This is all a fascinating thread because everyone says Plex “just works”

I started using jellyfin about 6 months ago. I don’t really know anything about plex use. However, jellyfin worked out of the box for me. Set up with a docker container and have never had any problems with it.

Its never failed to load media, or loaded duplicates or any of the other random things others have mentioned here.

For the most part it feels like people in the thread have just used Plex for a long time and had their first impression of jellyfin years ago and probably haven’t checked it out since.

Which, fair play to them, life gets busy and setting up and migrating a media library is something that takes at least a couple hours which could be spent doing anything else.

If people are new, I’m sure they won’t even bother with Plex and their ridiculously high fees. I cannot see Plex maintaining their userbase at this rate.

With them unable to maintain their userbase, I give it a year before they cancel lifetime passes and 2 years or so before it’s completely enshitified and unusable.

Jellyfin is great and I run both. However, sharing access with family is a PITA compared to Plex. I paid for Plex Pass lifetime at the $75 and have no reason to fully move. Keeping Jellyfin around in case Plex tries to rug pull lifetime passes, though.

Like most people here I bought a lifetime pass years ago and Plex just works (it passes the Wife Acceptance Test).

However, I am planning on spinning up Jellyfin and giving it a go and seeing what it’s like. I’m a bit nervous reading and things like multiple versions of the same movie displaying separately but I also think I saw a plugin that fixes that.

I used Emby for a couple years right before they went closed source which spawned Jellyfin and it was fine in some area (though not as polished) and better in others, but securely sharing remotely was always a huge hurdle which is not something they’ve found a solution for.

I have a lifetime pass so I have no reason to switch as of yet. Migrating people over like my elderly parents is going to be a nightmare if it ever comes to that.

I tried to switch, about a year ago. Playback stuttered and or completely failed more often than not, on content which worked fine as-is in Plex.

I tried Jellyfin once about a year ago and it was… OK I guess? Certainly nowhere near as polished as the rabid fan base would have me believe, and there was something in my library that it flat out refused to play.

If I didn’t already have a lifetime Plex Pass, and it was just me hosting my own media for a user count of one, then sure, I’d use it. But none of those things are true. I need something that “just works” and Plex fits that bill.

Like most people here, I bought a lifetime pass when it was $75 and it’s paid for itself over and over again in the time since. I honestly think I’ve had more than $750 worth of value from my purchase. Sure they’ve made some odd decisions recently, but until they start actively taking away functionality or rescind existing lifetime subs then I will continue to use it.

Meanwhile, not to belittle you personally, but the fact that every thread that mentions Plex in any way, good or bad, is guaranteed to be dominated by people circle-jerking over their beloved Jellyfin has put me completely off the project, to the point that I’ve had to add the word to my blocklist. Obviously that’s not working too well or I wouldn’t have seen this post!

Lifetime pass, it still works well so why would I switch?

After 22 hours and 291 comments, I can see that 80% is sunk cost, 15% never bothered to look at their Jellyfin client’s settings, and the rest use a device that doesn’t have a client for Jellyfin yet.

I don’t have a lifetime pass; I pay the monthly subscription. I would prefer to use Jellyfin, but Plex works better and the Jellyfin app on Apple TV is abysmal. That’s pretty much it. If Jellyfin worked better, I’d switch, but I’m not suffering through it for some principle against paying for software.

To add on to the top post: with Plex you only need 1 account and can exchange access to multiple servers. I can browse all the media my account has access to with ease.

Jellyfin needs an account per server. If the client multiplexed between them seamlessly, that would probably be fine enough. But it would be nice if they supported some method of federation.

And Jellyfin has a list of CVEs that they haven’t addressed in years, which makes not want to make it visible outside my network.

I want to ditch Plex, but this is the primary sticking point for me. No criticism to the Jellyfin devs btw, they’re doing the lord’s work, I have nothing but respect for them.

Another minor one is that the Plex app works with a controller on my bazzite HTPC, but the Jellyfin one was hit or miss. I could get it to work once, and then the next day the controller would do nothing and the UI would be acting weird. I will go back and try it periodically to see if it’s ready, but last time I checked it wasn’t.

I use Plex to save money on plumbers because I cannot solder. Plex gives me the ability to exact repairs myself.

I like Plex.

When I bought my Plex lifetime pass I saw it as an investment. So far, it’s paid off handsomely.

I’m still getting great experiences, able to access it from anywhere in the world, on basically any device, seamlessly and simply.

I get it that the jellyfin community is really excited about their thing - I just am not.

I’ve run jellyfin, it was kind of cool I guess, but there was nothing compelling about it. So I uninstalled it. What is jellyfin’s “must have” feature, anyway?

I wouldn’t go out and build a new car when I’m perfectly happy with my 10-year old sedan. If you’re expecting me to go through that just because the new ones cost more than I spent years ago, you’re insane. I wouldn’t go and re paint my house just because the old company now charges new customers more for their paint.

I paid for it, it works well. There’s no reason (except all the FUD I keep seeing on lemmy,) to even think about dismantling and recreating it with something new.

Keep building your dream tool Jellyfin people - Godspeed, but your community should target acquiring net-new users instead of trying to scare and poach happy users away from what they already have.

I started with jellyfin, and eventually let my partner convince me to pay for a lifetime pass for Plex. Plex just has better functionality. Not only can I access my library from anywhere, the subtitles work without fiddling with different srt files, the error messages are much more descriptive, and I find the documentation for adding OTA antenna and DVR functionality much more comprehensible with Plex.

I like jellyfin for what it is, but Plex makes it all work with far less headache and much better support. So Plex wins, in my mind for now.

And with all that being said, I got my Plex lifetime pass a few years ago, so the value I have will not be the same as yours if you are just now starting to consider Plex, so I can understand why you might have a different opinion

Jellyfin doesn’t have a client/app for my Samsung Frame TV

Kodi yo… Although my YouTube addon stopped working recently. aggg…