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I've never understood why Plex phones home or why Plex the company has any insight at all into what's running on your Plex installation. I was never able to loo

I've never understood why Plex phones home or why Plex the company has any insight at all into what's running on your Plex installation. I was never able to look past that, so I never installed it. After years without a media server, I've started using Jellyfin and it's great. It's self-hosted but still has decent client apps. And there's no sketchy corporation watching my server, which just runs on my laptop and streams to my phone via my local network.

eklavya 3y ago
I tried Jellyfin, doesn't work for most things, went back to plex. Everything just works. My use case is pretty simple, family photos and videos but somehow that was problematic.
- ornornor 3y ago
  I’ve never had any issues with jellyfin. Maybe your use case is outside of what it’s for, but for watching series and movies it worked with everything I could throw at it for me.
  - abenga 3y ago
    Somehow my Jellyfin Android TV app became incompatible with the server application on my home PC and I can no longer watch videos, so had to head back to Plex or Kodi+NFS mounts.
  - compsciphd 3y ago
    you've most likely never tried to view subtitles. It's well known that its subtitle support isn't so good (to put it lightly). It seems to be unable to stream subtitles out of an MKV itself and has to extract them and send them separately. (or at least thats what it seems like from observation).
    - thendrill 3y ago
      Same here. Jellyfin is good aslong as the content is not HDR and needs subtitles.... Also the chromecast support is very non-wife friendly
    - danparsonson 3y ago
      I use subtitles all the time and they work really well for me - both embedded and separate files. I'm streaming from an SSD though, maybe that makes a difference?
    - kuschku 3y ago
      Jellyfin works perfectly fine with subtitles. But if you use ASS subtitles, which are entirely unspecified and unsupported and only have a single working implementation that requires half of Wine to work correctly, well, then you're fucked.
    - cpburns2009 3y ago
      The only problem with subtitles I've encountered is the Roku Jellyfin client does not support VOBSUB subtitles which is annoying.
    - toxicunderGroov 3y ago
      Kodi -> jellyfin -> a4k subtitles addon. Never transcodes Works on Android devices like the shield or libreelec on something like a pi. Those native Android apps, be it jellyfin or plex dont handle subtitles wel, be it .srt or .ass
- sshagent 3y ago
  You were likely unlucky with the client you used. I host a small server for family and friends. Some seem to go great (browser, roku, android(to an extent)), but others seem to have a whole myriad of issues. I've ended up just putting a roku in the hands of people i give access to.
  - eklavya 3y ago
    That could be it, the client is LG webos so not that popular.
- cassianoleal 3y ago
  Same. I have plenty of issues with it. I've used clients on all classes of Apple devices, LG WebOS and browser. They're all quite problematic. I still run it alongside Plex and give it a go every month or so but the same or new problems always arise.
infogulch 3y ago
I've used Plex and I also don't like the way they do business, so it's gone now. I really like the Chromecast model, browsing on a mobile device to select content is just a much better UX. I'm planning to implement Jellyfin (on NAS) + Kodi (on TOX3 streamer), and I just found Yatse [1] which claims to be able to control them. Has anyone here tried a combo like this? [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.android.yatsewidgetfree&hl=en_NZ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.a...
- sberder 3y ago
  I used Yatse for many years to control xbmc then Kodi. Always worked well enough though requires to be talk with the media center on the same network so might have to shut VPN and such. I've never tried with jellyfin as I now have a physical remote for my Kodi set top box.
- ticoombs 3y ago
  You might be interested in the https://libreelec.tv/ https://libreelec.tv/ project. Kodi for low end devices. Which uses HDMI CEC to allow for your tv remote to control the Kodi interface.
- __jonas 3y ago
  > I really like the Chromecast model, browsing on a mobile device to select content is just a much better UX. I feel the same. I have a Kodi setup with LibreELEC and I just feel like it does too much and is inconvenient for my use. I don't really want to build and manage a "media library" on the device that's playing back content (small NUC-like computer connected to a projector). I wish I could just send a file to it from my computer or phone and instantly play it back without having to go through the whole media center style UI thing.
  - infogulch 3y ago
    Have you tried Yatse?
    - 3y ago
morog 3y ago
have the Jellyfin integration running on Home Assistant OS on a Raspberry Pi 4B, works brilliantly for music, movies and series. Appears to have no support for photos. Android & Roku apps are fast and seem to have less network buffering than Plex, no 3rd party accounts or logins needed, on Plex I had to keep logging in every few days not sure what the issue was.
- nani8ot 3y ago
  Immich.app is great for photos and open-source, including local face recognition.
  - WirelessGigabit 3y ago
    Please be careful with backing up photos with immich. They define uniqueness as "${filename-with-extensions}-${filesize}". How many times does your system have IMG_4223.jpg? I got many. Different cameras, iPhones, etc, all started at IMG_0000.jpg. How often does the file size collide? I don't have stats, but the reason I know this is because I had multiple occasions of failed backups and imports.
    - BorisMelnik 3y ago
      wish all these manufacturers would do what pixel does and start filenames with PXL00X
    - ericswpark 3y ago
      That is terrible. I have a number of issue reports open with immich but didn't know about this particular snag. Has this been reported to their GitHub?
NGRhodes 3y ago
Plex collects plenty of information to identify who is running these servers and who the users are. I suspect resellers put layers of obfuscation in place. What would Plex gain from collecting information about user content ? Is Plex capable of collecting user content information if requested by authorities ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ https://www.plex.tv/en-gb/about/privacy-legal/ https://www.plex.tv/en-gb/about/privacy-legal/ Plex collects the following information: - Personal Data - Individually identifiable - Usage stats (what, when, where) - Debug info (logs, metadata, devices, media) - Device info - Opt in info through the software ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Plex Media Server - Config data (may include IP address and the name of a Plex Media Server) - Application info (unique application ID) - Debug info - Usage info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Plex does not collect - Content titles (of personal content) EXCEPT for debugging - Metadata (of perosnal content) EXECEPT content syncing, metadata matching (anonymous) or third parties. - Data through Plex relay service EXECEPT for buffering (but is end to end encrypted)
- npteljes 3y ago
  Yeah, these "excepts" I don't trust at all. Facebook only collected phone numbers for 2fa, then used them for advertising, sometimes debug builds ship instead of prod builds and then everything you type is collected into a plaintext file on your computer, and data leaks all the time. When I use a software like this, I fully expect the data to be public (or given to authorities) at a point, and separate my concerns accordingly.
keep_reading 3y ago
> or why Plex the company has any insight at all into what's running on your Plex installation They actually don't. Open this link and CTRL-F for "Plex does not collect:" This is also why Plex isn't tied into the Apple TV features like universal search and deep linking into the "Uo Next" feature that shows you what you're watching in all your apps. They'd have to break this to provide that data to Apple https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/ https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/
- tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
  Honestly, there are few apolitical things I come across in my day to day life that have as much misinformation slung at them than Plex does. The “begrudging user” community is incredibly toxic. It really does seem like half the people there are there to tell you about how some other thing they’re using is supposedly better despite them lingering in hope that whatever they have a gripe with has been fixed. It’s one of the few times I’ve actually gone as far as to semi-regularly comment on Plex hate threads online just to say that I’m for the most part a happy and content user, on the off chance that someone on the team sees it.
  - crmrc114 3y ago
    Ditto, not sure why everyone hates on plex so much. Sure they do some dumb stuff- but overall media handling capability has improved. I am still pissed about camera upload and podcast support. But not enough for all the reddit user rage I see.
  - keep_reading 3y ago
    You can always email Elan the founder directly, he's always replied to me :)

eklavya 3y ago

I tried Jellyfin, doesn't work for most things, went back to plex. Everything just works. My use case is pretty simple, family photos and videos but somehow that was problematic.

ornornor 3y ago
I’ve never had any issues with jellyfin. Maybe your use case is outside of what it’s for, but for watching series and movies it worked with everything I could throw at it for me.
- abenga 3y ago
  Somehow my Jellyfin Android TV app became incompatible with the server application on my home PC and I can no longer watch videos, so had to head back to Plex or Kodi+NFS mounts.
- compsciphd 3y ago
  you've most likely never tried to view subtitles. It's well known that its subtitle support isn't so good (to put it lightly). It seems to be unable to stream subtitles out of an MKV itself and has to extract them and send them separately. (or at least thats what it seems like from observation).
  - thendrill 3y ago
    Same here. Jellyfin is good aslong as the content is not HDR and needs subtitles.... Also the chromecast support is very non-wife friendly
  - danparsonson 3y ago
    I use subtitles all the time and they work really well for me - both embedded and separate files. I'm streaming from an SSD though, maybe that makes a difference?
  - kuschku 3y ago
    Jellyfin works perfectly fine with subtitles. But if you use ASS subtitles, which are entirely unspecified and unsupported and only have a single working implementation that requires half of Wine to work correctly, well, then you're fucked.
  - cpburns2009 3y ago
    The only problem with subtitles I've encountered is the Roku Jellyfin client does not support VOBSUB subtitles which is annoying.
  - toxicunderGroov 3y ago
    Kodi -> jellyfin -> a4k subtitles addon. Never transcodes Works on Android devices like the shield or libreelec on something like a pi. Those native Android apps, be it jellyfin or plex dont handle subtitles wel, be it .srt or .ass
sshagent 3y ago
You were likely unlucky with the client you used. I host a small server for family and friends. Some seem to go great (browser, roku, android(to an extent)), but others seem to have a whole myriad of issues. I've ended up just putting a roku in the hands of people i give access to.
- eklavya 3y ago
  That could be it, the client is LG webos so not that popular.
cassianoleal 3y ago
Same. I have plenty of issues with it. I've used clients on all classes of Apple devices, LG WebOS and browser. They're all quite problematic. I still run it alongside Plex and give it a go every month or so but the same or new problems always arise.

infogulch 3y ago

I've used Plex and I also don't like the way they do business, so it's gone now. I really like the Chromecast model, browsing on a mobile device to select content is just a much better UX. I'm planning to implement Jellyfin (on NAS) + Kodi (on TOX3 streamer), and I just found Yatse [1] which claims to be able to control them. Has anyone here tried a combo like this? [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.android.yatsewidgetfree&hl=en_NZ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.a...

sberder 3y ago
I used Yatse for many years to control xbmc then Kodi. Always worked well enough though requires to be talk with the media center on the same network so might have to shut VPN and such. I've never tried with jellyfin as I now have a physical remote for my Kodi set top box.
ticoombs 3y ago
You might be interested in the https://libreelec.tv/ https://libreelec.tv/ project. Kodi for low end devices. Which uses HDMI CEC to allow for your tv remote to control the Kodi interface.
__jonas 3y ago
> I really like the Chromecast model, browsing on a mobile device to select content is just a much better UX. I feel the same. I have a Kodi setup with LibreELEC and I just feel like it does too much and is inconvenient for my use. I don't really want to build and manage a "media library" on the device that's playing back content (small NUC-like computer connected to a projector). I wish I could just send a file to it from my computer or phone and instantly play it back without having to go through the whole media center style UI thing.
- infogulch 3y ago
  Have you tried Yatse?
  - 3y ago

morog 3y ago

have the Jellyfin integration running on Home Assistant OS on a Raspberry Pi 4B, works brilliantly for music, movies and series. Appears to have no support for photos. Android & Roku apps are fast and seem to have less network buffering than Plex, no 3rd party accounts or logins needed, on Plex I had to keep logging in every few days not sure what the issue was.

nani8ot 3y ago
Immich.app is great for photos and open-source, including local face recognition.
- WirelessGigabit 3y ago
  Please be careful with backing up photos with immich. They define uniqueness as "${filename-with-extensions}-${filesize}". How many times does your system have IMG_4223.jpg? I got many. Different cameras, iPhones, etc, all started at IMG_0000.jpg. How often does the file size collide? I don't have stats, but the reason I know this is because I had multiple occasions of failed backups and imports.
  - BorisMelnik 3y ago
    wish all these manufacturers would do what pixel does and start filenames with PXL00X
  - ericswpark 3y ago
    That is terrible. I have a number of issue reports open with immich but didn't know about this particular snag. Has this been reported to their GitHub?

NGRhodes 3y ago

Plex collects plenty of information to identify who is running these servers and who the users are. I suspect resellers put layers of obfuscation in place. What would Plex gain from collecting information about user content ? Is Plex capable of collecting user content information if requested by authorities ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ https://www.plex.tv/en-gb/about/privacy-legal/ https://www.plex.tv/en-gb/about/privacy-legal/ Plex collects the following information: - Personal Data - Individually identifiable - Usage stats (what, when, where) - Debug info (logs, metadata, devices, media) - Device info - Opt in info through the software ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Plex Media Server - Config data (may include IP address and the name of a Plex Media Server) - Application info (unique application ID) - Debug info - Usage info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Plex does not collect - Content titles (of personal content) EXCEPT for debugging - Metadata (of perosnal content) EXECEPT content syncing, metadata matching (anonymous) or third parties. - Data through Plex relay service EXECEPT for buffering (but is end to end encrypted)

npteljes 3y ago
Yeah, these "excepts" I don't trust at all. Facebook only collected phone numbers for 2fa, then used them for advertising, sometimes debug builds ship instead of prod builds and then everything you type is collected into a plaintext file on your computer, and data leaks all the time. When I use a software like this, I fully expect the data to be public (or given to authorities) at a point, and separate my concerns accordingly.

keep_reading 3y ago

> or why Plex the company has any insight at all into what's running on your Plex installation They actually don't. Open this link and CTRL-F for "Plex does not collect:" This is also why Plex isn't tied into the Apple TV features like universal search and deep linking into the "Uo Next" feature that shows you what you're watching in all your apps. They'd have to break this to provide that data to Apple https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/ https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/

tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
Honestly, there are few apolitical things I come across in my day to day life that have as much misinformation slung at them than Plex does. The “begrudging user” community is incredibly toxic. It really does seem like half the people there are there to tell you about how some other thing they’re using is supposedly better despite them lingering in hope that whatever they have a gripe with has been fixed. It’s one of the few times I’ve actually gone as far as to semi-regularly comment on Plex hate threads online just to say that I’m for the most part a happy and content user, on the off chance that someone on the team sees it.
- crmrc114 3y ago
  Ditto, not sure why everyone hates on plex so much. Sure they do some dumb stuff- but overall media handling capability has improved. I am still pissed about camera upload and podcast support. But not enough for all the reddit user rage I see.
- keep_reading 3y ago
  You can always email Elan the founder directly, he's always replied to me :)