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Yes it really does, and I intend to switch eventually but from what I heard the last time I looked into it, the end user clients are a big area where plex still

Yes it really does, and I intend to switch eventually but from what I heard the last time I looked into it, the end user clients are a big area where plex still beats Jellyfin. Since that’s where my non technical friends and family mostly interact with the system, it’s the area I need to be the most polished and hands off.

BLKNSLVR 27d ago
Jellyfin's Android clients seem to be fine. Android TV and smartphone at least. Have been fine for at least five years. Can't speak to other platforms though.
c0nsumer 27d ago
Yes, this is the big one for me. Seemingly unlike a lot of folks, Plex is my main music server. Years ago I ripped all my CDs (1800+, IIRC) and Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening. I haven't yet found anything else that works as well. I use Plexamp on desktop/laptop computers and then the Android and iOS apps for on-the-go music. I tried Symfonium [1] because it seemed promising and would give me a Jellyfin path, but it was weird and kinda buggy and ate my phone's battery. I'm hopeful there'll be a good replacement available eventually, but for now, I just have to stick with Plex. [1] https://www.symfonium.app/ https://www.symfonium.app/
- devindotcom 27d ago
  yeah I'm in a boat of similar shape. plex and plexamp is very simple and plug and play - it handles the IP stuff for remote play, which is the tough part for me. I don't mind lacking features in the server or the client honestly, if I can find and play an album or playlist I'm good. But the connectivity piece can be hard if you're not familiar with self host stuff. I tried to do Jellyfin and Tailscale and some client and it... kind of worked? But it was definitely not as seamless. I do hope every year that it's my last year paying for Plex. Maybe this year!
  - c0nsumer 27d ago
    I'm fortunate that somehow I ended up with a lifetime PlexPass for... I want to say like $50 a bunch of years back? Because yes, the remote stuff -- and PlexAmp just working the same wherever I am -- is the huge part of it. Music sits on my NAS and things... just work. I also really like how easy the caching and offline mode is, because I frequently find myself driving in areas without mobile data service. I keep a couple favorite albums downloaded to my phone, then knowing the app will cache the next ~2 albums of queued tracks generally makes it Just Work.
- jamie_ca 27d ago
  Yeah PlexAmp is amazing. Feels like it's the only music client around these days that has a functional "shuffle by album" option, instead of treating my library as only a collection of individual songs.
  - tyre 27d ago
    woahhh this exists? I have an Apple Music playlist called Sunday Albums and have always wanted exactly this.
  - rpearl 27d ago
    Lyrion (fka Logitech Media Server ) does album shuffle
  - firecall 27d ago
    Another up-vote from me for Plexamp. I find the mainstream subscription players to be excruciating to use to play what I want at the time.
    - KiwiJohnno 26d ago
      Yeah me to... Also I love plexamp for the android auto support.
  - Marsymars 27d ago
    > Feels like it's the only music client around these days that has a functional "shuffle by album" option foobar2000 has this! After trying dozens of music clients (including PlexAmp) I eventually settled on simply using foobar2000 pointed to an smb share - nothing else seems capable of properly handling playback by folder structure. (e.g. I've got all my Led Zeppelin albums in the "Led Zeppelin" folder, and I want to just select it and play their discography in album release order.)
    - deleted 27d ago
      [deleted]
- algyt 27d ago
  I use (and contribute to) Finamp the Jellyfin PlexAmp alternative and it's just done a 1.0.0 release which brings it up to parity with PlexAmp for me. I've previously been a long time PlexAmp user but FinAmp now does everything I want it to.
  - aembleton 27d ago
    That 1.0.0, and 1.0.1 is in Beta. Is that ready to be moved into stable? Or am I looking at the wrong project? https://github.com/finamp-app/finamp/releases#release-1.0.1-beta https://github.com/finamp-app/finamp/releases#release-1.0.1-...
  - c0nsumer 27d ago
    This is promising. Thanks! I'll check it out. I hope it gets the major features and works well.
  - KiwiJohnno 26d ago
    Looks like it isn't on the android play store though? Any info on this? Play tells me there is a version for a prior version of android, which is won't let me install. Not helpful...
- ezst 27d ago
  My audio needs have been satisfied for many years with subsonic, then airsonic, and now navidrome. They all expose the same subsonic API, which gives quite some flexibility on the audio player client to use. At the moment, Tempus (Android) seems well maintained, but I miss from DSub the lower clarity as to what is cached for offline consumption.
egeozcan 27d ago
This gave me an idea, what if I let an agent make a proxy for Jellyfin to act like Plex? Best of both worlds! Maybe worth a try.
- andermic 27d ago
  I’m interested in helping with this. Let me know if you start a repo. I was considering the same approach, though I’m not sure how feasible it is.
- benoau 27d ago
  I don’t think it’ll work because Plex gates everything with a sign in to their online accounts, so auth would have to go through them and there might be server-to-Plex verification going on too. That said, I’m very interested in this space - I’ve been building a music server that provides compatible APIs for Synology and QNAP mobile apps, with a few more on my todo list. I’d love to include Plexamp so if it is possible please let me know!
  - bigstrat2003 27d ago
    > I don’t think it’ll work because Plex gates everything with a sign in to their online accounts... That isn't true. You can configure the server with which subnets are trusted, and do not require auth.
    - Hard_Space 27d ago
      I would be interested to hear from anyone who set it and can still access Plex over their LAN in a network outage. I have set this multiple times according to docs, and it worked only once ever, thereafter apparently resetting to online login. Of course, they do not make this an easy setting to change!
      - jaffa2 27d ago
        You need plex pass to do this now. They changed it recently you didnt used to need it.
al_borland 27d ago
Performance was also a big issue for me the last time I tried running Jellyfin on the same hardware as my Plex server. I’m happy to see that has been their focus.

BLKNSLVR 27d ago

Jellyfin's Android clients seem to be fine. Android TV and smartphone at least. Have been fine for at least five years. Can't speak to other platforms though.

c0nsumer 27d ago

Yes, this is the big one for me. Seemingly unlike a lot of folks, Plex is my main music server. Years ago I ripped all my CDs (1800+, IIRC) and Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening. I haven't yet found anything else that works as well. I use Plexamp on desktop/laptop computers and then the Android and iOS apps for on-the-go music. I tried Symfonium [1] because it seemed promising and would give me a Jellyfin path, but it was weird and kinda buggy and ate my phone's battery. I'm hopeful there'll be a good replacement available eventually, but for now, I just have to stick with Plex. [1] https://www.symfonium.app/ https://www.symfonium.app/

devindotcom 27d ago
yeah I'm in a boat of similar shape. plex and plexamp is very simple and plug and play - it handles the IP stuff for remote play, which is the tough part for me. I don't mind lacking features in the server or the client honestly, if I can find and play an album or playlist I'm good. But the connectivity piece can be hard if you're not familiar with self host stuff. I tried to do Jellyfin and Tailscale and some client and it... kind of worked? But it was definitely not as seamless. I do hope every year that it's my last year paying for Plex. Maybe this year!
- c0nsumer 27d ago
  I'm fortunate that somehow I ended up with a lifetime PlexPass for... I want to say like $50 a bunch of years back? Because yes, the remote stuff -- and PlexAmp just working the same wherever I am -- is the huge part of it. Music sits on my NAS and things... just work. I also really like how easy the caching and offline mode is, because I frequently find myself driving in areas without mobile data service. I keep a couple favorite albums downloaded to my phone, then knowing the app will cache the next ~2 albums of queued tracks generally makes it Just Work.
jamie_ca 27d ago
Yeah PlexAmp is amazing. Feels like it's the only music client around these days that has a functional "shuffle by album" option, instead of treating my library as only a collection of individual songs.
- tyre 27d ago
  woahhh this exists? I have an Apple Music playlist called Sunday Albums and have always wanted exactly this.
- rpearl 27d ago
  Lyrion (fka Logitech Media Server ) does album shuffle
- firecall 27d ago
  Another up-vote from me for Plexamp. I find the mainstream subscription players to be excruciating to use to play what I want at the time.
  - KiwiJohnno 26d ago
    Yeah me to... Also I love plexamp for the android auto support.
- Marsymars 27d ago
  > Feels like it's the only music client around these days that has a functional "shuffle by album" option foobar2000 has this! After trying dozens of music clients (including PlexAmp) I eventually settled on simply using foobar2000 pointed to an smb share - nothing else seems capable of properly handling playback by folder structure. (e.g. I've got all my Led Zeppelin albums in the "Led Zeppelin" folder, and I want to just select it and play their discography in album release order.)
  - deleted 27d ago
    [deleted]
algyt 27d ago
I use (and contribute to) Finamp the Jellyfin PlexAmp alternative and it's just done a 1.0.0 release which brings it up to parity with PlexAmp for me. I've previously been a long time PlexAmp user but FinAmp now does everything I want it to.
- aembleton 27d ago
  That 1.0.0, and 1.0.1 is in Beta. Is that ready to be moved into stable? Or am I looking at the wrong project? https://github.com/finamp-app/finamp/releases#release-1.0.1-beta https://github.com/finamp-app/finamp/releases#release-1.0.1-...
- c0nsumer 27d ago
  This is promising. Thanks! I'll check it out. I hope it gets the major features and works well.
- KiwiJohnno 26d ago
  Looks like it isn't on the android play store though? Any info on this? Play tells me there is a version for a prior version of android, which is won't let me install. Not helpful...
ezst 27d ago
My audio needs have been satisfied for many years with subsonic, then airsonic, and now navidrome. They all expose the same subsonic API, which gives quite some flexibility on the audio player client to use. At the moment, Tempus (Android) seems well maintained, but I miss from DSub the lower clarity as to what is cached for offline consumption.

egeozcan 27d ago

This gave me an idea, what if I let an agent make a proxy for Jellyfin to act like Plex? Best of both worlds! Maybe worth a try.

andermic 27d ago
I’m interested in helping with this. Let me know if you start a repo. I was considering the same approach, though I’m not sure how feasible it is.
benoau 27d ago
I don’t think it’ll work because Plex gates everything with a sign in to their online accounts, so auth would have to go through them and there might be server-to-Plex verification going on too. That said, I’m very interested in this space - I’ve been building a music server that provides compatible APIs for Synology and QNAP mobile apps, with a few more on my todo list. I’d love to include Plexamp so if it is possible please let me know!
- bigstrat2003 27d ago
  > I don’t think it’ll work because Plex gates everything with a sign in to their online accounts... That isn't true. You can configure the server with which subnets are trusted, and do not require auth.
  - Hard_Space 27d ago
    I would be interested to hear from anyone who set it and can still access Plex over their LAN in a network outage. I have set this multiple times according to docs, and it worked only once ever, thereafter apparently resetting to online login. Of course, they do not make this an easy setting to change!
    - jaffa2 27d ago
      You need plex pass to do this now. They changed it recently you didnt used to need it.

al_borland 27d ago

Performance was also a big issue for me the last time I tried running Jellyfin on the same hardware as my Plex server. I’m happy to see that has been their focus.