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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 tha

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.
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      It a bit more complex, you have to go to Settings | Network | List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth And add your local LAN range, like 192.168.1.0/24
spike021 5y ago
This happened to me recently. The internet went out, but I had some tv shows I wanted to watch already downloaded and indexed by my Plex server. So I tried loading Plex locally from my phone and it kept trying to "phone home" to have me login to the Plex website, which failed due to not having any internet access.
- ineptech 5y ago
  Yes, for a while Plex was usable without creating a SaaS account, but with some features blocked, and this (reaching the server from outside its LAN) was one of them. (I say "feature" but of course what actually happened is that the plex developers decided to block requests from outside the LAN unless you sign up for their SaaS offering, which is kind of the opposite)
  - Melatonic 5y ago
    Isnt that the main feature of Plex? Playing local files? Seems ridiculous to require this....
    - Larrikin 5y ago
      Plex works without Internet just fine, but very annoyingly to enable local streaming without Internet, you need internet. Had to enable hot spot on my phone briefly when I had an internet outage. Annoying but now just works.
    - fgonzag 5y ago
      It has to be setup for local network streaming (and requires a network connection to do so the first time). Plex is far from perfect but its pretty much the best local media service I've found, so I'm not too mad at some of its idiosyncrasies. Getting plex pass is a must if you use it regularly in order to support hardware encoding.
      - toxik 5y ago
        You need plex pass for hardware encoding? Wow that is a turdy way to get people to pay.
lnxg33k1 5y ago
If you can write what about plex do you miss, I could also suggest you emby, if that makes sense. I also grew to dislike Plex, the UI detached from the base system, the continuous bugging, (it was also very slow for me, and buffery), but I got a lifetime license for emby and never looked back, I wasn't using anything in particular from Plex, but I also have IPTV + integration with the kodi "filesystem", and auto subtitles + conversion + own music streaming, but yeah if you have anything in particular missing I can maybe help, I kinda like Emby so I'd like to help them grow
- Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
  Jellyfish is a fork of Emby.
  - lnxg33k1 5y ago
    I think it’s the other way around? But emby went the paid way?
    - sodality2 5y ago
      Jellyfin is a fork of the Emby code back when they were OSS. They stopped being OSS, and Jellyfin forked.
      - lnxg33k1 5y ago
        Mh are you sure about that? I use emby because I like open source but I despise free stuff (at least when one can afford to pay), and I've seen that their server is definitely release under GPL license? But is paid? https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby/blob/master/LICENSE.md https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby/blob/master/LICENSE.md Afaik I am not sure anymore who forked who but I've seen convos on IRC back then and the issue was solely the fact that emby devs wanted to be paid
        toastercat 5y ago
xanaxagoras 5y ago
I made the switch recently as well. I just don't trust plex not to engage in creepy stocker behavior by analyzing my viewing habits.
noxvilleza 5y ago
I basically never see Plex adverts (and I only use local streaming really). Where do you normally see them?
- toastercat 5y ago
  I think what I meant was the Home screen being full of Crackle & other movies/tv on demand.
  - jdonaldson 5y ago
    You can remove those if you want. It's a bit cringe to deal with, but I'm not going to call it a line that should never be crossed.
    - tomnipotent 5y ago
      Plex doesn't allow system admins to remove them for all users - each user has to do it themselves. The intention behind the decision is pretty obvious and soured me considerably on Plex.
      - dicknuckle 5y ago
        System admins are the only ones that will be bothered by this. Uncle and Auntie will see an extension of your library.
        mcronce 5y ago
        Uncle and Auntie won't understand that they aren't part of my library, and will complain when something goes wrong with them despite the fact that they're beyond my control. As the person who owns and operates the service, I should have the control to set default configuration for my users. Just like I should be able to shut off all the ads for everybody, I should be able to set the default quality setting to max. I can't do either.
bsharitt 5y ago
I also went the same Plex to Jellyfin route. Though it took me a couple of tries because Jellyfin wasn't quite up to snuff the first time I tried it, but the server/web side seems to be pretty great these days, at least I don't have any issues. While I'm glad they finally have an iOS app, I wish I didn't have to rely on a thirdparty app for Apple TV.
- sn0wf1re 5y ago
  There is a Jellyfin Client for Apple TV, SwiftFin[1]. Even though it is in beta it seems to work really well. [1] https://github.com/jellyfin/swiftfin https://github.com/jellyfin/swiftfin
- mikepurvis 5y ago
  Reasonably happy Jellyfin user here, though my install is old enough that I guess the Fire TV app doesn't work with it? I'm a little scared to upgrade.
  - brimble 5y ago
    If you're running it in docker, just backup the config and cache dirs and try the new version. If there's a problem, roll back. If that breaks (probably not, but maybe), restore the backup, then roll back. If you're not running it in docker, that'd probably still work, if you track down those two directories. Just a bit less clean, and a little chance there's some important stuff configured to be saved other places in the non-dockerized version, so it's a little riskier.
    - mikepurvis 5y ago
      Appreciated! I am indeed running it in docker, but it's one of those home servers that doesn't get touched very often, and every time it does get touched seems to end up needing half a day to untangle everything.
      - brimble 5y ago
unixhero 5y ago
Them you didn't learn that you should disable all other sources and feeds than your own servers.
- branon 5y ago
  You should not have to do this at all, and you didn't have to with older versions of Plex. You also used to be able to log into "your" Plex server with a local account, but some years ago it was changed to require authenticating with Plex, Inc. to log in.
  - unixhero 5y ago
    No you can log in with your local username and password. Use the local IP and port. It lets you log in without contacting plex
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      Plex probably has changed this, but a couple of years back it asked for my Plex account on the clients when my Internet went down. It let me login from localhost, and I had to disable login for my LAN so other clients were accepted. IIRC later Plex Inc also was down for a short while, and many people complained on the forums that their servers couldn't stream if Plex Inc. was down.
    - branon 5y ago
      Yes _technically_ you can go into settings and whitelist local IP ranges, on which you can log in with local credentials. But it's not on by default, and you can't turn it on if the Internet goes down and you can't auth with plex.tv.
    - bedast 5y ago
      Perhaps it's changed in the last couple of years, but Plex made the process of not letting it call home extremely difficult, and defaulted to new garbage being turned on as they added new garbage, and re-enabling garbage that they made big changes to. After multiple internet issues resulted in me not having access to my local Plex server and not being able to fix that, I decided to drop it. Maybe tons of backlash prompted them to fix this? I don't care, I'm a happy Jellyfin user now.
princevegeta89 5y ago
I guess I wasn't hurt so much with their ads yet, but I've been seeing wonky behavior on Streaming to mobile and some other transcoding issues because of which I keep running into frequent pauses while I'm watching stuff. Was looking into alternatives but haven't found much yet.
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  Plex shines when transcoding, but sucks with direct streaming. Unfortunately direct streaming has to be disabled on the client, but the buffering and stuttering will go away once Plex always transcodes to that client.
DrPhish 5y ago
You can put me on that list, too. The minute I found out I couldn’t block my plex server from the internet and keep it working was the day it went in the trash. Except instead of finding another transcoding server, I just stream local media with Kodi over nfs and choose not to watch media outside of my home network. So much more problem free
- flatiron 5y ago
  How would you get your content metadata if you don’t let it on the internet? Plex continues working if you disable local auth if the plex main server goes belly up.
  - DrPhish 5y ago
    Honest question: why would I want content metadata? As soon as I know the title of the media file, I’m golden. Is there something super cool I’m missing out on without it? Maybe I’m rare in having a well sorted media library?
    - sokoloff 5y ago
      I find cover art very useful (especially for young kids).
    - magicalhippo 5y ago
      Cover art is a must for me, as it makes it easier to find the movie again rather than reading the title. Also, while I know what the movie is about, my SO wants to see what year and genre the film is, and if it passes that first hurdle then she wants to read what the film is about before deciding if it's a pass or a go. Finally, I enjoy being able to quickly find related movies by clicking on the director or actors and see what other works I have with them. I know I could do this in IMDb but it's nice having it right there.
  - RealStickman_ 5y ago
    Why not just organise and tag your media before uploading it to your server? I've had issues with some stuff getting the wrong metadata and it became annoying enough to fix that I now use MediaElch to tag my files before uploading them to my server.
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
You can disable all of that though. I do. I've considered switching but I have a very large and disorganized media library that Plex does a great job of organizing. About 10TB worth Edit: NVM, this is pretty neat. Just loaded it up alongside Plex and it's surprisingly good. Going to use it for awhile and see how I like it.
- colpabar 5y ago
  Thank you for the extremely valuable edit! I am going to try it now too.
  - thirdwhrldPzz 5y ago
    They’re easy to spin up in a Docker too. Linuxserver.io hosts containers for Plex, jellyfin, and a bunch of related apps, with example compose or shell scripts.
- toastercat 5y ago
  I sincerely tried to disable cloud login, and could not figure out how.
  - Rastonbury 5y ago
    Same
- phillipseamore 5y ago
  FYI That setting seem to be in Settings > Network under "List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth" I had no idea this was there :/
  - toastercat 5y ago
    I remember trying this, and could still not get it to work. :(
- shaky-carrousel 5y ago
RajT88 5y ago
Twonky. PlayOn. TVersity. All good options. Although some are trying to push a yearly subscription now. I bought one time licenses for all 3 when they were 20 a pop.
vorpalhex 5y ago
I still use Plex for outside the house but most of the time I use Jellyfin.
bobsmooth 5y ago
Check out Emby which I found way better than Jellyfin.
- dont__panic 5y ago
  Would you mind sharing what you found better? Asking as a happy Jellyfin user who hasn't tried Emby (mostly audio focus, for me -- maybe Emby is better for video?)
  - bobsmooth 5y ago
    Emby is overall more polished, specifically the mobile app. And I can't remember the Jellyfin Android TV app but there's a cracked version of the Emby app out there.
- bedast 5y ago
  I tried both Emby and Jellyfin and preferred Jellyfin. It's been a while since I made the switch so I don't remember why I disliked Emby, but my gut tells me they seemed to be going the way of Plex in some regards. Perhaps things have changed since then, but I've been a happy Jellyfin user ever since.
- cntrl 5y ago
  afaik Jellyfin is a fork of Emby once the Emby Team decided to close source the project, which was very unfortunate for me to hear back then as a Emby user. However, I've tried Jellyfin two times since then and found it (also) to be the inferior product. This might have changed since my last adventure, so might give it another shot.
tuananh 5y ago
does jellyfin have apps for tv?
- Handytinge 5y ago
  There's a webOS client that works great, but you need root (https://rootmy.tv https://rootmy.tv). They're looking to push it official via LG though.
- toastercat 5y ago
  I use a Roku, and yes there is a Roku app. Can't speak for the other Smart TV OSs.

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.
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    It a bit more complex, you have to go to Settings | Network | List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth And add your local LAN range, like 192.168.1.0/24

spike021 5y ago

This happened to me recently. The internet went out, but I had some tv shows I wanted to watch already downloaded and indexed by my Plex server. So I tried loading Plex locally from my phone and it kept trying to "phone home" to have me login to the Plex website, which failed due to not having any internet access.

ineptech 5y ago
Yes, for a while Plex was usable without creating a SaaS account, but with some features blocked, and this (reaching the server from outside its LAN) was one of them. (I say "feature" but of course what actually happened is that the plex developers decided to block requests from outside the LAN unless you sign up for their SaaS offering, which is kind of the opposite)
- Melatonic 5y ago
  Isnt that the main feature of Plex? Playing local files? Seems ridiculous to require this....
  - Larrikin 5y ago
    Plex works without Internet just fine, but very annoyingly to enable local streaming without Internet, you need internet. Had to enable hot spot on my phone briefly when I had an internet outage. Annoying but now just works.
  - fgonzag 5y ago
    It has to be setup for local network streaming (and requires a network connection to do so the first time). Plex is far from perfect but its pretty much the best local media service I've found, so I'm not too mad at some of its idiosyncrasies. Getting plex pass is a must if you use it regularly in order to support hardware encoding.
    - toxik 5y ago
      You need plex pass for hardware encoding? Wow that is a turdy way to get people to pay.

lnxg33k1 5y ago

If you can write what about plex do you miss, I could also suggest you emby, if that makes sense. I also grew to dislike Plex, the UI detached from the base system, the continuous bugging, (it was also very slow for me, and buffery), but I got a lifetime license for emby and never looked back, I wasn't using anything in particular from Plex, but I also have IPTV + integration with the kodi "filesystem", and auto subtitles + conversion + own music streaming, but yeah if you have anything in particular missing I can maybe help, I kinda like Emby so I'd like to help them grow

Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
Jellyfish is a fork of Emby.
- lnxg33k1 5y ago
  I think it’s the other way around? But emby went the paid way?
  - sodality2 5y ago
    Jellyfin is a fork of the Emby code back when they were OSS. They stopped being OSS, and Jellyfin forked.
    - lnxg33k1 5y ago
      Mh are you sure about that? I use emby because I like open source but I despise free stuff (at least when one can afford to pay), and I've seen that their server is definitely release under GPL license? But is paid? https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby/blob/master/LICENSE.md https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby/blob/master/LICENSE.md Afaik I am not sure anymore who forked who but I've seen convos on IRC back then and the issue was solely the fact that emby devs wanted to be paid
      - toastercat 5y ago

xanaxagoras 5y ago

I made the switch recently as well. I just don't trust plex not to engage in creepy stocker behavior by analyzing my viewing habits.

noxvilleza 5y ago

I basically never see Plex adverts (and I only use local streaming really). Where do you normally see them?

toastercat 5y ago
I think what I meant was the Home screen being full of Crackle & other movies/tv on demand.
- jdonaldson 5y ago
  You can remove those if you want. It's a bit cringe to deal with, but I'm not going to call it a line that should never be crossed.
  - tomnipotent 5y ago
    Plex doesn't allow system admins to remove them for all users - each user has to do it themselves. The intention behind the decision is pretty obvious and soured me considerably on Plex.
    - dicknuckle 5y ago
      System admins are the only ones that will be bothered by this. Uncle and Auntie will see an extension of your library.
      - mcronce 5y ago
        Uncle and Auntie won't understand that they aren't part of my library, and will complain when something goes wrong with them despite the fact that they're beyond my control. As the person who owns and operates the service, I should have the control to set default configuration for my users. Just like I should be able to shut off all the ads for everybody, I should be able to set the default quality setting to max. I can't do either.

bsharitt 5y ago

I also went the same Plex to Jellyfin route. Though it took me a couple of tries because Jellyfin wasn't quite up to snuff the first time I tried it, but the server/web side seems to be pretty great these days, at least I don't have any issues. While I'm glad they finally have an iOS app, I wish I didn't have to rely on a thirdparty app for Apple TV.

sn0wf1re 5y ago
There is a Jellyfin Client for Apple TV, SwiftFin[1]. Even though it is in beta it seems to work really well. [1] https://github.com/jellyfin/swiftfin https://github.com/jellyfin/swiftfin
mikepurvis 5y ago
Reasonably happy Jellyfin user here, though my install is old enough that I guess the Fire TV app doesn't work with it? I'm a little scared to upgrade.
- brimble 5y ago
  If you're running it in docker, just backup the config and cache dirs and try the new version. If there's a problem, roll back. If that breaks (probably not, but maybe), restore the backup, then roll back. If you're not running it in docker, that'd probably still work, if you track down those two directories. Just a bit less clean, and a little chance there's some important stuff configured to be saved other places in the non-dockerized version, so it's a little riskier.
  - mikepurvis 5y ago
    Appreciated! I am indeed running it in docker, but it's one of those home servers that doesn't get touched very often, and every time it does get touched seems to end up needing half a day to untangle everything.
    - brimble 5y ago

unixhero 5y ago

Them you didn't learn that you should disable all other sources and feeds than your own servers.

branon 5y ago
You should not have to do this at all, and you didn't have to with older versions of Plex. You also used to be able to log into "your" Plex server with a local account, but some years ago it was changed to require authenticating with Plex, Inc. to log in.
- unixhero 5y ago
  No you can log in with your local username and password. Use the local IP and port. It lets you log in without contacting plex
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    Plex probably has changed this, but a couple of years back it asked for my Plex account on the clients when my Internet went down. It let me login from localhost, and I had to disable login for my LAN so other clients were accepted. IIRC later Plex Inc also was down for a short while, and many people complained on the forums that their servers couldn't stream if Plex Inc. was down.
  - branon 5y ago
    Yes _technically_ you can go into settings and whitelist local IP ranges, on which you can log in with local credentials. But it's not on by default, and you can't turn it on if the Internet goes down and you can't auth with plex.tv.
  - bedast 5y ago
    Perhaps it's changed in the last couple of years, but Plex made the process of not letting it call home extremely difficult, and defaulted to new garbage being turned on as they added new garbage, and re-enabling garbage that they made big changes to. After multiple internet issues resulted in me not having access to my local Plex server and not being able to fix that, I decided to drop it. Maybe tons of backlash prompted them to fix this? I don't care, I'm a happy Jellyfin user now.

princevegeta89 5y ago

I guess I wasn't hurt so much with their ads yet, but I've been seeing wonky behavior on Streaming to mobile and some other transcoding issues because of which I keep running into frequent pauses while I'm watching stuff. Was looking into alternatives but haven't found much yet.

ASalazarMX 5y ago
Plex shines when transcoding, but sucks with direct streaming. Unfortunately direct streaming has to be disabled on the client, but the buffering and stuttering will go away once Plex always transcodes to that client.

DrPhish 5y ago

You can put me on that list, too. The minute I found out I couldn’t block my plex server from the internet and keep it working was the day it went in the trash. Except instead of finding another transcoding server, I just stream local media with Kodi over nfs and choose not to watch media outside of my home network. So much more problem free

flatiron 5y ago
How would you get your content metadata if you don’t let it on the internet? Plex continues working if you disable local auth if the plex main server goes belly up.
- DrPhish 5y ago
  Honest question: why would I want content metadata? As soon as I know the title of the media file, I’m golden. Is there something super cool I’m missing out on without it? Maybe I’m rare in having a well sorted media library?
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    I find cover art very useful (especially for young kids).
  - magicalhippo 5y ago
    Cover art is a must for me, as it makes it easier to find the movie again rather than reading the title. Also, while I know what the movie is about, my SO wants to see what year and genre the film is, and if it passes that first hurdle then she wants to read what the film is about before deciding if it's a pass or a go. Finally, I enjoy being able to quickly find related movies by clicking on the director or actors and see what other works I have with them. I know I could do this in IMDb but it's nice having it right there.
- RealStickman_ 5y ago
  Why not just organise and tag your media before uploading it to your server? I've had issues with some stuff getting the wrong metadata and it became annoying enough to fix that I now use MediaElch to tag my files before uploading them to my server.

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago

You can disable all of that though. I do. I've considered switching but I have a very large and disorganized media library that Plex does a great job of organizing. About 10TB worth Edit: NVM, this is pretty neat. Just loaded it up alongside Plex and it's surprisingly good. Going to use it for awhile and see how I like it.

colpabar 5y ago
Thank you for the extremely valuable edit! I am going to try it now too.
- thirdwhrldPzz 5y ago
  They’re easy to spin up in a Docker too. Linuxserver.io hosts containers for Plex, jellyfin, and a bunch of related apps, with example compose or shell scripts.
toastercat 5y ago
I sincerely tried to disable cloud login, and could not figure out how.
- Rastonbury 5y ago
  Same
phillipseamore 5y ago
FYI That setting seem to be in Settings > Network under "List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth" I had no idea this was there :/
- toastercat 5y ago
  I remember trying this, and could still not get it to work. :(
shaky-carrousel 5y ago

RajT88 5y ago

Twonky. PlayOn. TVersity. All good options. Although some are trying to push a yearly subscription now. I bought one time licenses for all 3 when they were 20 a pop.

vorpalhex 5y ago

I still use Plex for outside the house but most of the time I use Jellyfin.

bobsmooth 5y ago

Check out Emby which I found way better than Jellyfin.

dont__panic 5y ago
Would you mind sharing what you found better? Asking as a happy Jellyfin user who hasn't tried Emby (mostly audio focus, for me -- maybe Emby is better for video?)
- bobsmooth 5y ago
  Emby is overall more polished, specifically the mobile app. And I can't remember the Jellyfin Android TV app but there's a cracked version of the Emby app out there.
bedast 5y ago
I tried both Emby and Jellyfin and preferred Jellyfin. It's been a while since I made the switch so I don't remember why I disliked Emby, but my gut tells me they seemed to be going the way of Plex in some regards. Perhaps things have changed since then, but I've been a happy Jellyfin user ever since.
cntrl 5y ago
afaik Jellyfin is a fork of Emby once the Emby Team decided to close source the project, which was very unfortunate for me to hear back then as a Emby user. However, I've tried Jellyfin two times since then and found it (also) to be the inferior product. This might have changed since my last adventure, so might give it another shot.

tuananh 5y ago

does jellyfin have apps for tv?

Handytinge 5y ago
There's a webOS client that works great, but you need root (https://rootmy.tv https://rootmy.tv). They're looking to push it official via LG though.
toastercat 5y ago
I use a Roku, and yes there is a Roku app. Can't speak for the other Smart TV OSs.