cross-posted from: https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639
I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That’s it folks. I’ve been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I’ll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I’ve been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it’s time to make it production ready.
Edit: I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying “Just buy a plex pass” are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
And for the thousandth person who wants to say the same things to me:
- YES I know I’m unaffected as a Plex Pass owner.
- My users were immediately angry at it, which made me angry. Our users don’t understand what plex pass is, and they shouldn’t have to, that’s why I had it. The fact that they were pinged even though it should have kept working is horribly sloppy
- Plex is still removing functionality. I don’t care that “People should pay their fair share”. If Plex wants to put every new feature behind a paywall, that’s completely okay. They are removing functionality.
- “But they have cloud costs”. Remote streaming is negligible to them. It’s a dynamic DNS service. Plex client logs in, asks where server is, plex cloud responds with the IP and port of where server is located. That’s it.
- “Good luck finding another remote streaming” - Again, Plex just opens up an IP and port. Jellyfin also just opens up an IP and port (Hold on jellyfin folks I know, security, that’s a separate conversation). All “remote streaming” is is their dynamic dns. Literal pennies to them. Know what actually is costing them money? Hosting all of that ad-supported “free” content that they’re probably losing money on.
In short, I don’t care how you justify it. Plex is doing something shitty. They’re removing functionality that has been free for years. I’m not responding to any more of your comments repeating the same arguments over and over.
This was announced several months ago
I’m a server owner and had no idea. If I did, I would have left then.
What’s the alternative you’re going with?
I’ve been testing out Jellyfin for a while anyway. I’m honestly surprised how much they’ve caught up
That’s another service that doesn’t provide free remote streaming, not without setting up remote access in a way that would also work for Plex. So why is this the change that’s making you leave Plex?
Jellyfin absolutely does provide free remote streaming. Plex use to, but no longer will. That is why it’s a change making people switch.
I’ll ask you the same question… What steps did you take to get it streaming outside of your house?
Give the address of the server and login info
You can forward a port in your router like you would with Plex, or you can use a reverse proxy, or Tailscale Funnel if you want to get jazzy wit it.
Then all you do on the client side is pop in the address.
And that’s the point I’m making. The work required to expose Jellyfin to the world is the same work to expose Plex. This change to Plex just charges for the relay servers, you can still do free remote streaming in the same way Jellyfin does. So if feels a bit ridiculous to claim Plex is dead and everyone should switch to Jellyfin, when Jellyfin isn’t actually providing anything Plex doesn’t still do for free.
I don’t understand why people keep saying that. I can stream outside my network. Others can stream it from outside my network. That’s remote streaming in my book.
What steps did you take to get it streaming outside of your house?
Probably the same steps you’d need to if you use Plex and are CGNATED (thanks CGNAT for teaching me basic networking).
As a server owner, you should be keeping an eye on tos and updates/changes to the software you use. You probably got an email but ignored it?