this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.

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[–] gdog05@lemmy.world 543 points 1 day ago (29 children)
[–] dormedas@lemmy.dormedas.com 83 points 1 day ago (52 children)

Alright, so I have had Jellyfin installed for years now, but my primary issue is that most devices myself or my users use lack official, readily-available clients. For example, the Samsung TV app is a developer mode install. Last I looked, nobody has put a build into the store.

I really want to use Jellyfin, but I feel like my users simply can't. I'm interested in others' experiences here that could help.

[–] anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 80 points 1 day ago (18 children)

I mean, except for Tizen OS isn't most available? You can find the client for Android, Android TV, Windows, Linux (Flatpak), macos, apple ios, and more.
https://jellyfin.org/downloads/clients/

[–] BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I give all my friends the choice between Plex and jellyfin (I run both containers side by side pointed to the same media folders) and they all invariably choose Plex. I think it has a lot to do with the jellyfin UI, and I think an overhaul like jellyfin-vue or something that looks like findroid needs to happen in order for jellyfin to really appeal to regular people.

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[–] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago (16 children)

Don’t ever connect a “smart” tv to the internet. It’s only going to become shit and steal your data.

Raspberry Pi, old pc or any kind of other external player will always be better for connectivity and control.

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[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (2 children)

A Chromecast TV device might fill your gap. There is a jellyfin android TV build in the app store and it works with every TV. Just costs about 50 dollarydoos

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[–] anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 148 points 1 day ago (11 children)

As a result I imagine more users will look at other offerings such as Jellyfin.
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin
https://jellyfin.org/

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (13 children)

This might be what it takes to at least get me to install it.

Do they live well together with the same shared media library?

Also, are there audiobook clients for Jellyfin?

[–] myrmidex@slrpnk.net 30 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I found audiobooks to be kind of awkward on jellyfin. I'm now running Audiobookshelf for all my audiobooks, radio shows and podcasts. Together with the Lissen app on Android, it works very nicely!

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[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 144 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'm not pirating a bunch of shows just to pay Plex for the privilege of watching it.

[–] tehWrapper@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Also remember to give them your credit card, name and address for the privilege of pirating the content.

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[–] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 day ago

lmao me either

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[–] RonnyZittledong@lemmy.world 104 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I have a lifetime plex pass so this does not really affect me but I expect the trend of degrading experience to continue. I would have switched to Jellyfin a long time ago but I am dreading contacting everyone I share with and getting them migrated.

[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 45 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Same boat here. I chose Plex because the apps were everywhere. Smart TV's, phones, web...

I can switch, no problem. I don't want to have to teach my parents a new app. OMFG!

[–] corroded@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is also true of Jellyfin, though. I have apps on my Windows PC, my Android phone, multiple Nvidia Shield boxes on my TVs, plus the web interface if I need it.

I switched over from Plex several years ago, and while it takes a bit more time to configure, compatibility for clients seems just as good for Jellyfin as it is for Plex.

Most importantly, Jellyfin is strictly client/server, no "cloud" bullshit and no remote account is required; I don't want Plex phoning home with a list of the media on my file server.

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[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 88 points 1 day ago (33 children)

If you don't like the price there's always jellyfin.

Got to say that I have been very happy with it.

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[–] dmtalon@infosec.pub 77 points 1 day ago (41 children)

Glad I bought the Plex Pass like 13 years ago. While I understand everyone seems to think everything should be free, I'm sure your boss wishes you worked for free too, but the world doesn't work that way.

I'm OK supporting products I use , and Plex is an example of this for me. It was a well spend $75 in 2013

[–] logos@sh.itjust.works 48 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Nah. Cool that you think that, though. The moment they started charging for what was a free service, they lost me. I have gigabit internet. The only reason i used their service to begin with was ease of use.

Hot take but maybe everything doesn't need to be an infinitely expanding business. Just imagine for a second that it's fine for something to just break even, pay for the few mainteners salaries and not expand the business at all ever. I know that I just uttered the cardinal evil under capitalism but fucking seriously. The primary userbase of plex is pirates. The whole incentive is not having to pay for a streaming service. Charging money for it is just torpedoing your entire userbase. The entire appeal of Plex was it not charging money.

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[–] PhAzE@lemmy.ca 71 points 1 day ago (6 children)

As a plex pass lifetime user, this doesn't change anything for me.

I am, however, blown away that the price went from $75 CDN to $350 CDN over the last 10 years!! That's just insane!

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 71 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

Hellooooo jellyfin!

Only use open source software

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[–] RandomLegend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 1 day ago (7 children)

So glad i switched to jellyfin half a year ago

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[–] profilelost@discuss.tchncs.de 40 points 1 day ago

I've been meaning to set up a homeserver with plex recently but will defnitely go for jellyfin now that I read this thread.

[–] GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It looks like as long as the host has a Plex pass, this doesn't change much. It is a regression of service, which sucks, but there are viable alternatives for those unable or unwilling to pay. And honestly, jellyfin is the clear winner in that case and always has been.

Now, if they start to charge my friends and family for access to my media after I have already paid them for their lifetime subscription, then I'll grab a pitchfork with the crowd.

Also, why not run both and be ready? The resources required are minimal if you're running via docker, just some extra RAM and a negligible amount of compute for overhead on library maintenance tasks.

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[–] quack@lemmy.zip 36 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Can’t say I have a huge issue with this - Plex isn’t FOSS and the infrastructure to make this happen isn’t free. Other options are available if you don’t want to pay the fee.

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[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I can understand new features being behind a fee, but this is putting old, old capabilities behind a paywall. Hmmm...

This with a recent decision to remove watch together sort of eliminates the whole reason I would have tried Plex so many years ago.

I'm a fan of Plex (it's worked for me) and understand the Jellyfin crowd too. I'm worried about who is calling the shots at the moment. They aren't aligning with their users.

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 34 points 15 hours ago

This is the best ad campaign Jellyfin could have asked for.

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 31 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

Well, looks like my decision to stick with Kodi and never bother with Plex is about to pay dividends.

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[–] Presi300@lemmy.world 31 points 14 hours ago (8 children)

How to kill a service speedrun any%

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[–] RhondaSandTits@lemmy.sdf.org 30 points 1 day ago (6 children)

The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience

How stupid do they think we are?

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[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 29 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I already pay for plex pass but I'm going to start looking into jelly fin out of principle. I will not support the enshitification of a service I use and this is how it starts. Soon they will have tiered subscriptions and then the cheap one will be taken away and the cheapest paid one will be stuffed with ads then all tiers will be stuffed with ads then they will jack up prices again or charge more for sharing with family or block it all together to force your family to get their own sub and the circle of enshitification will be complete.

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[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 27 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (5 children)

The audacity of this company to increase prices when:

A) downloads are locked behind the paywall but havent worked in years (probably close to a decade at this point)

B) they focus all the development time on bringing bullshit to the platform (live tv, rentals, other streaming app searches, etc)

Requiring a subscription for remote access is actually fucking insane, they don't have any bandwidth costs associated with that other than authentication so ???

This will drive people to Jellyfin, and watch how fast Plex drops into irrelevance when all the selfhosters move away. Plex is (now was) the #1 thing to that both myself and others in this community would recommend to someone looking to get into selfhosting. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ not anymore, wonder how much the revenue will drop?

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[–] TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 26 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I moved on to jellyfin after I found out the hard way Plex servers need to authenticate for use. I'm sure by now there are ways to set up offline authentication but I already didn't like the idea of paying monthly to stream my own content from my own machine. It just didn't make sence to me. Jellyfin isn't perfect, or as flashy as Plex, but it works, looks fine, and its free, not counting a much deserved donation to the devs .

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 25 points 16 hours ago (12 children)

Why do people use this when Jellyfin exists?

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[–] b3an@lemmy.world 23 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

I’ve been using Plex many years. I abandoned it about 1-2 years ago when they began their enshittification journey. Now I see they are continuing to double down on being assholes.

They do not need any more resources to allow people to use what already exists. Most people run their own servers, and, they track all that by the way. Hence why people moved away from it.

Don’t give them your money. Let them rot. They fucked their user base who built them.

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[–] Buske@lemmy.world 23 points 8 hours ago

Another company fucked by executives.

[–] Tempus_Fugit@midwest.social 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Subscriptions are a non-starter for me

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[–] kokesh@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Time to move to Jellyfin for the rest of their users?

[–] mcbang2000@lemmy.world 22 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

sometimes good software is worth paying for

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[–] Uncut_Lemon@lemmy.world 22 points 14 hours ago

I stopped using Plex shortly after they started forcing logging in with your online Plex account to connect to LAN only based server. The writing was on the wall all those years ago. Who wants to be locked out of their media when the internet is offline, completely defeated the point of self hosting local infrastructure

Jellyfin, while lacking a bit when I first migrated, has continued improved over the years and it has been joyful to use. Plus Jellyfin supported hardware transcoding before Plex did, which was a gripe I had with Plex at the time.

I stream from my server remotely and share with Family without hassle. I dunno where Plex is trying to go, glad I bailed long ago

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

I feel like it’s just a matter of time, until they pull the rug from under lifetime subs.

But in any case, this is probably it for me. I’m not completely happy with jellyfin performance on my server, but the price hike puts me outside of what i’m willing to spend for this service. I already host it myself, and i can tunnel it myself too, if i ever decide to run it outside of my home network

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 21 hours ago

Yeah, my lifetime Jellyfin subscription wasn’t quite that much, thankfully. 😆

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