I’ve been a Plex user since the very early days, before they even broke it apart as a client/server app and it was just an xbmc port for OS X. I recently tried Jellyfin, which seems to have the most buzz around it and it wasn’t a good experience.
I was running both on the same hardware (Synology NAS via docker), and using the same client device (AppleTV). Jellyfin was painfully slow, via the native web interface to the point of being nearly unusable. On the AppleTV I tried both Swiftfin and Infuse. Swiftfin was painfully slow to the point of being unusable. Infuse was better once the caches loaded, but that took several hours of just navigating around the app. Once I did, the interface wasn’t one I liked and I seem to remember having issues with adding new files. I also has play back issues in one or more of the apps, I think.
As much as I’ve been concerned about the direction of Plex, it seems like the alternative isn’t up to the task. I remember installing the first version of Plex server probably over 15 years ago and it was smooth and fun to watch, with movie posters turned over as it loaded them in. Jellyfin felt like a chore.
Needless to say, I’m back on Plex. I’ll still keep an eye on alternatives in the space, but I’m really disappointed with all the people who have been shouting the Jellyfin name from the rooftops, saying it’s better than Plex. That was not my experience at all. Maybe on a much more powerful system, with a much smaller library? I’d love to see it become great, but it feels like they have a long way to go to really nail the basics while remaining performant.
I have something like 420+ movies on my Jellyfin system (on an old Mac Mini 2011 running Debian 12). I've enabled the file watcher so as soon as the movie is added to the folder, it's scanned and added to the library. I'm using Infuse on Apple TV and it works pretty great.
I only used Plex to access local media from the computer in another room on the TV. Plex seemed to actively work against such uses and got progressively worse for me.
Now use Jellyfin, which was difficult because our hisense tv only had Plex (had to 'hack' it to sideload), but at the server end (just a desktop running Kubuntu in the same subnet) has been great. Works well for me, just as Plex did 10(?) years ago.
I quit Plex years ago because I didn't like them shoving their FAST [1] offering down my throat. I suffered with Jellyfin for two years and never got it to work right -- movie night with the family was always a humiliation. If you go back to my posting in that time frame you will see a lot of bitching about XBOX which was really bitching about Jellyfin on XBOX for which they tried all kinds of things to make it work and said it was better every time and it wasn't.
I spent a lot of the summer of 2024 watching Tubi in the room of the other house with a stray cat that I failed to domesticate and figured FAST wasn't so bad after all. Last winter I switched back to Plex and I am so delighted with it. It's a consumer electronics experience to watch content off my server or FAST or live OTA TV or recorded OTA TV with a game console. With Plexamp I can listen to music off my server wherever I go on my phone and either listen to albums and tracks I choose or use the 'Deep Cuts' recommender which is just great because it challenges me to listen to stuff I don't always listen to.
That said, there's nothing more I dread than having to change my password on mobile and game console like devices -- one thing I really relish is being able to watch TV and movies on my game console and not have to log in every time (like it is watching DVDs) which was one of the many ways Jellyfin failed.
I've got Emby running here - selected for no better reason than several of my friends run it. I'd consider switching to Jellyfin if there were reasonable evidence showing that Emby was run by the Plex people - or if they started showing obvious signs of the enshittification playbook...
Related:
Plex Security Incident - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45174707
What are some Plex alternatives? I never wanted a Plex account in the first place but remember being forced to set one up to continue using the app.
I’ve been a Plex user since the very early days, before they even broke it apart as a client/server app and it was just an xbmc port for OS X. I recently tried Jellyfin, which seems to have the most buzz around it and it wasn’t a good experience.
I was running both on the same hardware (Synology NAS via docker), and using the same client device (AppleTV). Jellyfin was painfully slow, via the native web interface to the point of being nearly unusable. On the AppleTV I tried both Swiftfin and Infuse. Swiftfin was painfully slow to the point of being unusable. Infuse was better once the caches loaded, but that took several hours of just navigating around the app. Once I did, the interface wasn’t one I liked and I seem to remember having issues with adding new files. I also has play back issues in one or more of the apps, I think.
As much as I’ve been concerned about the direction of Plex, it seems like the alternative isn’t up to the task. I remember installing the first version of Plex server probably over 15 years ago and it was smooth and fun to watch, with movie posters turned over as it loaded them in. Jellyfin felt like a chore.
Needless to say, I’m back on Plex. I’ll still keep an eye on alternatives in the space, but I’m really disappointed with all the people who have been shouting the Jellyfin name from the rooftops, saying it’s better than Plex. That was not my experience at all. Maybe on a much more powerful system, with a much smaller library? I’d love to see it become great, but it feels like they have a long way to go to really nail the basics while remaining performant.
I have something like 420+ movies on my Jellyfin system (on an old Mac Mini 2011 running Debian 12). I've enabled the file watcher so as soon as the movie is added to the folder, it's scanned and added to the library. I'm using Infuse on Apple TV and it works pretty great.
I only used Plex to access local media from the computer in another room on the TV. Plex seemed to actively work against such uses and got progressively worse for me.
Now use Jellyfin, which was difficult because our hisense tv only had Plex (had to 'hack' it to sideload), but at the server end (just a desktop running Kubuntu in the same subnet) has been great. Works well for me, just as Plex did 10(?) years ago.
Jellyfin - an almost direct replacement of plex Emby - IMOO the best replacement if Plex is not viable
I quit Plex years ago because I didn't like them shoving their FAST [1] offering down my throat. I suffered with Jellyfin for two years and never got it to work right -- movie night with the family was always a humiliation. If you go back to my posting in that time frame you will see a lot of bitching about XBOX which was really bitching about Jellyfin on XBOX for which they tried all kinds of things to make it work and said it was better every time and it wasn't.
I spent a lot of the summer of 2024 watching Tubi in the room of the other house with a stray cat that I failed to domesticate and figured FAST wasn't so bad after all. Last winter I switched back to Plex and I am so delighted with it. It's a consumer electronics experience to watch content off my server or FAST or live OTA TV or recorded OTA TV with a game console. With Plexamp I can listen to music off my server wherever I go on my phone and either listen to albums and tracks I choose or use the 'Deep Cuts' recommender which is just great because it challenges me to listen to stuff I don't always listen to.
That said, there's nothing more I dread than having to change my password on mobile and game console like devices -- one thing I really relish is being able to watch TV and movies on my game console and not have to log in every time (like it is watching DVDs) which was one of the many ways Jellyfin failed.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_ad-supported_streaming_te...
> replacement of plex Emby
Are Plex and Emby related somehow?
I've got Emby running here - selected for no better reason than several of my friends run it. I'd consider switching to Jellyfin if there were reasonable evidence showing that Emby was run by the Plex people - or if they started showing obvious signs of the enshittification playbook...
Jellyfin! Never ever looked back :)
Jellyfin?
What if you use TOTP?