I’ve feel like I’ve used Plex forever. I also feel like every couple years I try Jellyfin to see how it’s going. Recently I tried it again because of Plex restriction on more than one user.

Well, I just tried it again and it’s substantially improved! This time it actually properly detected most of my library!

Also the Android TV app is AWESOME! No more glitches, lagging, and freezing trying to play my stuff like Plex did. It is butter smooth.

Wow! I’m impressed and I just deleted Plex. Good riddance.

  • thundermoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    4 hours ago

    There’s a really strong bias on Lemmy for OSS projects. I’m glad they get so much love here, but everything people say here about Jellyfin has to be taken with a huge grain of salt. It works and you can use it. Depending on your needs, it may even work perfectly for you. There are tons of rough edges though.

    Here’s a few:

    • A bunch of basic functionality most people are used to is missing by default. You can get things like intro detection and subtitle downloading to work with plugins, but you have to work at it.
    • Hardware acceleration still kind of sucks. You can get it to work, but the Jellyfin port of ffmpeg doesn’t work anywhere near as well as Plex’s.
    • The variety in app experience is bewildering sometimes. Apps look and feel very different between platforms.
    • Android TV app support sucks. The app is difficult to navigate and has a bunch of weird edges, like subtitle defaults not working. I have no idea what OP is talking about here, it sounds like they’re only judging the app on its animation speed.
    • Public network support is finicky. This is hard to quantify, but I’ve been on several remote networks where my Jellyfin connection dropped in and out and Plex did not. I suspect this is due to the Plex Relay service making up for bad routes between my house and the network.

    Jellyfin is improving all the time, and I hope the recent EFCore update improves performance and development velocity. I’m also holding out hope it will eventually lead to externally hosted databases and active-active servers.

    Disclaimer: I run Plex and Jellyfin and regularly check in on the state of things in Jellyfin. I donate to Jellyfin. I want Jellyfin to be better than Plex. I don’t think any objective measure bears this out yet.

    • chetwisniewski@lemmy.securitycafe.caEnglish
      3·
      3 hours ago

      I have been looking at JellyFin as a replacement for my aging Emby install, but the over-the-air TV support is weak and mostly broken. I am a FOSS fanboy, but first and foremost TV has to work for my household, not just for me with glitches. I suppose the correct answer is to contribute to improving it, but like most folks, free time is not copious.

    • relic_@lemm.eeEnglish
      23·
      2 hours ago

      I think it sounds like you want a paid product that just works out of the box. Jellyfin has some rough edges sure, but it’s also a volunteer project for the most part.

      I’ve got to disagree or clarify with some of these points. These points seem subjective and I feel the need to say something in case others are trying to compare plex/jellyfin.

      • Hardware acceleration works just fine? Unless there’s some hardware specific issue?

      • The difference in apps is because there’s two platforms. The web player (with CSS themeing) and the native (like on Android, which is a straight up android app, not a web page). There’s some capabilities that you can only get on Android if you build an app instead of a web player. There’s only like one guy building the android TV app.

      • Unfortunately just one guy working in his spare time on the android TV app. I’ve never had subtitle issues either (might be a good time to open a bug in report?)

      • Jellyfin “remote” is pretty rudimentary. You’d be better off just accessing it through a tunnel anyways – and then youd have access to your own just not your server.

      • thundermoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        1 hour ago

        This isn’t about want, it’s a reality check. OP said jellyfin is better than Plex now, and by objective measure it is not better for most people yet. False expectations hurt Jellyfin adoption, you need to try it with the expectation of jankiness or you’ll just be annoyed by the edges.

      • BradleyUffner@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        52 minutes ago

        Op’s criteria wasn’t “is it a good product?”, it was “is it better than Plex?”. Stop taking valid criticism as if it were an attack. If we want software to improve we have to be honest about its shortcomings.

    • MorningThunder@lemm.eeEnglish
      31·
      4 hours ago

      One thing Jellyfin is way better at is offline viewing. I have frequent internet outages at my house and I’ve run into issues multiple times where Plex wouldn’t stream my own local media because it couldn’t connect to the internet. For this, Jellyfin has always just worked.

      • thundermoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Yeah, that part about Plex has always bugged me. You can disable logins for your server with allow-listed networks, but most of the non-desktop apps have to log into the Plex platform to run.