my lifetime pass for jellyfin cost me $0, pretty good value
I didn’t get into self-hosting until recently, and people recommended Jellyfin, so I don’t even know what I’m missing with Plex, if anything. It feels like Jellyfin does everything I need.
You’re missing getting to pay for it. Imagine how good it would feel to see $750 less in your bank account.
You got the arr stack up too? Feels like magic when it’s all setup
No, not yet. I took forever to manually rip what I have, which was a lot, and I’m still working my way through boxes of music (which I’m also hosting on Jellyfin). I’ll figure out that step next.
Ah fair, just take your time and feel free to ask
It does feel magical :D
I felt the same way with my Kodi installs, I had a pi in every room that used a shared library db so I could pause in one room and resume somewhere else, nfs shares for media, a config file and done.
I bought a lifetime Plex pass a decade or so ago and shifted everything except my music to Jellyfin about a year ago. Now I’m looking into dispatcharr to round everything out.
You’re missing the early days when plex lifetime pass was ~$50usd and jellyfin wasn’t a thing (that I know of). I believe Kodi was the only real competitor at the time, and it was much less friendly.
Plex has slowly moved in a less user friendly direction, but still meets my needs and I’ve easily gotten over $750 in value from the…almost 20 years, wow…I’ve been using it.
Apparently they are going to DOUBLE that amount every year! Outrageous!
Ha, I came here to make this joke.
Ok, you got dibs on this joke next time plex raises prices
Couldn’t pay me to use that software lol
Used Kodi and now using Jellyfin.
almost a fucking grand for a media server that you host yourself, and only really rely on their login servers for. Can anyone else say “enshittification”?
It’s still hilarious to me that Plex, a project forked from the XBMC (now Kodi) free open-source app for organizing and playing one’s own entirely legally obtained video files, is a big streaming business thing that charges people money.
It’s like finding a tree in the forest that gives out infinite free apples, and then setting up an apple-selling table right next to it stocked with apples you obviously got from that tree.
No… it’s like picking up those apples, shipping them across the country, and then charging customers a delivery fee. Which is perfectly reasonable because time and fuel cost money.
Plex helps you (and others) stream from your library pretty brainlessly. Sure there are other options, but all of them are more complicated.
This is it. People have always paid for convenience.
Just look at console vs PC gaming.
Steamdeck made Linux gaming mainstream because it’s brainless. Backed by proton.
But console has a vice grip on some communities / groups due to a long standing “plug and play” sales pitch. Now they’re stuck because “my friends are there.”
My brother-in-law is a sysadmin and stuck on Playstation due to his friends. Doesn’t even own a gaming PC because “he doesn’t have the time to tinker.”
I’ve never used any of the features they’ve added after they allowed me to host my library of ripped optical media ~2013-2014.
I think software subscriptions are a scam, but I don’t mind buying a perpetual license that is only good up to a certain version with additional fees for newer versions. It’s also fair to charge a recurring fee for something that has recurring hosting costs like a VPN, cloud storage, etc.
If they weren’t such dipshits, the “lifetime pass” should have been a perpetual license you can keep using as long as you want, but charge an optional fee for newer versions if you want to upgrade and get more features. They should also have offered a hosted service to make your instance available to others and charge a monthly fee for that. I think people would’ve been fine with all that.
Well I don’t like seeing well reasoned, thoughtful comments in my hate thread. We are supposed to be kicking them while they’re down! Not pointing out how a small change would ameliorate the issue and fix everything!
Nothing can ameliorate the ineptitude of
Principal SkinnerPlex.
I’ve always thought the licensing for Jetbrains IDEs is a pretty fair way of licensing software. If you stop subscribing you still get access to the last version of the software you paid for but you don’t get new versions anymore. And if you stay subscribed you get a loyalty discount after your first and second years. So it provides an incentive to stay subscribed long term but if you do leave you still get access perpetually to the last version you bought
I think thats really fair too. I might adopt that for my startup.
I use a package at work that lets you update within the major version. So you won’t get the bells and whistles of the new one, but you’ll get security updates and big fixes for 2 years or so. After that, you’re using a mature and polished product that you can ride another 10 years if you want.
I think part of the issue with moving from physical media as a form of software distribution is that people ship buggy software all the time. In addition to making more money via subscription, the company can ship updates whenever it wants. This often means that 1.x may have bugs still present in 1.z, but 1.z has features not originally included in 1.x. At a certain point you’re maintaining several versions of your product to test bug fixes, since 1.x users still deserve the bugs fixes but technically shouldn’t have the 1.z features. Better companies would be able to handle that, but nowadays bug fixes get extremely low priority since they’re spending a lot of dev time trying to attract and retain users with shiny new features, so that means active development on older versions for longer. Obviously the subscription revenue is also generally appealing.
My software for work operates this way. You buy a license, it just works. They add new features, and you pay to upgrade. They never add features that break it. It seems like a reasonable model.
Wow… Rough! I get they’ve “added value” over time, but they’ve also enshittified it too…
If only Jellyfin were simpler to setup for the masses…
If only Jellyfin were simpler yo setup for the masses…
This.
I got in on Plex Pass at $150 so it’s a no-brainer to keep it up for my friends and family who are less tech inclined, but I’m running it concurrently with Jellyfin on my server.
Wait. Jellyfin’s client isn’t any harder to set up than Plex…
It very much is on some TVs. While there are apps in the corresponding store for Roku, WebOS, Android TV, and Xbox, that still leaves out Playstation and Samsung for instance. Samsung has more than 50% marketshare of premium TVs.
While you can install an app by jumping through hoops, it’s not an easy one click install which is what average users need. You can install a Jellyfin server by clicking next a bunch of times. You can get your media there by dragging and dropping it into the media folder. You can install the TV app on most TVs just as easily, but for Samsung you need to do all sorts of extra steps.
A quick Google does give step by step instructions on reddit for instance… but it requires users to download a specific version of Tizen Studio with the CLI (which most people are scared of, they need a GUI to use their devices). They need to connect to their TV remotely via that tool. They need to generate and install security certificates. They need to get specific versions of the Tizen Jellyfin app, that aren’t managed by the Jellyfin team, from a random Github. Then rename those files to extract them, inject their certificate, rebuild the package, and send it to the TV remotely… all in the CLI.
That is WAYYYYYY too complicated for the average person. Even with the step by step instructions, people skip steps and skim things without even thinking about it. Most people can barely click next a bunch of times to install things without messing it up somehow. Anyone who’s ever worked support can tell you that. My parents and probably half my friends would NEVER be able to follow those instructions without messing it up to connect to my server. And that even assumes they have a PC to run the software in the first place, many people no longer have a PC, they just have their phone and maybe a tablet.
On the other hand, Plex has an app in the Tizen store. Emby, which Jellyfin was forked from, also has a Tizen app in the store. Those people can just go and click install and they’re done.
Jellyfin has actually been on the Tizen store since February
It’s in the list on samsungs website
Next youre gonna offer a solution for accessing a Jellyfin server without installing a whole vpn along with it?
I just raw dog it. Opened up a port. Keep my server updated, and hoping for the best
Not so much a solution… But using a wireguard overlay network such as Netbird does make it simpler to connect smart devices to a VPN as you don’t need to install a wireguard client on each device
Your information is outdated.
Ah yes, by… 3 months. After over a decade of no support.
Not in my experience, but I keep my Plex up for my brother. I shifted away personally a year or so ago because I couldn’t watch at work anymore (despite self hosting, login still requires a connection to Plex… Which is blocked at work). With Jellyfin, I can just auth against my Authentik server.
But how do you encrypt remote streams? That’s the issue with JF, outside the home there’s no streaming encryption, so what’s to stop you from DMCA notices? For some family, were running a Wireguard VPN through Ubiquiti but nobody else can with ease. At least not that I’m aware of.
Best solution is probably what those commercial pirates do -buy a bunch of cheap android boxes and pre-configure with your choice of client and VPN, then hand those out. Something goes wrong, they bring it back.
That’s… Actually not a bad idea 🤔
Nobody is going to deep inspect your home packets.
There’s a big difference between running a piracy home server between you and your friends and downloading torrents where you announce to everybody that you have that particular file.
So you just run a bunch of insecure connections to your home network?
Yes. What’s the problem of that? It’s just HTTP instead of HTTPS. And it’s just movies, not private data that I’m afraida a man-in-the-middle attack could spy on the other end.
I don’t know why you have trouble with this. Everything runs through the same SSL protected connection. Router -> Nginx Proxy Manager w/ TLS -> Jellyfin.
Just use a reverse proxy. Everything goes over https.
The reason Jellyfin is harder to set up is because they don’t run TURN servers. Those cost a lot of money, hence why Plex keeps raising their prices. I wouldn’t be surprised if Plex’ “lifetime” subscriptions didn’t last for much longer.
That being said, Jellyfin is fairly easy to set up. You just have to watch some tutorials.
I’m waiting for plex to announce that lifetime subscriptions don’t cover certain features like secure connect, and that those features will require an addon if enabled. The writing is on the wall.
Does that affect me if I already use my own reverse proxy or Cloudflared? I think not.
At that point, if you have your own reverse proxy, just use Jellyfin.
I would… If I didn’t have my Plex pass lifetime subscription since 2020, and several friends using it with my Arr and Decypharr setup.
I had zip experience self hosting home lab or with linux. I messed around in ubuntu for a couple weeks then just ran the commands on the jellyfin documentation for setup.
It mostly just worked. Web ui started right up and i loaded my library. So glad i never touched plex.
This is almost certainly a ploy to get an influx of buyers before the cutoff of July.
They want to round up all the people that they think were considering a lifetime pass, but were holding out.
I guarantee you when July comes they’re going to reduce the cost to somewhere less than $750 and much closer to the current price due to “we listen to our customers” when really it was the plan all along.
They’re using the Decoy Effect and FOMO.
Or maybe they want monthly/annual/whatever subscribers, not lifetime, and so they’re making the lifetime pass prohibitively expensive. I have a lifetime pass I purchased a few years ago but after running Jellyfin alongside Plex for a few months, I don’t think I could recommend Plex to anyone who simply wants to host their own media.
Jellyfin Lifetime Pass continues to be better value.
I heard their quadrupling their lifetime membership.
Oh bugger, I might actually have to start still paying nothing
Jellyfin: free Cloudflared: free
While Cloudflare tunnels do work, streaming Jellyfin through them is technically against their TOS and they could shut you down for doing so. Instead, I recommend setting up Pangolin with a cheap VPS. Although, it will cost ~$5 a month or so.
You don’t have to use a tunnel, for example I use a reverse proxy to a domain I own, and set a cache rule so cloudflare doesn’t get mad.
I really need to take a weekend to learn Jellyfin and set it up in my environment.
Duckdns is free too
I have a static IP (didn’t particularly want it but my ISP required it for port forwarding for some reason). I’m not currently hosting anything, at least not anything externally accessible, but when I did I had a tiny AWS instance configured as a reverse proxy to a separate reverse proxy VM in my house. It worked for me and if anything I hosted ever got compromised it escaped my notice.
However, I think the advantage of using something like Cloudflare rather than the way I did it (and as it sounds like you might) is threat mitigation. Especially stuff like DDoS protection.
Turns out, lifetime is difficult to budget for
It would be fine if Plex wasn’t hooked on VC capital and needed to make the line go up constantly. Most self-hosters like me have zero interest in what they are funding with subscriptions.
I saw this email and it just read as a desperate cash grab for a company that doesnt plan to be around in 3 more years. Pathetic.
As if there weren’t enough reasons to use jellyfin already.
People still use plex?
I do. It works well enough and my grandmother doesn’t have to configure Tailscale. Would I buy a lifetime pass today? Hell no. But I got in early, so why not?
Next step will be to turn every lifetime pass into a 20 year pass or smth.
Then I still have 10 years in mine, maybe Jellyfin can manage to catch up to Plex in that time
Yes millions
Yes. I prefer Jellyfin, but I have three friends with media servers and Plex is the only way to easily connect to all of them at the same time.
I wish Jellyfin had a federation feature.
WireGuard. Done.
Good luck installing Wireguard on my mom’s LG webOS TV.
Point the tv to a pi acting as a WireGuard proxy. It’s not hard.
Jellyfin has been very slow for me and buggy especially when it comes to UI and if you try anything fancy like the sync play stuff. I tried it again not long ago and it just pales in comparison. Don’t get me wrong as a free offering it’s fantastic but I paid for a lifetime sub for Plex years ago, this just works.
I have literally none of those issues and I’ve run it on Ryzen desktops and pi’s. It’s fast and light and zippy. There something wrong with your setup.
Yea man sure, apples to apples ran it on the same hardware as Plex, yet Plex doesn’t have any issues with playback or slowness.
This does not disprove my point.
To be clear, you still need your own HW and electricity, right?
Wait, ya’ll are paying for Plex??
Paid 70€ maybe a decade ago
Best bang for buck so far
