I just want an Apple TV app for Jellyfin then I’ll switch.
Why I moved my Plex library to Jellyfin after 14 years
Submitted 1 day ago by 
TheIPW@lemmy.ml to selfhosted@lemmy.world@lemmy.world
https://the.unknown-universe.co.uk/home-lab/plex-to-jellyfin/
Comments
gointhefridge@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
PastelKeystone@lemmy.world 28 minutes ago
Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
Sure
cockmushroom@reddthat.com 1 hour ago
Apple TV
Well you really fucked it there, friend
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 42 minutes ago
I mean, in terms of raw capability, it’s actually one of the better “turn a dumb TV into a smart TV” devices on the market. It has good hardware transcoding support to take the burden off of your server. It also has very little in the way of fluff. It was one of the few boxes that wasn’t packed full of ads by default (though I’m not sure if this is still true).
But yeah, it means you’re locked into Apple’s ecosystem. Which is… Not always the best. Apple is notoriously difficult/annoying if your app gets tied up in approvals, so native apps can sometimes be trapped in limbo for a while. And that’s assuming they even allow the native app.
I guess you could build an HTPC with similar functionality and hardware support, but then you’ll be stuck using a Bluetooth keyboard to navigate things, plus all of the “oh let me wait for my computer to boot up before I can watch anything” pains that go along with it. There are solutions for a lot of the complaints, but a lot of them are fiddly or require lots of extra stuff just to achieve the same basic functionality of “remote has power button that turns on TV and streaming box, and navigates menus as if it’s a native app.”
fpslem@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This article doesn’t mention the limitations of remote access for Jellyfin, which requires some tricks like reverse proxy or Tailscale. I think Jellyfin is a great option if you only watch/listen on your home network, but if anyone wants to replicate the remote access capabilities of Plex, I typically warn them they are going to have to roll their sleeves up.
rumba@lemmy.zip 30 minutes ago
Honestly for video I agree, for audio, it’s just me and only in my house or phone so tailscale is fine. If my friends really want audio, they can pay streaming for it.
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 minutes ago
But Jellyfin! It solves all your problems, you don’t have to pay for it (because fuck paying for software of any type even if it provides you some value), and did I mention Jellyfin‽
Why aren’t you using it yet? Are you a plex sympathizer? Get outta here with that!
What?
I don’t care if you have a good use case for using plex / Emby / Kodi / VLC / WMC / etc; you will assimilate and use Jellyifn!
JELLYFIN!!!11!1!1!1!1!. /s
lostbit@feddit.nl 5 hours ago
Don’t selfhost if you think a reverse proxy is tricky.
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 32 minutes ago
You shouldn’t even have Jellyfin on a reverse proxy, because it shouldn’t be externally available. There are several known security vulnerabilities (all marked as “closed” due to inactivity on git) that the devs have said will likely never be patched. Because patching them requires moving away from the Emby fork that the entire project is built on.
It should only be externally available via a private VPN. And that alone excludes a lot of “I want to share my library with friends/family” scenarios, because step 0 will be getting their devices connected to your VPN.
At the very least, set up some form of group access/username+PW directly on your reverse proxy as a secondary security measure. Because if you can reach the JF landing page, you can exploit those vulnerabilities without needing a valid JF login. So you should configure your reverse proxy to act as a gatekeeper, and ensure attackers can’t even reach JF at all without having a valid login to your reverse proxy. But this will break most JF apps, (except for browsers) because they likely won’t have any way to give an initial user+pass to the reverse proxy before they hit the JF server.
Flatfire@lemmy.ca 1 hour ago
That seems like a rather arrogant tone to take. Reverse proxies are complicated. Easy to set up, but challenging to configure depending on what your needs are. Not everyone wants a homelab.
Everyone’s journey starts somewhere and sometimes people’s needs just don’t extend beyond the easier choices available.
szszl@szmer.info 9 hours ago
There are literaly zero limitations by Jellyfin to remotely access your media. You are free to access your instance in any way you want. Fuck plex
rumba@lemmy.zip 28 minutes ago
The next time there’s a zero day in one of their packages you get pwned because their login doesn’t protect their ‘internal’ endpoints.
Keep that thing wrapped up or you will eventually regret it.
- TheIPW@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
You’re right, I missed that.
I personally use a reverse proxy and Wireguard setup to access remotely.
ripcord@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Not something that unfortunately works as easily for me to connect my ailing mom’s TV to, and do NOT want to manage the reverse proxy + cert + etc setup for a number of reasons
jumponboard@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
If you can spin up a podman container, you can use a caddyfile. Hell, if you can nano, you can set uo a caddyfile.
skittle07crusher@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Tailscale truly could not be easier/simpler.
rumba@lemmy.zip 24 minutes ago
Repectfully, I think you’re wrong.
Making an account and giving it to uncle fred with a website address is a LOT easier than telling him to install an app on his phone/computer, inviting him via email, then trying to explain to him how to turn it on and off and telling him not to mess with the settings and route all his traffic through my home network.
That is still one spot where plex holds an edge.
hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
Not for all clients, like Roku for example.
Yes the solution is different hardware, like a Google TV, older firestick, raspAP, or flash openwrt on a router. But that’s no longer plug and play and may have other caveats. Besides costing money.
No shade, it’s just not QUITE that simple every time.
Evotech@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Just fucking yeet it online
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 day ago
expected advice from typical JF users.
matron1049@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
A reverse proxy is a trick? That’s like standard practice for web servers.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How does Plex get around that? I’ve only ever used jellyfin.
blueduck@piefed.social 1 day ago
Plex operates TURN servers
mundane@piefed.world 1 day ago
Can’t you just setup a dyndns and port forwarding?
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, and if that falls within your risk tolerance it’s rather easy to set up.
Most of the people in the discussion here don’t want to open a port to the internet.
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 1 day ago
There is a third option, the program that Jellyfin was originally forked from back in 2018, Emby.
Sort of the middle child between the two. Nearly identically to Jellyfin for obvious reasons, several third party apps for Jellyfin work with it as well like Jellyseer, it has apps for nearly every device, and easy external connections via their servers like Plex does.
They do however have a premium subscription system like Plex to support things like those servers. It’s not as expensive as Plex, even before the recent rate hike, but it is there and some stuff is locked behind that premium license.
WormFood@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I can’t recommend emby because their business practices are pretty scummy. After accepting open source contributions for years, they went closed-source in 2018 and took all those contributions with them (they had a CLA). The very next update, they added hardware acceleration and locked it behind a paywall. They had a pretty big ‘security incident’ a few years ago, which probably would have been averted if they were still open source, as users in the community flagged it as an issue long before the devs took action.
Mondez@lemdro.id 1 day ago
So all the bad things of both, still a proprietary product that you can funnel your cotent through servers you don’t control while simultaneously not being plex.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
That’s why I’m running both. I use jellyfin, everyone else uses Plex 🤣
GTKashi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I got the Plex lifetime pass like 10 years ago, but just switched to Jellyfin over the weekend. It felt like every week Plex was asking me to re-pick my home page list and just insisted on re-adding their live streaming junk. Got tired of it. Reverse proxy is not hard to set up, and while there’s some encoding kinks to work out, it’s not like Plex was immune to those problems either.
Joelk111@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The best part is that, if you’re on the fence, you can just run both. That’s what I did at first, but I’ve since let plex die.
FundMECFS@piefed.zip 1 day ago
I ran both for a while as well. Then decided I preferred Jellyfin.
I only use it locally though didn’t have to set up remote access.
vodka@feddit.org 1 day ago
At least Jellyfin let’s you work out the encoding kinks, and set stuff up the way you want.
Meanwhile if plex has central issues transcoding stops working because they force check plex servers for new profiles every time a transcode starts, and if the check fails it just hangs forever (assuming it has Internet access but specifically can’t access the plex url with the transcode profiles. Also this might be solved now but it was a problem just a few months ago)
tomkatt@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Despite all of this, I haven’t completely abandoned Plex.
Plexamp remains one of the best self-hosted music applications I’ve ever used.
Lyrion, Music Assistant, and Navidrome are all solid options. And Jellyfin also supports music hosting, along with FinAmp, which has similar functionality to PlexAmp (maybe not as good, but download functionality works).
Personally, I abandoned PlexAmp. Wasn’t worth keeping with the rest and it has been downhill since the loss of Tidal integration. Navidrome clients work great, have solid radio and discovery features for large collections, and support local downloading for on the go.
And for local listening, I’d argue that Lyrion with Blissmix or LastFM “Don’t Stop the Music” plugins are as good and sometimes better than PlexAmp. And Navidrome and/or Music Assistant with AudioMuse-AI plugin utterly destroys PlexAmp’s radio/DJ functionality. Install AudioMuse, scan your library and go, it just works. Especially with recent builds having native Linux, Mac, and Windows now (I deployed with Docker compose before these options were available).
SleepDeprivedSeagull@lemmy.world 23 minutes ago
I personally really like FinAmp. I use it every single day during my commute and work, it works incredibly well with FLAC files.
tomkatt@lemmy.world 16 minutes ago
I used it for a bit, but after getting Navidrome up and running, Arpeggi replaced it as my download “away from home” client, and at home I use Lyrion or Music Assistant via Squeezelite since I have Wiims in every room of the house.
rumba@lemmy.zip 35 minutes ago
JF is damn good for video and has a better interface than plex
Finamp is horrible for big collections. As you ask JF for tracks or artists it loads them a handful at a time. I have 2300 artists 26,000+ tracks, if I want to listen to some NiN, trying to scroll through to N’s is maddening.
Finamp just crashes on me now and then. Play -> shuffle… wtf knows, might go 10m might go 2. Samsung Phone with 6GB of ram.
Finamp is rooted to JF features only, eg: it is incapable of cross fading because it has no ability to tell JF the songs were last played easily. If you want to set up a really large playlist, it’s one at a time, but you can put an m3u in the folder. but once you do that, your playlist is no longer editable through the GUI.
I moved over to Symfonium. It loaded my playlists, let’s me crossfade, everything seems ok, until i add new music or modify a playlist and it has to scrape the entirety of my collection to add a song. It can take hours.
I’m big on my playlists. I have exported years of jackfm and 98 rock to recreate real playlists from different eras.
JF audio is just absolutely stuck in the stoneage and any attempt for clients to work arond it and dig them out still have to deal with their slower than fuck database and api.
Damage@feddit.it 2 hours ago
HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I’ve been considering audiomuse, but I have old equipment available.
My options are my media server, which is an old Xeon E3-1275v3 with 32G of RAM, which also hosts Navidrome, my arr stack and the associated downloaders, or my Home Assistant and Jellyfin box, which is a Lenovo M700 Tiny which is an i5 6600T but has only 8G of ram.
Or, an 8G Pi5 with an SSD (using the pi SSD hat)
I’m not sure either of those 3 options would handle audiomuse AI all that well…
tomkatt@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
The Xeon server would be a good bet. Your other machine would be potentially bottleneck for memory. There’s a NOAVX deployment available, would be slower but should work fine. Just be sure to disable anything associated with lyric detection, it’s an absolute performance nightmare.
I ran it onaRyzen 5500u with 32 GB RAM with the standard deployment with AVX2 support and scaled up to three worker threads. For a collection of 53k tracks it was processing about 100 per hour that way with lyrics/whisper translation enabled, but once I turned that off it was doing 1300-1400 tracks per hour.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 7 hours ago
mpd server. Although mainly, so I can use the beautifully named ncmpdcpp client
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
FinAmp and its beta rewrite don’t really come close to PlexAmp in terms of functionally or polish, but if anyone switched from Plex to Jellyfin and wants a nice aesthetic music player app Discrete has done the job for me. It’s essentially an Apple Music clone so it looks nice and navigates well.
tomkatt@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
TBH I don’t recommend FinAmp, but it’s an option if you only want to deal with Jellyfin.
Lyrion (LMS) and Navidrome server/clients though, absolutely. They’re great.
BCsven@lemmy.ca 8 hours ago
Does Volumio suit your needs? I haven’t used Plex audio to compare
tomkatt@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Not for me, but I could see the appeal for some.
I have Wiim Pro and Wiim Pro Pluses in every room in my house that I’d stream to, and send via Squeezelite or DLNA (with Chromecast and AirPlay as available, but IMO inferior options). Plus virtual squeezelite software allows for local PC play the same way if needed (wife uses this on her Mac Mini, I don’t generally play music on my PC, just direct via the Wiim to my amp).
purplemonkeymad@programming.dev 16 hours ago
If anyone goes with finamp, sign up for the test version as it’s UI is significantly better than stable.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
The UI is objectively better but it still looks like a 10 year old material UI student project. I’ve been keeping an eye on it but it might not be worth giving up the stability for
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 1 day ago Agree. I went directly with Jellyfin because I joined late the party, but never regret it.
So can’t comment on Plex, because I never used it. But I see the news and see the enshittified path it’s going on with Plex
I understand that they need revenue, specially if they actually provide the bandwidth to let you access your media from outside home. I also understand why people is mad, but I guess convenience come with a price, of you don’t want to pay for it, there are alternatives I don’t see anything bad in switching to jellyfin.
Eldritch@piefed.world 1 day ago They don’t provide much in terms of bandwidth for you to access your own media. Just a few bytes through their web services. Their bandwidth usage comes from their desire to be their own streaming service. They provide access to a whole bunch of other media you may have no interest in.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 day ago
There’s a relay but it limits the bandwidth allowed through. It can’t be that expensive to run.
Dojan@pawb.social 1 day ago specially if they actually provide the bandwidth to let you access your media from outside home.
Why would Plex need to do that? I can access my Jellyfin and outside of my home just fine without someone else acting as a middle man.
lokalhorst@feddit.org 1 day ago
I don’t know much about Plex but I guess because it is not easy for the average guy. Setting up a remote connection without a VPN is definitely not something I would recommend to someone who is just a media enthusiast.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You may not need Plex to do anything, but it’s kinda disingenuous to say most people can easily and securely set up port forwarding and a DNS service/reverse proxy/etc to keep outside access working.
- Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 1 day ago
Isn’t that the plesk added value?
Zexks@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Lol ‘i didnt rage quit and post about it’
‘I rage quit amd wrote a blog about it’
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Side question here: how big is your storage pool for those of you that runs a jellyfin server?
I just started a Jellyfin server, but with the current hdd prices, it fills up fast and I need to manage my library a lot more than I’d like
rumba@lemmy.zip 34 minutes ago
75TB
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 hours ago 4x18TB in RAID5. I went with 18s because it was the best value for $/TB when I bought them, which was just before prices spiked. That gives me almost exactly 50TB of usable space after formatted capacity and space lost to RAID. If I bought drives today for the same price as what I paid earlier this year, that 50TB shrinks to 35TB. I’ve only got DVD and Blu Ray rips on it; Jellyfin counts 120 movies (105 of which are Blu Ray, 15 DVD) and 1166 episodes of TV (10 series on Blu Ray, but number of episodes per show varies wildly). This is the full fat rips with MakeMKV, all special features, no video compression via Handbrake or anything; almost exactly 11TB used. So I’ve got a lot of room for expansion, and I plan on also using this NAS for other things that will probably be a rounding error compared to my Jellyfin library.
Hoimo@ani.social 5 hours ago
I would only ever buy new HDDs tbh. But also, I bought a stack of 8TB HDDs in 2023 for €180 a piece and those same models are now €300… Thanks, Obama.
Anyway, I have 4 of those, 1 is parity, so 24TB of actual space. I started with a 2TB collection from my laptop harddrive and I’m now at 7TB used. I used to be more cautious with my space and I still have my *arrs set to stingy profiles now, to make downloads faster, but I also download and keep a lot more.
I do sometimes go through and delete stuff that I won’t watch (either watched and didn’t like or never watched). But that’s more so I won’t get tempted to watch it than for the space currently.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 4 hours ago
You can get refurbished HHDs for much cheaper
As long as they have a 2 year warranty you are goid
damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I agree that the rest of plex is undergoing enshittification. But the core features are kinda the same? I use it outside my home a LOT, so I don’t know how jellyfin would work for that. I know Cloudflare tunnel has a bad relationship with streaming video. Does Tailscale too? How do you access jelly outside your home?
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I am hoping that jellyfin gets better over the next few years. I keep trying it and it keeps feeling broken to me. Lots of people have the same experience it seems but then there’s also always a few people that act like I’m crazy. Nah, it’s still not there, unless things have changed a lot in the past year.
Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip 1 day ago I’ve already had a Plex pass for ages, so I’ve just been running both concurrently.
Plex is a lot more accessible for my friends and family that are less tech inclined.
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
To think that right about a year ago I was jumping into the deep hole of selfhosting and was thinking to get Plex perpetual license. Happy I didn’t.
Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz 1 day ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters Plex Brand of media server package VPN Virtual Private Network VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 7 acronyms.
[Thread #5 for this comm, first seen 8th Jun 2026, 12:50] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
PixelatedSaturn@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I started with jellyfin a month ago and I miss nothing. Total newbie, used free chatgpt to set everything up. I can access from anywhere.
The only thing I haven’t done is to get the app to the Hisense tv so I use through a browser. Just didn’t have time yet, not sure how that works.
Bumrocky@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I was using Synology’s video server software. They had an app for android and IOS. Then Synology killed it and the only options were plex or Jellyfin. I bought into Synology because of their remote connection options. When I tried Plex they were making me pay per connected device. No way! Jellyfin became my only option at that point.
androidul@lemmy.world 1 day ago
hmm I wonder if it’s because of the recent subscription hike … hmmmm
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Presently “continue watching” is gone for me in android. I can’t seem to avoid all these stupid “recommendations”, and lately I find I’ve been using jellyfin more and more. I have run them in tandem for years.
4grams@awful.systems 1 hour ago
I understand the authors reasons, but for me personally, having paid for the app, I’ll use it until it no longer suits my needs. Right now it does early what I need and does not cause me any issues. As soon as the enshittification hits me though, I’ll abandon it for something else. I also would not recommend someone purchase it, given the new pricing, and the availability of free alternatives. Had they been there when I paid for Plex, I’d be using them instead.