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I've said it a million times before but I'll say it again: You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex (or in this case Jellyfin). It's not about being

I've said it a million times before but I'll say it again: You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex (or in this case Jellyfin). It's not about being cheaper, that ship sailed for me a long time ago, I've easily spent over $10K on hardware alone over the years but being in total control of your media is amazing. Want to share a clip? Just cut it and share it. Want to watch media on any device online or offline? No problem. Want to share with friends/family? Easy. I buy all my audiobooks on Audible but I rip the DRM off them, put them in Plex, and then listen to them through Prologue (amazing iOS audiobook app) because it gives me full control. I know this method is not for everyone (it does require a non-zero amount of technical knowledge, though I have set up systems for others that have worked with nearly no issues for years) but it's by far the best watching experience. No ads ever, instant playback, 1 UI/UX to learn, never asking "What service was that show on?", etc. If there was 1 streaming service that had literally everything and I could pay $300+/mo or so for then I'd probably jump at the chance. Instead you have to piecemeal together a slew of services that all have different UIs/paradigms and they remove/shift around content. I had high hopes for Amazon's "Channels" and Apple TV (The app, not the device, not the service, come on Apple....) but neither really got all the way there for me. I'd even pay each individual company if they gave me (aka Plex) an API to suck down the content without using their apps/websites.

poglet 4y ago
> I have set up systems for others that have worked with nearly no issues for years The two issues I had over the years was: My SSL cert expiring (not really a Jellyfin issue). My FireTV updated the Jellyfun app to a version that no longer supported the server version, this was pretty frustrating becuase I just wanted to sit down and watch some TV instead of messing around with a upgrade. In saying that; Kodi also ran fine for years without issue. My main issues with Jellyfin are scrubbing difficulties and subtitles going out of sync or not being able to change their timings, same with audio timings.
- actionfromafar 4y ago
  Had the same with an LG TV. Workaround by running with http (not https) on local network.
- drexlspivey 4y ago
  > The two issues I had over the years was: My SSL cert expiring (not really a Jellyfin issue). If your SSL cert is from Let’s Encrypt, certbot will auto-renew it for you
  - metadat 4y ago
    How does this work on a LAN or other private network? Can it?
    - Macha 4y ago
      You can do DNS based challenges without exposing your network itself if you have a real domain name.
  - poglet 4y ago
    Thanks, I did use Let's Encrypt and had certbot setup but didn't realise the renew process required port 80 open (I had blocked it on my firewall).
    - drexlspivey 4y ago
      You don’t need port 80 open, you can do DNS based challenge. 1) Transfer your domain to someone who provides a DNS API like DigitalOcean or Cloudflare 2) download the appropriate plugin for certbot (certbot-dns-digitalocean, certbot-dns-cloudflare) 3) get an API token and config the plugin with it 4) set up a post-renew-hook to do a `service nginx reload` to reload the new cert sample instructions for DO https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-acquire-a-let-s-encrypt-certificate-using-dns-validation-with-certbot-dns-digitalocean-on-ubuntu-20-04 https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-acqu...
      - poglet 4y ago
        Thanks for your reply, this was really helpful I will give it a shot.
- metadat 4y ago
  Another annoying thing about Jellyfin is the inability to disable subtitles by default. Doing it manually every time gets old.
  - onedr0p 4y ago
    Another annoying bit on the client side, the Android app appears to choose audio tracks at random even though I have English preferred. I have all of a show ripped the same way with dual audio tracks and jellyfin can't be consistent. Plex never had this issue with this show.
fredleblanc 4y ago
I do this with audiobooks, too, but consider libro.fm instead. Same pricing last I looked, and part of my monthly subscription goes towards my local bookseller. That said, a +1 to Prologue from me. Fantastic app.
- joshstrange 4y ago
  I'll check that out. Sometimes when I'm moving between an audiobook and my kindle I use the official Audible app (WhisperSync is pretty freaking cool) which is the main reason I've kept my Audible subscription. Though there as some books I have no plan to read+listen so I'll look into libro.fm!
- stavros 4y ago
  Hmm, I checked a book on libro.fm and it was $66 vs $22 on audible.com. That's a pretty big difference.
  - entropicdrifter 4y ago
    You can get book credits with a monthly subscription, I think when I was doing that it was about as good a deal as audible. libro.fm also has the advantage of being DRM-free from the start
    - fredleblanc 4y ago
      Oh, right, I do the subscription, so it's $15/mo for 1 audiobook, plus 30% off further purchases. I guess I don't "audio-read" that much, so that's a good deal for me. (I actually have credits saved up, which don't expire.)
hatware 4y ago
> You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex Ironic you say this, since Plex Pass is virtually required if you want full control over streaming your media. I'm not sure you quite get it yet.
- joshstrange 4y ago
  I mean, I never said Plex was free. I paid for lifetime Plex Pass like 4+ years ago so I don’t have any ongoing costs. I have no issue spending money (which is why I use Plex and not Emby/Jellyfin), I have a problem when you literally cannot spend any amount of money to get what I consider the best experience. Even if you pay for every streaming app on the planet you can’t get the experience Plex can provide (with media acquired legally or otherwise).
  - stavros 4y ago
    Unfortunately, the Plex experience is subpar for me. It frequently freezes, even on good connections, transcoding is low quality and doesn't use max quality even on a 600 Mbit line, and other jank. Browsing my library and selecting videos to play is amazing, just the actual player itself is nowhere near as good as Netflix's. If only there were a way to at least tell it "never transcode, just always play original quality". It's been years of this feature being requested, yet my server still tries to transcode.
  - hatware 4y ago
    You use Plex because you think it's easier to use than Emby/Jellyfin. It would behoove you to recognize where you have been successfully marketed to. It's odd to reply to a thread about a piece of software that has always been FOSS, and parading the solution you paid for while saying "You can't pay for a better solution than something I've paid for!" Jellyfin is a better solution than Plex, and you're not paying anything! Imagine that.
    - joshstrange 4y ago
      It’s odd to care so much that someone enjoys a piece of software they paid for even if an open source alternative exists. I have said absolutely nothing against Emby/Jellyfin, just that I personally use Plex. I even mentioned Jellyfin in my original statement on equal footing with Plex: > You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex (or in this case Jellyfin). You omitted that from your quote. I was stating that running your own media server (no matter the software) is better than using the streaming services. I use Plex so I talked about Plex. I wasn’t refuting the article, I was making a statement about how shitty streaming has gotten.
lostlogin 4y ago
I mostly agree, but the Plex UI is infuriating. Adding a new users is harder to find than it should be. Force a particular resolution to a user (Original!) is too hard. The content they push - I don’t want it. I like it, but it isn’t perfect at any stretch.
- dan_quixote 4y ago
  That's why I left plex. Every app changed interfaces around too much and resulted in frustration for everyone in my family.
- joshstrange 4y ago
  I don’t think it’s perfect but I don’t have the same complaints as others re: the UI. To me it’s perfectly functional. Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome or I’m blind to what everyone else sees but I rarely suffer bad UI if I can help it. Plex has always just made sense to me for the most part. There have been some revisions that grated at first but as long as my media is only a few click away I’m happy.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

poglet 4y ago

> I have set up systems for others that have worked with nearly no issues for years The two issues I had over the years was: My SSL cert expiring (not really a Jellyfin issue). My FireTV updated the Jellyfun app to a version that no longer supported the server version, this was pretty frustrating becuase I just wanted to sit down and watch some TV instead of messing around with a upgrade. In saying that; Kodi also ran fine for years without issue. My main issues with Jellyfin are scrubbing difficulties and subtitles going out of sync or not being able to change their timings, same with audio timings.

actionfromafar 4y ago
Had the same with an LG TV. Workaround by running with http (not https) on local network.
drexlspivey 4y ago
> The two issues I had over the years was: My SSL cert expiring (not really a Jellyfin issue). If your SSL cert is from Let’s Encrypt, certbot will auto-renew it for you
- metadat 4y ago
  How does this work on a LAN or other private network? Can it?
  - Macha 4y ago
    You can do DNS based challenges without exposing your network itself if you have a real domain name.
- poglet 4y ago
  Thanks, I did use Let's Encrypt and had certbot setup but didn't realise the renew process required port 80 open (I had blocked it on my firewall).
  - drexlspivey 4y ago
    You don’t need port 80 open, you can do DNS based challenge. 1) Transfer your domain to someone who provides a DNS API like DigitalOcean or Cloudflare 2) download the appropriate plugin for certbot (certbot-dns-digitalocean, certbot-dns-cloudflare) 3) get an API token and config the plugin with it 4) set up a post-renew-hook to do a `service nginx reload` to reload the new cert sample instructions for DO https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-acquire-a-let-s-encrypt-certificate-using-dns-validation-with-certbot-dns-digitalocean-on-ubuntu-20-04 https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-acqu...
    - poglet 4y ago
      Thanks for your reply, this was really helpful I will give it a shot.
metadat 4y ago
Another annoying thing about Jellyfin is the inability to disable subtitles by default. Doing it manually every time gets old.
- onedr0p 4y ago
  Another annoying bit on the client side, the Android app appears to choose audio tracks at random even though I have English preferred. I have all of a show ripped the same way with dual audio tracks and jellyfin can't be consistent. Plex never had this issue with this show.

fredleblanc 4y ago

I do this with audiobooks, too, but consider libro.fm instead. Same pricing last I looked, and part of my monthly subscription goes towards my local bookseller. That said, a +1 to Prologue from me. Fantastic app.

joshstrange 4y ago
I'll check that out. Sometimes when I'm moving between an audiobook and my kindle I use the official Audible app (WhisperSync is pretty freaking cool) which is the main reason I've kept my Audible subscription. Though there as some books I have no plan to read+listen so I'll look into libro.fm!
stavros 4y ago
Hmm, I checked a book on libro.fm and it was $66 vs $22 on audible.com. That's a pretty big difference.
- entropicdrifter 4y ago
  You can get book credits with a monthly subscription, I think when I was doing that it was about as good a deal as audible. libro.fm also has the advantage of being DRM-free from the start
  - fredleblanc 4y ago
    Oh, right, I do the subscription, so it's $15/mo for 1 audiobook, plus 30% off further purchases. I guess I don't "audio-read" that much, so that's a good deal for me. (I actually have credits saved up, which don't expire.)

hatware 4y ago

> You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex Ironic you say this, since Plex Pass is virtually required if you want full control over streaming your media. I'm not sure you quite get it yet.

joshstrange 4y ago
I mean, I never said Plex was free. I paid for lifetime Plex Pass like 4+ years ago so I don’t have any ongoing costs. I have no issue spending money (which is why I use Plex and not Emby/Jellyfin), I have a problem when you literally cannot spend any amount of money to get what I consider the best experience. Even if you pay for every streaming app on the planet you can’t get the experience Plex can provide (with media acquired legally or otherwise).
- stavros 4y ago
  Unfortunately, the Plex experience is subpar for me. It frequently freezes, even on good connections, transcoding is low quality and doesn't use max quality even on a 600 Mbit line, and other jank. Browsing my library and selecting videos to play is amazing, just the actual player itself is nowhere near as good as Netflix's. If only there were a way to at least tell it "never transcode, just always play original quality". It's been years of this feature being requested, yet my server still tries to transcode.
- hatware 4y ago
  You use Plex because you think it's easier to use than Emby/Jellyfin. It would behoove you to recognize where you have been successfully marketed to. It's odd to reply to a thread about a piece of software that has always been FOSS, and parading the solution you paid for while saying "You can't pay for a better solution than something I've paid for!" Jellyfin is a better solution than Plex, and you're not paying anything! Imagine that.
  - joshstrange 4y ago
    It’s odd to care so much that someone enjoys a piece of software they paid for even if an open source alternative exists. I have said absolutely nothing against Emby/Jellyfin, just that I personally use Plex. I even mentioned Jellyfin in my original statement on equal footing with Plex: > You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex (or in this case Jellyfin). You omitted that from your quote. I was stating that running your own media server (no matter the software) is better than using the streaming services. I use Plex so I talked about Plex. I wasn’t refuting the article, I was making a statement about how shitty streaming has gotten.

lostlogin 4y ago

I mostly agree, but the Plex UI is infuriating. Adding a new users is harder to find than it should be. Force a particular resolution to a user (Original!) is too hard. The content they push - I don’t want it. I like it, but it isn’t perfect at any stretch.

dan_quixote 4y ago
That's why I left plex. Every app changed interfaces around too much and resulted in frustration for everyone in my family.
joshstrange 4y ago
I don’t think it’s perfect but I don’t have the same complaints as others re: the UI. To me it’s perfectly functional. Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome or I’m blind to what everyone else sees but I rarely suffer bad UI if I can help it. Plex has always just made sense to me for the most part. There have been some revisions that grated at first but as long as my media is only a few click away I’m happy.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]