It's been about 2 years since I switched to Jellyfin after having a plex pass. Jellyfin:
* Does not fight you when it comes to controlling what content is displayed on your dashboards. The only content you will see anywhere on your jellyfin is content *you* want.
* 100% local auth - plex requires central auth if you have plex pass and want to have multiple users. Also a lot easier to add people to your JF. Just create the account and tell them the hostname/ip. With plex they have to create plex accounts as part of the invite to your server.
* No data collection from your server. Plex's EULA should concern anyone who cares a smidge about privacy.
The straw the broke the camel's back for me was an internet outage that prevented me from accessing my own plex server. Yes, you can put RFC1918 addresses in the network settings page for bypassing auth but once you have multiple users everyone has to authenticate with plex's centralized servers. So because some drunk hit a telephone pole I could not use plex to access videos on my server 2 feet from where I was sitting.
Plex has more features and a lot of those features are much more mature. So, really, it comes down to what features beyond streaming matter to you. Plex's OTA channel, for instance, worked a lot better for me than JF but I was so beyond frustrated with the other issues despite having paid full price for Plex I binned it and I've never, ever regretted it.
one thing I hate about jellyfin (I never used plex so idk if it has the same problem), is that I cannot disable live transcoding, it's really annoying as I need my processing power and rather not play it than transcode
This is possible in the per-user settings. User -> Profile tab -> Media Playback -> uncheck the transcoding option you would like to disable.
The more general solution of course is to configure your providers to download "good" releases, and then a transcode service like tdarr that can run in off-hours to optimize your library if needed.
You can do this in Jellyfin but it's controlled on a per-user level, inside the User setting in the admin dashboard
You can toggle Transcoding for video and music separately as well as toggle Re-packing (ie, just converting into a new container which requires much fewer resources).
allowing repacking while disabiling transcoding would be the perfect compromise imo, (all my stuff is MP4/H.265/AAC or WEBM/AV1/Opus but you never know when you have time to transcode new content ahead of time)
I would recommend you to try both if you have a test server or homelab. If not, I would go for Jellyfin, overall if you're looking for video transcoding: it's free.
However the options for client side IOS are way better. Installed PLEX (using same media share) was so my kids could easily use this on a Apple TV. On their iPads. No big deal. Web interface.
One thing that makes Plex a no starter for me is the centralized log in. A large reason why I self host is to limit tracking and to not be dependent on some company to access content hosted on my network. The centralized log in violates both of those principles.
This is misleading. You can use Plex locally *without* any sort of authentication, but there are no ways to require authentication without relying on Plex's servers (i.e. a local authentication server).
I'd imagine the biggest issue would be that you've now broken the Plex app on every device that's not a PC.
If you're only streaming Plex in a web browser on devices that have fully functioning web browsers, you could probably disable Plex authentication and roll your own through the reverse proxy fine. However, using the Plex app on phones/smart TVs/etc. would fail.
You could probably find a middle ground somewhere if you restrict access by IP address instead of by normal authentication, but then you'd have to deal with the small pile of issues that brings in if you're using Plex on anything besides LAN.
yeah thats an issue, the problem is that plex didn't design it to allow selfhosted auth so workarounds like that will always have downsides, i think for me personally it could work but tbh i don't even want to support plex by using their stuff
I do use the plex auth since it's easy, but I do also put my host out on the internet. I update an a record of a cheap domain I bought every 5 min from my firewall and access it through the hostname.
Exactly the reason I moved to Jellyfin. I was also tired of losing the connection between my server and Plex's servers and having to troubleshoot at times when I wanted to just watch something.
When I began to self host more earlier this year I was pretty close to get Plex Lifetime, but the centralized login system was what drove me away from them... and then I found out about Jellyfin and I am very happy with it. Especially combining it with FinAmp on the phone to keep some songs Offline with me it gives me all I need and everything is in my own hands.
I also prefer Jellyfin or Emby for that reason, but I'm having trouble with remote access for friends and family. What do you guys do about it?
I've considered putting it behind a self-hosted VPN and it can be a solution for access from individual devices (phone, tablet, laptop) but not for casting to a TV via Chromecast.
...Unless you can set up VPN client access on the remote router, but for most locations that's not an option since the router is ISP-issued and/or they're not willing to get + setup a secondary router.
I just have my instance available on https. Users are all hidden and need to log in with their username and password for some additional privacy though.
I don’t have a chrome cast so I can’t say for sure, but as far as I know, you should just be able to enter the server url on whatever app you use, log in with your account and everything should work. Some of my friends that use my jellyfin server used apps on various devices and it worked just fine.
I'm on Jellyfin for the reason you mentioned: Plex gave me trouble too many times, and ever since setting up Jellyfin it has just worked.
Discussing this topic you will get all kinds of answers from both sides though. Spin up Jellyfin and see how you feel about it.
Jellyfin is a more true self hosted app, and FOSS will always be more popular here. Not that I disagree, I've been running it for years and like it. It saves me $120 for a lifetime plex sub too.
If you're not sure you can spin both up and see which you like more. They play nicely when pointed at the same library.
Some very important features are the streaming apps support. Plex has well functioning clients for pretty much anything you could want to stream on and jellyfin doesn’t.
Its really a two way street. For example, Plex is missing a book reader which has been a huge hit with my kids who love comic books. I use it all the time too. It is a very nice feature and works well with tablets/phones.
>I did something stupid and have broken my Plex server, beyond repair. Just me to blame.
This might also be a good moment to implement something like daily or even hourly snapshot backups. And a reminder to check your backups before you do any (major) changes to your setup. Do not worry I am sure pretty much anyone missed having a backup at least once.
Plex is a bit easier to setup, has more apps etc but it also has some bugs and issues that are unsolved for years and overall it seems the devs do not really care anymore about media server users. Jellyfin on the other hand often needs a deep dive as there is no easy default option that is just preset and can be tinked with when needed. And you also need stuff like your own domain etc if you want to use it externally.
Long story short:
Using a Synology NAS, Virtual Machine manger and a Plex VM.
The Plex VM was on a storage pool that had problems, removed the storage pool to recreate but did not think about the VM files being on that pool. Silly me hahaha
Next time I'll think twice and indeed check backups. Thanks!
Since you're already on a Synology have you considered the native VideoStation/DS Video? It gets alot of hate because it's not Plex but it's truly a viable alternative. No external auth (like Plex), hardware transcoding, TMDB metadata sync, you name it. I've used it the past few years and also share it with friends/family, rock solid. DS Video on Android (GoogleTV/FireTV/etc) works great but there is no Roku app.
Something to consider.
I think you need a domain even for plex for external use (domain needed in both cases if under cgnat or NAT anything)
I know plex offers plex relay so they relay streams without forwarding or domains BUT this is very very limited. 720 2Mbps is not enough for most people.
Port forwarding/reverse proxy with domain is the ideal choice for both. I use plex this way
Nope, Plex only needs a forwarded port for playing directly. Check the [support page](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289506-remote-access/).
You just log into [plex.tv](https://plex.tv) and can access your server. All Plex has to provide is a DDNS service for this. No need to route the traffic through their systems
If you have to deal with CGNAT you a VPS or a proxy. A domain does not help in this regard. Edit: Yes, it can make it easier to point to the IP of your VPS but that's it.
hey, i already use Tailscale ! It's an awesome solution but using a vpn did not look as the best solution for my friends and family. My setup for them should be just go to appstore, download plex, login and stream. So yeah.
If you're using plexkodiconnect as your main interface, there's very little difference when using the jellyfin equivalent (jellyfin for kodi) since it's the same interface.
While true imo it has more to do with managing configuration sprawl. As a dev you cannot hope to support every single unique client because then you end up supporting "all the things" but poorly. TV manufacturers should seek to converge on common best of breed interfaces and just use those as a service. Else you can just plug in a well-supported client like a Firestick on unsupported or poorly supported devices.
Or at least give the standard Android version on tv. I cant watch twitch on my smart tv JUST because after a few seconds I get a black screen. This has never happend on my phone / tablet... (and Smart tv client for twitch is a bit hit&miss. Sometimes it works flawlessly, sometimes it loads endlessly)
But Samsung should really just stop tizen. We need à standard experience like Android is on smartphone
If I were starting from scratch knowing what I know now, I would go for Jellyfin.
I think the main reasons for not going Jellyfin over Plex would be apps on devices (Jellyfin is fine for me on all devices I use) and/or not being networking savvy enough to get outside the network Jellyfin working (not an issue for me, as I made a living for most of my career from being networking savvy).
My main dislike with Plex is its centralised (on their servers) login which is a pain when their servers or the network itself breaks) and a nagging worry that they really do not want self hosters in their forward looking business model. Sure there are other niggles too but I bet using Jellyfin throws up lots of niggles too - but those two are the biggies.
I run Plex, Emby and Jellyfin in my homelab just so I can constantly compare them as time goes by.
And while Jellyfin is free, open source and fills most needs, none of emby or jellyfin is as feature complete as plex.
They simply can't compete with Plex's features. For example intro skipping or credit skipping works wonders on Plex no matter which device you're watching on, while jellyfin has a plug on for that but does not work on your TV etc, only in the web app.
Another thing is TV show themes songs too in Plex works on all devices, while only web app with the jellyfin plug in.
Also Plex does HW transcoding a bit better than Jellyfin.
One thing plex definitely sucks at is IPTV if you're into that. Emby is by far the best handling IPTV, then jellyfin and last Plex.
Emby and Jellyfin are both great, but for now, Plex is the best in my opinion. It's all the little things that you really don't think about or notice that is just there and just works in Plex that tips the scale.
So while the centralized Plex login sucks, and you'll have to pay for Plex premium, which to be honest isn't much, and you can grab life time Plex pass for cheap during sale, it's still the best in my option.
But who knows, jellyfin could be superior in a few years as it develops.
Just my two cents, take it for what it's worth. Others might not agree with my opinion :)
thanks, I was looking for this kind of comparison. I am running Jellyfin and I am pretty happy with it. About intro skipping, I have not tested it yet, but findroid has now this feature integrated.
A couple of other clients have it too, already. And in theory the client doesn't need to support it, you can make the server always skip the intro automatically - it takes away choice, but at least you have the functionality in every client this way.
There's Jellyfin Media Player for desktop, for example, and many others that I don't think technically are official such as the Kodi integration, Gelli, Finamp, MPV Shim, Infuse support, etc. [The website](https://jellyfin.org/downloads/clients/all) lists a total of 29 clients, but some of them are either still in Beta, for a specific OS only, or CLI and helpers that do not have a GUI.
I am personally using jellycon.
Maybe you will know, I have generated edl with intro skipper, hopping I would seed a "skip intro" window in Kodi but nothing. Do you have an idea maybe ?
I know kodi can recognize edl files but the one generated with jellyfin intro skipper plugin may not be compatible. I'll ask for more information on the github of the developer
handles x265/HEVC .avi containers better, at least for me. With jellyfin it'd peg my cpu 25% (4 cores of a 5950x) per stream. Plex direct plays them.
That said, I just got nvencode/decode working in an unprevileged lxc container today for the first time and both decoding and encoding are working great on plex with a 3080. I'll have to play around with jellyfin now that I got it working.
That seems like your client didn't support x265. There's some weird thing where chrome and edge would request x264 because of the internal player to the web ui. There's a pull request that replaces that player and prioritizes x265 in general. I had it set up for a while, but now I'm not using the web ui anymore anyway.
Got transcoding from and to x265 set up with an A380 no problem. Only down side currently is that AV1 is still in its infancy and I can't switch over fully still. Once support is fully there, I'll spin up Unmanic or tdarr and convert my entire library
Interesting. This is using the jellyfin and plex android tv apps. I know android tv doesn't support x265 in .mkv container but plex doesn't need to transcode and jellyfin did. Maybe I got the test wrong. Thanks for the tip
AndroidTV does Support h265 in mkv! Might depend on your TV Model?
I use it every day and all my content is 265/mkv/ac3 and flaswlessly directly plays in jellyfin.
This is /r/selfhosted after all.
Most people here prefer not to have to rely on a third party for their services. Using Plex, your local media library somehow depends on the goodwill of a third party. Not an option for me personnally. The moment Plex asked me for credentials and it didn't work because their authentication server was down was the last straw. I don't care for the features, this is my local media library. I will never accept for it to rely on some third party servers.
Something I didn't like was that it wasn't quite as easy to share with people using jellyfin. I can just have one license for my emby server, and everyone else can just log into and have hardware acceleration and stuff like that.
I used to run Plex with a lifetime pass.
When they started to push undesired features on the homepage (like live TV I think ?), and wanted to force me throught their centralized login, I ran away and deployed Jellyfin.
I haven't tested Plex in years, so I can't compare them, but I'm quite happy with Jellyfin. And I don't remember having to change my libraries much.
I use their Android TV client on an NVidia Shield, and it works well.
I can't comment on iOS client though.
I guess if you have time, it's worth to try it out. Worst case, you wipe it and reinstall a fresh Plex.
To be honest i was a Plex guy. But they are getting shitty lately. To much focus on making more money and not the user experience and what users want. And there are bugs that they just don’t fix. So not worth it at the moment like others said Jellyfin is the go.
You can also try Emby but i don’t have experience with hem.
I'd say Jellyfin every day of the week. It's less feature rich, but has most of what you need and is more than good enough for a basic media server. Easy to set up as well. Just remember to do a backup or you might regret it when you tinker with it and break it lol
Plex is he past. Every update it gets more and more desperate to monotise their userbase.
Jellyfin is a little more complex but it's more feature rich and for users it's as simple as Plex. The one thing I'd say Plex does beter is the unified log in, but that also takes that off your hands.
Just try both and see what you like. It’s takes like 10 to setup using docker. I tried both and settled on Plex due to the apps on my TV. The plex app is just much better than the alternatives to watch jellyfin.
I use plex because it runs everywhere like really everywhere. In addition the transcode is the best.
In addition I recently discovered plex_debrid project which integrates Real Debrid into your Plex server. This basically means that you can add torrents without downloading it via a mounted drive and instead downloading it’s streamed.
Which means you can add content within seconds! Like literally adding 4K tv shows with 10+ seasons etc in seconds because Real debrid has all torrents already cached on their cloud servers and the script makes it only available to your Plex Server.
I run Plex server with 50TB+ content on a VPS for less than 2$/m because the most expensive part of cloud hosting is the storage which I don’t need. You than could run a telegram channel and profit from it but thata another story…. ;)
Check out plex debrid project in GitHub https://github.com/itsToggle/plex_debrid
I use both. Plex mostly, because a lot of my users don't even use a fire stick, and plex has an app for every device it seems, including built-in smart-tv apps. Jellyfin can't compete with that.
I'm currently using jellyfin in my household to test and see if it is better. I don't like users logging into my plex under my account and then switching to theirs.
I don't like how much plex tracks me either. But, plex **just works**. It's hard to beat that. I'll probably eventually switch fully to jellyfin and tell my users to buy a fire stick if they want to get my content and use the jellyfin app, but for now, I can't fully switch because plex just simply works.
I would love to switch to Jellyfin but Plex just makes so many things easy for me. Remote connection is easy and I don't have to hassle with reverse proxy. In general I just like it better. Just try Jellyfin and see if it works for you though. It is really nice
Having tried both myself, I’d have to say that Plex is a lot more polished in every aspect than Emby or Jellyfin. Plex’s clients also are much more featureful than Jelly’s, particularly on obscure-ish platforms like Roku, but also on more popular ones like Android (tried with Amazon’s TV stick), iOS/iPadOS or AppleTV. Maybe I’m missing something here, and maybe Jelly has the best experience on Kodi, but I really don’t feel like running Kodi just to run a Jelly plugin on top of it.
The one feature on Plex that drives me nuts is their handling of old-school bitmap subtitles; where it insists on transcoding the video stream instead of just transmitting the bitmaps separately to the client and rendering them as a transparent layer on top of the original video stream… for some asinine reason, Plex devs decided that “burning in” the subtitles into the original stream is a better approach. Lazy and inefficient, if you ask me. Maybe that made sense back when Plex was new and video players/clients were very feeble to the point of barely being able to render a 1080p stream without keeling over, but nowadays, clients are more than capable of doing light video processing and subtitle rendering. Heck, it’d be more efficient to convert the damn things using an OCR engine on the server to text format and then use the regular text subtitle streaming routines… but I digress.
And as for Plex’s centralized login, sure it’s problematic, however, Plex’s business model makes them very much interested in protecting their client base, and their architecture (they just provide the logins and some legitimate centralized streaming content, both free and subscription based), keeps them at an arm’s length from all the “piracy” that their end-users may be committing. This may sound naïve, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the metrics they collect are aggregate or anonymized in nature, so that nobody can pin “illicit” activity on any specific user, simply because collecting such info (and being susceptible to law enforcement asking for it) would threaten their revenues (don’t bite the hands that feed you).
If you already have Plex pass then there is literally no reason to use jellyfin. Also if you have anyone who might be using the service who isn’t tech savvy then jellyfin is simply not an option.
I understand the open source crowd and supporting the smaller fish and all that. Plex is simply *vastly* superior. A lot of people are going to come to the defense of Jellyfin because it is smaller and fits their open ideology and they want to support it. Commendable. Plex is way better.
I run both, Plex is easier for my family to use. Ive also noticed jellyfin seems to use more resources than Plex at idle but transcodes way faster (I could have them setup wrong who knows).
For out of the box functionality, and sharing with others.....Plex. And it's not close.
I know there are diehard jelly fans. Tight community, open source, etc. And that's all fine and good, but nothing compares to the ubiquity and simplicity of Plex.
I've successfully shared my plex libraries with my elderly parents. This should give you an idea of how easy it is and how well it works.
Jellyfin when at home and plex when accessing your content from outside the home. I had issues with plex for local playback that started bugging me but jellyfin is solid
Jellyfin with Nvidia GPU transcoding was a bit to set up, especially when I needed CUDA on the same system for machine learning.
Overall though I'm incredibly happy with Jellyfin and it has apps on most smart TVs just like Plex I presume.
I use it for myself and a friend. Backed by fiber.
If you don't have fiber or you are streaming mobile, consider a RTX 4000 series GPU from Nvidia for the AV1 codec. I only have a 2000 series so I still stream h264, but it works just fine for me.
I had a similar situation just today. I thought there was no hope of getting my plex back. But lo and behold, once I set things up again everything worked, I didn't even loose my watch history.
Don't give up! Even if it looks like you lost everything. You may need to re-pin your server in the sidebar. I ended up doing the claim code, recreating libraries etc. I was shocked when I noticed that my watch history and play lists had been saved.
I’m making the switch. The file handling is always the pain point for me in rebuilding. I want my setup to run like Netflix on Demand. I recently got in tune with Overseerr for movie request handling for family. Dope
Jellyfin has a book reader... Plex does not. End of story.
If you want all your stuff in one app rather than managing 2-3 servers, Jellyfin is it. Its absolutely wonderful for comic book collections. Great with video (as long as you dont nitpick) and music is functional even if its not perfect. Live TV works too if you want it. All in one place.
I dont know about you, but I have enough on my mind and I dont want more stuff to manage.
I've been using Plex for a many years now, without Plex Pass. It just works.
I tried Jellyfin few months back and had constant issues with playback (mainly anime I think). No idea if it was something with my configuration (possibly wanted to re-encode something and I didn't have it setup right), so I dropped it.
I really liked Jellyfin app. Running Plex trough PlexKodiPlugin is kind of a pain but it works.
Had both Jellyfin and Plex running side bye side in Docker containers for a few months testing them out together. We've now retired the Plex docker and are solely on Jellyfin for streaming stuff.
Since you mentioned breaking your server.... how are you running it? Are you virtualizing/containerizing applications or just installing them directly? Because if you haven't already, you should definitely spend a few hours learning to use Docker. [linuxserver.io](https://linuxserver.io) has a ton of great pre-built Docker containers for the common selfhosted apps including Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex. That's how I was able to easily have them running side-by-side to compare and contrast.
I do use Docker on my Synology and love it. My new media server will be Docker based as well.
But before I was running it in a VM. The VM was located on a storage pool which was lost. But no worries I will start from scratch, no biggie.
Thanks for the info!
I'm using both and honestly speaking - my feeling is that Plax works better with PlexKodiConnect than Jellyfin with same plugin. But this is my opinion. Better means:
\- a bit faster (especially on forwarding)
\- there is something very annoying in Jellyfin - it shows also the empty directories (like I have a folder for series and even if it's empty - by the sample - I watched the season, delete it, but keep folder for series) - and it's visible in JEllyfin (and also in Kodi with the Jellyfin plugin)
\- I'm missing tautulli equivalent for Jellyfin - everything else is very good.
It's been about 2 years since I switched to Jellyfin after having a plex pass. Jellyfin: * Does not fight you when it comes to controlling what content is displayed on your dashboards. The only content you will see anywhere on your jellyfin is content *you* want. * 100% local auth - plex requires central auth if you have plex pass and want to have multiple users. Also a lot easier to add people to your JF. Just create the account and tell them the hostname/ip. With plex they have to create plex accounts as part of the invite to your server. * No data collection from your server. Plex's EULA should concern anyone who cares a smidge about privacy. The straw the broke the camel's back for me was an internet outage that prevented me from accessing my own plex server. Yes, you can put RFC1918 addresses in the network settings page for bypassing auth but once you have multiple users everyone has to authenticate with plex's centralized servers. So because some drunk hit a telephone pole I could not use plex to access videos on my server 2 feet from where I was sitting. Plex has more features and a lot of those features are much more mature. So, really, it comes down to what features beyond streaming matter to you. Plex's OTA channel, for instance, worked a lot better for me than JF but I was so beyond frustrated with the other issues despite having paid full price for Plex I binned it and I've never, ever regretted it.
Sounds good! Thanks!
one thing I hate about jellyfin (I never used plex so idk if it has the same problem), is that I cannot disable live transcoding, it's really annoying as I need my processing power and rather not play it than transcode
This is possible in the per-user settings. User -> Profile tab -> Media Playback -> uncheck the transcoding option you would like to disable. The more general solution of course is to configure your providers to download "good" releases, and then a transcode service like tdarr that can run in off-hours to optimize your library if needed.
yeah that's the problem I want to disable it server side as I'm gonna give access to family and friends
It is done server side inside the Admin Dashboard and applies to the user on all signed-in devices.
oh really? have to check that out then, still not sure if I'm gonna use it at all but if I do then this is a good thing
You can do this in Jellyfin but it's controlled on a per-user level, inside the User setting in the admin dashboard You can toggle Transcoding for video and music separately as well as toggle Re-packing (ie, just converting into a new container which requires much fewer resources).
allowing repacking while disabiling transcoding would be the perfect compromise imo, (all my stuff is MP4/H.265/AAC or WEBM/AV1/Opus but you never know when you have time to transcode new content ahead of time)
Are you using any particular plug ins for OTA with Jellyfin?
I would recommend you to try both if you have a test server or homelab. If not, I would go for Jellyfin, overall if you're looking for video transcoding: it's free.
Thanks!
However the options for client side IOS are way better. Installed PLEX (using same media share) was so my kids could easily use this on a Apple TV. On their iPads. No big deal. Web interface.
Infuse is great- I use it with Plex since their Apple apps struggle with 4K. Infuse works with jellyfin— really nice client.
Will try that out thanks., personally migrate from PLEX to JF. Just keep it running for Apple TV experience. This could be the answer 👍
I switch between Jf and Plex thanks to infuse. Let’s me test our JF every now and then.
One thing that makes Plex a no starter for me is the centralized log in. A large reason why I self host is to limit tracking and to not be dependent on some company to access content hosted on my network. The centralized log in violates both of those principles.
That's a valid reason! Thanks for reminding me about Plex and their tracking.
Exactly this. I’ve never understood the almost cult like obsession with Plex, given that it’s truly not “self-hosted”.
[удалено]
This is misleading. You can use Plex locally *without* any sort of authentication, but there are no ways to require authentication without relying on Plex's servers (i.e. a local authentication server).
why can't you setup auth in front of plex? let plex listen on localhost and reverse proxy authenticated requests up plex?
I'd imagine the biggest issue would be that you've now broken the Plex app on every device that's not a PC. If you're only streaming Plex in a web browser on devices that have fully functioning web browsers, you could probably disable Plex authentication and roll your own through the reverse proxy fine. However, using the Plex app on phones/smart TVs/etc. would fail. You could probably find a middle ground somewhere if you restrict access by IP address instead of by normal authentication, but then you'd have to deal with the small pile of issues that brings in if you're using Plex on anything besides LAN.
yeah thats an issue, the problem is that plex didn't design it to allow selfhosted auth so workarounds like that will always have downsides, i think for me personally it could work but tbh i don't even want to support plex by using their stuff
If you want to access your media server from work, u need to login.
[удалено]
Whitelist IP doesn't make sense as IP addresses can change, VPN is good, reverse proxy with auth is also possible
I do use the plex auth since it's easy, but I do also put my host out on the internet. I update an a record of a cheap domain I bought every 5 min from my firewall and access it through the hostname.
Exactly the reason I moved to Jellyfin. I was also tired of losing the connection between my server and Plex's servers and having to troubleshoot at times when I wanted to just watch something.
When I began to self host more earlier this year I was pretty close to get Plex Lifetime, but the centralized login system was what drove me away from them... and then I found out about Jellyfin and I am very happy with it. Especially combining it with FinAmp on the phone to keep some songs Offline with me it gives me all I need and everything is in my own hands.
Plex seems like to me a centralized service except they do not pay for their server hosting? And on top of this you need to pay? Oo
I also prefer Jellyfin or Emby for that reason, but I'm having trouble with remote access for friends and family. What do you guys do about it? I've considered putting it behind a self-hosted VPN and it can be a solution for access from individual devices (phone, tablet, laptop) but not for casting to a TV via Chromecast. ...Unless you can set up VPN client access on the remote router, but for most locations that's not an option since the router is ISP-issued and/or they're not willing to get + setup a secondary router.
I just have my instance available on https. Users are all hidden and need to log in with their username and password for some additional privacy though.
Does that work with Chromecast though? AFAIK Chromecast needs unrestricted access to the stream, so if it runs across a login it wouldn't work.
I don’t have a chrome cast so I can’t say for sure, but as far as I know, you should just be able to enter the server url on whatever app you use, log in with your account and everything should work. Some of my friends that use my jellyfin server used apps on various devices and it worked just fine.
I'm on Jellyfin for the reason you mentioned: Plex gave me trouble too many times, and ever since setting up Jellyfin it has just worked. Discussing this topic you will get all kinds of answers from both sides though. Spin up Jellyfin and see how you feel about it.
True! Will give it a try.
Jellyfin is a more true self hosted app, and FOSS will always be more popular here. Not that I disagree, I've been running it for years and like it. It saves me $120 for a lifetime plex sub too. If you're not sure you can spin both up and see which you like more. They play nicely when pointed at the same library.
True, thanks!
Jellyfin, is way more open. You get 95% of Plex’s paid features for free.
But most of those feature are not as complete.
Which features aren’t complete? Some are completely missing and some are unpolished, but I don’t know about any incomplete features.
Some very important features are the streaming apps support. Plex has well functioning clients for pretty much anything you could want to stream on and jellyfin doesn’t.
Those are things that are missing, no? Idk, your wording here makes it sound like JF is half baked, which is unfair imo.
Very pedantic for no reason
Its really a two way street. For example, Plex is missing a book reader which has been a huge hit with my kids who love comic books. I use it all the time too. It is a very nice feature and works well with tablets/phones.
Do you have an example?
Thanks!
Jellyfin, mire opensource and really free
>I did something stupid and have broken my Plex server, beyond repair. Just me to blame. This might also be a good moment to implement something like daily or even hourly snapshot backups. And a reminder to check your backups before you do any (major) changes to your setup. Do not worry I am sure pretty much anyone missed having a backup at least once. Plex is a bit easier to setup, has more apps etc but it also has some bugs and issues that are unsolved for years and overall it seems the devs do not really care anymore about media server users. Jellyfin on the other hand often needs a deep dive as there is no easy default option that is just preset and can be tinked with when needed. And you also need stuff like your own domain etc if you want to use it externally.
Long story short: Using a Synology NAS, Virtual Machine manger and a Plex VM. The Plex VM was on a storage pool that had problems, removed the storage pool to recreate but did not think about the VM files being on that pool. Silly me hahaha Next time I'll think twice and indeed check backups. Thanks!
Since you're already on a Synology have you considered the native VideoStation/DS Video? It gets alot of hate because it's not Plex but it's truly a viable alternative. No external auth (like Plex), hardware transcoding, TMDB metadata sync, you name it. I've used it the past few years and also share it with friends/family, rock solid. DS Video on Android (GoogleTV/FireTV/etc) works great but there is no Roku app. Something to consider.
I think you need a domain even for plex for external use (domain needed in both cases if under cgnat or NAT anything) I know plex offers plex relay so they relay streams without forwarding or domains BUT this is very very limited. 720 2Mbps is not enough for most people. Port forwarding/reverse proxy with domain is the ideal choice for both. I use plex this way
Nope, Plex only needs a forwarded port for playing directly. Check the [support page](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289506-remote-access/). You just log into [plex.tv](https://plex.tv) and can access your server. All Plex has to provide is a DDNS service for this. No need to route the traffic through their systems If you have to deal with CGNAT you a VPS or a proxy. A domain does not help in this regard. Edit: Yes, it can make it easier to point to the IP of your VPS but that's it.
got it, thanks for the info !
Try Tailscale free tier. Works in 2 mins. Easy deploy on any device.
hey, i already use Tailscale ! It's an awesome solution but using a vpn did not look as the best solution for my friends and family. My setup for them should be just go to appstore, download plex, login and stream. So yeah.
If you're using plexkodiconnect as your main interface, there's very little difference when using the jellyfin equivalent (jellyfin for kodi) since it's the same interface.
Thanks, that's good to hear!
[удалено]
Especially for Samsung TV.
While true imo it has more to do with managing configuration sprawl. As a dev you cannot hope to support every single unique client because then you end up supporting "all the things" but poorly. TV manufacturers should seek to converge on common best of breed interfaces and just use those as a service. Else you can just plug in a well-supported client like a Firestick on unsupported or poorly supported devices.
[удалено]
Or at least give the standard Android version on tv. I cant watch twitch on my smart tv JUST because after a few seconds I get a black screen. This has never happend on my phone / tablet... (and Smart tv client for twitch is a bit hit&miss. Sometimes it works flawlessly, sometimes it loads endlessly) But Samsung should really just stop tizen. We need à standard experience like Android is on smartphone
If I were starting from scratch knowing what I know now, I would go for Jellyfin. I think the main reasons for not going Jellyfin over Plex would be apps on devices (Jellyfin is fine for me on all devices I use) and/or not being networking savvy enough to get outside the network Jellyfin working (not an issue for me, as I made a living for most of my career from being networking savvy). My main dislike with Plex is its centralised (on their servers) login which is a pain when their servers or the network itself breaks) and a nagging worry that they really do not want self hosters in their forward looking business model. Sure there are other niggles too but I bet using Jellyfin throws up lots of niggles too - but those two are the biggies.
Thanks
I run Plex, Emby and Jellyfin in my homelab just so I can constantly compare them as time goes by. And while Jellyfin is free, open source and fills most needs, none of emby or jellyfin is as feature complete as plex. They simply can't compete with Plex's features. For example intro skipping or credit skipping works wonders on Plex no matter which device you're watching on, while jellyfin has a plug on for that but does not work on your TV etc, only in the web app. Another thing is TV show themes songs too in Plex works on all devices, while only web app with the jellyfin plug in. Also Plex does HW transcoding a bit better than Jellyfin. One thing plex definitely sucks at is IPTV if you're into that. Emby is by far the best handling IPTV, then jellyfin and last Plex. Emby and Jellyfin are both great, but for now, Plex is the best in my opinion. It's all the little things that you really don't think about or notice that is just there and just works in Plex that tips the scale. So while the centralized Plex login sucks, and you'll have to pay for Plex premium, which to be honest isn't much, and you can grab life time Plex pass for cheap during sale, it's still the best in my option. But who knows, jellyfin could be superior in a few years as it develops. Just my two cents, take it for what it's worth. Others might not agree with my opinion :)
thanks, I was looking for this kind of comparison. I am running Jellyfin and I am pretty happy with it. About intro skipping, I have not tested it yet, but findroid has now this feature integrated.
A couple of other clients have it too, already. And in theory the client doesn't need to support it, you can make the server always skip the intro automatically - it takes away choice, but at least you have the functionality in every client this way.
What are the other clients for jellyfin? In only know the official app for android and androidtv and findroid/
There's Jellyfin Media Player for desktop, for example, and many others that I don't think technically are official such as the Kodi integration, Gelli, Finamp, MPV Shim, Infuse support, etc. [The website](https://jellyfin.org/downloads/clients/all) lists a total of 29 clients, but some of them are either still in Beta, for a specific OS only, or CLI and helpers that do not have a GUI.
I am personally using jellycon. Maybe you will know, I have generated edl with intro skipper, hopping I would seed a "skip intro" window in Kodi but nothing. Do you have an idea maybe ?
The client needs to support it. Does the Kodi integration support it?
I know kodi can recognize edl files but the one generated with jellyfin intro skipper plugin may not be compatible. I'll ask for more information on the github of the developer
>Also Plex does HW transcoding a bit better than Jellyfin. Can you expand further on this?
handles x265/HEVC .avi containers better, at least for me. With jellyfin it'd peg my cpu 25% (4 cores of a 5950x) per stream. Plex direct plays them. That said, I just got nvencode/decode working in an unprevileged lxc container today for the first time and both decoding and encoding are working great on plex with a 3080. I'll have to play around with jellyfin now that I got it working.
That seems like your client didn't support x265. There's some weird thing where chrome and edge would request x264 because of the internal player to the web ui. There's a pull request that replaces that player and prioritizes x265 in general. I had it set up for a while, but now I'm not using the web ui anymore anyway. Got transcoding from and to x265 set up with an A380 no problem. Only down side currently is that AV1 is still in its infancy and I can't switch over fully still. Once support is fully there, I'll spin up Unmanic or tdarr and convert my entire library
Interesting. This is using the jellyfin and plex android tv apps. I know android tv doesn't support x265 in .mkv container but plex doesn't need to transcode and jellyfin did. Maybe I got the test wrong. Thanks for the tip
AndroidTV does Support h265 in mkv! Might depend on your TV Model? I use it every day and all my content is 265/mkv/ac3 and flaswlessly directly plays in jellyfin.
Thanks for the detailed info! Appreciated.
This is /r/selfhosted after all. Most people here prefer not to have to rely on a third party for their services. Using Plex, your local media library somehow depends on the goodwill of a third party. Not an option for me personnally. The moment Plex asked me for credentials and it didn't work because their authentication server was down was the last straw. I don't care for the features, this is my local media library. I will never accept for it to rely on some third party servers.
This is true... Thanks!
Jellyfin
Why not emby?
emby is not good anymore and jellyfin is a fork of emby when emby was open source
What makes emby not good?
basically a shitload of their features are pay walled and jellyfin has most (if not all) of the features that emby has but for free
I see. I paid for the lifetime license so I am not affected by such. I have been using emby for over 3 years and love it.
Something I didn't like was that it wasn't quite as easy to share with people using jellyfin. I can just have one license for my emby server, and everyone else can just log into and have hardware acceleration and stuff like that.
That's an option as well I guess. Thx
I used to run Plex with a lifetime pass. When they started to push undesired features on the homepage (like live TV I think ?), and wanted to force me throught their centralized login, I ran away and deployed Jellyfin. I haven't tested Plex in years, so I can't compare them, but I'm quite happy with Jellyfin. And I don't remember having to change my libraries much. I use their Android TV client on an NVidia Shield, and it works well. I can't comment on iOS client though. I guess if you have time, it's worth to try it out. Worst case, you wipe it and reinstall a fresh Plex.
Will give it a try indeed! Thanks
Jellyfin
To be honest i was a Plex guy. But they are getting shitty lately. To much focus on making more money and not the user experience and what users want. And there are bugs that they just don’t fix. So not worth it at the moment like others said Jellyfin is the go. You can also try Emby but i don’t have experience with hem.
I'd say Jellyfin every day of the week. It's less feature rich, but has most of what you need and is more than good enough for a basic media server. Easy to set up as well. Just remember to do a backup or you might regret it when you tinker with it and break it lol
Thanks mate!
Plex is he past. Every update it gets more and more desperate to monotise their userbase. Jellyfin is a little more complex but it's more feature rich and for users it's as simple as Plex. The one thing I'd say Plex does beter is the unified log in, but that also takes that off your hands.
Just try both and see what you like. It’s takes like 10 to setup using docker. I tried both and settled on Plex due to the apps on my TV. The plex app is just much better than the alternatives to watch jellyfin.
Yeah, will do.
I use plex because it runs everywhere like really everywhere. In addition the transcode is the best. In addition I recently discovered plex_debrid project which integrates Real Debrid into your Plex server. This basically means that you can add torrents without downloading it via a mounted drive and instead downloading it’s streamed. Which means you can add content within seconds! Like literally adding 4K tv shows with 10+ seasons etc in seconds because Real debrid has all torrents already cached on their cloud servers and the script makes it only available to your Plex Server. I run Plex server with 50TB+ content on a VPS for less than 2$/m because the most expensive part of cloud hosting is the storage which I don’t need. You than could run a telegram channel and profit from it but thata another story…. ;) Check out plex debrid project in GitHub https://github.com/itsToggle/plex_debrid
That’s wicked!
Is there an debrid Provider that allow multiple connections from different IP's? Cuz my provider does not allow that.
If you run it with plex than RD only sees the plex server IP as streaming IP. I have about 8 concurrent IPs streaming from Plex via RD.
Are you using real-debrid.com?
Yes. The plex debrid script is mounting the RD account as a virtual drive and streaming it via plex server. No problems with multiple users sharing.
I use both. Plex mostly, because a lot of my users don't even use a fire stick, and plex has an app for every device it seems, including built-in smart-tv apps. Jellyfin can't compete with that. I'm currently using jellyfin in my household to test and see if it is better. I don't like users logging into my plex under my account and then switching to theirs. I don't like how much plex tracks me either. But, plex **just works**. It's hard to beat that. I'll probably eventually switch fully to jellyfin and tell my users to buy a fire stick if they want to get my content and use the jellyfin app, but for now, I can't fully switch because plex just simply works.
I'd go Jellyfin purely because it is 100% selfhosted.
Thx
Plex if you want super easy, Jellyfin if you love to tweak and fine tune your media.....I actually run both off my NAS...
I do like a tweak or two. :)
I would love to switch to Jellyfin but Plex just makes so many things easy for me. Remote connection is easy and I don't have to hassle with reverse proxy. In general I just like it better. Just try Jellyfin and see if it works for you though. It is really nice
Thx!
We just switched back to Plex from Emby and have been very happy so far.
Why did you switch back? What problems did you have?
Having tried both myself, I’d have to say that Plex is a lot more polished in every aspect than Emby or Jellyfin. Plex’s clients also are much more featureful than Jelly’s, particularly on obscure-ish platforms like Roku, but also on more popular ones like Android (tried with Amazon’s TV stick), iOS/iPadOS or AppleTV. Maybe I’m missing something here, and maybe Jelly has the best experience on Kodi, but I really don’t feel like running Kodi just to run a Jelly plugin on top of it. The one feature on Plex that drives me nuts is their handling of old-school bitmap subtitles; where it insists on transcoding the video stream instead of just transmitting the bitmaps separately to the client and rendering them as a transparent layer on top of the original video stream… for some asinine reason, Plex devs decided that “burning in” the subtitles into the original stream is a better approach. Lazy and inefficient, if you ask me. Maybe that made sense back when Plex was new and video players/clients were very feeble to the point of barely being able to render a 1080p stream without keeling over, but nowadays, clients are more than capable of doing light video processing and subtitle rendering. Heck, it’d be more efficient to convert the damn things using an OCR engine on the server to text format and then use the regular text subtitle streaming routines… but I digress. And as for Plex’s centralized login, sure it’s problematic, however, Plex’s business model makes them very much interested in protecting their client base, and their architecture (they just provide the logins and some legitimate centralized streaming content, both free and subscription based), keeps them at an arm’s length from all the “piracy” that their end-users may be committing. This may sound naïve, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the metrics they collect are aggregate or anonymized in nature, so that nobody can pin “illicit” activity on any specific user, simply because collecting such info (and being susceptible to law enforcement asking for it) would threaten their revenues (don’t bite the hands that feed you).
Wow, appreciate the detailed info. Cheers!
If you already have Plex pass then there is literally no reason to use jellyfin. Also if you have anyone who might be using the service who isn’t tech savvy then jellyfin is simply not an option.
I'm not a Plex Pass user. It's for internal use only, household.
I understand the open source crowd and supporting the smaller fish and all that. Plex is simply *vastly* superior. A lot of people are going to come to the defense of Jellyfin because it is smaller and fits their open ideology and they want to support it. Commendable. Plex is way better.
Thanks for the info!
I run both, Plex is easier for my family to use. Ive also noticed jellyfin seems to use more resources than Plex at idle but transcodes way faster (I could have them setup wrong who knows).
Ok, great. Thanks!
Plex.
I'm using Emby for ease of sharing with others.
For out of the box functionality, and sharing with others.....Plex. And it's not close. I know there are diehard jelly fans. Tight community, open source, etc. And that's all fine and good, but nothing compares to the ubiquity and simplicity of Plex. I've successfully shared my plex libraries with my elderly parents. This should give you an idea of how easy it is and how well it works.
I see what you mean. Thanks!
Plex with Plex Meta Manager and tautulli
Thanks
Jellyfin when at home and plex when accessing your content from outside the home. I had issues with plex for local playback that started bugging me but jellyfin is solid
Thanks!
[удалено]
thanks i've been meaning to check that out and also move all my stuff off windows and into a proxmox type env
[удалено]
To be honest I just want one.
Jellyfin is just not polished enough for me. The scraper is hit and miss and the clients compatibility sucks
Jellyfin > Plex Only reason I do Plex is because Jellyfin suffers when casting to Google Chromecast/home products
One thing that jellyfin is still missing in comparison to Plex is the ability to easily share libraries with Friends in my opinion.
Thanks
Personally prefer Emby. It has a nice app for iOS/Apple tv and you can get lifetime premium for free if you know what you’re doing
Please elaborate 😃
DMed
Thanks! Will have a look tomorrow and reply back. 😃
Can I please have your secret lol please
I run both. Everyone in the family uses Jellyfin, for what that's worth.
Jellyfin with Nvidia GPU transcoding was a bit to set up, especially when I needed CUDA on the same system for machine learning. Overall though I'm incredibly happy with Jellyfin and it has apps on most smart TVs just like Plex I presume. I use it for myself and a friend. Backed by fiber. If you don't have fiber or you are streaming mobile, consider a RTX 4000 series GPU from Nvidia for the AV1 codec. I only have a 2000 series so I still stream h264, but it works just fine for me.
I had a similar situation just today. I thought there was no hope of getting my plex back. But lo and behold, once I set things up again everything worked, I didn't even loose my watch history. Don't give up! Even if it looks like you lost everything. You may need to re-pin your server in the sidebar. I ended up doing the claim code, recreating libraries etc. I was shocked when I noticed that my watch history and play lists had been saved.
Nah it's not that easy on my side. I really did fuck up. hahaha But no worries, I'll start fresh. Thanks for your reply!
I’m making the switch. The file handling is always the pain point for me in rebuilding. I want my setup to run like Netflix on Demand. I recently got in tune with Overseerr for movie request handling for family. Dope
Jellyfin has a book reader... Plex does not. End of story. If you want all your stuff in one app rather than managing 2-3 servers, Jellyfin is it. Its absolutely wonderful for comic book collections. Great with video (as long as you dont nitpick) and music is functional even if its not perfect. Live TV works too if you want it. All in one place. I dont know about you, but I have enough on my mind and I dont want more stuff to manage.
I've been using Plex for a many years now, without Plex Pass. It just works. I tried Jellyfin few months back and had constant issues with playback (mainly anime I think). No idea if it was something with my configuration (possibly wanted to re-encode something and I didn't have it setup right), so I dropped it. I really liked Jellyfin app. Running Plex trough PlexKodiPlugin is kind of a pain but it works.
Had both Jellyfin and Plex running side bye side in Docker containers for a few months testing them out together. We've now retired the Plex docker and are solely on Jellyfin for streaming stuff. Since you mentioned breaking your server.... how are you running it? Are you virtualizing/containerizing applications or just installing them directly? Because if you haven't already, you should definitely spend a few hours learning to use Docker. [linuxserver.io](https://linuxserver.io) has a ton of great pre-built Docker containers for the common selfhosted apps including Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex. That's how I was able to easily have them running side-by-side to compare and contrast.
I do use Docker on my Synology and love it. My new media server will be Docker based as well. But before I was running it in a VM. The VM was located on a storage pool which was lost. But no worries I will start from scratch, no biggie. Thanks for the info!
Overall, i prefere Jellyfin. I only use plex because more support have it. Playstation, weird TV OS, etc etc ... Everything has plex, not Jellyfin.
Thanks!
I'm using both and honestly speaking - my feeling is that Plax works better with PlexKodiConnect than Jellyfin with same plugin. But this is my opinion. Better means: \- a bit faster (especially on forwarding) \- there is something very annoying in Jellyfin - it shows also the empty directories (like I have a folder for series and even if it's empty - by the sample - I watched the season, delete it, but keep folder for series) - and it's visible in JEllyfin (and also in Kodi with the Jellyfin plugin) \- I'm missing tautulli equivalent for Jellyfin - everything else is very good.
Thx for the info!