plex servers)

ghostpepper 5y ago

I stopped using Plex when it started requiring a cloud login to access my local media

morganvachon 5y ago
Same. Several years ago I was a happy Plex user, but our Internet got knocked offline and we wanted to watch some local content, no dice. I canceled my Plex Pass sub as soon as I had Internet again. I use Emby now which offers pretty much the same experience without the need for a permanent Internet connection. Their subscription offers a few bonus features but it's not required for LAN streaming.
- enobrev 5y ago
  Not that I'm trying to convince you to come back, but Plex does work without internet access. The Roku app allows you to set up a fallback ip when it happens as well. I don't love the cloud login either, but I do still use it. Just wanted to point out that the server and (some?) clients work without it.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

asabla 5y ago

They've been hinting this for a while now. It kind of is one of those missing features which I would have wanted back when I was subscribed to several streaming services. But now there is only one at the time + plex.

ggoo 5y ago

I manage a Plex instance for my whole family (old). Plex keeps adding "online" features like this and each and every time I get evening messages confused with the changes. I'll be getting a couple tonight it looks :)

ryandrake 5y ago

I predict a "Streaming Day of Reckoning" happening one day, where a critical mass of users suddenly loses access to a critical mass of content, because they became utterly dependent on streaming instead of physical media or local media storage. We occasionally read news of a handful of users losing access to a handful of content, and just shrug saying "Oh, well, streaming isn't perfect and this is growing pains." Maybe a user loses access to all their purchased Amazon movies because they got banned from the platform. "So sad," we say, as we continue to depend on streaming more and more. A niche streaming platform goes out of business and its small user base loses access to content. "Oh, well, there's still Netflix and Hulu," we say, as we keep switching to these platforms. One day, a big one is going to go dark, and millions of people will suddenly lose access to the hundreds of movies they got used to accessing, and maybe we'll start waking up and looking for better alternative business models than streaming the same bytes over and over from centralized services.

zapataband1 5y ago
can we all please just go back to bitorrent
- recursive 5y ago
  What's stopping you? We're not all going, because I'm not going. For me, it's netflix and done. I don't have time or inclination to mess around with torrents.
brimble 5y ago
We ought not allow production companies to own distribution channels (and vice-versa), nor long-term exclusive deals with distributors. That's how we solved this when similar issues arose with studio ownership of movie theaters—those restrictions just ended a little while ago, IIRC. But then, that was back when we, like, ever told companies "no" when it was clearly in the public interest. Not sure we can still do that. Ideally, a production company shouldn't give a shit where you watch their stuff, just that you do. That'd remove most of the friction that makes creation of a universal streaming UI difficult. It'd push distributors to compete on price and features, not exclusive access to content. All around a win for viewers, creating a healthier, more robust market. So, probably won't happen :-(

EricE 5y ago

Channels-DVR blows Plex out to of the water for live content, including live streamed content from services like YouTube-TV. Will have to see if Plex can aggregate the rest now!

rdudek 5y ago
That and I have over-the-air antenna to get local channels hooked up to HDrunner and Channels-DVR makes easy work watching local stuff and record as needed.
thedougd 5y ago
Thank you for this as I'm ready to try something new. Used MythTV, then tvheadend, and now plex for LiveTV/DVR. I absolutely loathe Plex, nothing but problems with transcoding. I shouldn't need to have a transcoding server in 2022 with hardware accelerated devices. Kodi + TVHeadend had me 90% of the way there, but a handful of persistent bugs around PVR destroyed it for the family.
- julianlam 5y ago
  This looks really cool! I have a MythTV setup curreny, but the sheer amount of hoops I had to go through to make it work with the tuner card and SchedulesDirect meant that I was loathe to change anything lest the house of cards breaks. Perhaps it's time to check this alternative out.

judge2020 5y ago

I feel like Plex is late to the game with this given that all the new, up-to-date smart TV/streaming stick interfaces already have this feature - either they allow downloaded apps to register the movies they can stream, or there’s a central directory that surfaces apps that can stream certain content even when they’re not locally installed. See the TV app on iDevices or Google TV for an example.

datavirtue 5y ago
I have my personally owned media on Plex so this is natural progression for me--to use it as a hub. I have been using Roku TVs for years and if they have this feature I'm not aware of it. I also have various TV's around the house that have different OSes and apps...Plex can simplify that cruft.
- ghostly_s 5y ago
  You've never used the search on your Roku? This is exactly what it does.
  - philote 5y ago
    So it's just a search feature? This Plex feature is more than just search. It seems it also allows browsing and discovery.
  - datavirtue 5y ago
    Never searched with Roku. It's basically the OS that runs streaming apps, and I never thought much more about it.
swores 5y ago
Anecdote of one, but personally I found the Apple TV app on my physical Apple TV (and yes I add my name to the long list of people asking how high they were when naming overlapping but not nearly identical hardware and software products the same as each other) to be so bad that I never use it. I love the idea that it can pull all my media into one place, but realistically it doesn't work with all apps - a particularly relavent example in this thread being that it completely ignores my plex - and is buggy with the rest, such as BBC iPlayer which usually correctly shows up in Apple TV app (all be it with a worse UI than BBC's not-amazing-itself app) but doesn't always show my latest next-up info. I dislike it so much that I have watched illegal rips of Apple TV+ shows on plex despite having a valid subscription to watch them in the Apple TV+ section of the Apple TV app on my Apple TV device.

nerdjon 5y ago

I am annoyed that somehow Plex got this to work but Apple TV app does not with Netflix. Also annoyed that Plex does not integrate with Apple TV App itself. I wish I could make the TV app my goto. It's great for the things that support it, but sucks that not everything does. I wish apple would be "brave" and force any apps to integrate with it. I keep looking for a good alternative (especially given the online requirement), but it seems like Plex is the only one with a decent Apple TV app. I have jellyfin running but the app situation is less than ideal. If anyone has any recommendations with good Apple TV support?

Phlarp 5y ago
Get Infuse for Apple TV, it's just a front-end app / media player, but it works much better and leverages your existing Plex server installation.
- nerdjon 5y ago
  I tried infuse maybe a year ago? maybe more, idk... it was around that time that Plex had that big outage that stopped you from even viewing your own local content. I didn't hate it, but it had some quirks that annoyed me coming from Plex. But maybe I will give it another shot. Pretty sure my Jellyfin server is still just sitting there running alongside Plex.
- AnonHP 5y ago
  Assuming the devices are all from Apple, I’m curious to understand what Plex provides when it’s serving Infuse on the frontend. In other words, what does Infuse lack when it’s connected to a plain file share or file server as compared to having Plex in the backend? Infuse is already able to transcode various formats as necessary. It’s also able to index media, fetch cover images, etc. Other than offloading the power usage for transcoding (which may be important in battery powered devices), what benefits does Plex or Jellyfin (or anything else) provide here?
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
> I am annoyed that somehow Plex got this to work but Apple TV app does not with Netflix. I have a feeling that this is because Apple has some onerous little line in their contract that Netflix was not willing to accept. There's certainly no technical reason that it can't happen. And it annoys the hell out of me.

watermelon0 5y ago

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30919220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30919220

trevcanhuman 5y ago
I'd argue that the post you link to should be flagged. The title is editorialized. If it were indeed the original title, I'd flag this one.

toastercat 5y ago

I got so fed up with Plex constantly shoving their streaming service and nagging me to log into Plex servers when I just want to stream my own files locally that I threw my hands up and installed Jellyfin[0]. It's severely lacking in the same polish and functionality as Plex, but I'm pleased that I can run Jellyfin without ads or having to create a non-local account. [0] https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin

ineptech 5y ago
Ditto. Plex was great but I'm not creating a web account to use local open source software that decided to be something else.
- branon 5y ago
  The Plex software that you'd be running on your local machine (server) is closed-source/nonfree anyway, so yeah. Jellyfin is a much nicer alternative.
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  Can't emphasize this more: Plex was awesome compared to the alternatives years ago. XBMC (Kodi now) was my goto, but all media was played locally, Plex not only transcoded and streamed, it has native clients even for smart TVs. I'm still annoyed that by default it requires a login to their cloud to stream locally, which I found when my Internet failed and Plex refused to stream locally. Also the useless third-party stream channels, and the insistence on enabling DRM on Firefox when none of my media needs it to play. I've installed Jellyfin in parallel, and I agree it lacks polishing compared to Plex, but it gets the job done without getting in your way.
  - flatiron 5y ago
    As you said it’s not the default but a simple check box to disable local auth.
    - 5y ago

criddell 5y ago

How are they indexing Netflix? Are they scraping or does Netflix have an API?

STRiDEX 5y ago
I assume they've either partnered with a service like reelgood or justwatch or built their own version.

poxrud 5y ago

I'm curious if this displays the content in Plex's media player or if it simply launches the streaming service's own player.

dstaley 5y ago
It's the latter.

MisterBiggs 5y ago

Looks like Plex Pass (paid [1]) features are all aimed towards people running their own media center and Plex is targeting casual users with free features that the core audience of Plex doesn't care about or use. I understand that the market of people running their own media server is pretty limited but if growth means totally alienating your core (paying) audience then maybe the approach is wrong. [1] https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass

bsagdiyev 5y ago
I bought the lifetime pass way back, when the price was lower than it currently is. No regrets, Plex serves me well at home and when we go out. Paw Patrol can follow us so my son is happy.

mdoms 5y ago

I tried to find these features on my Android TV and it's nowhere to be found. Same on my Android phone. Great work team.

cerebralfrog 5y ago

This is a neat feature to introduce alongside what Plex offers. It seems pretty similar to what JustWatch [0] does; I'm interested to see how they compare in practice. [0] https://www.justwatch.com/us https://www.justwatch.com/us

hadrien01 5y ago
Plex uses the JustWatch API
- cerebralfrog 5y ago
  Ah, I didn't know that! Just wondering where they document that?
janeerie 5y ago
I love JustWatch, but it's frustrating that they don't have a Roku app. It looks like this will be a good substitute.

gadders 5y ago

Plex is nice if you have one of the TVs they support, but they recently pulled the Panasonic client over a falling out over certificates (iirc) and their attitude in their forums seems to be that they are doing you a favour.

willcipriano 5y ago
I use Nvidia Shield's on all my TV's to run Plex. It's the only way I have found to reliably stream 4K HDR content.
- hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
  Similar experience with chrome cast, the Samsung app was slowly dying and cc mostly fixed it. Don’t mind the occasional hard crash though.
- gadders 5y ago
  For now I use the Panasonic TV's dlna browser. It's janky, but it does the job and saves me £100 per TV. Even a Plex app for the Sky TV satellite box would be good but I doubt if that will ever happen.

zapataband1 5y ago

f2movies.to

traspler 5y ago

I‘m assuming this is at least partly a client feature so every user has to add their own subscriptions to their Plex account or does this allow to share subscriptions through a server with multiple users? So so you could add your subscriptions to your server and anyone with access to that server will also be able to use your subscriptions?

traspler 5y ago
Ok scrap that, you only indicate what services you have access to and this is only the search engine part, it will simply redirect you to the services app/site when you select play on something, it is not embedded.
Markoff 5y ago
r/plexshares is the way to go nowadays for certain group of lazy pirates personally I watch everything downloaded offline, streaming is still too unreliable

zzzeek 5y ago

I hope plex devs read this thread and get the clue that their system is totally ripe to be replaced with something else, I've used plex for many years and the technical quality of the server has just declined. people who use plex, who are therefore the types of people with an appetite to "run their own server", have absolutely no interest in having to sign up on a website, or get ads, see anything "streaming" (insane! the streaming market has tons of huge players, plex...) or any other kind of crap, all of which has been added to plex over the years, while meanwhile the server uses tons more disk space and memory than it used to and still fails to classify some very simple content quite often. I havent bothered to look at alternatives in a long time and it seems there are more now than there used to be. will be looking when i next have time.

mdoms 5y ago
So you think they should stake their whole business on pleasing customers who not only don't pay for the product but who make a hobby out of not paying for media? How do you supposed they keep the lights on?
- tbyehl 5y ago
  Keep taking VC money? /s
- parkingrift 5y ago
  Remove the login requirement except and unless users try to access PlexPass features.
- hnaccount141 5y ago
  That's the strange part though. The streaming service and most of these new features are free. Most of the major features they charge for via Plex Pass are geared at people running their own servers. So they seem to be alienating the only people who have any reason to pay them in the first place.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    You realize they sell those tv spots and/or share ad revenue. Every 5 minutes a 1 1/2 minute ad appears.

unknown2374 5y ago

Slightly off-topic, but I have been interested in setting up Plex (or similar) in my homeserver but never figured out a good workflow or source to add movies/shows to it? Are people generally just torrenting, or are there DRM-free stores that I do not know exist? Or if there is an efficient workflow for ripping blurays?

flatiron 5y ago
I personally use private trackers and sonarr/radarr apps to manage the content. You could probably use public trackers if you want. There is a nice docker image that runs deluge and wireguard. Works great with my VPN. Keeps a port open and everything. Has the firewall set to prevent using anything other than the vpn. It’s also nice I don’t have to play with my servers network settings as it’s all in the container.
Macha 5y ago
I don't believe anywhere is selling DRM free movies. iTunes DRM used to be pretty easy to crack, which may be legally piracy in some jurisdictions but at least for me I felt morally pretty ok with it. Bluray ripping is not too hard these days either, you basically need MakeMKV and a bluray drive with the right firmware (which is actually most "LG" drives). And yeah, plenty of piracy also.
autoexec 5y ago
I don't know of a store that offers DRM free movies for general content, but there are places you can get very specific things DRM free. RiffTrax is DRM free for example.

compsciphd 5y ago

this broke plex for at least the non US users that is me on my shield. it insisted on throwing up the configuration screen for selecting the streaming services that I am subscribed to. However, since I'm not in the US and they didn't test where I am (unsure how many places they did test) it failed and crashed the app on startup. A redditor found the solution that you needed a vpn into the us to get past the initial configuration. One still can't reconfigure the streaming services, but that doesn't matter as at least it doesn't crash once one gets past the initial configuration. I wonder how much plex devs get paid, because my job wouldn't be happy if I broke peoples usages like they regularly do.

mattl 5y ago
This is a beta feature
- compsciphd 5y ago
  except, one that one couldn't opt out of without it first crashing. that's not a good beta feature.
  - mattl 5y ago
    Yeah that’s no good.

mark_l_watson 5y ago

The Apple TV+ app gives me a dashboard with Netflix, HBO, etc. material at the top of the screen - even before their exclusive content. I just wish Apple supported all streaming services with this.

dewey 5y ago
> I just wish Apple supported all streaming services with this. I believe this is not an Apple thing but something that the third party app has to do, they can "offer up" their content to the Apple TV app but bigger ones like Netflix want to keep people in their app. Just like third party apps can integrate with Siri and provide Siri with a list of titles / podcast episodes if they want.

op00to 5y ago

I use Plex for my whole family, storing all our content on a cloud provider. I don’t mind at all the internet connectivity/login requirements. I enjoy the “channels” Plex adds, if only to add a little background noise so I feel less lonesome when home alone. If the internet goes down, we’ll read a book or play a game.

Markoff 5y ago

I was surprised to find out recently there is even whole sub dedicated to paid plex sharing r/plexshares I don't use it personally, but I guess it can have some appeal for some, I'm fine with no nice UI for my downloaded files from USB stick, I do all my research prior downloading so I'm in no need of fancy UI.

unethical_ban 5y ago

I, for one, still enjoy the plex server and plex app. The new version on nvidia shield fixed 4k performance issues, and plex.tv being an IdP for friends to login to my server is cool. I don't think logging in locally with a cloud account should be required, but IIRC it isn't strictly required... just a dark pattern.

phil21 5y ago

I do wish Plex would focus more on technical aspects of their ecosystem than features at this point. I run a server for family, and use the Nvidia Shield as the client for pretty much any "nice" TV or sound system. This worked great for a couple years until a software regression made all 4k content have a 70% chance of locking up the Shield - which exists to this day. There are other small annoying bugs like that that don't make much sense, things like transcoding being weirdly laggy (minutes) on a quite idle machine that I never fully tracked down. I suppose writing this I am on the "bleeding edge" in that I expect to have "gold" 4k remux copies on-server, and then transcode down to whichever device is playing it. The Plex Kodi plugin is a workaround for the above mentioned 4k "original quality" playback bug, but that is not a great option for most end-users.

NoblePublius 5y ago

Just show me the movies on my services sorted by box office gross and I’m good.

conceptualspace 5y ago

if anyone streams plesk on a browser, i made an extension that adds 21:9 ultrawide support, a dynamic audio compressor (night mode), library shuffling, and links to trailers. its open source and cross browser too! enhance-o-tron for plex: https://github.com/conceptualspace/enhance-o-tron-for-plex https://github.com/conceptualspace/enhance-o-tron-for-plex

umvi 5y ago

All I want Plex to do is serve some MP4 files from a raspberry pi. I had it working at one point with some hidden setting. But now it keeps trying to transcode and such. And it'll randomly just stop working and I have to reboot the pi. Looking for something simpler, something I can use to just Chromecast MP4 files without all of Plex bells and whistles that seen to make it fragile.

ihuman 5y ago
If you set the stream to "original quality", then it shouldn't transcode (unless the file format is incompatible)

joecool1029 5y ago

Surprised on HN that nobody complained yet that Plex's media server is python2 for life with no intention of going to python3 codebase. Source: https://forums.plex.tv/t/when-will-plex-media-server-shift-to-python-3/600689 https://forums.plex.tv/t/when-will-plex-media-server-shift-t...

dewey 5y ago
Because not many people actually care how things are implemented if they work well. If some closed source iOS app is in Swift or ObjectiveC doesn't really affect me as a user.

bobf 5y ago

For local media streaming to Chromecast or Apple TV devices, I highly prefer Airflow app[0] over Plex. The experience for playback really is a night and day difference. Scrubbing/seeking is instant and it basically avoids transcoding whenever possible, including when using subtitles. [0] https://airflow.app/ https://airflow.app/

deltaonefour 5y ago

Is plex like stremio? Stremio has torrent plugins which make it function like popcorn time. Absolutely and totally illegal if you use it with a VPN or not! That's why I avoid it. Just wondering if plex has anything similar so I know to avoid that too. Also if anyone knows of any other things that could be similar to stremio that I can avoid please let me know. Thanks.

c0wb0yc0d3r 5y ago
By itself, you wouldn't have access to pirated content. You would have to make the conscious action to access illegal material. Plex doesn't enable it on its own.

tomcam 5y ago

> On average, viewers in the US alone spend over 600 million minutes every single night trying to figure out what to watch Fake news. I spent barely 300 million minutes every night trying to figure out what to watch. And my friends are usually down under 200 million.

incomingpain 5y ago

I would LOVE the ability to have a unified place. I have Amazon, Netflix and Disney+. Obviously Plex is entirely offline. I disable all those streaming and plex stuff they keep trying to force. I tinkered with this last night. This is false advertising in my books. Took me awhile to discover this: >Does this mean I can play [streaming service] content in Plex? >If you select an available Plex Media Server or Plex’s own streaming service, then you can obviously play the content in Plex itself. Content from other streaming services does not play in Plex, though. Not only was it hard to find this new feature, it was worthless.

Terretta 5y ago
AppleTV has universal search and playlist w/ up next across all brands mentioned in Plex’s writeup.