octopus_ink

Well, I can tell you how Jellyfin differs from a directory full of files, but I can’t help you with understanding that other people have different preferences and desires than you.

You’ll have to make it to that one on your own.

You are imagining how to use a computer filled with video files.

Now imagine having your own personal netflix available on a variety of devices, using just that one computer full of video files.

Emby

Jellyfin exists because Emby was only open source until it wasn’t convenient. Some of their own devs pointed out they were violating the license, and their response was… non-ideal.

So Jellyfin was forked with the last fully open-source Emby code.

At least that’s my recollection several years down the line.

I decided then that no amount of headache from Jellyfin (and let me say that I was an EARLY jellyfin adopter AND former Plex user) would be enough to get me to use Emby. (Because things like that are important to me, though I realize they aren’t important to everyone.)

And reading this thread I’m apparently a super-genius because I have my Jellyfin behind a reverse proxy and serve it to my elderly parents with a simple login and an app they were able to install, and never found it to be a headache. (Which, if I’d read this thread only, I’d conclude was just not possible without voodoo magic)

No headaches along the way, and whereas Plex had already begun the march to enshittification when I left, Jellyfin has done nothing but steadily get better.

Anyhow, longer answer than intended, but I’d go back to Plex before I’d go to Emby, just on principle.

Odd, since my Jellyfin sits behind a reverse proxy.