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So glad I built a PLEX server.
Have a look at Jellyfin, if you haven't. I moved from Plex because of restrictions in HW decoding.
Do you mean hardware encoding, because that's what's paywalled in Plex.
I personally migrated from a Jellyfin ecosystem to a Plex with Lifetime Pass one when building my current server - while both are highly capable media servers, Plex has, by far, the better clients.
Yup much easier to use Plex, couldn't stand jellyfin
Jellyfin requires a reverse proxy or similar to be reachable from outside the network, once that's set up, the usability gap between the two becomes a lot smaller. And Jellyfin does, still, have some benefits over Plex - first and foremost: it doesn't require an active Internet connection and an "ok" from a central server to fully function - it also has fewer restrictions when it comes to sharing content and a better plugin ecosystem.
Again, I think both are highly capable servers and I'm running both in parallel, even after migrating most of my personal use to Plex.
It's the clients where it all falls down, sadly. Jellyfin's are, even after all these years, clunky, ugly and unpleasant. The choice of supported devices and systems is also quite limited. This is where Plex shines: they have a, generally excellent, client for pretty much everything you would ever want to play your media on.
To be fair there are workarounds to getting Plex to play locally without Internet (I had to look this up because I didn't believe you lol) but you have to set it up on the server with internet.. I originally started with jellyfin but it was too clunky for me overall, Plex was way more elegant. Also I'm pretty sure Plex deprecated plugins entirely.
Plex killed their official plugin repository, but plugins are, technically, still supported. There just isn't much life left in that ecosystem after Plex strangled it.
Ironically, it's probably Jellyfin's thriving plugin-ecosystem that's holding back its clients - since anything with a native UI can't really be used with any plugin that extends the UI feature set and vice versa.
Oh, and all "workarounds" that I know of for "offline" Plex involve essentially disabling user auth for certain IPs - which is insane. Plex simply doesn't support local auth, it's not an offline-capable solution. That (and some other restrictions) is why I'm still running and maintaining Jellyfin as a fallback.
That's true, I'm considering having jellyfin spun up for local playback just in case now. Thanks
Yes, it's been a while since I made the jump, I misremembered. I also found the Jellyfin apps to work better than Plex on my LG TV. Plex was so slow in comparison. Things might have changed since then, though.
You migrated to a closed source for profit app to get away from the enshittification of streaming companies?
You don't believe Plex will go down a similar path?
You are aware that this isn't a lifelong commitment, right? A Plex license doesn't make using it mandatory. In fact, had you read a bit further, you'd have seen that it's no commitment at all, and I'm still running and maintaining a Jellyfin server simultaneously, reverse proxy and all. Not just as a fallback, but also for the things it still does better.
I migrated my household use to Plex, though, because this evil "closed source for profit app" offers an on-device user experience that is as good, if not better, than that of a commercial streaming services. This makes the rest of the household use it happily, instead of seeing it as an inferior alternative.
Jellyfin's user experience is simply not there yet, not even close. Its clients, if available at all for the system in question, are (mostly) functional, but certainly not fun.
I had the money to spend on the evil "closed source for profit app" and it made my family's life a little better for it - are you sure that trying to shame me for that was the right reaction?
I moved over to Jellyfin because to pay for Plex Premium just to be able to stream my own videos was too much.
The Jellyfin app is much faster for me on TVs too. Plex was always chugging like it was trying to load too many thumbnails at once. Jellyfin doesn't seem to have this problem.
Jellyfin never worked great for me on my older tablet and chromecast. Always struggled with either unsupported codecs or just buffering to hell. My plex server is also on somewhat limited hardware and jellyfin could never transcode fast enough, where plex has no issue.
Same. It's been a much more satisfying investment and has made streaming the content I actually want infinitely easier.
I'm very glad to have been using Plex/Jellyfin for years, since before HBO Max and Disney+ etc were even a thing. It really is a much better experience.
Been managing one since about 2014 and increasing/updating... it's immensely refreshing never dealing with these companies' garbage "updates."