I took a dive into linux and jellyfin and im too stupid for it.
Comment on Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April
Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 month ago
Why do people use this when Jellyfin exists?
Squizzy@lemmy.world 1 month ago
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Because of the Wife Factor. Getting people to convert requires getting past a lot of social inertia. It requires you to first convince them that the convenience of streaming services isn’t actually worth paying for. Then it requires an elegant onboarding experience. Lastly, Plex simply makes remote access easy. Sure, you could fiddle with reverse proxies for Jellyfin. But that’s easy to mess up. Instead, it’s much smoother to simply sign into Plex.
I can talk my tech-illiterate “My google chrome desktop icon got moved, and now I don’t know how to check my email” mother-in-law through Plex’s sign-up process over the phone. In fact, I did. It’s familiar enough that anyone who has signed up for a streaming service can figure it out. I can’t do that with Jellyfin, because their eyes glaze over as soon as you start talking about custom server URLs or IP addresses. Hell, my MIL’s TV doesn’t even have a native Jellyfin app available on the App Store. If I wanted to install it for her, I would need to sideload it.
Jellyfin does a lot of things right. But by design, the setup process will never be as elegant as Plex’s, because that elegant system requires a centralized server to actually handle it. And centralized servers are exactly what Jellyfin was built to rebel against.
To be clear, I run both concurrently; Jellyfin for myself, and Plex for friends/family. I got the lifetime Plex Pass license a decade ago, and it has more than paid for itself since then. But it sounds like a bunch of my friends and family may end up switching to Jellyfin if they don’t want to deal with the PlexPass subscription.
Polderviking@feddit.nl 1 month ago
Setting jellyfin up is for the technically inclined, i’ll agree there, but once deployed I don’t really see where Plex fundamentally excels over Jellyfin? You open the app, app shows library, you click on desired media item, desired media item plays. What am i missing?
captainjaneway@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The app isn’t available on as many platforms. The original comment claimed the TV their MIL uses doesn’t have a Jellyfin app and would require side loading. I would argue that’s a pretty big barrier for most people.
Polderviking@feddit.nl 1 month ago
So far I’ve had no problems using jellyfin on basicly anything that exists in my house which includes a Apple TV, Xbox SX and a Xiaomi TV Box S.
But I can see there’s probably no Tizen app for things like Samsung TV’s.
JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
It’s the setup which doesn’t pass the “wife” test. The more setup friction, the lower the likelihood that average users will bother. It requires a very easy setup experience to retain the average user. Even us technical people have limited time in the day. If I get a similar experience out of both Plex and Jellyfin, I’m going with the software which is easier to set up. Most of us are at that point in our lives where we’ll pay for convenience.
Polderviking@feddit.nl 1 month ago
Lyricism6055@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Some movies just refused to play for me. Subtitles for certain releases just straight up wouldn’t load on my lg TV, and then instead of nice picture subtitles I got shitty looking ones.
Idk… I ran it in docker and just assumed it’d all work but it doesn’t.
Also, I really like that plex stores you’re watched state on their server. I lost a jellyfin db once and had to remember what shows I was watching. There’s not a good sync to cloud or something feature for that… Yet another container and solution I have to stand up aside from my media
Picasso@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I think its a great idea to run the two concurrently. I didn’t see the point but given how plex is evolving i think its time to start getting familiar with jellyfin.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 1 month ago
100% agree with the reverse proxy set up, it’s not hard but it is intimidating at first and just fyi, reverse proxy set up is a ton easier if you’re using swag with the drag, drop, run for of apps including SSL certificate renewal.
www.linuxserver.io/…/2020-08-21-introducing-swag