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I tried Jellyfin after some frustration with Plex and found it an inferior relative to Plex so I'm still on Plex. Lifetime Plex Pass is the solution here for no

I tried Jellyfin after some frustration with Plex and found it an inferior relative to Plex so I'm still on Plex. Lifetime Plex Pass is the solution here for now given Plex has not clawed back any features and in fact has added features to the pass.

surgical_fire 4mo ago
I went straight to Jellyfin and I find it awesome. I wonder what exactly am I missing.
- pointlessone 4mo ago
  One thing Plex does better is media detection. Like you can plop all your shows in a folder and it still will make sense of it. Jellyfin insists on a very specific directory structure and file naming. It’s very frustrating if you only want to watch a show and not interested in maintaining a perfect library.
  - hparadiz 4mo ago
    They both insist on their own systems and both are wrong.
    - jauntywundrkind 4mo ago
      It's astounding how much every single system out there fights and fights and fights against showing you your directories, as they are. I started but didn't finish a Rygel + local-search (nee Tracker) plugin to try to finally get that. I wish the upnp media services were better. I keep telling myself I'll build a nice client/controller... Some day.
      - _carbyau_ 4mo ago
        What're the chances VLC will do what you want as both server and client?
      - crtasm 4mo ago
        It's one tickbox away in Jellyfin: Libraries > Display > Display a folder view to show plain media folders
    - mook 4mo ago
      Is there anything around that does _not_ force a management system? I really just want a thing that primarily just tracks if I've seen a particular file, secondarily maybe let me control playback from a different device. Actually figuring out what media those files map to is a distant third.
      - pointlessone 4mo ago
        DLNA usually doesn’t force any system and more or less exposes fs. Some TVs natively have a client. Otherwise Kody or some other client app can be used to browse and play files.
    - pointlessone 4mo ago
      As far as I can tell plex only wants separate folders for different kinds of media and file names that give at least some clue to what it is. Plex is much more lax.
      - hparadiz 4mo ago
        The problem with Plex is that is has a very opinionated system that ignores how things are in real life. One example I can point to is Stargate SG-1. Episode 1 is a two parter and depending on who you ask it's either Episode 1 and 2 or Episode 1 which causes all subsequent episode numbers to be thrown off by 1 depending on how you count. This confusion is further complicated by the release order on DVD/Bluray, the order of airing, and the fact that all of these things can be different in different regions of the world. And that's just one show.
        amazingamazing 4mo ago
        This is not really a big deal. If you want it organized arbitrarily put the files in other and it will be.
        hparadiz 4mo ago
        It's a big deal because there's no rhyme or reason why it's one way or another way in different series so when you ask your TV through voice command to "Play Season 3 Episode 2 of [Show] through Plex] and then your TV plays the wrong episode it becomes a big deal.
        amazingamazing 4mo ago
        Use your remote or organize your files accordingly such that the integration works
        hparadiz 4mo ago
        You are not listening. There is no way to make it work properly all the time.
    - queenkjuul 4mo ago
      Torrents go in, properly matched Plex entries come out, 99% of the time I do agree that both systems are wrong. At least Plex's is more compatible with the even-more-wrong conventions of the high seas
  - surgical_fire 4mo ago
    Funny, I found no issues with it. Maybe the way I organized my library intuitively sort of matched Jellyfin's expectations?
- vunderba 4mo ago
  For a time and I have no idea if this is still true Plex had a serious advantage in the sheer range of client platforms it supported (iOS, Android, smart TVs, Roku, etc.)
  - surgical_fire 4mo ago
    Jellyfin works awesome on Android cellphone and Android TV. No native app for LG TV, but I have an Android TV box anyway. I can't say how well it works on Apple devices and other TV brands.
    - TiredOfLife 4mo ago
      Jellyfin has had a native LG TV version for 4 years
  - xethos 4mo ago
    Plex's outrageously heavy Android client (on my admittedly older phone) was actually what pushed me the rest of the way over to Jellyfin They support (or did previously support) more platforms, but Jellyfind is what runs at a reasonable speed on my phone, so that's what'll get used
    - vunderba 4mo ago
      Ouch. I wonder if this is related to when Plex tried to unify development of their mobile app in late 2025 so they’d have a single shared codebase for both Android and iOS? I’ve heard from a lot of people who accidentally upgraded to the latest version of Plex on their iPads that it’s a shadow of its former self: tons of features are missing, SRT are unreliable, picture-in-picture flakes out, etc etc.
      - xethos 4mo ago
        It's possible, because I used the Plex app on that same hardware for years. It certainly wasn't Google's software gettng heavier (it was already RAM and battery-hungry enough I'd dropped it), but trying to use Plex became an exercise in frustration around that time
- christoph 4mo ago
  Same. I started out early in 2003/2004 with XBMC, and used all sorts over the years - probably Plex for 4/5 years or so in there… the writing was on the wall 4(?) years or so back when the nag emails and data capture all started ratcheting up. I dumped it for Jellyfin and never looked back once. I pay for Infuse to make it work on Apple stuff, but it’s < £10 year (mainly to cover codec licence nonsense?), which seems a small price to pay compared to any other alternatives I could find.
NoMoreNicksLeft 4mo ago
Yesterday, I went to try to cast music from the Plex app to the Vizio Smartcast SP70 I had just bought (awesome speaker, weighs 900 lbs and is as wide as my closet door)... but you can't do music on the Plex phone app. Like, wtf, when did this happen? So, now I need to try to install the older Plex app on my phone with Sideloadly, because Plex is more interested in streaming shit to me and trying to be Netflix or Paramount+ than it is in doing the the thing it always did best and that no one else was doing: allowing me to stream things to my own devices from my own storage. It gets frustrating. At some point, no matter how bad Jellyfin is, it will be better than Plex because Plex is trying to become worse than anything else. I guess I got my Lifetime Pass long enough ago ($75) that I've gotten my money's worth out of it, but goddamn.
- galleywest200 4mo ago
  PlexAmp is a Plex official app for music streaming.
- sylens 4mo ago
  Plexamp is actually a really good music app for phones
- UqWBcuFx6NV4r 4mo ago
  three paragraphs of complaining all because you didn’t look this up? because if you did, you would’ve seen that Plex has a separate, dedicated app for listening to music. If your complaint is that “it should be in the same app!” then that’s just an absurdly silly thing to have gotten yourself worked up about.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 4mo ago
    >three paragraphs of complaining all because you didn’t look this up? Because they did it wrong. Me looking it up and finding out that they did it wrong doesn't mean I'm wrong. >you would’ve seen that Plex has a separate, dedicated app for l I don't want 10,000 fucking icon on my phone screens, having to swipe through 5 of them to find anything. Why do I want this split into two apps? That serves them. Not me. That makes it easier for them to try to become Spotify in one place while trying to be Disney+ in another. Fuck that shit. They're breaking something that wasn't broken. No one everything's being enshittified. It's because I have to share a planet with losers who not only tolerate it, but cheer it on like stooges.

surgical_fire 4mo ago

I went straight to Jellyfin and I find it awesome. I wonder what exactly am I missing.

pointlessone 4mo ago
One thing Plex does better is media detection. Like you can plop all your shows in a folder and it still will make sense of it. Jellyfin insists on a very specific directory structure and file naming. It’s very frustrating if you only want to watch a show and not interested in maintaining a perfect library.
- hparadiz 4mo ago
  They both insist on their own systems and both are wrong.
  - jauntywundrkind 4mo ago
    It's astounding how much every single system out there fights and fights and fights against showing you your directories, as they are. I started but didn't finish a Rygel + local-search (nee Tracker) plugin to try to finally get that. I wish the upnp media services were better. I keep telling myself I'll build a nice client/controller... Some day.
    - _carbyau_ 4mo ago
      What're the chances VLC will do what you want as both server and client?
    - crtasm 4mo ago
      It's one tickbox away in Jellyfin: Libraries > Display > Display a folder view to show plain media folders
  - mook 4mo ago
    Is there anything around that does _not_ force a management system? I really just want a thing that primarily just tracks if I've seen a particular file, secondarily maybe let me control playback from a different device. Actually figuring out what media those files map to is a distant third.
    - pointlessone 4mo ago
      DLNA usually doesn’t force any system and more or less exposes fs. Some TVs natively have a client. Otherwise Kody or some other client app can be used to browse and play files.
  - pointlessone 4mo ago
    As far as I can tell plex only wants separate folders for different kinds of media and file names that give at least some clue to what it is. Plex is much more lax.
    - hparadiz 4mo ago
      The problem with Plex is that is has a very opinionated system that ignores how things are in real life. One example I can point to is Stargate SG-1. Episode 1 is a two parter and depending on who you ask it's either Episode 1 and 2 or Episode 1 which causes all subsequent episode numbers to be thrown off by 1 depending on how you count. This confusion is further complicated by the release order on DVD/Bluray, the order of airing, and the fact that all of these things can be different in different regions of the world. And that's just one show.
      - amazingamazing 4mo ago
        This is not really a big deal. If you want it organized arbitrarily put the files in other and it will be.
        hparadiz 4mo ago
        It's a big deal because there's no rhyme or reason why it's one way or another way in different series so when you ask your TV through voice command to "Play Season 3 Episode 2 of [Show] through Plex] and then your TV plays the wrong episode it becomes a big deal.
        amazingamazing 4mo ago
        Use your remote or organize your files accordingly such that the integration works
        hparadiz 4mo ago
        You are not listening. There is no way to make it work properly all the time.
  - queenkjuul 4mo ago
    Torrents go in, properly matched Plex entries come out, 99% of the time I do agree that both systems are wrong. At least Plex's is more compatible with the even-more-wrong conventions of the high seas
- surgical_fire 4mo ago
  Funny, I found no issues with it. Maybe the way I organized my library intuitively sort of matched Jellyfin's expectations?
vunderba 4mo ago
For a time and I have no idea if this is still true Plex had a serious advantage in the sheer range of client platforms it supported (iOS, Android, smart TVs, Roku, etc.)
- surgical_fire 4mo ago
  Jellyfin works awesome on Android cellphone and Android TV. No native app for LG TV, but I have an Android TV box anyway. I can't say how well it works on Apple devices and other TV brands.
  - TiredOfLife 4mo ago
    Jellyfin has had a native LG TV version for 4 years
- xethos 4mo ago
  Plex's outrageously heavy Android client (on my admittedly older phone) was actually what pushed me the rest of the way over to Jellyfin They support (or did previously support) more platforms, but Jellyfind is what runs at a reasonable speed on my phone, so that's what'll get used
  - vunderba 4mo ago
    Ouch. I wonder if this is related to when Plex tried to unify development of their mobile app in late 2025 so they’d have a single shared codebase for both Android and iOS? I’ve heard from a lot of people who accidentally upgraded to the latest version of Plex on their iPads that it’s a shadow of its former self: tons of features are missing, SRT are unreliable, picture-in-picture flakes out, etc etc.
    - xethos 4mo ago
      It's possible, because I used the Plex app on that same hardware for years. It certainly wasn't Google's software gettng heavier (it was already RAM and battery-hungry enough I'd dropped it), but trying to use Plex became an exercise in frustration around that time
christoph 4mo ago
Same. I started out early in 2003/2004 with XBMC, and used all sorts over the years - probably Plex for 4/5 years or so in there… the writing was on the wall 4(?) years or so back when the nag emails and data capture all started ratcheting up. I dumped it for Jellyfin and never looked back once. I pay for Infuse to make it work on Apple stuff, but it’s < £10 year (mainly to cover codec licence nonsense?), which seems a small price to pay compared to any other alternatives I could find.

NoMoreNicksLeft 4mo ago

Yesterday, I went to try to cast music from the Plex app to the Vizio Smartcast SP70 I had just bought (awesome speaker, weighs 900 lbs and is as wide as my closet door)... but you can't do music on the Plex phone app. Like, wtf, when did this happen? So, now I need to try to install the older Plex app on my phone with Sideloadly, because Plex is more interested in streaming shit to me and trying to be Netflix or Paramount+ than it is in doing the the thing it always did best and that no one else was doing: allowing me to stream things to my own devices from my own storage. It gets frustrating. At some point, no matter how bad Jellyfin is, it will be better than Plex because Plex is trying to become worse than anything else. I guess I got my Lifetime Pass long enough ago ($75) that I've gotten my money's worth out of it, but goddamn.

galleywest200 4mo ago
PlexAmp is a Plex official app for music streaming.
sylens 4mo ago
Plexamp is actually a really good music app for phones
UqWBcuFx6NV4r 4mo ago
three paragraphs of complaining all because you didn’t look this up? because if you did, you would’ve seen that Plex has a separate, dedicated app for listening to music. If your complaint is that “it should be in the same app!” then that’s just an absurdly silly thing to have gotten yourself worked up about.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 4mo ago
  >three paragraphs of complaining all because you didn’t look this up? Because they did it wrong. Me looking it up and finding out that they did it wrong doesn't mean I'm wrong. >you would’ve seen that Plex has a separate, dedicated app for l I don't want 10,000 fucking icon on my phone screens, having to swipe through 5 of them to find anything. Why do I want this split into two apps? That serves them. Not me. That makes it easier for them to try to become Spotify in one place while trying to be Disney+ in another. Fuck that shit. They're breaking something that wasn't broken. No one everything's being enshittified. It's because I have to share a planet with losers who not only tolerate it, but cheer it on like stooges.