We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.

  • @Sabin10@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    26 days ago

    Hypothetically, if I have tailscale setup, would that be a viable workaround since everything looks local on my tailnet?

  • @ClydapusGotwald@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    56 days ago

    So I have a lifetime pass. But my family members have their own accounts. Will they be able to watch from their house to my server now or will they need to pay? Cause if that’s so guess I’m switching to jellyfin and teaching them how to work it.

  • @Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    236 days ago

    I gotta be honest, when I look at the problem pragmatically, it’ll be a lot easier to pay $20 a year than to switch to jellyfin and get all my users to figure out how to install clients and make it work for them.

    I’m already at the point in my life where my primary concern is making things work smoothly, and if I need to throw money at something to make it work smoothly, the choice is a no brainer. (At least for some values of “money”)

  • Kokesh
    link
    fedilink
    English
    226 days ago

    Time to move to Jellyfin for the rest of their users?

  • @RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    136 days ago

    I dumped Plex years ago even though I paid for it. Too many issues with it. Constantly losing movie folders, unable to stream to the device I wanted to watch on, wrong codec, wrong sound, etc, etc. I gave up. I’m sure it worked fine for most, but it got to be a pain. Switched to Jellyfin and a DDNS address and have had zero problems since. And it’s free.

  • dinckel
    link
    fedilink
    English
    236 days ago

    I feel like it’s just a matter of time, until they pull the rug from under lifetime subs.

    But in any case, this is probably it for me. I’m not completely happy with jellyfin performance on my server, but the price hike puts me outside of what i’m willing to spend for this service. I already host it myself, and i can tunnel it myself too, if i ever decide to run it outside of my home network

  • @the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    356 days ago

    I already pay for plex pass but I’m going to start looking into jelly fin out of principle. I will not support the enshitification of a service I use and this is how it starts. Soon they will have tiered subscriptions and then the cheap one will be taken away and the cheapest paid one will be stuffed with ads then all tiers will be stuffed with ads then they will jack up prices again or charge more for sharing with family or block it all together to force your family to get their own sub and the circle of enshitification will be complete.

  • @RonnyZittledong@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1076 days ago

    I have a lifetime plex pass so this does not really affect me but I expect the trend of degrading experience to continue. I would have switched to Jellyfin a long time ago but I am dreading contacting everyone I share with and getting them migrated.

    • Ebby
      link
      fedilink
      English
      476 days ago

      Same boat here. I chose Plex because the apps were everywhere. Smart TV’s, phones, web…

      I can switch, no problem. I don’t want to have to teach my parents a new app. OMFG!

      • @Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        106 days ago

        its actually the sole reason why i ended up paying for plex myself. its not because on ME that i ended up using plex, its moreso everyone else that I want to give my server access to with the least amount of hurdles that made me ultimately go that route.

      • @corroded@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        236 days ago

        This is also true of Jellyfin, though. I have apps on my Windows PC, my Android phone, multiple Nvidia Shield boxes on my TVs, plus the web interface if I need it.

        I switched over from Plex several years ago, and while it takes a bit more time to configure, compatibility for clients seems just as good for Jellyfin as it is for Plex.

        Most importantly, Jellyfin is strictly client/server, no “cloud” bullshit and no remote account is required; I don’t want Plex phoning home with a list of the media on my file server.

        • Ebby
          link
          fedilink
          English
          96 days ago

          Jellyfin certainly took off. Great for them. It just wasn’t polished or an option when I set things up way back then.

  • @spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    155 days ago

    I used to use Plex, then one day my internet was down and since Plex couldn’t phone home, it wouldn’t let me log in to watch media ON MY LAN.

    So yeah it’s inherently broken. That’s before you even consider the licensing.

  • @gigglybastard@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    25 days ago

    I never got the appeal of plex. I’ve been using Serviio back in the day and it was free, open source and did what I needed it to, which is play a video on tv, that’s it.

    Plex wanted me to purchase subscription years ago and I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out how to set it up for free.

    I’ve been using stremio for a few years now but i think it’s closing in on the EOL as well, so i might go back to serviio and kodi one of these days. Just need a good NAS that could run a streaming server as well. Don’t want to keep my gaming rig on at all times just to watch movies.

    • Boomer Humor Doomergod
      link
      fedilink
      English
      34
      edit-2
      6 days ago

      This might be what it takes to at least get me to install it.

      Do they live well together with the same shared media library?

      Also, are there audiobook clients for Jellyfin?

        • @SirSamuel@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          56 days ago

          I installed Plex before learning I’d have to pay for any of the functionality I was looking for. Installed Jellyfin and used the Plex folders lol

      • @merthyr1831@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        16 days ago

        Of you use docker plex and jellyfin arent gonna be messing with your media unless you delete/modify them within the respective clients (but then again thats what *arr is for)

      • myrmidex
        link
        fedilink
        English
        30
        edit-2
        6 days ago

        I found audiobooks to be kind of awkward on jellyfin. I’m now running Audiobookshelf for all my audiobooks, radio shows and podcasts. Together with the Lissen app on Android, it works very nicely!

      • @anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        76 days ago

        I haven’t used Plex myself but Jellyfin doesn’t create any kind of meta files in the library folders. If that is true for Plex as well then I don’t see why it would be a problem to point them at the same shared library.

        • Boomer Humor Doomergod
          link
          fedilink
          English
          66 days ago

          Plex stores its metadata in a special folder, and I’ve got the *arr stack managing the actual media files, so I think I can run them in parallel.

          Looks like I’ve got a project for the weekend! Jebediah’s just gonna have to wait to go to Jool.

      • @Clusterfck@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        86 days ago

        I’ve had Jellyfin and Plex running using the same media directory for a couple years now. I think I had to make a couple small changes for things like seasons of a TV show to show up correctly, but nothing incredibly difficult. Definitely worth setting up and playing with periodically so when you do finally get sick of Plex, you’re ready to just switch.

        Only thing I use Plex for exclusively now is when I’m flying, Plex has the Netflix style download option and Jellyfin just downloads the video file. I like Plex’s way better just from personal preference.

      • @anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1
        edit-2
        6 days ago

        I didn’t enjoy using Jellyfin for audiobooks, on my android I use the Jellyfin client to download the book I wanna listen to and then I use AudioAnchor for listening to it.

      • @shyguyblue@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        13
        edit-2
        6 days ago

        I’ve heard rumors that they do play well together, but that’s people running it in docker with a “read-only” flag set for the content folder, with metadata saved in the config folder

        I’ve used the Jellyfin app to listen to audio books, but for my purposes, it’s easier to run the separate client/server Audiobookshelf.

          • @VonReposti@feddit.dk
            link
            fedilink
            English
            46 days ago

            I’m fully Dockerized (well, uhh… Podmanized) and I’m dual-wielding Plex and Jellyfin. Runs smoothly and both only have read to the content. All management of the media is handled by the *arr stack anyway. I even set up a volume for Plex to throw conversions into that Jellyfin can’t see. I’m currently personally using Jellyfin and I’m waiting for Jellyfin to be good enough (or Plex bad enough…) for the users I share with to switch over.

            I can definitely recommend that setup.

        • @CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          1
          edit-2
          6 days ago

          I’ve had Plex and Emby (what Jellyfin was forked from) running alongside one a other for years now on Windows with zero issues. They shouldn’t have any effect on one another.

  • bean
    link
    fedilink
    English
    276 days ago

    I’ve been using Plex many years. I abandoned it about 1-2 years ago when they began their enshittification journey. Now I see they are continuing to double down on being assholes.

    They do not need any more resources to allow people to use what already exists. Most people run their own servers, and, they track all that by the way. Hence why people moved away from it.

    Don’t give them your money. Let them rot. They fucked their user base who built them.