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Every 6 months or so I give Jellyfin a try, and always come back to Plex. I heavily use Plex DVR. Jellyfin is not even close in that regard. Beyond that, I al

Every 6 months or so I give Jellyfin a try, and always come back to Plex. I heavily use Plex DVR. Jellyfin is not even close in that regard. Beyond that, I always find annoying bugs with Jellyfin. The last time I tried it, it couldn't handle Photo libraries well. Also, I need it to work on Roku, and the experience has always been poor. I understand some people have very limited needs (stream files on their PC onto their phone), but many people pay for Plex to get other features. While Plex is somewhat user hostile, they have delivered, and continue to do so.

afavour 3y ago
Strongly agree with this. Plex’s DVR functionality was very shaky to start with and I switched to using Channels, which to be honest is better than anything else at being a DVR. But it’s $60 a year and Plex costs me nothing (because I bought a lifetime membership years ago) so I switched back. Every time I tried Jellyfin the DVR stuff had weird problems and the client apps were notably inferior. In fairness I haven’t checked in a while.
princevegeta89 3y ago
Is the Plex home screen still shoddy as fuck? They suddenly shoved my hosted media into a random sidebar menu and started pushing their "free" content on homepage and also started doing purchases and rentals, so is it just getting close to being another Netflix/Hulu? Can't comment on Music, but JellyFin on my Dedicated Server has been very stable. It has indexed a large collection of movies and shows, makes decent recommendations, and tracks me well across devices. We use Infuse for iOS, Jellyfin on the Web and Android very frequently and we only very rarely found issues.
- opless 3y ago
  You can unpin the value add stuff from the sidebar in Plex.
  - princevegeta89 3y ago
    Will it come back after a few updates though?
    - opless 3y ago
      Perhaps, but once it's set for a client it seems to persist.
- rolobio 3y ago
  My Plex app on Apple TV keeps adding their Discover tab to my home page. Keeps recommending nsfw content to my kids. Extremely frustrating because I have unpinned the tab a dozen times. I will move away from Plex once Jellyfin is good enough.
- res0nat0r 3y ago
  Been running plex in docker from my Synology nas for a couple of years now and has been working great. I have a large library of stuff to index too. The homepage UI on the web,phone,iPad and TV app have been fine for me.
- BeetleB 3y ago
  > They suddenly shoved my hosted media into a random sidebar menu and started pushing their "free" content on homepage and also started doing purchases and rentals, so is it just getting close to being another Netflix/Hulu? The main annoyance was done once, and you can just go to the settings and disable it. Every once in a while they make minor changes that seem to promote their services, but they're very ignorable. I've only had to go to the settings once to disable/hide their annoyances. I never quite understood the hostility towards them on this. I suppose if you insist on viewing Plex as solely for playing your own content, sure. But ever since I signed up over 5 years ago (before the streaming services), I knew quite well that I was signing up for a service and that I am not in control. I don't see people getting anywhere near as upset at Netflix as they are with Plex. As much as they may have deprioritized local streaming - it's not at all dead. They continue to add features to it.
sgtnoodle 3y ago
I have jellyfin on my Roku, and it seems consistent with the android app and web UI. I'm curious what specific problems you had?
bentcorner 3y ago
Jellyfin is an admirable effort and I want to use it, but I use the "Play together" feature a lot and on Jellyfin it's just not that great. Desynchs occur and seeking will usually break the session. Plex handles this exactly as you'd expect. TBH it's still not perfect but it's a lot more reliable than Jellyfin.
y-c-o-m-b 3y ago
> Also, I need it to work on Roku, and the experience has always been poor. I've been using it with Roku for the last year and it works well for me. It's much quicker than the other apps (Netflix, Hulu, Disney, and god awful Prime). Sounds like there's a specific feature that's missing for you or you dislike? I'm curious what that is.
nilespotter 3y ago
I barely use DVR because my OTA is so bad, but I do pay for ChannelsDVR and it's one of the best home server programs I've ever used.

afavour 3y ago

Strongly agree with this. Plex’s DVR functionality was very shaky to start with and I switched to using Channels, which to be honest is better than anything else at being a DVR. But it’s $60 a year and Plex costs me nothing (because I bought a lifetime membership years ago) so I switched back. Every time I tried Jellyfin the DVR stuff had weird problems and the client apps were notably inferior. In fairness I haven’t checked in a while.

princevegeta89 3y ago

Is the Plex home screen still shoddy as fuck? They suddenly shoved my hosted media into a random sidebar menu and started pushing their "free" content on homepage and also started doing purchases and rentals, so is it just getting close to being another Netflix/Hulu? Can't comment on Music, but JellyFin on my Dedicated Server has been very stable. It has indexed a large collection of movies and shows, makes decent recommendations, and tracks me well across devices. We use Infuse for iOS, Jellyfin on the Web and Android very frequently and we only very rarely found issues.

opless 3y ago
You can unpin the value add stuff from the sidebar in Plex.
- princevegeta89 3y ago
  Will it come back after a few updates though?
  - opless 3y ago
    Perhaps, but once it's set for a client it seems to persist.
rolobio 3y ago
My Plex app on Apple TV keeps adding their Discover tab to my home page. Keeps recommending nsfw content to my kids. Extremely frustrating because I have unpinned the tab a dozen times. I will move away from Plex once Jellyfin is good enough.
res0nat0r 3y ago
Been running plex in docker from my Synology nas for a couple of years now and has been working great. I have a large library of stuff to index too. The homepage UI on the web,phone,iPad and TV app have been fine for me.
BeetleB 3y ago
> They suddenly shoved my hosted media into a random sidebar menu and started pushing their "free" content on homepage and also started doing purchases and rentals, so is it just getting close to being another Netflix/Hulu? The main annoyance was done once, and you can just go to the settings and disable it. Every once in a while they make minor changes that seem to promote their services, but they're very ignorable. I've only had to go to the settings once to disable/hide their annoyances. I never quite understood the hostility towards them on this. I suppose if you insist on viewing Plex as solely for playing your own content, sure. But ever since I signed up over 5 years ago (before the streaming services), I knew quite well that I was signing up for a service and that I am not in control. I don't see people getting anywhere near as upset at Netflix as they are with Plex. As much as they may have deprioritized local streaming - it's not at all dead. They continue to add features to it.

sgtnoodle 3y ago

I have jellyfin on my Roku, and it seems consistent with the android app and web UI. I'm curious what specific problems you had?

bentcorner 3y ago

Jellyfin is an admirable effort and I want to use it, but I use the "Play together" feature a lot and on Jellyfin it's just not that great. Desynchs occur and seeking will usually break the session. Plex handles this exactly as you'd expect. TBH it's still not perfect but it's a lot more reliable than Jellyfin.

y-c-o-m-b 3y ago

> Also, I need it to work on Roku, and the experience has always been poor. I've been using it with Roku for the last year and it works well for me. It's much quicker than the other apps (Netflix, Hulu, Disney, and god awful Prime). Sounds like there's a specific feature that's missing for you or you dislike? I'm curious what that is.

nilespotter 3y ago

I barely use DVR because my OTA is so bad, but I do pay for ChannelsDVR and it's one of the best home server programs I've ever used.