Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April
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Judging by the rest of the thread I'm going to get downvoted for this, but what the hell:
I'm sure I'll switch to Jellyfin eventually but I tried it out a few weeks ago to see what all the hype was about and it just... wasn't great. It was difficult to setup, with way too many overly-complicated settings, and then it refused to play one of the two test files I tried. Like it or not there's a reason that Plex is the dominant player in the game, and a large part of that reason is that it verges on plug-and-play for simplicity of both setup and use.
Yes, it sucks that they're removing remote streaming for free users, but I imagine there's a significant chunk of users who don't know or care how to properly open their server up to the world and are relying on the Plex proxies for their streams (which happens entirely in the background), and those aren't going to be cheap to run. Maybe putting them behind a paywall will provide the resources to make them faster.
I did buy a lifetime pass last time they announced a price hike; it's honestly paid for itself many times over, and I've been encouraging other users I know to do the same before this next one, because yes, it is a significant hike this time around. That said, while I wouldn't pay monthly for it, I do still feel like the lifetime pass is tremendous value for such a polished product. It's a shame they've had to do it at all, but I don't begrudge them for it.
This is what people don't realize. If you want something good, you have to pay people for their time and talent. Free products that are free because of ideology are just exploitation with extra steps.
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That exposes Jellyfin to the internet, so it's not the same feature
My dude if you are connecting from outside your local network you are "exposed" to the Internet in some way. What magic are you thinking Plex is doing? Is someone hand deliverying the packets via USPS?
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That exposes Jellyfin to the internet, so it's not the same feature
And somehow you think that Plex isn't exposing your server to the Internet for streaming while not on your local network?
Okay there Mr. Madison.
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I just want to make sure I read this correctly. It says that if your a Plex plass holder already that remote streaming changes won't affect your service. This means that if I have the lifetime subscription and host my own server than users whom have not payed for Plex pass can continue to access this server without issue correct?
Yeah. The day they start making something subscription that isn't included in the lifetime pass is the day they get their office burned down by a lot of angry people.
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Hellooooo jellyfin!
Only use open source software
Jellyfin is figgin Great
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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.
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I absolutely love that Emby is such a third thought that they donāt even get a mention anymore. They fucked their loyal users over so much that they donāt even get mentioned anymore. Canāt wait for plex to suffer the same fate
Unless Jellyfin becomes more plug and play Plex will be fine. I like Jellyfin but there is a reason Plex is still around. People are willing to pay for how user friendly it is. Every time I've reinstalled Plex it just works with no issues. I can literally set it up at a friend's house once and never have an issue ever.
With jellyfin Its just never been that experience.
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I used Plexamp before and found the switch to Finamp pretty painless. Can't speak for other music apps though.
Finamp lets you listen to music and add songs to a playlist.
I'm missing the crossfade tracks option massively.
I'm missing the AI DJ's, but i could let them go in the name of privacy.
I kinda miss the visualization.
I really miss Plex's free SSL, server locator and user management.
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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. Thisāalongside the new Plex Pass pricingāwill help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
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Requiring a subscription for remote access is actually fucking insane, they don't have any bandwidth costs associated with that other than authentication so ???
They have provided a free relay service for years that makes it possible to access a server even if there are things in the way like CGNAT. That service had a low bandwidth limit but undoubtedly cost them money, so yes.
But yes, they should have just moved that feature entirely to Plex pass (there is already a higher bandwidth limit for Plex pass users)Ehhh i don't think that justifies having people pay to stream, i doubt a lot of people even ever used that functionality and yeah they could have just pay walled it if it was that much of a problem.
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https://github.com/Georift/install-jellyfin-tizen
Samsung is being a bit of a dick apparently.
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That's what Symfonium can do:
And has these sources:
Your app sounds interesting though.
What I quite like about Symfonium is how much configuration freedom it gives you.
Might check yours out as well.Holy shit. I can have mega as a back end and I dont even need to store the files on my server?!?
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Hellooooo jellyfin!
Only use open source software
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Ehhh i don't think that justifies having people pay to stream, i doubt a lot of people even ever used that functionality and yeah they could have just pay walled it if it was that much of a problem.
I don't think it justifies putting remote streams as a whole behind a paywall.
But I suspect that the feature is very widely used since it makes remote streams work out of the box regardless of your setup. It's also turned on by default. -
Yeah that's not the issue, it's just their auto-discovery not working on my network.
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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. Thisāalongside the new Plex Pass pricingāwill help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
Wireguard so you are always seen as being on the local network. This bit of assholery is easily defeated.
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Judging by the rest of the thread I'm going to get downvoted for this, but what the hell:
I'm sure I'll switch to Jellyfin eventually but I tried it out a few weeks ago to see what all the hype was about and it just... wasn't great. It was difficult to setup, with way too many overly-complicated settings, and then it refused to play one of the two test files I tried. Like it or not there's a reason that Plex is the dominant player in the game, and a large part of that reason is that it verges on plug-and-play for simplicity of both setup and use.
Yes, it sucks that they're removing remote streaming for free users, but I imagine there's a significant chunk of users who don't know or care how to properly open their server up to the world and are relying on the Plex proxies for their streams (which happens entirely in the background), and those aren't going to be cheap to run. Maybe putting them behind a paywall will provide the resources to make them faster.
I did buy a lifetime pass last time they announced a price hike; it's honestly paid for itself many times over, and I've been encouraging other users I know to do the same before this next one, because yes, it is a significant hike this time around. That said, while I wouldn't pay monthly for it, I do still feel like the lifetime pass is tremendous value for such a polished product. It's a shame they've had to do it at all, but I don't begrudge them for it.
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I donāt like it, but itās a pragmatic decision.
Hosting for a simple website can be as little as a few bucks a month. Thatās easy for any project to absorb, even if they are open-source with no one pulling a paycheque.
Streaming requires high-performance, high-bandwidth machines that cost anywhere from several dozen dollars to several hundred dollars a month. You build a resilient high-availability network, and you could easily be looking at several tens of thousands of dollars a month.
That isnāt easy to absorb, even for a for-profit company with clearly-defined revenue streams.
Some people want everything for free, but free doesnāt pay the bills.
Full disclosure: I donāt use the streaming feature. I prefer to grab actual copies to drop onto my NAS. I also donāt share to friends and family, as I am the only one I know of who uses Plex.
The thing that's going to be locked behind the subscription is your ability to watch those files on your NAS through Plex when you're not in the same network as the Plex server. That's streaming.
If you only use Plex while at home, you will indeed be unaffected
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Hellooooo jellyfin!
Only use open source software
They do not have chromecast support. (Atleat the last time i checked) Thats a deal breaker for me, would live to use it.
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This is what people don't realize. If you want something good, you have to pay people for their time and talent. Free products that are free because of ideology are just exploitation with extra steps.
That's a good reason for people to take the money they would have spent buying a proprietary solution and instead donate that money to an open source project.
