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From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

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Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#31

Post by dinosaurdynasty »

rektide wrote: post #12

This all feels like it should be 800x less of an issue because phones & tablets should just be able to connect over SMB & you should use whatever media player you want on your device. Telling your home router to forward 445 is not that hard. Usinf minupnpc or just building in auto-port forwarding would be better. Alas I've seen some isp's block users from connecting to 445, which seems insane (my ispets me host there…

SMB has been a huge transmission vector for viruses over the years, that's why some ISPs block it by default (its security is terrible).

And as someone who used to watch over SSHFS for years... the biggest feature of things like Jellyfin/Plex is automatically remembering what I'm watching and where I am. Admittedly it's mostly an issue if you watch shows instead of movies (I'm never going to remember which episode of 52 episodes I'm on) but having the app remember is so much better than updating a wiki page/text file/whatever manually as to where I am so I know where to restart watching (which I've accidentally messed up before. Very fun to watch stuff out of order and be like "wut....").

Speaking of dlna... it's kind of awful (at least years ago when I tried to use minidlna with my TV). It's way better to just get a Linux mini PC and hook that up to the TV and let the TV be a monitor.

(Also yeah, I wish we had a better than Android option for phones... https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ exists if you want to throw a bunch of money at it, not sure if there's a whole lot better)

Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#33

Post by synergy20 »

My time in front of a TV screen is 10 minutes per year, basically the count down of new year at Times square that is. I use my computer(streaming services, e.g. prime video, netflix,etc) and youtube for entertainment needs. For big movies I went to theaters. From the comment here I realize there are still lots of TV watchers, even though TV is probably just acting as a big screen.

Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#34

Post by colordrops »

Plex is one of the reasons I now always choose open source over closed source but free as in beer. They start out great but as financial constraints creep in the compromises are made that create a very unpleasant experience. For example, I'd love to use Obsidian, which is an amazing app, but who knows what will happen to it in the future.

Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#35

Post by colordrops »

jchw wrote: post #5

> The Jellyfin Android TV app is slightly worse than Plex’s, but they’re both dreadful to navigate with a remote control. I don't really agree. I've been using Jellyfin for a while now (basically as soon as Emby went commercial) and I find it definitively nicer to browse than Plex. I just prefer the way the UI is structured, and my collections are still manageable enough that navigating with arrows is usable. I admit…

Agreed, I'll take limited but straightforward over full featured but obfuscated any day.

Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#36

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

Plex seems to regularly add new features which I really have no use for but makes it relatively easy to turn them off if you want.

Every month or three when I login to the web interface there's Some New Thing which I need to disable.

Recently I needed a 100% offline-capable media player (and while Plex would probably work, it's not 100% reliable) and tried with Kodi.

It's a very unfluid experience, requiring multiple plugins and a setup process which was complicated even for me. It wasn't terrible, and it did work and I'm glad it exists but it's not something I would ever use on a daily basis, Plex just works better.

I'll admit I haven't tried Emby or Jellyfin (yet), and, I'm sure I will some day. Plex will probably add something which is truly objectionable or otherwise not disableable and I'll be compelled to switch but for now I'll stick with the fluid experience, even if it requires me to occasionally disable their new "features".

Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#37

Post by rektide »

discardedrefuse wrote: post #22
rektide wrote: post #12

This all feels like it should be 800x less of an issue because phones & tablets should just be able to connect over SMB & you should use whatever media player you want on your device. Telling your home router to forward 445 is not that hard. Usinf minupnpc or just building in auto-port forwarding would be better. Alas I've seen some isp's block users from connecting to 445, which seems insane (my ispets me host there…

Phones and tablets can access windows shares just fine. You just need a file manager that supports it. Regardless, direct playing files from a share, doesn't come close to matching the UX a media server provides. Also, don't expose windows shares to the internet.

> Also, don't expose windows shares to the internet.

Is this a problem? I feel like this reputation is 10 years out of date.

Personally I use smbd & I am not afraid for it. I'd like to tell Windows users the dame, provided I trust them to disallow all but logged in users.

Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#38

Post by endisneigh »

I paid for Plex and have never seen any ads. I tried Jellyfin and required too much tinkering. If you spend more than an hour tinkering with Jellyfin it's worth it to pay for Plex lifetime and be done with it. A good example of this is using it say on an Apple TV or more niche devices.

That being said, I do like Jellyfin and it's fine for tinkerers. Things like sharing, watching together, etc are a huge pain with Jellyfin.

Re: From Plex to Jellyfin Media Server

#40

Post by bibabaloo »

synergy20 wrote: post #33

My time in front of a TV screen is 10 minutes per year, basically the count down of new year at Times square that is. I use my computer(streaming services, e.g. prime video, netflix,etc) and youtube for entertainment needs. For big movies I went to theaters. From the comment here I realize there are still lots of TV watchers, even though TV is probably just acting as a big screen.

I'm guessing you're mostly watching alone? If you want to watch with others then watching on a TV is really the only possibility.
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