The open source alternative to my sponsor

[TannerMcCoolman]

When we shout about home AV servers, it's like we're shouting into a canyon. We scream "PLEX!" and an echo rings out "JELLYFIN! JeLlYfIn! JellYFiN! jellyfin! ʲᵉˡˡʸᶠᶦⁿ...." So we listened to the void we screamed into, and decided to give Jellyfin a shot. Does it succeed where Plex fails? What are its shortcomings? Is Jellyfin the chosen one where Plex was unsuccessful?

[Takumidesh]

Haven't watched it yet, but the biggest thing for me is the UI and ease of use for other people with plex.

 

For the most part, on a good client, plex "just works" for family and household members.

 

That being said, I just don't get some of the decisions the plex team makes. Why are mobile downloads such dog water? syncing between clients can be a pain, and why do I need 3rd party tools for advanced logging (tatutulli)?

[Bad5ector]

1 minute ago, Takumidesh said:

That being said, I just don't get some of the decisions the plex team makes. Why are mobile downloads such dog water? syncing between clients can be a pain, and why do I need 3rd party tools for advanced logging (tatutulli)?

RIght?

[GuiltySpark_]

I have not watched this yet but I was a long time Plex user back when I shared media with family. Now that I don't and I don't want to pay for GPU transcoding, Jellyfin has been great. 

 

Definitely less normal person friendly but I'll take it if I get free GPU transcoding. 

[GodAtum]

Is it worth switching? I've been a long time subscriber of Plex (its basically free as it comes with a Tidal subscription) and have never had any issues. The only thing I hate is offline downloading is so buggy but I only do that once a year when I go on holiday.

 

I use Saltbox to deploy everything so might have to wait for them to give it as an option

[Takumidesh]

Just now, GuiltySpark_ said:

I have not watched this yet but I was a long time Plex user back when I shared media with family. Now that I don't and I don't want to pay for GPU transcoding, Jellyfin has been great. 

 

Definitely less normal person friendly but I'll take it if I get free GPU transcoding. 

TBH, I have a bit of sunk cost feelings with plex too. I know its not the right way to look at it, but lifetime pass + all of the tweaks and library tuning + time I have spent teaching others how to use, makes it hard for me to abandon it. I bet it is the same for a lot of people.

[ToboRobot]

32 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

Haven't watched it yet

Thanks for the valuable comment.

[Bad5ector]

25 minutes ago, GodAtum said:

its basically free as it comes with a Tidal subscription

oh rly? Is this a region thing, or can I get that deal here in Canada land? I'm a Tidal subscriber and pay for Plex.

[Takumidesh]

1 minute ago, ToboRobot said:

Thanks for the valuable comment.

I aim to please

[ToboRobot]

I recently got Jellyfin setup for family, and after it was installed and they were thinking about how wild it was to have their "own netflix service at home" I was asked how this can exist for free, and I explained the beauty of Open Source Software (and it's pitfalls).

It's pretty awesome that Jellyfin exists, and works as well as it does!

Jellyfin on Linux is much easier to update and works well on old gaming boxes.

[Pickymarker]

a really good media server is a fully fledged Kodi install with all the plugins so you can watch stream local content perfectly from a file server and the thing is all you need to do is setup up kodi fully then add the repo url to each kodi install then run the installer for the repo and then just point to the drive server folder then the kodi can connect to any folder you set it to use even folder on different networks if setup correctly and not online content because if you set up Kodi correctly it's the best way to have local content streamed to multiple devices and you can change so much with kodi so the ui can look different and you can even make it have the same kodi setup on multiple devices and also if you wanted to you can use it with jellyfin and also using Kodi is better because better picture quality and more formats supported and even if a format is not supported you can use an external video player and also the best external video player for windows is K-Lite Codec Pack and also you can tie in other services like add your Netflix account to it and others so you can have everything in one app with whatever ui you want if you want a Netflix ui then go for Aura Mod and if you want the best looking ui go for artic horizons 2 and if you know what you're doing you can make it the best media app you use and the server pc does not even need kodi install only the devices watching the content

[Takumidesh]

1 minute ago, ToboRobot said:

I recently got Jellyfin setup for family, and after it was installed and they were thinking about how wild it was to have their "own netflix service at home" I was asked how this can exist for free, and I explained the beauty of Open Source Software (and it's pitfalls).

It's pretty awesome that Jellyfin exists, and works as well as it does!

Jellyfin on Linux is much easier to update and works well on old gaming boxes.

the beauty of FOSS and my cpu cycles.

 

I explained it to my friend similarly, adding in that it isn't free, you just aren't paying for it.

 

1 minute ago, Pickymarker said:

a really good media server is a fully fledged Kodi install with all the plugins so you can watch stream local content perfectly from a file server and the thing is all you need to do is setup up kodi fully then add the repo url to each kodi install then run the installer for the repo and then just point to the drive server folder then the kodi can connect to any folder you set it to use even folder on different networks if setup correctly and not online content because if you set up Kodi correctly it's the best way to have local content streamed to multiple devices and you can change so much with kodi so the ui can look different and you can even make it have the same kodi setup on multiple devices and also if you wanted to you can use it with jellyfin and also using Kodi is better because better picture quality and more formats supported and even if a format is not supported you can use an external video player and also the best external video player for windows is K-Lite Codec Pack and also you can tie in other services like add your Netflix account to it and others so you can have everything in one app with whatever ui you want if you want a Netflix ui then go for Aura Mod and if you want the best looking ui go for artic horizons 2 and if you know what you're doing you can make it the best media app you use and the server pc does not even need kodi install only the devices watching the content

Hi, Welcome to the forums. It is really hard to read your comment.

[DarkSwordsman]

While I haven't used my Jellyfin in a while simply because I haven't really had time or care to watch media, I still am glad I went for it. I think for many people, it will be a long term investment as it will likely only get better, since its development is driven by need and desires rather than income and profits.

 

More native apps with cleaner functionality will be nice, and I think it will only get better as more people use the apps, provide feedback, and perhaps even attract more open-source contributors. It is frustrating that some features are broken or missing, but it is even more frustrating that Plex takes money for their app and they can't fix basic, required features. This reason alone (above all the others) is why I will never use Plex. It's also nice for Jellyfin that I can just download a version and keep it forever, and I can update at my own will, rather than having forced updates.

The only real issue that I have with Jellyfin is managing the actual media, which does come down to how it's "Seasons" and "Specials" work. There's no way to just manually define your own seasons or categories of stuff. Linus did mention about picking up shows and movies with metadata. One software people use is ***arr, which is more of an auto-grabber than a media management solution. I had tried using it to manage my software, but I guess their feature to add and sort media was only intended for stray media that may have been missed or imported incorrectly. It is not a real solution to bulk importing and file management, and when prompted about these issues, they refused to even consider adding functionality for this. They are hardcore Linux elitists that only have UseNet.

I have been working on a metadata and file management solution, that would ideally allow you to actually auto-import, find, and manage the media by utilizing TMBD's unlimited and free API. And key word on "management", where ideally you just make hardlink copies and can reorganize the links as you please. It should be able to manage its own state and be a smooth user experience.

I still would love to make it since it would be a fun project that would actually solve a real problem that many people I know have. It also would exist in such a way that, ideally, you can sit on one version and never need it to auto-update (besides API changes), since it is just a file management software after all. My only problem is that it will still be a lot of development time and I don't even use my media server right now, so it makes little sense to use it. Also that I haven't actually tested or tried to get media-sync working on Jellyfin, which would be a major reason that I would use the software.

Either way, excited to see Jellyfin's future, and frankly I could care less if Plex fails. They get paid money and in many ways are worse than FOSS. I couldn't live with myself if I accepted money for something and then neglected to fix problems.

[Veeh]

The past few year I have been running first Emby in docker and Now Jellyfin. I switched a few month back.
I remember having a realy hard time making Plex work lol. I was just looking for a simple docker solution to steam my nas media.
And Plex was not doing it. It was the biggest solution out there. Everyone was talking about it, I tried but I don't remember if I preferred Emby for the simplicity to set up or all the account and subscription needed with Plex.
Anyway, Jellyfin is running super fine. It feel smoother that Emby. A lot of JellyFin seetings looks the same as Emby, so the move was not hard at all!
And the cherry on top, it's running great with podman.
A very good open source project
I would not go back to emby. Honestlly there are the same app.

[Retro_R]

I have recently gotten into jellyfin, it's really good compared to plex, although theres not as much avalibility (i just got the app for my LG TV) but it's great! I'm kinda a noob to stuff like this w like networking but it's easy, i wish i could know how to view it from anywhere in case i leave but i wanna watch sum from my pc, but i haven't figured it out yet. Also, theres no last.fm thing. I tried a plugin but it didn't seem to work and i didn't know how to set it up, especially without any yt vids or what not, plus iirc it wasn't updated in a while so it may not have worked at all. Also sometimes subtitles dont go up. It's kinda fucky but it works mostly

 

I switched when i realized my plex music library was all out of wack. It didn't like how i organized my music so it put it in all over the place. Even after telling it to prefer local metadata for music. jellyfin still has issues with it but it is a lot better than plex.

[DarkSwordsman]

43 minutes ago, Pickymarker said:

a really good media server is a fully fledged Kodi install with all the plugins so you can watch stream local content perfectly from a file server and the thing is all you need to do is setup up kodi fully then add the repo url to each kodi install then run the installer for the repo and then just point to the drive server folder then the kodi can connect to any folder you set it to use even folder on different networks if setup correctly and not online content because if you set up Kodi correctly it's the best way to have local content streamed to multiple devices and you can change so much with kodi so the ui can look different and you can even make it have the same kodi setup on multiple devices and also if you wanted to you can use it with jellyfin and also using Kodi is better because better picture quality and more formats supported and even if a format is not supported you can use an external video player and also the best external video player for windows is K-Lite Codec Pack and also you can tie in other services like add your Netflix account to it and others so you can have everything in one app with whatever ui you want if you want a Netflix ui then go for Aura Mod and if you want the best looking ui go for artic horizons 2 and if you know what you're doing you can make it the best media app you use and the server pc does not even need kodi install only the devices watching the content

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation

[Xenosnoop]

Good video but why are you missing Emby out of the picture. will do what you want and more. Also runs on TrueNAS

 

Runs in docker and the like and has a cleaner look on TV, Xbox and mobile.

 

https://emby.media/

[rlaphoenix]

Please give more light to Emby. What you have just promoted on your channel is effectively a pirated version of Emby.

 

Jellyfin started out as a fork of Emby's code with the license checks disabled. Emby did not like that for obvious reasons and it got so bad in terms of the spotlight on using Jellyfin over Emby in media that Emby stopped being open source. However, Emby is still being actively developed and funded by genuine people paying for the Emby Premiere pass, just like you would for Plex.

 

Jellyfin got so popular compared to Emby in terms of communities as it is well, piracy! It got it's start as a "crack" for Emby and will never be considered anything more in my eyes.

 

The source code Jellyfin is on was a bit before Emby stopped releasing public commits. It's been YEARS since then. Stuff has improved at a much more rapid pace than Jellyfin could ever hope for, as they never had the drive or prowess to make the server in the first place.

 

Every time Jellyfin is brought up and Emby is discarded as an option hurts me to my soul. It's a disgrace honestly.

 

Emby has had such shifting changes since their public commits including a completely revamped transcoding system and hardware transcoding system, dashboard monitoring system, fully integrated Skip Intro (no plugins), and much much more. I've personally tested both servers before and Emby puts pitty on both Plex and Jellyfin in terms of stream smoothness and start time, especially when the file size is bigger. Emby starts videos faster, is more smooth with streaming (random buffering never happens) and overall feels like smoother churned butter.

 

 

[Takumidesh]

3 minutes ago, rlaphoenix said:

Please give more light to Emby. What you have just promoted on your channel is effectively a pirated version of Emby.

 

Jellyfin started out as a fork of Emby's code with the license checks disabled. Emby did not like that for obvious reasons and it got so bad in terms of the spotlight on using Jellyfin over Emby in media that Emby stopped being open source. Jellyfin is a lot popular on Reddit as it's, well, still pirating.

 

The source code Jellyfin is on was a bit before Emby stopped releasing public commits. It's been YEARS since then. Stuff has improved at a much more rapid pace than Jellyfin could ever hope for, as they never had the drive or prowess to make the server in the first place.

 

Every time Jellyfin is brought up and Emby is discarded as an option hurts me to my soul. It's a disgrace honestly.

 

Emby has had such shifting changes since their public commits including a completely revamped transcoding system and hardware transcoding system, dashboard monitoring system, fully integrated Skip Intro (no plugins), and much much more. I've personally tested both servers before and Emby puts pitty on both Plex and Jellyfin in terms of stream smoothness and start time, especially when the file size is bigger. Emby starts videos faster, is more smooth with streaming (random buffering never happens) and overall feels like smoother churned butter.

 

 

Is this true? I was under the impression that they forked the open source Emby because it was going closed source.

 

EDIT: Article on jellyfin forking from emby, after Emby announces it is going closed source.

Emby was licensed under GPL, (which means you can fork it) and then decided to go closed source.

[gav1471]

emby is good works on everything, downloading media works at any res, works worldwide dm me if you want a login to demo

[rlaphoenix]

1 minute ago, Takumidesh said:

Is this true? I was under the impression that they forked the open source Emby because it was going closed source.

Yes! And it's a shame every youtuber acts like it's not. Here's an official statement by Emby aluding to piracy as the reason:https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/64825-with-3530-emby-is-no-longer-open-source/&do=findComment&comment=643574

[rlaphoenix]

Genuinely, after that video about the Wireless GPU having a ton of background educational flaws, and this one being primed in piracy is a shame! Emby is monumentally better!

[Takumidesh]

4 minutes ago, rlaphoenix said:

Yes! And it's a shame every youtuber acts like it's not. Here's an official statement by Emby aluding to piracy as the reason:https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/64825-with-3530-emby-is-no-longer-open-source/&do=findComment&comment=643574

is this:

Quote

However the installed version built by Emby is closed source because it contains additional modules that we're not able to open source for various reasons. Some features have come at a great cost to build, whether that be our own development hours, or developers that we have added to our team. Other features are actively costing us money, and other features we've signed NDA's for in order to utilize private api's. Hopefully you will understand and appreciate the hard work that we've put into this. Thanks.

The post you are referencing? I don't see where they are alluding to the idea of someone forking their open source code as piracy? to me that reads that they decided to go closed source in order to charge more to support for their growing operational costs

 

EDIT: To add, by making their software open source and licensed under GPLv2 they explicitly allow forking, copying, and modification of their software.

Quote

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.

 

[rlaphoenix]

2 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

is this:

The post you are referencing? I don't see where they are alluding to the idea of someone forking their open source code as piracy? to me that reads that they decided to go closed source in order to charge more to support for their growing operational costs

If the timing of them closing source as Jellyfin popularises, them needed development fund, and them deciding to change a core part of the product to closed source for the hell of it as a coincidence, so be it.

[Takumidesh]

3 minutes ago, rlaphoenix said:

If the timing of them closing source as Jellyfin popularises, them needed development fund, and them deciding to change a core part of the product to closed source for the hell of it as a coincidence, so be it.

none of this is unethical or piracy in any way.

 

They made open source software, other people forked it.

 

from the GPL license preamble:

Quote

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

edit: jellyfin ofcourse, is also GPL licensed, due to the copyleft nature of the license.