4 reasons Plex is turning into the thing it replaced
4 reasons Plex is turning into the thing it replaced - Android Authority
Plex was once the go-to media server, but growing restrictions and paywalls are pushing users away. Here's why you should consider switching.Karandeep Singh (Android Authority)
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PhAzE
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Technology reshared this.
Scrollone
in reply to PhAzE • • •ඞmir
in reply to Scrollone • • •moopet
in reply to ඞmir • • •PhAzE
in reply to ඞmir • • •Appoxo
in reply to PhAzE • • •That Weird Vegan she/her
in reply to Appoxo • • •PhAzE
in reply to That Weird Vegan she/her • • •That Weird Vegan she/her
in reply to PhAzE • • •PhAzE
in reply to Appoxo • • •Sure, but you also don't have the option to use those features because they don't exist in jellyfin.
In my plex instance, I have discover enabled, and enabled all the streaming services so that discover is populated with all the movies and shows available. Then I have an automation setup so I can search in discover for a movie, and add it to my watchlist, and my automation will automatically download that movie and add it to my library.
I can do it right from my couch, and its WAF approved. Using those bloat features against them, in a way.
But, its just as easy to turn those all off if one doesn't want to utilize them. I'd be annoyed if they forced them on permanently but that's not what plex does, but they sure get a lot of hate for just having those features.
Appoxo
in reply to PhAzE • • •That's a feature I wouldnt want in mine for example.
I just want my stuff and only mine.
But hey: Everyones gotta choose their own. And if youre happy, who am I to judge.
PhAzE
in reply to Appoxo • • •Sure, so you open settings and simply disable those extras. Then you have a nice clean ui with only your libraries. It even cleans up the app when disabled so there's only home and libraries tabs. Nothing more.
I think many people aren't aware all the extras have disable options in plex. Essentially turning it back into plex from years ago.
Appoxo
in reply to PhAzE • • •IMO: Not the point.
Essentially the same discussion here: lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/23054…
Sure, you could do it by turning 5 switches and 2 knobs but mine just does what I tell it to.
(And I don't have to pay for remote access or HWA)
Appoxo
2025-12-09 12:45:26
PhAzE
in reply to Appoxo • • •Great, now how do you deal with 30 remote streamers when your IP changes? Do you have tobsetup extra knobs just to get remote streaming to work? Are your apps refined or still buggy?
I'd personally rather deal with 5 options to turn off in settings than deal with all those extra steps and drawbacks. You really seem to have a huge hate bone for plex, so enjoy your choice, and move on.
Appoxo
in reply to PhAzE • • •I needed it anyway so why not use it also there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
dejected_warp_core
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •I'm going to call it like I saw it, a very long time ago.
You have a product that is basically purpose built to make data hoarding and piracy practical, yet it requires a login with a central service. I don't care what justification anyone thinks makes that worthwhile or even a good compromise. Signaling to any corporate entity that you're in possession of such a thing is a bad idea to begin with. They shouldn't even know you exist. That information, along with anything else you do with the product is compromising to you and can be sold for money if aggregated with everyone else's data.
If you find this rant out of place in our modern world, I'd like to point to the concept of shifting baselines. This didn't used to be normal and nothing short of greed continues the behavior. The technology before this ran/runs without anyone knowing. Consider VLC, or XBMC.
Type of change to how a system is measured
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Technology reshared this.
Scrollone
in reply to dejected_warp_core • • •Korne127
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •like this
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BassTurd
in reply to Korne127 • • •Technology reshared this.
roofuskit
in reply to BassTurd • • •Technology reshared this.
kratoz29
in reply to roofuskit • • •I already have to expose my Plex Media Server with a Tailscsle funnel (for IPv4 only) for IPv6 I use my Synology NAS reverse proxy which can be accessed globally.
I have been maining this setup for years now that I forgot if I can access my PMS outside without either those solutions lol (I am GGNATED but IPv6 works fine as stated).
The main thing here is that I don't need my users to do anything, they just open the app and access it, no need to remember IPs/URLs or install VPNs to my server... Is that possible with Jellyfin as well?
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roofuskit
in reply to kratoz29 • • •Technology reshared this.
kratoz29
in reply to roofuskit • • •Technology reshared this.
Scrollone
in reply to kratoz29 • • •kratoz29
in reply to Scrollone • • •Thanks, that clears everything up for me...
Now if you could set that URL from the server itself and not the client apps... Certainly I don't think that's an impossible task.
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Scrollone
in reply to kratoz29 • • •Xanvial
in reply to kratoz29 • • •For tailscale, I previously use this but needs to add the jellyfin port after the tailscale IP.
Gonzako
in reply to roofuskit • • •oakey66
in reply to BassTurd • • •acosmichippo
in reply to BassTurd • • •like this
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BassTurd
in reply to acosmichippo • • •db2
in reply to BassTurd • • •Tailscale. You don't even need it on the client device, you can get a gl.inet travel router that'll do the work.
Edit: i’M nOt GoInG tO aLl Of My FrIeNdS aNd FaMiLiEs HoUsEs AnD sWaPpInG oUt ThEiR rOuTeRs🤡🤡🤡
Edit 2: people who don't know wtf a travel router does or how to use it, or how nat works at all, but are more than willing to sound off about what they don't know, keep replying because you're helping me keep my feed free of dipshits. ❤️
AmbiguousProps
in reply to db2 • • •Can you fly out to my MIL every time her router breaks and fix it for her?
Edit: holy shit, your edits are insane
Passerby6497
in reply to db2 • • •Tailscale is woefully impractical, as is setting up travel routers. You're adding so much unnecessary complexity that has the chance to fail and frustrate them even more. Doubly so for anyone an appreciable distance from you (having tried this before, it's just not worth it for me - about the 3rd time their tailscale client lost my network I was done with it). And not everyone wants to buy hardware to setup a remote streaming platform for blue hairs, because that also adds to the administrative complexity of the setup.
But feel free to continue your childish tantrum about how people don't understand why your genius ideas are really super great.
jj4211
in reply to acosmichippo • • •astro
in reply to jj4211 • • •Taldan
in reply to astro • • •chronicledmonocle
in reply to BassTurd • • •priapus
in reply to BassTurd • • •BassTurd
in reply to priapus • • •priapus
in reply to BassTurd • • •CeeBee_Eh
in reply to BassTurd • • •Once Jellyfin does that then it'll be time to look at jumping ship to something else, because that'll be the indication that Jellyfin is going down the same road as Plex.
dantheclamman
in reply to priapus • • •madnerds
in reply to dantheclamman • • •They changed their TOC a while ago, the only thing they have in there now is boiler plate stuff about not hosting pirated content.
cloudflare.com/en-gb/terms/
You agree not to, and not to allow third parties to use the Services to ... post, transmit, store or link to any files, materials, data, text, audio, video, images or other content that infringe on any person’s intellectual property rights or that are otherwise unlawful;I just set up a cache rule to ignore my jellyfin subdomain and they won't ever care about me and my half dozen users.
Self-Serve Subscription Agreement
www.cloudflare.comdantheclamman
in reply to madnerds • • •ImgurRefugee114
in reply to Korne127 • • •Foni
in reply to Korne127 • • •MangoPenguin
in reply to Foni • • •naticus
in reply to Foni • • •stealth_cookies
in reply to Korne127 • • •Codilingus
in reply to stealth_cookies • • •binarytobis
in reply to stealth_cookies • • •ITGuyLevi
in reply to Korne127 • • •ORbituary
in reply to ITGuyLevi • • •black_flag_astronaut
in reply to ITGuyLevi • • •dangling_cat
in reply to Korne127 • • •DoPeopleLookHere
in reply to dangling_cat • • •priapus
in reply to dangling_cat • • •dangling_cat
in reply to priapus • • •priapus
in reply to dangling_cat • • •Oh weird. I would guess a transcoding issue, maybe double check those settings to make sure you have the right config for your hardware.
Theres also Infuse, its a video player that supports jellyfin, but I think some features are behind a premium purchase.
dangling_cat
in reply to priapus • • •mbirth 🇬🇧
in reply to dangling_cat • • •Infuse App - App Store
App Storedangling_cat
in reply to mbirth 🇬🇧 • • •CeeBee_Eh
in reply to dangling_cat • • •Are you really bitching this hard about a completely free and open source project?
It's not technology or finances that kill most FOSS projects and burn out the devs. It's this kind of shitty entitled unappreciative demanding attitude from users.
As others have pointed out, there are fully functional and good quality frontends available, such as Swiftfin.
dangling_cat
in reply to CeeBee_Eh • • •I maintain open source projects too, and I fully understand the burnout, the pressure from supporters and such.
What I was saying is they can do better from a project management perspective. Otherwise I love their work :3
Swiftfin is buggy atm, like my other comment.
CeeBee_Eh
in reply to dangling_cat • • •Then you should know better than most that your wording and approach matters.
AtariDump
in reply to Korne127 • • •No, it’s not.
Here’s what you all sound like every time this comes up.
priapus
in reply to AtariDump • • •kratoz29
in reply to Korne127 • • •Just to think of replacing the mount points in the docker container from Plex to Jellyfin (in order for it to read my Riven and Decypharr symlinks) scares me... Mostly because after I finish a docker project my mind seems to go blank lol.
At least they still kinda honour the Plex Pass lifetime users...
That Weird Vegan she/her
in reply to kratoz29 • • •for now.
kratoz29
in reply to That Weird Vegan she/her • • •Twongo [she/her]
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •AbidanYre
in reply to Twongo [she/her] • • •melfie
in reply to AbidanYre • • •AbidanYre
in reply to melfie • • •melfie
in reply to AbidanYre • • •Taldan
in reply to melfie • • •owenfromcanada
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •like this
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funkajunk
in reply to owenfromcanada • • •AtariDump
in reply to funkajunk • • •ordnance_qf_17_pounder
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •hydrashok
in reply to ordnance_qf_17_pounder • • •That’s more on you than Plex, though, right? Like do you get mad at Walmart or Home Depot because you bought a tool you never use, or don’t use as frequently as you thought you would?
Not defending Plex, I’m just curious.
EDIT: I realize your post referenced pounds as currency, but I don’t know the equivalent stores on that side of the pond. Been 20 years since I was in London! Apologies.
ordnance_qf_17_pounder
in reply to hydrashok • • •hydrashok
in reply to ordnance_qf_17_pounder • • •BassTurd
in reply to ordnance_qf_17_pounder • • •CriticalMiss
in reply to ordnance_qf_17_pounder • • •Alphane Moon
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •The writing was on the wall when they started getting American VC money.
American VC culture is anthenema to truly user focused products.
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Davel23
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •like this
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Sundray
in reply to Davel23 • • •like this
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rubdos
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •like this
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QuarterSwede
in reply to rubdos • • •brucethemoose
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Playing devil's advocate, I understand one point of pressure: Plex doesn’t want to be perceived as a “piracy app.”
See: Kodi. kodi.expert/kodi-news/mpaa-war…
To be blunt, that’s a huge chunk of their userbase. And they run the risk of being legally pounded to dust once that image takes hold.
So how do they avoid that? Add a bunch of other stuff, for plausible deniability. And it seems to have worked, as the anti-piracy gods haven’t singled them out like they have past software projects.
To be clear, I'm not excusing Plex. But I can sympathize.
almost1337
in reply to brucethemoose • • •explodicle
in reply to brucethemoose • • •like this
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brucethemoose
in reply to explodicle • • •explodicle
in reply to brucethemoose • • •like this
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tatterdemalion
in reply to brucethemoose • • •brucethemoose
in reply to tatterdemalion • • •comparitech.com/kodi/kodi-pira…
digital-digest.com/news-64644-…
And this is with Kodi furiously distancing itself from pirates at the time.
Attacks don’t have to be direct. Though they absolutely can be, too.
Kodi in steep decline after introduction of anti-piracy steps
Sam Cook (Comparitech)AtariDump
in reply to explodicle • • •xthexder
in reply to AtariDump • • •kieron115
in reply to xthexder • • •From their blog post about it:
The passwords were hashed and, I'm inferring from their language, salted per-user as well. Assuming a reasonable length password (complexity doesn't matter much here, what we want is entropy) it would take a conventional (i.e. not quantum) computer tens to hundreds of millions of years to crack one user's password.
xthexder
in reply to kieron115 • • •AtariDump
in reply to xthexder • • •And I’ve never been attacked by a bear while wearing my goose feather headdress.
xthexder
in reply to AtariDump • • •KairuByte
in reply to brucethemoose • • •The Octonaut
in reply to KairuByte • • •KairuByte
in reply to The Octonaut • • •xthexder
in reply to KairuByte • • •If you have a static IP, or dynamic DNS set up, you can set up your own remote access with a reverse proxy like nginx. The nice thing is I get to use my own SSL certificate and all the actual streaming goes directly to my server, not through their proxies.
The only "hacky" part about it is that the Admin dashboard shows "Not available outside your network", even though everything works perfectly.
The Octonaut
in reply to KairuByte • • •FlexibleToast
in reply to The Octonaut • • •brucethemoose
in reply to KairuByte • • •That serves the purpose too. It’s harder to pin Plex as an “illegal distribution service” when you have to pay for access. Either the streamer or “distributor” can’t be very anonymous, which makes large scale sharing impractical.
On the other hand, the more money they squeeze out, the more they risk appearing as if they “make money from piracy,” which is exactly how you get the MPAA’s attention.
dantheclamman
in reply to KairuByte • • •kieron115
in reply to brucethemoose • • •ragebutt
in reply to brucethemoose • • •There is that but it’s primarily that they’ve taken over 40 million dollars of venture capital. They are almost certainly under immense pressure to turn profitable asap and converting lifetime pass users into revenue streams somehow, converting new users into SaaS, etc are going to be things they pursue more aggressively.
Don’t take the devils money if you don’t want the devils stipulations
roofuskit
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •like this
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Itdidnttrickledown
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •like this
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LoafedBurrito
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •like this
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NewNewAugustEast
in reply to LoafedBurrito • • •Just guessing here, but I think it just might.
mic_check_one_two
in reply to NewNewAugustEast • • •Individual user accounts, so multiple people can use the same device without needing to log into a new account each time. For example, User A watches a show on the TV. Then User B opens the TV, and has to log in to be able to access their own watch history. Then User A returns, and has to log back into their account.
Braindead remote access. I use a reverse proxy so it’s not a need for me, but plenty of people don’t understand how to properly set something like that up.
Single Sign On. It flies in the face of what Jellyfin stands for, because it would require a centralized authentication server that everyone’s servers phone home to. Just like Plex. With Plex, you log into one account, and can see all of your available servers, because they’re all tied to the same account. With Jellyfin, every server requires its own authentication, because there is no central server to manage all of the “Account XYZ has access to libraries A, B, and C” stuff. If I want to watch something, I can’t easily just search all of my servers at once; I need to individually log into and search each one to see if it has the content I want to watch.
Skeezix
in reply to NewNewAugustEast • • •barcaxavi
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Not for me. Before Plex I was browsing folders on my TV and I actually had to organize everything, plus find and download matching subtitles. It sucked so much.
I got into self hosting because of Plex and ran it on a 2015 Shield (both the server and the player) for ~8 years. Just moved the server to another machine this year.
Still happy premium user.
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NauticalNoodle
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •yeehaw
in reply to NauticalNoodle • • •zephiriz
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •3 Things stop from using jellyfin 100% of the time.
1) TV tuner is janky and loading a guide for local channels is garbage. I like watching the morning local news and jellyfin just does not cut it.
2) I want sub accounts. They used to have something similar but took it out for security reasons. I want to log all my TVs into one account but then have each user select their profile. So I can easily have a restricted profile for say kids then another for my parents then one for me then one for SO under the same roof. It will track each persons watched profile so when someone watches ahead it doesn't mess with someone else's.
3) On the same note, controller/ HTPC remote configs feel janky. I know its there but its not a smooth and easy as Plex. This goes along with above for anyone who says just make another account. You try entering half decent passwords with small HTPC remotes or controllers. Every time you go to watch TV.
If they could fix these things I would ditch Plex all the way. But as it stands I use Plex for my TV and jellyfin for my phones, tablets, PC.
modus
in reply to zephiriz • • •I DVR local stuff with Plex and play it back in Jellyfin.
zephiriz
in reply to modus • • •h0rnman
in reply to zephiriz • • •zephiriz
in reply to h0rnman • • •h0rnman
in reply to zephiriz • • •NewNewAugustEast
in reply to zephiriz • • •Jellyfin has local channels? Why don't you just watch local channels?
Does plex have local channels? Seems like that is a use case that doesnt make any sense to me.
zephiriz
in reply to NewNewAugustEast • • •GreenKnight23
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •kieron115
in reply to GreenKnight23 • • •JesusChristLover420
in reply to GreenKnight23 • • •GreenKnight23
in reply to JesusChristLover420 • • •JesusChristLover420
in reply to GreenKnight23 • • •GreenKnight23
in reply to JesusChristLover420 • • •dawnslayer
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •PearOfJudes
in reply to dawnslayer • • •TrackinDaKraken
in reply to dawnslayer • • •At a glance, it looks like it requires signing up with their service, which means they can track everything I do. No, thanks. I'll stick with Jellyfin.
entwine
in reply to TrackinDaKraken • • •kieron115
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Edit: It's just occurred to me that he might literally be referring to the Recommended tab on your home page - which you only have to interact with by choice.
If anyone would care to tell me where I'm being pushed towards Plex's ecosystem I'd love to understand what the flying fuck he's talkin about. The only thing I could find that could generously be called part of the Plex "ecosystem" are the social features. Does it give more "ads" if you have a free account or something? Also I've had a server for 15 years and I've never had to re-do my customization from an update.
yeehaw
in reply to kieron115 • • •kieron115
in reply to yeehaw • • •yeehaw
in reply to kieron115 • • •You mean this part?
"Sure, you can disable a lot of features from the home page, but even the remaining bits push you toward Plex’s ecosystem with things like recommendations. And I’ve even seen people complaining about needing to re-disable promotional content after updates. It’s simply a shady business"
If so I've definitely experienced that where all of a sudden the damn tab is re-enabled by itself. And it's not even "disabled" it's just not the default selection anymore. I can still see it down there.
kieron115
in reply to yeehaw • • •neclimdul
in reply to kieron115 • • •I believe I experienced what they called "re-disable promotional content after an update." Everything was reset and my media was hidden with only their streaming options available. Similarly setting up a new Chromecast it only had their streaming content and I had to hide their content and unhide mine.
I seem to remember there being some weaselly link that would re-enable their content after it was disabled too.
Generously, they're providing more content and a way to support the development of the product through ads. But all the changes and the way they're happening show me a picture of a company with changing priorities. So I tend to agree with the sentiment of the author.
Auli
in reply to neclimdul • • •neclimdul
in reply to Auli • • •I'm not sure I've ever used it, but according to Wikipedia, ad videos started in 2019, live tv is 2020, and rentals in 2024. During that time it's become more and more intrusive, now replacing your media entirely out of the box.
That means for 10 of its 16 software purchases and software subscriptions where it's bread and butter and has grown into different revenue streams. It's still software, but now it's Ad based revenue streams. Adding more and more fees. You might say it's growing into the thing it was supposed to replace, corporate cable and streaming service.
Redtrax
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Evotech
in reply to Redtrax • • •Victor
in reply to Redtrax • • •I have both but Jellyfin is not good with duplicates. Having several versions of movies in different languages just puts multiple copies of the movies in Jellyfin, with no distinction between them until you click into the details. Plex does this well with "Play version".
But Plex is worse for other reasons, on my LG TV. It's painfully slow and doesn't play the correct audio track that I select.
AbidanYre
in reply to Victor • • •Billegh
in reply to AbidanYre • • •Victor
in reply to Billegh • • •Victor
in reply to AbidanYre • • •AbidanYre
in reply to Victor • • •Victor
in reply to AbidanYre • • •AbidanYre
in reply to Victor • • •Looking back at this thread. Jellyfin does let you select both versions and combine them into one. Then you can keep seeding to your heart's content.
I don't use that feature often, but have a couple movies that use it.
Victor
in reply to AbidanYre • • •Appoxo
in reply to Victor • • •You just need to name them correctly (too lazy to link the docs. Just look up versions in media library)
Victor
in reply to Appoxo • • •That's what I mean. You have to rename them. Plex handles this automatically, with the same shared library. I wish Jellyfin was better at this.
Jellyfin goes by file name, Plex goes by identified movie/show. Much better.
Appoxo
in reply to Victor • • •Welll...They state in their docs how it should be.
If you deviate from it, that's on you.
And yes it'd be nice if they did it automagically but we can't have everything and I don't expect it from them honestly as that is really a very niche requirement considering it already works.
Victor
in reply to Appoxo • • •I don't understand why we need to "pin it" on someone?
It just works differently, in a way that requires more hands-on work, as opposed to no hands-on work. So it's objectively worse. That's "on me"?
It being in the docs is irrelevant in this context. It could've been there or not. But the fact that I need to do extra work as opposed to not makes Plex more comfortable in this regard, and I don't see how that's up for debate.
If Jellyfin had done it's duplication check on identified movie IDs instead of filesystem names, we would be in a different situation. But they don't, and here we are.
I'm not ragging on Jellyfin, I'm just pointing out facts. Not even an opinion piece.
Appoxo
in reply to Victor • • •That's correct.
But you chose to ignore the instructions because you are used to a different way of doing it and them you get duplicate entries.
That's it (shrug).
Victor
in reply to Appoxo • • •Why are still trying to blame this on the user, lol?
If the user has to do more work for the same result, it's a worse system. Period.
That's it. 🤷♂️
To go into more detail:
How did I choose to ignore instructions when I didn't read them in the first place? Neither system's installation instructions has this in it. You'd have to deep dive when you realize it doesn't work for one of them. Namely Jellyfin.
"Choosing" to ignore it is also a matter of definition. If I rename all my shit, I am a) duplicating lots of downloads on my system because I need to keep the original in order to seed, or b) not able to seed and lose my ability to gain more content in the first place.
Sometimes people's circumstances are different from yours, my friend.
I understand Jellyfin is better in so many other aspects, I agree with that, but do not defend one single feature which works objectively worse and pin it on the user. Don't be that person.
Appoxo
in reply to Victor • • •Bruh.
I can't any more. That's the worst take I have heard yet.
Yes, if it works automagically it's great. But if it aint, you just need to follow instructions. One just can't duct tape everything together
Are you unable to hard link?
Victor
in reply to Appoxo • • •You can say what you want about my "take". All I'm saying is, I have to do work with one system, and I don't with the other one. If all other things were identical, which one would you choose, bruh??
I know about hard links and have used them before, they are fine. But it's still work I need to do in one system where it needn't be done in the other.
Is this so hard to understand for you? Leave me alone if so.
Get this: more work takes more time; less work, less time. I have little time, and I need to keep the file names intact, period.
I get that the instructions are there. There's instructions for Plex too that I've gone and read.
That's not the point.
Appoxo
in reply to Victor • • •Victor
in reply to Appoxo • • •remon
in reply to Victor • • •It does it even better with "editions" support, at least for movies.
Victor
in reply to remon • • •remon
in reply to Victor • • •The problem I have with "play version" is that you can't really control which version is the default. Also it's kind of hidden in the menu. And when you do select the version it just shows you the resolution (which is useless if you have two versions with the same resolution but different languages).
Unless some is already familiar with plex, they probably won't find your different language version. But a custom "different language" edition of the movie will show up right below the extras.
No idea.
Victor
in reply to remon • • •I don't have this issue, but I agree it could be easier to see which version you are playing. I think it's supposed to be very different quality versions, so one would be like 4K, then 1080p, then maybe 720p. But when you have one English 4K and one Nordic 4K, is a 50-50 guessing game. It's easy to switch once you start playing though.
Still better than Jellyfin though, in this particular regard.
TrackinDaKraken
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Tikiporch
in reply to TrackinDaKraken • • •Korhaka
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Evotech
in reply to Korhaka • • •entwine
in reply to Evotech • • •Korhaka
in reply to Evotech • • •Bandwidth is free, as long as it doesn't get to the point its tanking my performance I don't care. If people do start to abuse it I will bother to change it but until then no reason to bother. Obviously not giving the URL out here because then immediately it is going to get hammered.
Security through obscurity is fine when the only thing you are securing against is a bit of an inconvenience and the benefit is its easy to give friends a URL to go to. But sure, if it became a problem I would probably look into something else.
ragebutt
in reply to Korhaka • • •Briguy
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Destide
in reply to Briguy • • •Evotech
in reply to Briguy • • •For your use case its pretty much identical.
I prefer the plex interface slightly. But id rather use open source
Lunchtime7778
in reply to Briguy • • •It may have very well changed recently or I could be misremembering, but the reason I switched over was being unable to play certain codecs/media types (types of hdr?) over stream while converting on host.... unless I had a subscription.
Utter lunacy to want me to pay to convert on my own machine. I've since swapped to jellyfin, donated, and am happier for it (and the open source part is such an added plus).
Canaconda
in reply to Briguy • • •Cort
in reply to Canaconda • • •Canaconda
in reply to Cort • • •melfie
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •boaratio
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •prole
in reply to boaratio • • •Tronn4
in reply to prole • • •uncouple9831
in reply to Tronn4 • • •EonNShadow
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •I use Plex for audiobooks and TV shows primarily.
The fact that you can't (or at least can't easily) scan library files from Plexamp is utterly insane to me. Especially after they made audio libraries completely unavailable on the regular Plex app.
I'll probably switch to Audiobookshelf or something else down the line.
Thoven
in reply to EonNShadow • • •remon
in reply to EonNShadow • • •scarabic
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •I hate headlines like this. I’d love to hear the REASONS WHY Plex are doing all of this. But no, it’s just “4 ways in which Plex now sucks” which we all know already.
Before someone says “the reason is money” we need to ask: do the developers of Jellyfin not use money? Why won’t the same thing just happen to them too?
Before someone says “enshittification,” we need to ask: does this mean Jellyfin will soon have the same problems?
We all seem to love Jellyfin so I think we need to understand the actual reason why, or this will just continue happening.
BrilliantantTurd4361
in reply to scarabic • • •Jhex
in reply to scarabic • • •Plex is a private company wanting money... Jellyfin is a voluteer-drive effort
Enshitification happens to privately develop products due to greed... Jellyfin is not a private company pushing a product for profit
Back to "greed"
scarabic
in reply to Jhex • • •As predicted, a one-dimensional answer.
Let’s say they want more money: they do have a healthy software subscriptions business. How can they get more by becoming the world’s tiniest streaming service? And won’t that cannibalize their subscriptions business as the experience gets shittier and shittier?
Some actual “whys” within this would be things like (made up, but for example)
1) the subscriptions business is dying - less than 1% of users ever buy a pass and efforts to increase that failed for (another reason here)
2) streaming services are dumping cash into viewer acquisition because a war is on for dominance in that space and Pled is capitalizing on that
3) Plex has high overlap with gamers and are making good money on midroll gaming ads during these streams
4) Plex has legal concerns about facilitating piracy - this is the real reason why sync is shit and they killed watch together. They are desperately trying to pivot out of their old business before they get sued - OR all this streaming nonsense gives them a kind of fig leaf over that somehow
See, issues can be complex and interesting. Just calling them greedy is neither. How is this the greedy play, even?
AbidanYre
in reply to scarabic • • •Nobody outside Plex's finance department is going to have what you're looking for if those examples are anything to go by.
What it comes down to is they have $130M that investors are going to want back and all the decisions they're making now are aimed at doing so. That doesn't mean any of those decisions are good or are going to work. It didn't even mean they won't backfire and have the opposite effect.
scarabic
in reply to AbidanYre • • •That Weird Vegan she/her
in reply to Jhex • • •Appoxo
in reply to scarabic • • •opencollective.com/jellyfin
Jellyfin - Open Collective
opencollective.comragebutt
in reply to scarabic • • •Plex took a significant degree of other people’s money, to the tune of over 40 million dollars. The people who gave said money were not kickstarter funders, donators, subscribers, etc but investors, who have an expectation that plex will move the company in a direction that makes them profitable enough to not only repay the 40+ million investment, but to then earn profits for a lengthy period (possibly in perpetuity) as they are stakeholders. This is the same thing that happened to Reddit (though Reddits scale and timeline was FAR more vast), openai, Google, literally every company ever basically. Plex now has an obligation to not just continue development but to continue it in a way that maximizes growth and revenue, even if that is anti consumer.
Jellyfin on the other hand has language on their contributions page that almost discourages financial support. This is because the only financial support they accept is donations, which are clearly explained are to support the free software and give no ownership stake. The software does not generate profit and donation does not equate to any kind of investment, other than supporting continued development. Expecting any kind of return on your part (again, other than the project continuing to move forward) is foolish. Lemmy is similar, as are many other FOSS projects. Jellyfin can remain ideologically stable to its goals, and because it is free if its users feel the lead developers are straying from this they can fork it and make “new ideologically pure jellyfin” (see xmbc to plex to emby to jellyfin, or lemmys 938 forks, many of which are tweaks and some of which are because people got beef with the main devs)
FAQs about Plex's funding and investors
TracxnBearlydave
in reply to ragebutt • • •Further to this, I heard Cory Doctorow talk about open source licensing being a Ulysses Pact. Basically Ulysses wanted to hear the sirens song. Normally, hearing it would drive you mad and you would wreck upon the rocks. Ulysses ordered his men to bind their ears with wax so they would not be affected by the sirens song. He also ordered them to tie him to the mast.
In the moment, he knew he would not be strong enough to resist the sirens song and because he was bound to the mast, he could not jump overboard. In the same way, people that use open source licenses on their projects are binding themselves to the open source license so that if a large temptation was to present itself (such as investors wanting to give them life changing money in exchange for mistreating their customers) they are already bound by that license and cannot break that bond.
freely made decision designed and intended to bind oneself in the future
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)ragebutt
in reply to Bearlydave • • •Or they’ll do what plex did. Reminder that plex started life as a fork of xbmc/kodi for macos. When their fork showed some popularity they shifted development to various names (plex home theater). While this still contained a lot of GPL code they then spent a good deal of dev time rewriting said code to be fully closed source.
This is less discussed but also why plex is one of the most insidious and disgusting pieces of unethical software one can use. The writing is on the wall and the company is led by scumbags, sure, but people don’t talk as much about how they forked xbmc, built a huge product based on everything learned from it, and then closed everything off once they did the minimum required cover your ass moves.
What they did is legal but is it ethical? If they did it to a company like apple or Microsoft they’d get sued, that’s for damn sure. And ethically speaking I would say it’s really fucked to take all this stuff from the community: architecture, ideas, ui/ux, approaches to plugin design, data modeling, etc and build a whole company off of it, then basically give nothing back. They closed it off so they could get their bag, fuck the community that taught them so much and helped build their MVP.
What you describe is similar to the creation of jellyfin from emby though; where embys dev team suddenly decided to close source the GPL server code (a violation) and add monetization. the community rejected this, and forked the last version prior to the nonsense into what is now jellyfin.
opossumo
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •e461h
in reply to opossumo • • •That Weird Vegan she/her
in reply to opossumo • • •flop_leash_973
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Plex has been off limits to me for along time. Just the fact they want to require auth with their central service for something I use for reasons rights holders would love to sue me into third world poverty over (muh Linux ISOs) is enough reason.
Them demanding that auth hook into the server makes me uneasy about what sort of metatdata they are currently, or could exfiltrate later on, should they want to or be demanded to.
Whole thing stinks of willingly being part of a honeypot.
x00z
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Nobody talking about Emby?
Why not? I haven't used it yet but it seems great too.
Gemini24601
in reply to x00z • • •x00z
in reply to Gemini24601 • • •Interesting, thanks.
What about Emby Theater?
Gemini24601
in reply to x00z • • •That Weird Vegan she/her
in reply to x00z • • •x00z
in reply to That Weird Vegan she/her • • •That's awful.
And illegal.
Psythik
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Lettuce eat lettuce
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •One reason: It's not FOSS, and because of that, it's not protected from the Capitalist profit motive that's always pushing the creators/owners towards enshitification.
The same forces act upon FOSS too, but the difference is that FOSS has structural immunity built into it. If the software enshitifies, it can be forked and maintained by a community that values software freedom.
We've seen it happen time and again. Terraform, CentOS, RHEL, The Xen Hypervisor, etc. When companies try to take freedom away from FOSS, they fail, because their users and maintainers are empowered by FOSS licenses (especially restrictive ones like the GPL) and can fight back.
With proprietary software, the users are powerless, only the owners have control.
Don't trust promises, good intentions, or corporate slogans. Trust free software and the open ecosystems they thrive in.
PS, Jellyfin is amazing ❤️
tomkatt
in reply to Lettuce eat lettuce • • •minorkeys
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •HugeNerd
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Fair Fairy
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •finitebanjo
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Obinice
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •the_crotch
in reply to Obinice • • •jaek
in reply to the_crotch • • •Doorknob
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •Allero
in reply to fne8w2ah • • •RememberTheApollo_
in reply to Allero • • •