Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

jellyfin.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 201 posts

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#11

Post by awill »

jszymborski wrote: post #2

I've been a Plex-to-Jellyfin convert for a long while now, and I've nothing bad to say. I switched because Plex kept pushing their streaming services, and the fuzzy feeling I get from running FOSS. Jellyfin used to run on my desktop which has a beefy CPU/GPU, but runs fine on my puny Synology NAS.

I'm with you. I wish Plex they didn't offer a lifetime plex pass, because one-time payments (instead of a monthly subscription) are likely the cause of Plex needing to do all this extra stuff no one asked for to further monetize.

I check out Jellyfin periodically, but the last time I checked it isn't quite ready to replace Plex for me. All the apps (ios, Android, Android TV) aren't great, crash, and I don't think the codec support or audio passthrough support was that good. Hopefully in the future.

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#12

Post by fragmede »

MikusR wrote: post #7
y4mi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might just have hardware support for relevant codecs. They often do, which gives them a massive advantage when playing media files.

It only hosts the files.

Plex, its costs-money competition, transcodes files for playback (using `ffmpeg` or `libav` iirc). Is `jellyfin` less capable in this department then or something else?

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#13

Post by candiddevmike »

jszymborski wrote: post #2

I've been a Plex-to-Jellyfin convert for a long while now, and I've nothing bad to say. I switched because Plex kept pushing their streaming services, and the fuzzy feeling I get from running FOSS. Jellyfin used to run on my desktop which has a beefy CPU/GPU, but runs fine on my puny Synology NAS.

How difficult is the transition from Plex to Jellyfin, do you lose any capabilities?

Also what's the fuzzy feeling you get running FOSS? Do you contribute to the project?

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#14

Post by wolrah »

MikusR wrote: post #7
y4mi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might just have hardware support for relevant codecs. They often do, which gives them a massive advantage when playing media files.

It only hosts the files.

Hosting files takes almost no CPU power. If you're running in to trouble on anything you're transcoding, which means converting the files from the format they're in on disk to something else for streaming (usually to reduce the bitrate for internet transmission or because the player doesn't support the native format).

If you aren't streaming over the internet, disable transcoding and you're more or less only limited by bandwidth.

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#16

Post by endisneigh »

jszymborski wrote: post #2

I've been a Plex-to-Jellyfin convert for a long while now, and I've nothing bad to say. I switched because Plex kept pushing their streaming services, and the fuzzy feeling I get from running FOSS. Jellyfin used to run on my desktop which has a beefy CPU/GPU, but runs fine on my puny Synology NAS.

I'm curious - why does it matter if Plex is pushing their streaming services? Isn't it really easy to ignore?

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#17

Post by hardwaresofton »

jszymborski wrote: post #9
notesinthefield wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of your use is audio streaming? I'm dying to make my collection remotely accessible after leaving the Plex ecosystem.

In the past I wasn't super thrilled by Jellyfin's audio streaming (nor Plex's tbh). I'm auditioning Subsonic at the moment, but I might give Ampache a go soon (it's apparently having a bit of a revival at the moment).

Also check out funkwhale!

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#18

Post by rglullis »

candiddevmike wrote: post #13
jszymborski wrote: post #2

I've been a Plex-to-Jellyfin convert for a long while now, and I've nothing bad to say. I switched because Plex kept pushing their streaming services, and the fuzzy feeling I get from running FOSS. Jellyfin used to run on my desktop which has a beefy CPU/GPU, but runs fine on my puny Synology NAS.

How difficult is the transition from Plex to Jellyfin, do you lose any capabilities? Also what's the fuzzy feeling you get running FOSS? Do you contribute to the project?

Just being an user of a FOSS system is already a huge contribution. It provides a good feedback loop for developers and brings motivation for the teams to solve issues that are sidelined when no one seems to care.

Granted, FOSS developers don't live off user feedback alone, but if you depend on 1% of your user base becoming faithful financial backers, the more users you have, the better it is.

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#19

Post by gh02t »

jszymborski wrote: post #9
notesinthefield wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of your use is audio streaming? I'm dying to make my collection remotely accessible after leaving the Plex ecosystem.

In the past I wasn't super thrilled by Jellyfin's audio streaming (nor Plex's tbh). I'm auditioning Subsonic at the moment, but I might give Ampache a go soon (it's apparently having a bit of a revival at the moment).

Airsonic is also nice. I was a long time (paying) Subsonic user, but got a bit fed up with it and migrated.

Re: Jellyfin: Free Software Media System

#20

Post by comice »

I only use Plex because they have a native LG webos app.

jellyfin has one too and are currently in the process of getting into the official LG app store, awesome!

it was rejected a couple of times for some bugs the LG reviewers found, all of which are fixable and being worked on. looks pretty much a done deal.

Post reply on HN