Text:
I consent to Plex to: (i) sell certain personal information (hashed emails, advertising identifiers) to third-parties for advertising and marketing purposes; and (ii) store and/or access certain personal information (advertising identifiers, IP address, content being watched) on my device(s) and share that information with Plex’s advertising partners. This data is used to deliver personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Your consent applies to all devices on which you have Plex installed. You can withdraw your consent at any time in Account Settings or using this page.
Soure: https://www.plex.tv/vendors/ (Might have to clear cache)
Can also read about the changes here: https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/
For me it's PlexAmp and the few tech-illiterate friends I have who use my server for video streaming. 99% of the time, I just watch movies on my desktop with VLC player but I've yet to find a self-hosting music player half as good as PlexAmp
Yeah, the sad reality is that Plex’s setup experience is much smoother. And when you’re trying to convert people, the single largest obstacle is often social inertia. So lowering the barriers to entry is extremely important. My mother-in-law would need to sideload the Jellyfin app onto her TV, but Plex is available right on its app store.
Luckily, you can run both side by side. Jellyfin for me and my more tech-literate friends, Plex for those who don’t know/don’t care to learn.
I have read many people say this, but I don't understand what they mean by it. When I set up Jellyfin, it was a very simple process.
Simplicity is relative to each person's abilities and the tool in question.
Apparently all your friends and family are comfortable with hostnames and ip addresses. Not everyone's are. Also, not everyone wants to buy a static ip or setup a dynamic dns service or similar. Plex is definitely simpler. I have used both.
I understand this but we have to realize that what makes Plex simpler is the fact that they are a network intermediary that does what it wants with your home networks; it's like insisting that NordVPN is better than Mullvad
IMHO the only solution will be improving wireguard guis and stuff, Jellyfin is not lacking.
I haven't used Plex, so I'm not exactly sure what it's doing, but I'm guessing it presents you some sort of search to find the server? Isn't that pretty much the same as a domain name, just w/ a search bar instead of a URL bar? If your domain is easy to remember, I guess I don't see an issue. I've also heard you can connect to multiple servers, so maybe that's what people are talking about.
Regardless, I think Jellyfin could handle both. Get some community-funded STUN relay servers to handle discovery and implement a way (if it doesn't already) to have your client connect to multiple servers. There should also be a way to copy all the configs from one client to another (say, a QR code or UUID, settings copied over the same STUN server).
My main issue is that this could open up servers to more potential attack vectors, and Jellyfin already has some security weaknesses. But other than that, I'd be happy to help implement this sort of thing, a STUN server can be run on as little as a $5 VPS.
I haven't used Plex in a decade and I use Jellyfin, what you're describing sounds perfect. I read up a bit on STUN servers and it's what Syncthing uses, but they also mantain discovery and relay servers (and anyone can host one and can be added to the public list). Security wise they seem to be doing fine?(I'm not an expert, just an informed user)
Idk what combo Jellyfin would benefit the most from; are relay servers needed? The workload is similar but probably higher on average, people stream more often than they do backups
No, Plex lets you invite friends to your server with a link they can click and sign up. Then they can type a code into their TV app or login to a browser and watch basically like a standard streaming setup they already probably have used.
Jellyfin is less familiar. Arguably not much more difficult but people aren't always rational. The unfamiliar is often intimidating.
Can't you just send your link to them over SMS, IM, or email? Is the main difference that you can do this from the UI?
I guess entering a code on the TV is pretty cool though. Maybe I'll poke around in the Jellyfin community to see what the interest is in such a feature, because it should be possible w/ minimal hosting costs.
Yeah, you have two options, as the server owner:
You can enter a user's email from the Plex UI to invite a user to your library. The user then gets an email asking them to sign up if they don't already have an account.
You can generate/send a link to join, any way you choose.
Once signed up, the user can accept the library invitation, then they login to the TV or other device. The code is used for the TV login process, like on other streaming platforms. But yeah, you could do an account-less version of this for Jellyfin, which I think laypeople would like.
I wonder if having a “sign in” page within jellyfin that just fronts a wireguard configuration panel, saves the creds, and automatically connects and routes app traffic over the vpn iface is a remotely viable idea.
That sounds good to me, we use wireguard in the family when out and about to access my homeserver, but I'd love if Jellyfin could create ad-hoc tunnels, it'd make us feel safe enough sharing our libraries with friends, perhaps it will convince many Plex users too. What are funkwhale users doing to share their music for example?
The other commenter wrote about STUN servers (IP), I've seen that Syncthing uses them as well, together with discovery and relay servers. Would wireguard be used at any of this stages or standalone? Personally I have no idea, I'm just an observant user 😅
That depends on if someone wants it enough to make it happen.
Off topic, but what? Is Nord doing wacky shit with network settings?
I'm not a security expert but my guts (and the many things I read about this stuff over many years) tell me that cheap highly marketed VPNs like Nord seek the less informed users that sign up because half of their favorite youtubers sent them there, the default M.O. is install the (proprietary) app. It might be possible to use them safely but it's not what's happening to 99% of the customers.
They operate in grey legal areas, there are many scandals over the years, they write in their TOS that they can change the terms themselves without notice, if you use their service, you agree at any time.
When I wrote that they do what they want w your network, this is what I'm referring to; idk about the "settings", more like selling access to your residential line (perhaps to other VPN customers)
I mean pretty much everyone I know uses web browsers and sometimes type in web addresses lol
You seem a little out of touch with how people think.
I doubt they're thinking at all if writing a web address is too much lol
"Facebook dot what? Stop the tech speak, nerd!"
And yet most people will just type "facebook" into the omnibar in their browser and click the first result that google gives them.
Yes... A LOT, and I do mean a significantly plurality... have no fucking clue what a URL is.
Then, you are completely out of touch with how most people use computers.
I'm not sure if you're just surrounded by mentally deficient people for some reason or seriously underestimating them, but pretty much everyone I know can type in a website address lol
Or maybe it's some zoomie "what's a computer" thing
They can if forced to, but they never have to do that normally. What you're telling people to do is make normal people do things they don't normally do when browsing the web and saying its as easy as making them sign up for a Plex account. Most people have done similar things as the latter, but they only have to type a full URL once or twice in their lifetime.
That is way beyond the comfort zone of most people I know. The general use case of web browser for normal people is googling the website they want and clicking the link while being blissfully unaware of what a URL is or does.
This does not mean they are mentally deficient, it just means they spend their mental processing and memory on other things they deem actually important.
How is someone who can't manage to copy and paste "www.my-jellyfin-server.com" into the address bar going to figure out where to get a Plex account?
Tell them to copy and paste that text from their phone to their TV and tell me how it goes. First, you gotta explain what apps are available on whatever TV they're using, though.
You also conveniently forget to mention the amount of work you need to setup a domain name that points to your Jellyfin server vs just telling them to sign up for a Plex account and tell you the email address they used.
Btw, the average person have no trouble signing up for an online account. How do you think people create an account for their social media, email address, and online shopping? Just google Plex and sign up. It's a familiar process for them, unlike dealing with URLs or VPN apps.
This thread is comparing the ease of setup between Plex and Jellyfin and having to purchase your own domain and set a bunch of stuff up on your own definitely doesn't make for an easier install. You might be right about people's ability to type in a URL, but this definitely illustrates the added difficulty in setting up Jellyfin.
We know very different sort of people. Remember that older people wrote the full address as the default, bookmarks and especially googling everything (and "apps") only became the default later on.
Yeah, but the proportion of people who used computers during that time is much smaller than the generations after, meaning they only represent a very small minority of non-technical computer users.
Not to mention that my country lagged behind in terms of computer adoption during the 90's and 00's compared to developed nations, so it is even less likely for you to find that category of people around me.
Excuse me, I thought the comment I replied to was talking about the setup process of the jellyfin server itself.
Well yeah maybe that too, but a server no one connects to is a paperweight. The connection part confuses laypeople
Setting up a server? Pretty darn easy.
Teaching all your friends and relatives to figure out what app to use and login with your dyndns random entry or IP address. Or even more difficult, using VPN.
It's not the hosting that's hard. It's the watching for non-tech people.
Maybe I'm just callous but I just don't see that as a problem myself. If I'm offering my own self hosted services for friends or family, the least they can do is put in some effort to learn how to use it. If they couldn't bother, that is their loss.
If people operate a car, the least they could do is learn how to change their brakes or do an oil change.
To most non-tech people, that’s the level of complexity you’re expecting them to adhere to.
That is a very strange equivocation to make and not at all like what I said. But if I did give someone a free car, yes I would expect them to take care of it. And if they don't, and the car breaks, then yes that is also their loss.
We’re here in the plex bashing thread
"Grab an app called jellyfin, type in this number, pick the profile with your name, password is X"
It's not that different than "Grab an app called plex, here's the username and password, pick the profile with your name" (or sign up yourself and I'll share it with you)
For me it’s a trade-off: yes Plex is less good than Jellyfin from a data/cost perspective. But so far the UI of Plex (which is not perfect mind you), availability of Plexamp (which honestly is very very good), and the fact that I don’t have to pay for it anymore after buying lifetime swings the scale towards Plex for me.
If Plex somehow canceled my lifetime or forced ads on my shows or something, that would be a line — but making me opt out of selling my data is not that line for me.
Different taste on the UI front I guess. I thought the default Plex was awful, couldn't stand it. Jellyfin can be a bit messy though
Plexamp is pretty great. It's my streaming music player of choice.
After gpm shit the bed.. I vowed to never have another streaming music service.
Plexamp it is.
As I said, I've yet to find a selfhosting solution half as good as PlexAmp. It's very, very good and arguably a better service than normal Plex
The closest thing I've found to Plexamp (on Android) is Symphonium. I only pointed it to my Plex server, but it offers support to so many other services. It also works perfect in Android Audio. It does cost $4, but it's honestly worth that and then some.
But I totally get how great Plexamp is. I use it every day.
Thirded on both your points.
Maybe you've tried it already, but navidrome is a great purpose built music streamer. I was using subsonic back in the day, then airsonic, then airsonic advanced. When I first got on navidrome it was a tough pill to swallow since I never maintained my tags, but I gave a little time here and there to comb through it and in the end it feels like a worthwhile investment. It paid off a little bit more when I adopted lyrion music server and squeeze players for local playback around the home since this organizes by the same tags (mostly), so the whole library is kind of plug and play with things that honor the same tags.
Who downvoted you?
Anyway, if you have directory-based music organization, Navidrome won't take that, sadly. However, it will take m3u playlists.
So I can just
ls playlistdir/* > Playlist.m3uand get that directory as a playlist. Simple, lazy solution.Oh, you can also add internet radios to Navidrome.
And one cool trick, which is also pretty good to test out Navidrome without effort, in Termux it is already in the repos, so you can just effort-free
apt install navidrome, run it and play around.Privacy
Notable config:
EnableInsightCollector = 'false'https://www.navidrome.org/docs/getting-started/insights/
Yeah that was the tough pill to swallow, moving away from folder based (the old *sonic gang) to tag based navidrome. Not for everyone, but getting your tags in order opens up some nice doors.
They publish a container image as part of their releases, and you can manage everything with environment variables. If you're used to running containers I'd say this is even easier for testing and playing around.
For me it’s chromecast support. Maybe Jellyfin has that now but it didn’t last time I checked.
When did you check? I've been using it that way for over a year.
I just use Jellyfin for this too, not sure I follow the issue but I haven't used Plex since migrating