Submitted 9 months ago by Sunny@slrpnk.net to selfhosted@lemmy.world
For Plex accounts created before March 20, 2025, we require your consent to sell your personal data as described in our Privacy Policy. You can always adjust your share/sell preferences <here>.
best bet for your home theater PC is STILL old computer parts with high capacity storage
Damn. They’re really ripping the copper wiring out of the walls.
And then finding out it’s all fiber optics and everyone migrated to Jellyfin. :/
And you can say no. Where’s the problem?
Also “personal data” is a bit of a stretch.
One of the security upsides to plex is that any number of people can log in with the same credential.
That means that while Plex can harvest information- what account, what’s being watched, IP address, device and player identifier- It doesn’t know who to attach that information to. So you can get dozens or maybe hundreds of users polluting the same account with watch information. Less useful information to be sure.
I’ve had a lifetime plex pass for several years. Once I tried Jellyfin a few months ago it was all over. My “I’ll run both just in case” period lasted a week or two.
The downside is that Jellyfin will take more setup on your end, especially if you want to let other people connect securely to your server.
The upside is performance and responsiveness. Once I started using it I decided Plex had to go, even if I have to drive to each family member’s house to fix their shit. It was like moving between Linux and Windows, as far as one being designed to work and the other being designed to satisfy dozens of corporate KPIs.
Fortunately the setup for the end user is just as simple once your server is good to go. They just need URL, login, and password.
And since it’s all open source, there’s some fun diversity in clients. I use Finamp specifically for music, and there are audiobook focused ones.
I don’t even use remote sharing local access only.
What I cannot do without is, resume and watch history.
Skip intro.
Category management of the library.
Does jellyfin support these 3 items?
My suggestion: Get Symphonium in addition/to replace Finamp.
Much more advanced in what it can do.
Only downsode: You can’t exclude libraries. If you have a soundtrack-like library separate from the regular music library, it can’t be separated.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will try it!
Is it good with gapless playback? It isn’t as crucial for me as for some people who listen to live recordings etc, but it’s always nice to have and is a good sign for the quality of the player.
Also a lifetime Plex holder. Plex wouldn’t let me watch my local content without authenticating the other day… But my internet went out and I couldn’t. Decided I’d swap to Jellyfin the first chance I could (couldn’t that day because no internet)… So that’s what I did today. It was painless and I’m never going back to Plex.
Disclaimer, I don’t need access outside of my house so I didn’t set any of the remote stuff up.
Yeah, if you’re 100% local, that’s basically the ideal use case for Jellyfin. Plex really shines when it comes to remote access. But if you never use that, then there’s very little reason to use it over Jellyfin.
There are a lot of people here who simply cannot be bothered to figure out remote access
A weird one i saw today was actually “jellyfin took too many resources scanning my library” and ‘if it doesn’t have an SSO my family won’t use it’
I think a lot of people just enjoy plex better and will accept any minor inconvenience as justification. That’s fine though. I’ll swear up and down that apple products are not worth the convenience, either, but there will always be people who simply like them more than others, and thats fine
There are a lot of people here who simply cannot be bothered to figure out remote access
I think being apprehensive is natural when you’re entirely left on your own for security, knowing that you could leave yourself vulnerable if you do it incorrectly. Add to this the fact that half the info you’ll find on the process is people claiming you just need to open some ports, which you know to be wrong, and it’s easy to see why it’s hard to trust any advice you find.
“jellyfin took too many resources scanning my library”
That’s a strange one to me. In my experience Jellyfin scans my libraries in about 1/10 the time Plex used to take on the same machine.
I find it how many useres here almost scream “The year of linux” every day for every little grain of news Windows comes up.
And yet they do literally the same with Plex.
Plexamp is what keeps me in the Plex ecosystem. I really like the “Mixes for you” and generating mixes based on listening habits. Have you found anything on jellyfin to do that for music?
Not listening habits. But symphonium can do genre and general mix.
And honestly it keeps you fron hearing all the same stuff in every mix like Spotify (and seemingly Plexamp) does
Thanks for the headsup. This is the final push I needed. Been running Jellyfin for 6months or so but need to put more time into it. Plex has been great, and I’ve also been paying (though felt a little conflicted) a sub which I’m willing to do if it keeps a worthwhile project on an honest trajectory aligning with my needs and restrictions, for a good service or product. However they’re now doing exactly why I started on the self hosting path. Who’s to say the third party is jot going to be a heavy handed industry body, corrupt authority , let alone the problematic world of adsales? They’re walking a very strange line and seem very confused about their purpose. Other than the all ruining ‘growth’. Seeya plex.
I would simply click I Do Not Agree and then throw the computer in the trash
I just got no, and everything still works fine afaik
Perhaps. The issue I perceive is that, for corporations, evil deeds are only illegal if you get caught and the government actually pursues you. Then, the most the corpos face is a fine, and remember: if the penalty for doing something illegal is a flat fine, then it isn’t a punishment, it’s a price.
Thus, this corporation has indicated its clear intent to sell me to the highest bidder. I would not give them a chance to do so. A “do not agree” button is just that: a “do not agree button”.
On no, an opt out, such a tragedy.
Seeing the replies in this thread it kinda makes me wonder what Plex actually has to do for these zealots to quit using their platform.
Like do they literally have to steal naked pictures of you and pass them around the office? Like wtf.
FWIW apparently this is talking about their free content, not about user content.
Tbh, the way people push Jellyfin every single time Plex is mentioned is so extremely annoying that I’m now even less inclined to use it, especially the way the JF zelots completely ignored the legit reason that most people use it.
Not sure if you understand this or not, but you using, or not using jellyfin doesn’t affect anyone but you. 🤷♂️
If you don’t wanna use it, then don’t use it. You’re still wrong, but that’s up to you lil buddy.
My guess when the MPA buys plex data and they have what movies everyone has on their servers.
You can literally click “I do not agree” lol. Also the “personal data” is a hashed email (so they don’t get your email), ip address, and watch history. Not very “personal”, and not anything that violates your privacy or is of any concern to you.
I have no skin in this game, but IPs are definitely not anonymous data. Also there is a lot of great info out there about de-anonymizing seemingly random data. Interestingly enough, this is essentially the Netflix prize dataset that was one of the more famous ones.
Idunno why you don’t think having an unique hash attatched to your data is no biggie. Especially if that hash is easily cracked in a few years by quantum computers.
If you connect to the internet from 2 or 3 different locations, the hashed email will be the same, so they just need to compare the locations to those from another service like Instagram and they know who you are and what you’re streaming.
Need a jellyfin PS5 app
And a Samsung TV app. There’s an entire branch of Samsung TVs that require side loading to get a Jellyfin app installed.
I’m slowly building up Jellyfin to replace it.
I think people feel loyalty to Plex and I understand why. I even understand why they’re charging for self-hosting considering their costs of delivering the dynamic DNS, software development, content info, etc. But being closed source, VC funded, and with their core product an increasingly small part of their business, it’s all a powerful recipe for enshittification. Tech Altar has talked before about how enthusiast brands often betray their users
It was easy considering I was already using custom domain for Plex.
I got concerned when people started buying Plex hats. And being excited about that purchase.
I noticed that Logo on Hats people are willing to pay for is often a bit concerning.
Jellyfin was not a trivial set up for remote access
So, forwarding a port on your router was a difficult process?
Nginx/caddy, dynamic DNS, buying a domain, setting it up with cloudflare is well outside the capabilities of most people. Took me a few hours to figure out
I set up tailscale for remote access and it was pretty easy and painless. Maybe not as “average user” simple as plex, but no harder than setting up lan games to play across the internet that non techy people were doing in my high school 20 years ago.
Yeah with VPN it’s more straightforward. I wanted it accessible without which was more involved. Honestly the average user doesn’t even know what tailscale or wireguard are, so you are already advanced using those
Just downloaded Jellyfin! Been a Plex user for years. Noticed they’ve stated to add a lot of crap to the Plex interface. I just want to stream my media library. I’m a little disappointed that Jellyfin doesn’t have a native Apple TV app, but SenPlayer looks really nice and their price model is a one time fee. So no subscriptions!
There is an Apple TV native app, I didn’t migrate from plex until there was and I migrated over 18 months ago. It’s called Swiftfin.
Swiftfin is basically a pre-beta release: it’s barely usable and doesnt’ support HDR or DolbyVision. The lack of an AppleTV app isthe only thing that is stopping me switchwing from Plex. I tried infuse and worked perfectly, but sadly it doens’t support multi-profiles (on Plex i have a separate profile with kid’s movies)
Ohhh I did see that but the name threw me. Didn’t realize that’s the official app
Infuse is also very good !
I use infuse for the Apple TV. You can add the jellyfin source and I believe it syncs watch progress. It can’t do prerolls, but it have intro and credits skipping.
I looked at Infuse, but as soon as I saw it was a subscription I decided no. They have a lifetime option but I don’t trust those anymore. If it’s good software with a one time fee of $40 or less, I’m there, but anything $10/month or $100 lifetime is a dealbreaker for me.
Apple TV seems like grabbing a jackhammer to drive a nail.
I can’t imagine what an Apple TV can do that a $30 Android box can’t.
I can imagine lots of things the Apple TV can’t do that the $30 Android box can.
Frogs do enjoy a good sauna. 😊
If that’s your line, then more power to you. I’m happy to live in a world where people make choices I don’t agree with - but I will always respect those who make an informed choice over people who let fate or advertising make their choices for them.
However, I also wouldn’t blame others for looking for an exit. Or testing other waters. Or at least thinking the grass might be greener elsewhere.
If you do continue to use Plex, consider taking a weekend for a hobbyist project such as a VPN server (OpenVPN or Wireguard are classics and broadly indistinguishable from work traffic) or a reverse proxy web server (nginx proxy manager is a good place to start). Not only are these useful and fun‡, but they defang one of Plex’s most marketable features - the automatic NAT traversal.
‡I put 3 VPNs on all my phones - a split tunnel to home; a full tunnel to home; and a commercial VPN with international egress points. The split tunnel lets my phone access my home services from any network it’s connected to (without impeding traffic destined elsewhere; the other ones are for coffee shop use). I can also give out access to the split tunnel to trusted friends to access my guest network. Also have a site-to site with a friend for off-site backup (with an encrypted tarball of my configs); for the reverse proxy, I enjoy stapling it to my routers public 80&443 and using DDNS to point vanity.example and *.vanity.example (cloudflare tunnel & pangolin exist, too). Inside my home I have *.internal.vanity.example and *.home.vanity.example for the management webUIs and intranet versions of services so that they can be accessed via https with a secure lock.
Having your own tools to build your own cloud - on a raspberry pi, or an old spare laptop or retired desktop, or a second-hand mini PC is worth the hassle, particularly if you are using Plex baked into an Nvidia shield or other proprietary product, can offer options - and it never hurts to have options.
… But at this point I’m well and good into preaching to the choir.
Tl;dr: No hate to Plex users, but maybe have a plan. 😅
I would probably still want to use Plex due to its superior interface, despite this shit they are pulling. But Plex on my TV is so UNBELIEVABLY slow. I have a large library, like almost 14 TB and still growing. But there’s no reason it should take almost a minute (or more than?) for the first content to show after starting the app.
Jellyfin with the same library takes mere seconds before I see the first movie/episode poster cards. It’s inexcusable how poorly optimized Plex is.
Unfortunately, that is just the system your TV runs on being slow. If you use a dedicated streaming device, you will have much better results.
Jellyfin with the same library takes mere seconds before I see the first movie/episode poster cards.
How do you explain this? Every other app is very quick to load on the TV… Plex is the only issue.
sounds like a poorly optimized system tbh. My Plex instance loads within a few seconds. on roku, android, and web.
keep in mind I’m using nginx caching and some advanced configs.
I am using the Plex app on my LG TV, to be more precise. That’s the WebOS version of Plex. On my phone and on the web, it loads instantly.
Not to rain on your parade, but the Plex App on my TV, with a library of almost 40TB also loads in seconds
No rain here. ☀️👍
What TV is that? I have an LG OLED TV from 2019 running WebOS, so that’s the version of Plex I am using.
My Plex library loads instantly on my phone and on the web.
Aww come on guys, my JF boner can only handle so much /s
Seriously though, why did they even give you the option to disagree, you know they’re just going to force it 3-6 months.
They legally can’t for European users
The disagree is for soft walking things. They give you the choice so people feel like they have one and don’t complain, then in the future they will continue to ask everything anything changes and if you accidentally agree they will never ask you again.
Man Plex when fully enshitified FAST!
Last shit they pulled I moved to Jellyfin. Today I deleted my Plex account.
Nothing is ever truly free in this world. They gotta pay their bills too.
why you gotta bring reason and logic to this jellyfin orgy?
Yeah, and there are decent ways to do that, which many successful companies and individuals manage to pull off every day.
I have no horse in this race because I don’t use any of this stuff, but I despise the direction everything is going.
Human parasites are never happy with being well fed it seems. They aren’t happy unless they gorge until they get fat and explode, or they’re so greedy they end up killing their host.
I hear ya. Thats why i dont use them either. Books are the better entertainment.
Sure, that’s why I paid for Plex Pass. Plex isn’t free.
Can someone clue me in on the reason why anyone would prefer Plex instead of Jellyfin?
It just works and has a native app for basically everything.
Sunk cost. It took me loosing my Plex watch history to say fuck it I’m going to Jellyfin.
I saw several solutions on Github that could migrate it.
Assuming you use/-d trakt you could use that to re-import the watch history
TV apps.
What is wrong with Jellyfin’s TV app? I use it on my Android TV and I don’t have any problems
So expected. Now anyone who’s able to support the non exploitative alternatives like Jellyfin please do. It’s how you keep the good things going.
The more services you have depending on a 3rd party which can do whatever the fuck they want, either directly or by changing the rules when the feel like it (i.e. not bound by rules they cannot change, such as root DNS providers are) and then doing it, the less your system is actually self-hosted, IMHO.
For me the whole point of self-hosting is exactly being as independent as possible of 3rd parties that can just fuck you up, be it on purpose (generally for $$$) or because they go bankrupt and close their services.
This is why I’ve actually chose to run Kodi on my home server that doubles down as TV Box even though I can’t easilly use it from anywhere else (it’s possible but it involves using a standalone database that is then shared, which can only be safelly down with custom ssh pipes) rather than something like Plex.
It’s kinda funny to see people into self-hosting still doing the kind of mistake I did almost 3 decades ago (fortunatelly in a professional environment) of trusting a 3rd party to the point of becoming dependent on them and later getting burned when they abused that trust, and which led me to avoid such situations like the plague ever since.
Mind you, I can understand if people for whom self-hosting is not driven by a desire to reduce vulnerability to the whims of 3rd parties (which includes reducing the risk of enshittification) and is instead driven by “waste not” (for example, bringing new life to old hardware rather than throwing it out) or by it being a fun challenge, don’t really care to be as independent as possible from such 3rd parties.
Can someone explain to me why you need anything more than directories filled with files to view content?
I’m struggling to understand why anybody would need or want something like Plex.
I want to watch a movie. I open explorer, go to the folder movies, select the movie, and double click the icon.
The end.
Just deleted my account.
Hey, you reading this? You should too.
If we find out “I do not consent” opts out, I’m fine with it. If we find out “I do not consent” leads to a “Close our account” page, it’s time for pitchforks, especially since they recently had a huge sale on lifetime memberships.
content being watched) on my device(s) and share that information with Plex’s advertising partners
That is a honey pot rights holders will be falling over themselves to pay Plex for access to once they hear about it.
Been telling anyone that would listen that they need to get out of Plex since they implemented that first iteration of trying to require you to sign into your own self hosted server with a Plex.tv account. They were telegraphing what direction they were going in with that kind of user hostile move.
Lots of responses about how it was easy to get around so no big deal (or worse that they liked it for some coping mechanism reason) and that nothing else was as easy and feature rich as Plex so it was worth it.
“Hashed emails”. Besides the fact that they can match up a hash from one source to a hash from another source to link them to the same person, emails often have enough predictability to break the hash. Assuming they all end in “@gmail.com”, “@outlook.com”, or “@yahoo.com” will get you the vast majority of emails out there. Unlike a good password scheme, people don’t shove a lot of random data into their email addresses.
What is Plex?
MangioneDontMiss@lemm.ee 9 months ago
so whats the issue? just declining doesn’t work?