How big is your Plex/Jellyfin Library?

[BaidDSB]

Trying to understand how big these things can get

[Eigenvektor]

There's no upper limit other than your available disk space and the amount of movies you're willing to encode/download

[BaidDSB]

22 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

There's no upper limit other than your available disk space and the amount of movies you're willing to encode/download

I know, but still trying to get a ball park

[FloRolf]

I only know plex and I don't really like it so I selected 'others' even though that's not correct

I am also currently working on my library as I am ripping them 4k disks so size increases dramatically

 

[BaidDSB]

1 minute ago, FloRolf said:

I only know plex and I don't really like it so I selected 'others' even though that's not correct

I am also currently working on my library as I am ripping them 4k disks so size increases dramatically

 

Didn't try jellyfin?

[RJM_50]

Capacity doesn't matter if you get a NAS that allows you to expand the RAID like Synology SHR.  I believe QNAP has similar RAID options, XPEnology is a DIY NAS with a pirate Synology DSM OS.  I replaced all 4x of my 6TB HDD with 8TB drives last year no problems.  Maybe Black Friday 2023 I'll find a good deal on 14TB or larger and get a huge increase in capacity.

 

I purchase all my stuff on Black Friday, then sell my prior stuff before the holidays on eBay.  I usually get 65% what I paid back, Synology NAS have good resale value.

[undergroundbeef]

I've been using Plex for 15 years. I have been hearing a lot of Jellyfin talk lately and have debated trying it out, but I have a sinking feeling that the people who talk it up are looking at it through rose colored glasses, because they like the idea that it's opensource. I like that idea too, and don't like that Plex seems to be shifting it's focus over to trying to be a internet streaming company, but so far Plex still does pretty much everything I want.

[Godlygamer23]

4 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

There's no upper limit other than your available disk space and the amount of movies you're willing to encode/download

Depends on what your library consists of. I have more than just movies in my library.

[divito]

My Plex library consists of movies, TV series, comedy specials, audio books, music, sports events, and anime. It's a smidge under 10TB currently, but I voted as 10TB+ because I still have more to add (and improve the quality of some) and that doesn't include if I were to add my photo library.

Being older, my initial media library was with Windows Media Center. Was sad when it stopped being a thing, moved to XBMC, which eventually became Kodi.

Used Kodi for a good while. Had heard about Plex and Emby, gave Emby a try, but wasn't really a fan. Tried Plex around 2015, and enjoyed it more. Used the free version until about 2017, before getting Plex Pass. It was cancelled at some point and was back on the free version for the next while.

Jellyfin was getting talked about more, tried it, but it wasn't compelling enough to switch. Then purchased lifetime Plex Pass in 2021.

[BaidDSB]

2 hours ago, divito said:

...

 

4 hours ago, undergroundbeef said:

....

I wonder what Jellyfin is lacking in against Plex, considering the backlash Linus got for the Plex video he made last year where people suggested Jellyfin a lot

[divito]

11 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

I wonder what Jellyfin is lacking in against Plex, considering the backlash Linus got for the Plex video he made last year where people suggested Jellyfin a lot

When I tried it, one of the main sticking points for me was the lack of apps/client support. I can use Plex on my Samsung TV, PS4, PC, Android phone, Android TV, FireTV - they also didn't have a Roku app, among others. It appears that Jellyfin has added more since then, but there still doesn't seem to be a Samsung app or PS4 app or Xbox (without unofficial and tedious methods). 

The other issue is that Plex's remote setup is simple. For whatever reason, Jellyfin had issues working remotely for me and I don't really have any other issues accessing my server for other tasks. And outside of Android TV/PS4 (one of which still has no app), mobile is one of my primary use cases so that was a problem. The Android app has also had growing pains as far as I'm aware.

A bit more minor of an issue, the interface for Jellyfin is far less polished or intuitive compared to Plex. You are free to customize with CSS which is a nice option, but from my experience, documentation is really lacking, and I've seen posts about updates breaking things. It's a fairly hard sell if one puts hours into polishing their Jellyfin look for a random update to break it. Plex feels far more like a media consumption destination than Jellyfin does, in my opinion.

And while I didn't fully move all my media for my Jellyfin test, another issue I've also seen reports of, is the metadata matching being far more hit or miss than with Plex. While I've certainly had to tweak some things for Plex, the size of my libraries (at 10TB+ with like ~60,000 files) makes switching a not insignificant task, especially if I have to comb over things more carefully than I had to with Plex to make sure everything is okay. 


I will say that Jellyfin is certainly an awesome and capable option and bonus that it's free, especially if you have the time to tinker. I still enjoy tinkering, but between work and my daughters and my other hobbies, it doesn't afford me as much time as when I was younger. And sometimes I just want to sit and watch something or put something on for my kids without having to troubleshoot or tweak.

I'm also personally wary of being attached to open source projects; I've been around a long time and having something forked or deprecated is always a depressing hassle, especially when you love the software. Sure, Plex can become unprofitable and disappear too, but it's not exactly the same as an open source project.

 

And this is where Plex also has an advantage; yes, there is more commercial emphasis with Plex, and feature rollout is slower, and/or weighted against profitability, but Plex is coming up on 15 years. Given how many media center-type apps I've gone through in the 20 years since Windows Media Center came out, Plex has been around for 75% of that time and boasts 16 million active users of the 30 million registered users they have.

[Helly]

Been saving tv-shows and movies for over 10 years now. Tried most media center programs when i started, none did what i wanted and they never found the correct data for some of the shows. I gave up and build my own media center program. More of a hub really, it opens the files with media player classic. There's an old topic for it one the forum somewhere.

 

This will only change when i get a new TV. My current one does not have dolby vision. PC's currently cannot output dolby vision. So as soon as i get a new TV i will have to use something else. My plan is to go to plex at that point. Although i have read posts saying dolby vision output on pc is close. So i might stick with my own program if its possible by then.

 

My library atm is around 40TB. It keeps growing of course. i have a total of over 100TB of space atm.

[tikker]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:16 AM, BaidDSB said:

 

I wonder what Jellyfin is lacking in against Plex, considering the backlash Linus got for the Plex video he made last year where people suggested Jellyfin a lot

User experience and being a hassle to setup were the biggest drawback fo Jellyfin for me when I tried it. Emby is okay and at times played things that Plex refused to play, but the UI was still a comparatively poor experience for me. Plex has its flaws as well, but it has been the easiest to set up for me and I like the UI the best as well. Function is important, but at some point form starts to matter as well.