Submitted 11 months ago by scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech to selfhosted@lemmy.world
https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/pictrs/image/4e4e5a49-2af2-46fe-82cf-a0e15e3fb8f9.png
cross-posted from: poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639
I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That’s it folks. I’ve been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I’ll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I’ve been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it’s time to make it production ready.
“your friends”
dude my friends don’t charge me for shit
You posted almost verbatim what I was about to write. It’s a proper “don’t shit on my pie and tell me it’s a blueberry” moment. That’s not what friends are.
For real
How about I don’t pay the invoice, because we’re such good “friends”?
Seems like it was only a matter of time.
20% more will jump to Jellyfin. The other 80% will entrench and talk even more about how great Plex is. I mean Jesus, $250 to watch pirated movies. lol wtf
I dunno man, I don’t care much, when Plex gets shitty enough I’ll jump. But paying for the ongoing maintenance of software isn’t some evil thing, even if I self host it.
But paying for the ongoing maintenance of software isn’t some evil thing, even if I self host it.
But that’s not what you’re paying for. You’re paying for access to that software…
You’re not paying for software maintenance, you’re paying a subscription service to a private company that has already decided to cut back on features that others also thought they were paying to maintain.
If you want to actually pay for software maintenance, migrate to Jellyfin and pay them instead, rather than filtering your payments through middle managers and shareholders first.
It’s also fucking wild to me that people are defending a monetization model that is on self hosted hardware.
It’s wild to me that people who claim to be tech savvy don’t understand that Plex Server, the software, is what makes Plex what it is and as popular as it is. No other solution exists that is as easy as Plex and as secure as Plex. Jellyfin, Emby, Kodi, etc are nowhere near as simple to use and don’t have the breadth of app support that Plex does. Plex is basically on every device anyone owns. They sign in and they can stream from everyones libraries. No VPNs needed, no other hoops.
I paid like $100 for a lifetime Plex Pass like 10 years ago. The 2 dozen friends and family that share my server don’t pay a cent and this changes nothing.
No other solution exists that is as easy as Plex and as secure as Plex.
Entrenchment. This is a profoundly absurd statement.
I paid like $100 for a lifetime Plex Pass like 10 years ago.
You paid $100 to access software hosted on your own devices. That’s wonderful you think that’s a great idea. I’m sure the Plex devs love you and would kiss you right on the mouth.
They sign in and they can stream from everyones libraries. No VPNs needed, no other hoops.
Because you’re vendor locked in… lol.
This.
I just set up Plex for my mom on her bargain bin cheapo android TV. It had the plex app right there and it’ll play without transcoding.
Can’t do that with Jellyfin.
This place sucks at times as it becomes clear it’s just an echo chamber that we used to call the Donald for.
My users don’t like the UI of Jellyfin as it isn’t as polished as Plex. I do this for my users and although it costs me money, it does save them a whole lot more money and means they’re taken out of some capitalist systems which should be the goal no?
I also have the cost of a VPN too.
Yup, read through this thread and it becomes clearer and clearer. and trust me, I’ve been a long time hold out, I’ve been through this many times - but this is the first time I’ve seen functionality removed from Plex to be put behind a paywall. And doing a price hike at the same time. Absolutely shitty. I’ve already migrated off.
You have a plex pass though, so nothing changed for you - you just got all angry because you didn’t read the email properly.
Your users are going to be much worse off now than they were, and you will absolutely lose a bunch of them who don’t want to (or can’t) have to connect to a VPN every time they want to stream from your library.
Jellyfin. Tailscale. Bob’s your uncle.
My uncle isn’t named Bob
then uncle bob does not need a vpn to see you
Yeah and expose the unsecured Jellyfin Backend to the whole world. Nice
Bob your uncle will absolutely not use Tailscale to stream from Jellyfin, so Bob your uncle will no longer have access to OPs library.
If theres a demand, there is a way.
Every time one of these gets posted I say “wait what? That was free before??”
This is the kind of feature I think is reasonable to charge for. As were the others people were complaining about. Plex lifetime pass is a one time fee.
It seems like multiple things are being conflated here and I’m not sure what the reality is because I’ve never used Plex.
Some people claim this has something to do with Plex needing to pay for NAT traversal infrastructure. Okay, that seems sort of silly but at least there’s the excuse that their servers are involved in the streaming somehow.
But their wording is very broad, just calling it “remote streaming.” That led me to this article on the Plex support website, which walks people through setting up port forwarding in order to enable “remote streaming”! So that excuse doesn’t really seem to hold water. What exactly is being paid for here then? How do they define what “local streaming” is?
The only thing I can think of why they’re doing this is, to drown illegal servers and remove them easily (ones that you see on eBay).
Even if those people people for a Plex Pass, and they get caught… Plex wins; because they still have their money.
What exactly is being paid for here then?
Software support and the company existing, mainly, which I dunno about you but I’m ok with.
It seems deeply opposed to the spirit of selfhosting to have to pay for the privilege of accessing one’s own server. If the software itself cost money, that would be one thing, but this whole monetization scheme is skeevy.
Exactly my point. There’s some due hard people here saying that remote streaming is only possible because of plex’s servers, but that’s just not true. They act as fancy DNS or proxying, they lust point to your local server. That’s all. Regular DNS or even an IP and port are all it takes to get remote streaming up
it might not cost plex much but from the average joe’s point of view they might not want to mess around with this stuff, or might have never even heard of DNS or proxies in the first place so those types of people might be more inclined to pay for a feature that does all that for them. thats what plex could be hedging their bets on
There are two types connection in this scenario
I switched away from Plex last year because they wouldn’t let me connect with my box in Hetzner. I’m now using Emby, ironically I’m also paying for Emby’s monthly subscription. Not because I believe I need to, but because I want the developer to continue to work on it.
I have a lifetime Plex Pass, but I stopped using Plex a couple months ago after finally diving into Jellyfin. Even ignoring everything else, just the performance difference made the change worth it. Everything from UI responsiveness on smart TV apps to library scans on the server.
I’m in the same situation. I wouldn’t call Jellyfin bettrr, but I far prefer using something that’s not becoming progressively hostile to my use-case of self-hosted media.
Yep, that’s why I threw in “even if you ignore everything else.” The ads and the direction of the app/service/company made me glad to learn that Jellyfin Software felt so much more snappy.
The initial setup isn’t as snappy, assuming you want to use secured connections for remote users, but once it’s set up it is just as simple for friends and family to get connected. And being open source, there are some nice apps tailored to certain kinds of media like music and audio books.
Honestly same, except I’ve been using jelly fin for about a year. Even with me having a Plex pass, I’m not using it.
Welcome to jellyfin!
Friendship ended with plex, jellyfin is new best friend.
I’ll be honest, I thought Plex Pass was always a requirement for this 😅
Same. People want literally unlimited shit for free
I understand charging for the software but a subscription service for a self hosted program is fucking wild.
Why does everything has to be a subscription these days?
If they can’t do anything better than jellyfin which is fully free open source I don’t see why they should expect money. If Photoshop were paid for gimp they certainly wouldn’t deserve anything.
I think the bad feelings are by virtue of taking away something that WAS free. This is just basic human psych people are loss averse.
Only if you were remote streaming on Android or iOS or you’d need to pay a one-time fee to bypass the restriction.
jellyfin should make a plugin that changes their name to remote watch pass
It changes absolutely nothing, but it charges you $5 a month
That was announced 2 months ago?
I don’t have an email, and I didn’t get any notifications in my plex dashboard…
And? Does that make it alright? 😆
I never stated if it does or does not. But seems like a lot of people are surprised about this news.
No but the fact that software is reasonable to charge for does.
So as long as the server owner has Plex pass everyone’s still able to stream from the server?
Thing that has always been free for over a decade now suddenly costs a subscription even though there is no overhead to Plex
Yeah, don’t care, scummy thing.
Exactly. I have a lifetime pass and everything works for me and the people I share my library with.
For now. Their most recent round of venture capital was 40 million and that was like the 7th one. Those investors are gonna be demanding returns if they haven’t already and they will eventually push to monetize as much as possible
If plex works for you now then sure, don’t fix what isn’t broken. Jellyfin isn’t going anywhere and is just getting better, if anything holding off on migrating just increases the chances that migrating will be smoother. But guarantee you that in a certain amount of time plex will fuck over their customers
Well it doesn’t take effect till later in the month so it working now isn’t really pertinent.
Jellyfin ia great! But syncplay breaks if you snease.
Weird. Never had an issue with syncplay… What’s your setup look like?
Jellyfin on arch behind nginx. I connect with VPN, through NAT or on the local network. What else to say? I have noticed that syncplay is significantly more reliable through nginx. Not sure why that is. But it is still fragile. I’ve had this issue unresolved so long that I am just living with it. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, then i don’t use it.
Remember to take your Claritin before starting a sync play session
As long as the library owner has a Plex Pass nothing changes for ANYONE who is streaming from that Plex Server.
But it’s included in a plex pass. I know a lot of people were saying, a while back, they were happy to purchase a lifetime pass, so as to support the software. I didn’t actually realise you could share without the plex pass. I thought that was always a thing.
It was always a thing except with Android and iOS which had a separate one-time fee attached to enable remote playback.
YES JELLYFIN! Thank you Plex for enshitifying!
Quickly now, make jellyfin better!
And how are you doing remote streaming from friends with Jellyfin?
Reverse proxy + fail2ban
Give them the address of the server?
I was forcing VPN for a couple years but I’ve just recently started allowlisting client IPs instead. Not as good but definitely easier.
My mom streams mine across an ocean.
My whole family streams from my brother’s server hundreds of km away…
Lol “Your Friends at Plex”
get fucked, assholes, Jellyfin is better anyway
Exhibit #46,853 for why freeware will inevitably fall out from under your feet and why you should exclusively use FOSS wherever possible.
It was only a matter of time. Plex is a Series C startup, employs 100+ people, and has taken substantial VC investment. Those investors are expecting exponential returns, and a “one-time lifetime payment” will never sustain that sort of growth
the virgin Plex vs the chad Jellyfin
This email is talking to you as a user of other libraries not yours, not as a server owner.
“Alternatively, server owners can purchase a Plex Pass, which will grant you continued remote streaming of libraries that you have been given access to.”
Trying to monetize the piracy of your users. That’s a bold business strategy.
Look, I know a lot of people could be using the sharing feature to share material that is in the public domain or that they own the copyright to, but let’s be honest: most of that sharing would be considered an “unlicensed public performance” by the MAFIAA.
This will affect any server that does not already have a Plex Pass, or bought a Lifetime Plex Pass. If your server does not have one, your remote users will have to pay. The service Plex provides is still worth it though, it largely just works on dozens of platforms and that shit isn’t free to make.
Sharing a Jellyfin server with others remotely is still a lot more complicated than it needs to be to compete (no, it’s not as simple as opening a port, and if you think so then you’re either lucky or you aren’t sharing with lots of folks). I run both and I would never try to share Jellyfin with non-technical people. Honestly, I wish Jellyfin would start offering an optional paid relay service to fund their development. They could use the revenue to improve their approach ecosystem and still produce mostly open-source software. Homeassistant does this with Nabu Casa and it’s great!
That being said, the new Plex Android app kinda sucks ass. If there was anything that would make me switch it wouldn’t be having to pay for software, or services it’d be a garbage experience on my most common platform.
Enshittification engaged. /j
I got the same email.
I haven’t had plex installed for over 7 years, and I’ve NEVER used the shared libraries feature.
We noticed that you’ve accessed libraries from friends and family in the past
They’ve apparently noticed activity that’s never occurred.
This was announced several months ago
I’ve been a Plex pass holder since forever. And that even covers my brother accessing the server? He doesn’t even need one?
Seems fair to me for a platform I use daily for a decade.
I never got the idea of selfhosting but paying (except for enterprise-grade support or donations) anyway.
rumba@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Playon, Evernote, Lastpass, there have been plenty of examples.
Whenever a company starts charging for previously free features, it’s time to GTFO, even if you’re on their pay side.
I’ve got lifetime Plexpass, but I can read the writing on the wall. It’s only a matter of time before they enshittify my product or stop providing updates. They’ll sunset Plex and start Plex+ or some shit, give em a year or so.
Get your Jellyfin installed and working, they can work beside each other. Tailscale if it’s just you, reverse proxy if you have the fam on in.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 11 months ago
Oh god playon. They burned me hard, and were shocked when I turned them down for 3 free months of generous free subscription fees. Never even checked, did they crash and burn?
rumba@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
They are still going. I would have thought that there will download it for you and let you watch it as long as you can prove you have the login would have gotten them enough legal attention to shut them down. Apparently it’s either a gray area or they’re below the radar.
I think one or two of the smallest properties are still usable in the old desktop app, but nothing that isn’t already serviced by YTDLP.
MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 11 months ago
I would rather stop sharing completely before I make a Jellyfin accessible to the internet with the state their Backend is in. If you want people to be able to use it on TVs, Jellyfin is also not an option because most of them don’t support vpns
rumba@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
You could throw Authelia or HAProxy in front of it.
You could do a port knocking daemon.
Tailcale is available and free on half a dozen different video viewing devices.
There’s about a million ways to skin that.
Also, keep in mind, it was a Plex security vulnerability In a lastpass admins home box that caused their asses to get leaked.
None of this shit deserves to be openly hosted online
supernicepojo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You have valuable insight. I guess we all just look for better products and services. Ultimately it seems like the market will always extract and give nothing back.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 11 months ago
This mindset is bizarre.
“Everyone should get out now because at some stage in the future Plex might get greedy and ruin it all and charge us through the nose. Move to Jellyfin! They’ll definitely never ever do anything like Plex.”
I think you know where this is heading…
Wrrzag@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Everyone should get out now because Plex has started to ruin things and you should seek alternatives now, while you have time, and not wait until they finish shitting the bed.
And no, jellyfin won’t do anything like this because they don’t have control over how you use it and don’t force their cloud on you.
tabular@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Plex is in control of their user’s computing in a way Jellyfin isn’t. You can remove anti-features from Jellyfin software and even redistribute it. So it’s much less likely they would do something like Plex and it even doesn’t matter if they did as you can find others to work on it in a way you want. Plex is proprietary software, Jellyfin is software freedom.
jonathan@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
I don’t know why you’d equate might-enshittify to already-enshittifying. Especially when Jellyfin isn’t VC-funded, the leading indicator for enshittification.