This is why it's better to control your software. Firms change over time and your interests are likely to diverge from theirs. This is _especially_ true when we're talking about media-related software which is always contentious in terms of copyright.
Jellyfin isn't as feature-rich or polished as Plex, but I rest assured knowing that I'm the one who controls my installation.
What's a good setup to run jellyfin on. I currently run it on a Linux desktop. I tried running it on a raspberry pi, but it felt like it was struggling. Did I expect too much?
It depends on whether you are willing to trade storage space for compute. The raspberry pi struggles happen when real-time transcoding is taking place. If you change the settings or pre-transcode everything, then it will easily run on the pi.
If you would rather use compute than storage, then a desktop is a good plan. I run my jellyfin on my desktop and use cloudflare tunnel for making it available online as needed. That said, me and my family are the only users of my instance, so access through the internet is not the primary way. I only set that up for when we are traveling.
I've found that a cheap Dell Wyse 5070 is more than sufficient at less than £50.
Pentium J5005, only quad core and no hyper threading, but it is Gemini Lake refresh so can do QuickSync without actually using the CPU. I believe it is something like 10 realtime 1080p re-encoding streams simultaneously. 2-4 4k re-encodes but I've not tested it that much.
Multiple USB 3.1 for hooking D4-400s to for ZFS, and two ram slots that claim a max of 8 GB but mines doing fine with 32GB.
> Multiple USB 3.1 for hooking D4-400s to for ZFS, and two ram slots that claim a max of 8 GB but mines doing fine with 32GB.
FYI: running ZFS (or any server storage) on eHDDs isn't a recommended practice[0]. A lot of things can go wrong and, if mine are anything to go by, they don't pass SMART data back to the host.
If you're running multiple HDDs, a decent HBA may be a good investment. They slot into a PCiE slot, and allow you to connect HDDs to them. From memory, I believe the LSI cards are considered the most reliable.
I heard that a number of times but I am using a professional external HDD and my ZFS pool with it is quite stable for ~2.5 years now.
I'd wager much more people are doing ZFS + external drives than many people think -- it's very convenient and that trumps recommendations, it seems.
I am aiming to have a proper server OneDay™ and will make sure I get one with enough PCIe lanes so I can have several slots for 4-6 HDDs or SATA SSDs but in the meantime a simple thin client + a professional external HDD has been getting the job done amazingly well.
Ahh, in that case I'm very happy to be called out on that. I have a few Seagate ones from various generations, and none of them pass any SMART data. It's quite infuriating.
I have a Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini running next to me that is great. Able to setup hardware acceleration on it for any transcoding needs too. It's nice and small which was the big selling point. You can probably go cheaper, but I got it around Black Friday with some nurse discounts that Lenovo gives (thanks wife).
Jellyfin is fine if you direct stream only, but any form of transcoding will kill your server. It is a bit hard to get other people to download the desktop Jellyfin Media Player or Infuse on iOS, and I don't think Android has a version of the app with massive codec support.
Jellyfin does fine transcoding 4k on my decade old i7. And it'd probably be a hassle to install it on other people's phones, but the Android app can use MPV as it's media player
I have no detailed info for you but heard from people on Reddit that depending on what the host's CPU and GPU support, Jellyfin will do transcoding which yeah, it proves too much for a RPi.
You can use something like "Acer Aspire XC - Desktop Intel Celeron J4125 2GHz 4GB RAM 256GB SSD W10H" which is sometimes on sale on ebay for $100-150. Then throw a few small upgrades in there (larger drive, maybe some memory) and you will have a very quiet, low power media center.
I had it running on a Synology DS218+ (Celeron J3355) with no problems for a long time. Now I've got it running on a framework mainboard (i7-1165G7) with a bunch of other things.
I have 3 paid subscription services (Disney+, Prime and Netflix).
But most of the time we just use Jellyfin. It's just better UX, even if it lacks polish. Stuff is in predictable places, in one app. I don't need to scroll past 2 full screens of generated lists with suggested content to get to my personal hand made watch list.
I'm fully ready to drop subscription streaming and go back to buying DVD or Bluray box sets to rip at this point.
I started on plex too. Started switching around '21 and now I'm only on Jellyfin.
It stinks when a good piece of software goes bad, but if it does I start moving away. The thing that started me moving away was the first time my internet went out and I couldn't access my media stored in my living room because I couldn't reach Plex's login server.
I'm curious how you would define "polish" here: do you mean spending time on fixing current features as opposed to adding new ones? If so, I can see the argument there: a lot of software tends to prioritize new features over long-term stability.
On the other hand, I've had a fairly good experience with Jellyfin -- it's mostly been a set-and-forget solution.
Sure, by "polish" I mean to get it somewhat close to parity with Plex. If it's great as is, perhaps no additional polish is required. I prefer to invest in open source tools that will remain open, whenever possible. It is a component of defending against enshittification, because that which has been built cannot then be revoked or gated.
Whatever's going on at Plex HQ is very weird. I've used it for years and when I first set it up, it WAS software I controlled (or so I thought). I mean it was open source, you installed it locally, and there was no such thing as a Plex account or paid services at the time. Eventually they added the account, the upsells and the nags and scary messages which all led you towards getting an account, but I avoided doing so until last year.
When I finally relented and registered an account all kinds of bugs cropped up, like my local media started streaming through their server and became unplayable as a result. There was no clear way to reverse it. Around the same time their Android app started requiring a Plex account to function (not sure if that was just an update they pushed, or some flag that got flipped by me using an account once).
I think I ultimately just nuked my Plex install, reinstalled, and never attempted to log into a Plex account again. I live in perpetual certainty now that one day an auto-update will make Plex simply melt down and stop working one way or another for me. It's not really a big deal, I will just have to set up Jellyfin and live with it when that day arrives because it can't possibly be worse than this experience, right? Needless to say I will never give Plex Inc. a single penny after watching this enshittification.
Unfortunately I've had nothing but headaches with Jellyfin's media streamer. I'm doing a local Jellyfin to their AppleTV client, and it is just glitchy as heck.
Plex is almost as good as Netflix's player, meaning completely reliable. Jellyfin's server maybe good, but their clients leave a lot to be desired.
The main problem with Jellyfin is that there isn't much money to pay for development. Open Source is great, but developing a half dozen or more clients to unfun work.
Use Infuse instead of the Jellyfin client that way you avoid having to transcode media. I'm running jellyfin on a raspberry pi and I have no problems whatsoever.
VLC player paired with a network share does pretty much everything I need to watch local media. I have a Jellyfin instance, and I do like it, but I often find myself falling back to VLC for one reason or another.
That's true. Years back, you could cast to Fire TV from the android VLC app. But I recall it not working very well, and I think support for Chrome Cast was entirely removed at some point? I don't know, I completely gave up on the Fire TV sticks. Calling them "weaker" is even being charitable, with all the issues I constantly ran into.
I keep both Plex and Jellyfin installed on my server with the same media. Plex is easier to navigate for my family than Jellyfin (specifically their respective Roku apps). But the way that Plex is pushing their monetization with ads and now rentals, and now shenanigans like this, I feel it's time to fully migrate to Jellyfin. I should learn Roku development so I can contribute to their app...
Yeah, like the sibling comment said, I meant ads for Plex's own services. Whenever they rollout these new "features" I see them on my home screen or in the navigation and have to turn it off. I'm more frustrated in how aggressive they are in pushing these new avenues of revenue; I just want to watch my own media and nothing else.
Really? You've never seen an ad on Plex? All the ads for their new features? All the ads for the latest ad-supported movie or "channel" they're carrying that they keep trying to find new ways to slip into your pins and/or home page? Do you think they added the Discover page out of the goodness of their heart?
Plex certainly doesn't have ads for your local content. It does provide its own streaming service, and Plex has gotten much more aggressive with features like that, but you can pretty easily disable all of it via the UI.
Plex today feels like Plex in 2015 if you spend a few minutes tweaking. I agree the situation is not great, but it seems that this happens with most software owned by a for-profit company.
The linked thread is such a good example of why I quit reddit, the discourse is often so frustratingly stupid, there are always contrarians acting like "they shouldn't ban you for X"="they can't ban you for X", and then there's the unnecessary whining about upvotes and downvotes.
Plex is such a weird project though, they should've been able to see that they'd have to start clamping down on the sharing as they went in the direction of being a more typical streaming service. I wonder, did they think that their users would just accept that? or did they figure that they could pull in more typical users fast enough to sustain themselves?
My personal Plex server is just single user and I only connect to it from my own desktop, phone, tablet or laptop, so I'm not too worried. I wouldn't mind using jellyfin for video, but for music I haven't really come across a player comparable to plexamp. The AI driven "DJ" options are a very nice idea.
If you look at the thread, there’s at least one person who claims to not be taking money for their Plex server that was confronted with a screenshot of them selling access to their Plex server.
Stop selling stuff you don’t have the right to sell, and no one will bat an eye at you.
Use Emby, it's much more focused on accessing your own files, while Plex has shifted towards ad supported movies which are accessible in a million other ways. I assume that's why they are cancelling users who actually use their own stuff.
Maybe? But I will still have my media and will see what is the best alternative if that happens. Maybe my WD NAS software will also go to seed and I will have to roll my own NAS. But what do I gain by giving up on the best experience now out of fear that this experience might degrade later? It's not like watching movies takes a huge learning curve. In the meantime, there are some incentives for Emby to keep their users happy and recommending their stuff, like I just did. If they don't, it's their loss.
Why? Bit too early to pull the trigger on declaring this "enshittification". We have yet to see if this was an intentional product decision or a script gone awry.
The term has been eagerly overused to indicate "things I don't like" and is quickly losing it's meaning.
This is the reason I roll my eyes when millennials talk about setting up “their plex” or “their discord”. It’s not your sandcastle if someone else owns the sandbox.
The youngest millenial is about 27. So replace "millenial" with gen-z or gen alpha, but really I would just delete the first sentence you have there. You can make an opinionated statement without arbitrarily dragging a cohort of people.
It's profoundly annoying how people flock to these "easy" corporate owned services instead of doing it right the first time around. Network effects make it very hard to get out later and they also make it so others have to get with the program if they want to participate.
Sure, but it's also profoundly annoying to spend your workday deploying and maintaining services, then come home and have to do the same.
I ran Jellyfin some years back, when I was evaluating Plex/Emby/Jellyfin after switching from Kodi, and I probably spent a week or more chasing random issues and crashes. So I put it on the shelf and picked Plex since it was nearly 0 effort and it made the family happy given how easy it was to use (and didn't crash).
Of course people want something that's easy to set up and use. A lot of people want a tool, not a new hobby. And the best way to accomplish that is unfortunately to optimize for ease of setup and stability instead of new features. But that can be hard for an open-source project when everyone is asking for the new thing a for-profit company added to their product.
I’d roll my eyes at any grumpy old language pedant that thinks that that I don’t understand how computers works. I’m the lower edge of millennial and I’ve been working as a software developer for ten years. Move on.
Eh, there's a big difference; "their Plex" is software they download which uses their hardware and data they control to provide a service. There are alternatives (jellyfin) which allows a person to get the same functionality using their same hardware and the same data they control.
Discord though you're very right about, discord is more MSN messenger than it is IRC.
I remember when Apple gave iTunes a streaming feature so you could listen to your music on the go. You could connect to your home computer and access your entire library. That feature was gone almost immediately due to people broadcasting to strangers on the internet. Stupid / greedy / thoughtless people stole that feature from me.
Don't be surprised when acts against corporate interests get slapped. Be surprised when they don't.
> Don't be surprised when acts against corporate interests get slapped.
Because corporate interests are the most important thing to consider on this earth, right? We've got felony contempt of business model laws, after all.
Jellyfin isn't as feature-rich or polished as Plex, but I rest assured knowing that I'm the one who controls my installation.