Technology

It is enshittification for sure. At the core it makes sense to not have it free, since dynamic DNS is not free. However it is a very small cost

Yeah this is why I don't use Plex.

At one point I installed it on my NAS. It goes through the setup, and then says I need to make a cloud account. Wtf? I am running locally hosted software on locally hosted hardware to access locally hosted files. Why do I need any cloud for this?

I don't. I uninstalled it.

I thought I read that there’s no charge if on the same network. It’s just for accessing your files remotely from other networks.

I pay a dude to access his files 😎

That's enshittification for ya.

Meanwhile, all "lifetime pass" holders are encouraging this, while they have no skin in the game.

Honestly I've tried jellyfin and I have a hard time agreeing with this for a few reasons:

• UI generally more unresponsive than Plex;
• changes to correct a show/movie being assigned the wrong show/movie metadata very slow to propagate if at all, same for changing other library options like title language preference;
• generally slower to buffer and get into videos;
• very rough android lollipop UI;
• not as easy to set up tech illiterate friends for play together.

I'll give you that morally jellyfin is less customer-adverse than Plex management is at the moment and it is more open in some ways so you can have more plugins and add-ons that Plex lacks, and sure it's a free product so it should be given some leeway.

... but if I just listened to all of the people saying jellyfin is just so much better I'd think it was an objectively better offering, but it's not. When it comes to what I care about, it fell short, so just giving my 2 cents. Still worth trying, considering you can just point it to the same media folders, and maybe there's a good proposition if you don't already have a Plex pass, but if you do and you're looking to migrate it's a tougher sell.

I tried jellyfin but didn't like it. Currently using emby and it works well.

Could you explain why you feel that Jellyfin is a lot better? I’ve seen lots of folks saying it lately, but as someone with an unraid server running plex to back up and view my music and movie collections for years, I don’t get it. I’ve tried Jellyfin twice now. The most recent time was a couple of months ago. While it is good, I honestly have a hard time seeing what makes it much better than Plex. While I disagree with a number of things Plex has done, I still recommend it to friends who want a personal media server or place to rip and backup their CDs to. It’s still the easiest to setup and most intuitive imo. Am I just missing something?

And on that terrible disappointment, back to piracy.

Right now I’m watching Jeremy Clarkson drive a Peel P50 through a BBC office space.

I paid for a lifetime Plex Pass years and years ago now, I've definitely gotten my money's worth.

That being said, I fully expect more bullshit like this, up to and including ending my "lifetime" pass.

When that comes to pass, I'm so glad Jellyfin will be available for me to use.

Until they remove or add something that this tier doesn't get.

Jellyfin is the future.

This was my exact experience as well. I'll never know how Plex compares to Jellyfin because I immediately noped out when I ran into the account creation.

Frankly baffling to me that anyone with the wherewithal to self host thought that was okay.

TBH Plex is years ahead on maturity, their dev team is excellent, unfortunately it seems like enshittification has begun for them.

Support Jellyfin not because it’s better, but because it’s open source and it puts users and tech first. Don’t expect it to beat Plex’s performance, quality, or cross-platform availability yet, but expect it to become better as more people donate or get involved.