Honestly I’ve tried jellyfin and I have a hard time agreeing with this for a few reasons:
UI generally more unresponsive than Plex;
changes to correct a show/movie being assigned the wrong show/movie metadata very slow to propagate if at all, same for changing other library options like title language preference;
generally slower to buffer and get into videos;
very rough android lollipop UI;
not as easy to set up tech illiterate friends for play together.
I’ll give you that morally jellyfin is less customer-adverse than Plex management is at the moment and it is more open in some ways so you can have more plugins and add-ons that Plex lacks, and sure it’s a free product so it should be given some leeway.
… but if I just listened to all of the people saying jellyfin is just so much better I’d think it was an objectively better offering, but it’s not. When it comes to what I care about, it fell short, so just giving my 2 cents. Still worth trying, considering you can just point it to the same media folders, and maybe there’s a good proposition if you don’t already have a Plex pass, but if you do and you’re looking to migrate it’s a tougher sell.
Thats fair. I haven’t really noticed any of those issues. For my use case of just organizing and streaming my desktop’s media library to my TV, its fantastic.
Oh don’t get me wrong it does the job and if I didn’t already have a lifetime Plex pass I’d highly consider it over Plex for being free, I just don’t think it does it better than Plex (with a Plex pass)
I used Plex before I got tired of it requiring a remote network connection to work in my home network (no remote). I switched to emby a few years ago, and I’m tired of it too: Subtitle is a pain, filtering is a nightmare, integration with sonarr/radarr and configuration is annoying…
I’ve started developing my own streaming server, playback is working nice through the browser from server to tvlaptop. I’m going to integrate Transmission UI into it, and show/movie management, to get rid of sonnarr/radarr and maybe I’ll manage to get rid of jackett too, so tired of this cumbersome stack. I want it all integrated into a single server with a single interface.
Agreed. Started out in Plex when j knew nothing about self hosting, very quickly made the switch to Jellyfin and haven’t looked back. If I’m hosting my media, storing it locally, and running my own server, I’m much better off not integrating the software of some company that feels entitled to bleed some extra revenue from me.
Could you explain why you feel that Jellyfin is a lot better? I’ve seen lots of folks saying it lately, but as someone with an unraid server running plex to back up and view my music and movie collections for years, I don’t get it. I’ve tried Jellyfin twice now. The most recent time was a couple of months ago. While it is good, I honestly have a hard time seeing what makes it much better than Plex. While I disagree with a number of things Plex has done, I still recommend it to friends who want a personal media server or place to rip and backup their CDs to. It’s still the easiest to setup and most intuitive imo. Am I just missing something?
The most infuriating thing about Plex for me was when they shifted to force you to start with their BS streaming service at open. I only used Plex for my personal media collection. So having to jump through a bunch of menus to get to the only thing I want to use in their app was the biggest reason to switch for me. Maybe there is a way to fix that, but I could never find one.
Jellyfin just does your personal media library and opens right up into it when the app starts. Its simpler, faster, and FOSS.
Jellyfin is so much better anyway. I used plex for years and it has steadily enshitified.
Honestly I’ve tried jellyfin and I have a hard time agreeing with this for a few reasons:
I’ll give you that morally jellyfin is less customer-adverse than Plex management is at the moment and it is more open in some ways so you can have more plugins and add-ons that Plex lacks, and sure it’s a free product so it should be given some leeway.
… but if I just listened to all of the people saying jellyfin is just so much better I’d think it was an objectively better offering, but it’s not. When it comes to what I care about, it fell short, so just giving my 2 cents. Still worth trying, considering you can just point it to the same media folders, and maybe there’s a good proposition if you don’t already have a Plex pass, but if you do and you’re looking to migrate it’s a tougher sell.
I agree with this. Add in also Apple TV options aren’t great. Swiftfin is just ok and Infuse is $
Thats fair. I haven’t really noticed any of those issues. For my use case of just organizing and streaming my desktop’s media library to my TV, its fantastic.
Oh don’t get me wrong it does the job and if I didn’t already have a lifetime Plex pass I’d highly consider it over Plex for being free, I just don’t think it does it better than Plex (with a Plex pass)
i’ve had none of those issues and i’ve been a jellyfin user for the past 5 years or so, but I do use containers for the server.
Android client is not great, but there are alternatives like Findroid, which is pretty great.
Last point is literally a couple of clicks. You just need to understand what libraries are and how to add them.
I tried jellyfin but didn’t like it. Currently using emby and it works well.
I used Plex before I got tired of it requiring a remote network connection to work in my home network (no remote). I switched to emby a few years ago, and I’m tired of it too: Subtitle is a pain, filtering is a nightmare, integration with sonarr/radarr and configuration is annoying…
I’ve started developing my own streaming server, playback is working nice through the browser from server to tvlaptop. I’m going to integrate Transmission UI into it, and show/movie management, to get rid of sonnarr/radarr and maybe I’ll manage to get rid of jackett too, so tired of this cumbersome stack. I want it all integrated into a single server with a single interface.
Agreed. Started out in Plex when j knew nothing about self hosting, very quickly made the switch to Jellyfin and haven’t looked back. If I’m hosting my media, storing it locally, and running my own server, I’m much better off not integrating the software of some company that feels entitled to bleed some extra revenue from me.
Could you explain why you feel that Jellyfin is a lot better? I’ve seen lots of folks saying it lately, but as someone with an unraid server running plex to back up and view my music and movie collections for years, I don’t get it. I’ve tried Jellyfin twice now. The most recent time was a couple of months ago. While it is good, I honestly have a hard time seeing what makes it much better than Plex. While I disagree with a number of things Plex has done, I still recommend it to friends who want a personal media server or place to rip and backup their CDs to. It’s still the easiest to setup and most intuitive imo. Am I just missing something?
The most infuriating thing about Plex for me was when they shifted to force you to start with their BS streaming service at open. I only used Plex for my personal media collection. So having to jump through a bunch of menus to get to the only thing I want to use in their app was the biggest reason to switch for me. Maybe there is a way to fix that, but I could never find one.
Jellyfin just does your personal media library and opens right up into it when the app starts. Its simpler, faster, and FOSS.
For Plex just unpin the default channels, and leave your local media libraries pinned.