Plex has announced a massive price increase on the service's Lifetime Plex Pass. On July 1, the lifetime subscription option will go from $249.99 to $749.99, an increase of 200%. The price hike will only apply to new subscribers, with no changes to monthly or annual subscription pricing.

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[–] 67 points 5 months ago (65 children)

I don't know why anyone would pay that instead of using Jellyfin. I've had my server up for years now and it works great.

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  • [–] 14 points 5 months ago (29 children)

    Last I looked, jellyfin auth and public facing security were less than ideal.

    How far has that come in the last few years? I have plenty of people using my Plex and it's been secure. I had heard a public facing Jellyfin wasn't super secure.

    Honestly, 95% of the reason I use Plex is so I don't have to manage user passwords and troubleshoot issues for my friends and family. I just grant access.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    This. I run a Kubernetes cluster and self host tons of shit . . . but I do NOT want to be dealing with client issues for Boomer relatives and worrying about securing servers that a Samsung TV needs to auth with

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    I moved from the default jellyfin login method to using Authentik as the identity provider. Now its part of my homelab setup where all services have SSO, and I don't have to create/manage an account for each person for each service.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Does that break Jellyfin apps on smart TVs or media devices?

    A lot of people seem to have concerns with how Jellyfin handles access control and some have stated that the developers marked some major issues as “won’t fix”. Is there somewhere I can catch up on that?

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    LDAP works fine, OIDC not so much, only the web client would work.

    There are still talks around making OIDC a first class citizen and IIRC it is planned as per the feature page but I guess the major core upgrade around the DB took a lot of attention the last 6-12 months.

    But in the meantime I've just spun up an LDAP outpost for my Authentik that my Jellyfin connects to. It breaks MFA but otherwise it works. It may be a bit confusing for users that they log in at jellyfin.site.com but anything user-related like updating password is at authentik.site.com and requires an extra login.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (24 children)

    I only need my server to work locally so I haven't messed with that part personally. But I've read that setting up tailscale is straightforward and works fine. There are many other solutions to the problem. I would definitely invest a lot of effort before paying for Plex.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (23 children)

    Great; how do I setup Tailscale on my mother’s Roku TV?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago* (17 children)

    Unfortunately, that's probably not gonna happen without some new hardware.

    You could setup a wire guard at the router (can you setup tail scale on a router? idk). If she's renting the ISP router, replacing that could save a 100+ a year, depending on how much the isp is scamming her for it.

    or you could repurpose a minipc/nuc from bay and set up a jellyfin streaming box with tailscale.

    If you have the extra hardware, you could also setup a local server with her jellyfin and use wiregaurd/tailscale to remotely connect to it and run backup/sync during off-hours.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    Bro, if you want to use Emby, nobody is stopping you. Jellyfin is the popular solution because it is open source. Emby isn't a project, it's a product just like plex is a product. Both Emby and Plex started as free methods to host your media and converted to a paid closed source solution. Jellyfin is a fork of Emby from before they moved to closed source and remains free and open to this day.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (2 children)

    I really hope Emby pays you well.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    You're a weird one. I donate regularly to my most used open source projects if they have a primary development team. But that's not even the point. The point is, open source software isn't usually published as a way to make loads of money. Usually open source software is created out of necessity or as a passion project. You won't convince many Lemmy users that a corporate product meant to generate capital is the better use of time and resources by such a wide margin that we should spend our money on it. Jellyfin exists despite Emby closing source. Feel free to continue to pay for Emby. I'll use the community resources that are on offer for free and are more than good enough for my use case.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (6 children)

    You could also set up a reverse proxy in front of your Jellyfin and hook a domain up to it. That way you don't have to worry about the client at all.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (4 children)

    The data for me is shared read-only to the Jellyfin container, so that's not a problem.

    Can you explain more about that vulnerability? It would necessitate a pretty serious privilege escalation to be possible.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (2 children)

    I love their routers but that one doesn't have tailscale support, even if you did manage to install it (I did so on a mango) I think it would run extremely poorly

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Funny enough I actually meant to link this one, which is specifically for this purpose. https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt5000/

    That's okay though because the guy I was replying to didn't actually want the help. He just wanted to complain that people aren't recommending his preferred software.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    That's a better choice, got one myself the other day, haven't actually had a chance to try it but their support has literally sent me firmware ahead of release (for mango), they fix their stuff.

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  • [–] 14 points 5 months ago* (16 children)

    I haven’t checked in on Jellyfin for a while now, but don’t they still have issues with hardware transcoding support?

    Not to mention the lack of software clients on other platforms for just playback that Plex has been established on for years and even multiple device generations like with PlayStation, Roku, Fire Stick, etc.?

    Also you have to configure your own reverse proxy / Tailscale set up to securely access a content library remotely, right - as opposed Plex’s relatively simpler remote access configuration?

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  • [–] 31 points 5 months ago* (9 children)

    Surprise, surprise, a paid product with salaried developers has more features than a volunteer project!

    More people using Jellyfin, more people who will contribute, through code or donations. It's worth a downside to swap over.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Hopefully that gets better - I run both side by side pointed at the same folders so the exact same media is available in both. I offer all my friends the choice and list every alternate app I know of, inevitably they all prefer Plex.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    Because default settings arent always ideal...
    Some goes for the TV they use and whatever codec they can digest.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    What defaults are you talking about? If you meant to reply to my other comment, I'm talking about hardware transcoding codec support settings on the server, it has nothing to do with what codec is chosen for a client - that decision is made separately. Once the codec the client needs is chosen, the hardware transcoding setting only changes whether they codec is decoded using CPU or GPU/quicksync by the server - it has no effect on codec selection. The only reason you would disable hardware transcoding for a codec that your server is capable of hardware transcoding is if your hardware is faulty or produces undesirable output for that codec when using hardware transcoding - most people don't do this, it's a fairly uncommon edge case. And disabling it won't stop clients from accessing that codec, it just means that your server will CPU transcode it if requested instead of using hardware acceleration - so again it has nothing to do with client support or TVs because all it does is switch your server between hardware and software encoding / decoding. The only sane default for that setting is to hardware accelerate codecs that your PC is capable of hardware accelerating if hardware acceleration is enabled. There's no reason not to automatically detect hardware capabilities like Plex does, instead of the current "default" where you enable hardware transcoding and then have to figure out what your hardware supports to be hardware accelerated.

    Like even if they copy pasted the quicksync codec support table from Wikipedia into the server hardware acceleration settings that would be miles better because then you wouldn't have to look up that information separately. Or, hear me out, just show next to each option which ones your computer is capable of hardware decoding vs CPU decoding.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    Because Emby is a closed source application and Lemmy is an open source platform with community member who prefer open source solutions to closed source. Your out here screaming at Linux bros "why not choose apple??"

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I didn't suggest I wasn't using closed source software or even that one was better than the other. I said you are in a community of open source enthusiasts scratching your head as to why nobody recommends a paid closed source application that has a history of turning it's back on the FOSS community. I'm trying to give you a hint and you're trying to die on a very strange hill.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Especially on non-GPU systems, Jellyfin is slower at transcoding than Plex. I don’t know the internals, but I have both running in the sam machine, and Plex is always noticeably more responsive. Not by a huge margin, but still it is.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I have zero experience with those two products but when it comes to transcoding there are various toggles that affect the quality and speed.

    It looks also like commercial products generally optimize for speed while open source tends to be more concerned about quality.

    Of course this could be completely wrong in this case but that's the general tendency I noticed. Do they allow to change settings?

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    I have not personally experienced any issues with hardware transcoding. My server is an old Dell Optiplex and I use clients on Linux, Android, Roku and Shield.

    Yes you are correct about remote access and if that was a priority for me, I would happily learn that part instead of paying for Plex.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    What kinds of issues? I put an Intel Arc in my server and it's working fine AFAICT.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago*

    I have an ~80GB movie that I can watch on a TV that can't even handle the data rate for that file, nevermind the codecs.

    But if the couple minutes to click "this client can't handle anything over 60Mbps x264" is too much work, then by all means keep paying for Plex. Or "hypothetically" find a smaller copy of that movie.

    I'm always amazed by the number of people who absolutely can't leave Plex because they've got 14 grandparents streaming 8k rips all day every day.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago* (12 children)

    It's essentially a one time fee for an indefinite service of handling the vpn side of the setup.

    I use Jellyfin on my local network and plex externally because I don't know how to route specific traffic with openvpn on my phone and can't be bothered switching it off and on when streaming things 😅

    I'm not sure how it's sustainable, and am surprised they still offer the life pass at all though.

    I guess a lot of people buy it who don't need it?

    I still probably wouldn't pay the current price for it though, I got it about a decade ago lol.

    Oh also plexamp has a better UX than jellyfin for music, but I don't think that alone would justify the current price.

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    Tailscale is the answer to easily and remotely access jellyfin and your server. Its easy to setup and very secure.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Dude seriously it's so much easier than anything else. For a personal media server with remote access, jellyfin + tailscale on an old computer you may have laying around plugged into your router is all you need

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Yep, exactly what I've been telling people. And then they complain that tvs dont have the ability to have the tailscale app on them. So, then buy a cheap android box, even an Onn 4K from Walmart would work for like 25 bucks and install tailscale and jellyfin on it.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    True again. That's what I run upstairs and downstairs on my TVs. If I'm not mistaken, you should be able to use RPis for the same sort of thing if you really really didn't wanna touch any Google stuff, which I would understand.

    I also totally get people having slightly different uses for their media servers, like maybe they share their collection with friends and family members who aren't as tech literate/don't wanna use a Google TV when they already stream everything else on their PS5 for example. For those purposes, it has especially made sense historically to go with Plex.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Well, my android boxes have degoogled roms on them so no google dependencies or requirements.

    Yeah, I mean it all depends on what a person wants. I just immediately went with Jellyfin and tailscale from the beginning and couldnt be happier.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I didn't find it that easy to set up 😅

    but I'm sure I would find it easier if I was more motivated e.g. saving $750 by setting it up 😅

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    How much do you donate to jellyfin? If I sum up my 20 bucks per year for the next 50 years, I end up with 1000 bucks. If I wanted to pay today, I'd donate even more to jellyfin. (Neglecting inflation)

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (2 children)

    I haven't looked at Emby in a long time. Last I checked, it wasn't as capable or feature rich as Jellyfin or Plex

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