Jellyfin has much better Syncplay than plex
release announcement:
Is there some trick to get it to work properly? Everytime I tried to use it, it works fine for like 10 minutes and then everyone desyncs to hell.
It’s still better than Plex’s which didn’t work at all though.
Ah, strange.
I’ve never had any issues, but I also haven’t used it in a while.
Might be related to transcoding/sub-burning? https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-web/issues/6210
“We’ve spent two years requiring our apps from the ground up to boost our development speed, which should enable us to bring new features to you more efficiently, across more platforms,”
… “and that’s why we’re deleting a bunch of features never to bring them back. Because we’re just so efficient!” Crazy how many companies use this awful excuse.
Also is that a misquote by the author or did they really write “requiring”?
More often than not that is corporate speak for “we fired the old team and replaced them with cheaper workers. And we didn’t want to pay them to learn the old code/they tried but failed, so we are dumping features now”
Removing old features so we can bring them back as paid features later on.
Misquotes are unlikely thanks to copy-paste. The post from Plex has been edited, so I think it was to correct that typo.
Ah, that makes sense. I didn’t realize we had asked for a new UI, here I was thinking we just wanted basic quality of life updates
It’s wild to me. I’ve been in software development for almost 8 years now. The number one thing that we’re told across both companies (one small company and one huge company) is to not remove existing features or APIs.
Lack of feature parity is the number one thing holding so many people back from switching to Jellyfin. Of Plex is going to start deleting beloved features, a lot of minds will be made up very quick.
Honestly, the two reasons I’ve been sticking with Plex is the federated/shared libraries and watch together.
If they’re starting to axe those then I see no reason to continue using it.
Jellyfin has had sync play for a long time
Ada is a Jellyfin user? We’re in good hands.
Jellyfin has this, but it’s kinda busted: https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-syncplay. There was one guy working on it and he apparently vanished. It still does work for some use-cases but be prepared for some rough edges.
Maybe someone will pick up the torch now that Plex is axing it?
I really try to move to Jellyfin, but there’s always some papercuts that block me. Tried it last weekend again, and:
- It just can’t find most of my movies in the NAS share. They never appear in the library.
- The music player cannot play all my files. DSF files are transcoded to AAC. Also finamp streams AAC and not Opus, and uses more data than Plexamp did.
I also tried Navidrome for music. Weirdly it had hiccups playing some files, and DSF was again a problem.
I really want to get out from Plex, but I use Plexamp so much and it handles my huge music library really well it’s hard to switch :(
All my media is shared from a Raspberry Pi 4 with a HDD attached to it via NFS. Jellyfin runs as a container on a cheap Chinese mini pc I got off AliExpress. I’ve not had any issues over the network. It even transcodes on a share of the Pi as my SSD that has Jellyfin on is too small for larger movies.
Plexamp right now is the biggest reason I have not even thought of moving to something else. I have yet to see a music player that comes close to the features Plexamp has.
Hard agree. PlexAmp has been stellar.
I loved the idea of navidrome and also briefly ran an instance, and like you use plexamp heavily. I stopped using Navi because one day it broke, and I found the plexamp experience just better.
Maybe it’s time to try again.
Although Plex is running on your server it isn’t there to do what you want… unless Plex’s real owner permits it.
That’s how proprietary software works.
I’ll sadly have to keep using Plex until jellyfish makes library sharing simple.
I have like 10 different family members using my server. If I have to do anything beyond just letting them log in to a plex account on the app to get access, they just won’t.
I have like 10 different family members using my server. If I have to do anything beyond just letting them log in to a plex account on the app to get access, they just won’t.
Umm that is all you need to do with jellyfin. You can setup wizarr and give them invites to create an account or just manually make them and give out the info to people.
Yup, took my SO like 10s to get on our Jellyfin server. No issues here.
Isn’t it trivial to run both? You just point them at the same library right?
I haven’t tried Plex but Jellyfin is super easy. Type in IP, username and password and you’re done. Only need to setup port forwarding on the router to make it work.
You need a network level solution. You could pickup a few cheap single board computers and setup Tailscale or Netbird to route traffic back to your server.
I’ve been in a multi year process to move my users off plex onto jellyfin. They just keep doing things I’m not a fan of
Jellyfin is absolute dogshit though.
Sauce: I just installed it on my media server that concurrently runs plex. I run the app on a fire tv cube to use it… and it crashes* constantly.
Edit: More stuff :)
-My media library when imported immediately showed seasons of shows as separate shows, it doesn’t intelligently automatically merge it like Plex would.
-Subtitle options are not consistent or robust. I MUST have subtitles due to having a multilingual family which is largely ESL, if they speak English at all. This is the problem I tried moving to jellyfin to fix.
Works great here, and my users are very happy with it. Not disputing your experience, just saying it’s not universal.
Could be a compatibility issue with amazon’s android fork? I have only used the android client on google pixel, samsung phones and AOSP builds.
I had a few metadata issues with Jellyfin until I changed the primary metadata source to be the same as what Radarr/Sonarr use so they all the file names match up and I’ve had no issues since.
I also don’t have a notable issues with subtitles in Jellyfin, but maybe your requirements have more friction. Have you tried the (iirc included by default) Jellyfin plugin to automatically download subtitles for your stuff? Or the *arr program that handles subtitles (I forget its name)?
I’ve been lucky I guess to have no issues or at least major issues. I find small bugs here and there and report them and usually get fixed in a minor release or two. Once Jellyfin has Native 2fa I’ll fully cut off Plex and be completely moved over
people still use plex after the last sneaky they pulled?
I paid for a lifetime pass like six years ago or more. It was definitely before Jellyfin was well known or well developed.
I’m probably gonna keep using it until they do the whole “lifetime is over” crap these kind of companies usually do.
I’ll at least have gotten my moneys worth.
I paid for the lifetime pass maybe, 10 years ago? I dunno, it’s been a very long time. It’s still my primary. I’ve been trialing Jellyfin, but there are still enough quirks that my wife (non-techie at all) won’t put up with, so yeah. That, and Plex makes it too easy to share outside my house, not sure where Jellyfin is at with it. I appreciate Jellyfin for what it is though, it has a lot of potential.
Just because you paid for it doesn’t mean you can’t switch to the better, free option.
Jellyfin is nowhere near the better option, it’s just a not-terrible dev.
Plex is refined and easy to get external users not familiar with tech up and running. Plex looks better. Plex transcodes better.
No hate for Jellyfin, just calling it how I see it.
I paid for it and literally never used it.
What sneaky?
Got a plex lifetime sub like 7 years ago… As soon as Jellyfin allows downloads for offline viewing, I’m jumping ship. I know I’ll have to figure out TV listing data for OTA recordings, but that seems like a small price to pay. I’ve already got Jellyfin setup and running in my Kubernetes cluster for my video backups, but plex thus far “just works”.
As soon as Jellyfin allows downloads for offline viewing
Time to jump ship then…
I know Findroid allows easy downloading and offline watching. Fladder (another newer Android client) also has downloading, haven’t tried it myself yet.
The android app has had downloads for years, they just download the entire file to your phone.
Streamyfin is a newer android app that also works very well with downloads.
For music, offline play is already available via Finamp. For everything else I’m personally making due with the regular Download feature that just gives yout the raw files. But then again it doesn’t really come up often, since I don’t really consume anything but audiobooks when I’m on the go.
I’ve had a Lifetime PlexPass since 2013, so I’ve definitely had my moneys worth and then some, but for the last 2 years I’ve been dual wielding Jellyfin and watching it slowly get to the point where I can move over entirely.
I’m 100% Jellyfin now for my personal playback at home, and will be transitioning users over to it as soon as it gets a few more user management features for remote users.
As soon as Jellyfin allows downloads for offline viewing, I’m jumping ship.
Gotta provide details. Don’t leave us hanging.
What hell is wrong with these idiots?
They took private investment.
Don’t spend time maintaining niche features seems smart.
I would agree if the features they did work on made sense.
How come every time I open Plex there is another social media integration, yet device downloads haven’t worked for literal years.
Plex itself is niche software, offering niche features is why Plex gained popularity, watch together is a great feature, I often use when I’m cleaning house so I can watch a show even as I move around rooms, same thing when cooking, which let’s the person in the kitchen watch while others may be in the living room.
Lame. I’ve used this feature a lot. It feels like such a basic thing to include.
SharePlay is a standard feature in Apple devices, and it handles it. But only in supported apps.
The pandemic showed how nice such a feature can be for a lot of people.
Switch to jellyfin, it’s really at the point where it’s ready for everyone
I run both Plex and Jellyfin. Jellyfin is ready for everyone who doesn’t have to deal with the Mother-in-Law Factor. Plex has an easy setup process, and I could walk my MIL through it on my phone. In 5 minutes, her TV was connected to my server.
Jellyfin isn’t to that point yet, and likely never will be. Since there’s no centralized server for an app to phone home to, there’s no way to create a unified account creation/login experience. Jellyfin is nice as a “just for me” server. But as soon as I have to help others use it, it becomes a nightmare. Walking my MIL through setting up Jellyfin on her TV was the reason I re-installed Plex in the first place.
I had finally converted my wife away from using paid streaming apps, and dealt with all of the “Why do I have to use three different apps to access it on my three different devices? They all look different and are harder to use” complaints. By the time it got around to my MIL, I was tired of dealing with it and just reinstalled Plex so people could have a consistent experience.
I still use Jellyfin for my personal viewing because I prefer it. But saying “just ditch Plex, Jellyfin is ready now” is a little disingenuous. Jellyfin is ready for the people who want to use it. But if you’re trying to convince people to ditch their streaming apps, you’re fighting a lot of social inertia. You need to be able to provide a consistent experience across their different devices, with a decent login experience. And Jellyfin definitely isn’t there yet.
Thank you for being a voice of reason. People here are completely out of touch from reality
Lemmy has a lot of really outspoken FOSS enthusiasts. It sort of goes hand in hand with the whole “anyone can spin up their own instance” idea that Lemmy is built upon. Same reason there are so many Linux users here. But that also means you need to take any sort of “just switch to the FOSS version it’s basically the same thing” posts with a grain of salt.
I tried spinning up my own Lemmy instance. Everything was configured properly, but I could not get it working. Mind you, I run lots of things that take more than a drop-in compose.yml, so I’m not sure what I was doing wrong 🤔
I dunno, I found it easier to move my family to JF.
I made them a bunch of accounts and sent them via signal.
For my mum I logged in as her and configured everything how she would want.
I didnt have to explain to anybody that remote stream needs to be unlimited bandwidth for better performance.
If mum forgets her password I can reset it.
To log her TV in we used quick connect where I had her enter the 6 digit code on the tv.
We used SyncPlay to watch a movie together.
Jellyfin is not there yet but it definitely can be. It can be done pretty easily without any centralised server.
- Sending people magic links to their accounts on their phones that auto log them into Jellyfin.
- Make IP dictionary to have people type “cat mug door end” which pings the server with a login from an IP.
- Show QR code.
- Scan with an authorised app which pings the server to authorise the device on behalf of the user.
It’s passwordless 4 word input + phone scan that can be optimised for TV pretty heavily since you only need make something 10^12 unique to account for all IPv4.
It will take around 15-30 hours to code though for a person familiar with Jellyfin on android TV and server.
I’m in the same boat, I use Jellyfin where I can but Plex is still so much better for sharing, especially with non-technical people so I run both. Really hoping the Jellyfin folks realize they can sell a relay service to make some money and fund their development to improve the app. Seems to be working well for Homeassistant!
It’s really not hard though, it’s just entering a domain name. If you pick a decent one, it can be very memorable.
All of my stuff is at “thing.domain.com.” For Jellyfin, it’s “media.mydomain.com.” Nextcloud is “cloud.mydomain.com.” Actual Budget is “budget.domain.com.” Enter that, then you’re good. Repeat on any device.
Is that really a barrier for people? Surely this is sufficient:
- Install Jellyfin app
- Enter domain.com
- Login
Do that once and you’re good pretty much forever.
I’ve used the website, android app, and WebOS app, and they all work pretty similarly, not sure what’s confusing there.
Is the Plex experience significantly different?
I’m seeing a lot of love for Jellyfin in the comments. Seems like Jellyfin is finally mature enough to give a real shot.
Does anyone know how Emby is doing in relation to Plex feature parity?
Emby I feel is more mature then jellyfin in the sense of every device my family or I have just works on emby but has some issues on jellyfin. Also emby has features closer to plex that jellyfin doesn’t have, like offline downloads and, at least in the emby beta, smart playlists. Jellyfin gives you more settings options for things like transcoding and per user settings than emby or plex. Both programs do some things better than plex too, like scheduling individual server tasks or outright disabling them. Overall from my experience a direct competitor to plex right now is emby while I would say a few more features are needed for jellyfin to be a direct competitor.
Maybe I’m not understanding offline downloads, but I’m able to download media on jellyfin and watch it offline.
Do you mean on an iPhone or android device or only on pc? And have it set to download x amount of episodes and when you watch an episode download the next one automatically? When I checked out jellyfin a few months ago that wasn’t a feature
I’m doing it on my android. Don’t have an iPhone to debug sadly. I click on the three dots next to the episode and it is an option there. Just checked and I can also do it by the season. I am on an administrator account
That’s interesting, I wonder why no one in these comments mentioned it if it’s a bit farther along than Jellyfin. Maybe just good word-of-mouth marketing?
Jellyfin is actually open source and free. Totally self hosted. Emby is closed source and has a licensing model similar to Plex’s.
Ah, that would do it! Thanks for the information.
I have had a plex instance but when they started adding their own movies and crapola into it, and requiring logins and etc etc etc I started keeping a Jellyfin instance live as a hedge. I still use Plex primarily, but use Jellyfin and keep it patched just in case. If there’s any kind of ugly action with Plex, I feel like my bets are pretty well hedged. Plex definitely has a lot more polish than Jellyfin, but I wouldn’t doubt if there is a rug-pull in some way or another. After all, Plex sold a bunch of lifetime subscriptions ONCE but they still end up paying to support those. Sooner or later they are going to want more money again.
It was a cool idea, but I could never get it to sync everyone’s playback properly without constant buffering for all involved. We just sync manually by counting down from 3.
Dang that’s sucks, I never used it but it’s neat in concept
Good thing I chose jellyfin over plex. This is the main reason I got jellyfin.
