Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April

Just gonna... Drop this here...

Yet again, FOSS showing why it's always the way to go vs proprietary tech. So glad I started my self-hosting journey with Jellyfin!

The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature.

What "resources" do you need, exactly, to allow my friends to stream from my server?

They would charge you to watch your own DVDs if they could

Fuck around with proprietary software and find out.

Still don’t get why people use Plex over Jellyfin

I really don't see how anyone in their hierarchy thought this was a good idea.

There are at least 3 other competitors that moreorless work better than plex already does, without even having a subscription.

I'm amazed they decided to go this route, especially when migrating is as simple as uninstall plex, install competitor of choice(like jellyfin), and then just specify media locations.

the only real annoying part is remaking user accounts and losing watch progress/history, but there is usually a migration tool for that

Glad I moved to JellyFin years ago.

I'm probably gonna set up Jellyfin this weekend. Any tips for a first timer?

Was a little worried from the headline that it was being moved to another subscription tier.

I've owned a Plex Pass Lifetime subscription since it's basically been available. I've honestly forgotten Remote Streaming was a free service at this point.

It's pleasantly surprising that they aren't deep sixing the lifetime pass.

Yet.

Thus to all proprietary software!

Lol, OK Plex, cya.

They're honestly lucky I was willing to pay the $2.99 or whatever it was to be able to access MY server, using MY internet and cell data, to access MY media files from MY phone. Plenty fair a price for a nice app, might've paid a few bucks more but they can screw off trying to charge a monthly fee for... nothing in particular in my usage case.

Literally just set up Jellyfin w/ Tailscale which took all of 10 minutes and works just as well. GG no re 🖕

I deleted Plex from my barely functional home server.

I'll give Jellyfin a try. I just want to be able to access my music away from home

I've never paid even 1 cent to watch something online. Never paid for porn either.

I'm not about to start

I want to switch to jellyfin, I selfhost but I don't want to open a port directly to my server. I don't understand how everyone else figures this out and I'm apparently an idiot.

Also do people expect all who use my server to start a VPN each time? What if they leave it on and their other streaming services are using my bandwidth.

I don't understand and I have looked it up but I don't see a consensus.

I bought a lifetime pass a decade ago. This doesn't affect me, right? Not that it makes me want to stay.

I was about to get a Plex Pass, but I saw this news today.

That is so sad. I was just reconfigured my hone server with plex last weekend. Seems like it's time to switch to jellyfin now. Luckily didn't finish the configuration.

I'm actually using Jellyfin but I hate the fact that there's no easy way to install a client on Samsung TVs (Tizen OS) :(

Charging for remote access is dumb as they are not being the one hosting the contents nor relaying them (if you have it properly set up).

If they want to charge for it they should have inbuilt tunnels to solve CGNAT (like their relay but not stupidly capped).

Plex has been on a downward spiral for awhile now. This will really kill the service for a lot of people, wonder if Plex sharing will be a thing of the past and people switch to jellyfin sharing

I was planning to switch to Jellyfin but having to sideload the app in my Samsung TV is a headache for me. But guess I will be doing exactly that now.

does this mean the server will need Plex pass or each user individually?

Edit:

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CURRENT PLEX PASS HOLDERS: For users who have an active Plex Pass subscription, remote playback will continue to be available to you without interruption from any Plex Media Server, after these changes go into effect. When running your own Plex Media Server as a subscriber, other users to whom you have granted access can also stream from the server (whether local or remote), without ANY additional charge—not even a mobile activation fee. More on that later in this update.

The “Remote playback with a Remote Watch Pass subscription” just sounds like IPTV with extra steps. I’m kind of ok with them requiring Plex Pass for remote streaming for the server owner, but then I have lifetime so it doesn’t affect me. Might feel differently I was having to pay.

So I've currently got a yearly Plex Pass, because I didn't want to get locked into Plex or feel any pressure to stay if they went down the dunny, but have been putting off migrating to JellyFin. For anybody who has, how did you find the process?

My media isn't named the most sensibly. I just keep whatever name it came with for the most part. I also liked how Plex just handled the authentication and remote streaming for me - at no stage did I have to open up a port on my router, setup a reverse proxy, etc. Can I migrate my watch history?

I'm fairly new to this. Any migration advice or thoughts would be appreciated!

E: only me, though I stream things externally while out of the house fairly regularly. I'm tech literate enough to follow a readme and read docs, but that's about it. I don't need to worry about other, less tech savvy, users streaming my library

From what the site says it's just putting more stuff behind a paywall due to rising costs. That paywall is a subscription or the lifetime pass from what I can tell.

Since I got the lifetime pass a while back and host my own server, my brother should still be able to watch stuff in my library from his house. I also travel a lot so I'm going to be pissed if that's not the case.

When I chose to use Plex initially it just fit better with what I needed. I can change to something else if I need to but it sounds like my lifetime pass means not much is going to change for me.

This is why we stremio

And so it begins ...

If you are worried about opening port 443 on your local firewall I suggest trying to get a cheap vps with decent bandwidth and hosting a reverse proxy on it that points back to your local jellyfin over a tunnel.

Ive been doing it for a few months now and finally got all my family off of Plex.

Does anyone have any helpful guides on setting up jellyfin with a certificate so they can privately host it while also keeping it secure and up to date? I think if using docker it would make sense to use compose and configure traeffic proxy and use let's encrypt for certificates.

Plex takes care of this for you with their cert and authentication systems. I feel like if user management and secure authentication is easy to set up then that is the primary reason to leave Plex. If I can just hand out accounts to anyone whom I would like to access my instance with ease then my family members could easily access it.

If one was to host from the home, using something like tailscale to host it online with forwarding a port would also be ideal.

Anyone have a good audiobook app to use with emby? I’ve completely switched all my video to emby but still have plex for plexamp with my audiobooks

I thought it was pretty commonplace for people to just set up a vpn on their router and act like they're on their own network. I guess I'm an idiot, but I'm actually surprised people were paying for this in the first place.