Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April
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Alright, so I have had Jellyfin installed for years now, but my primary issue is that most devices myself or my users use lack official, readily-available clients. For example, the Samsung TV app is a developer mode install. Last I looked, nobody has put a build into the store.
I really want to use Jellyfin, but I feel like my users simply can't. I'm interested in others' experiences here that could help.
I run an Android TV box on my Smart TV, because I don't trust them on the internet.
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Gotcha, I've never actually considered the bandwidth limits. It looks like digitalocean includes 1TB per month and I used 242GB last month. If I ever get close to the limit I will just spin up another droplet. I don't think I would even need to load balance unless the first one is struggling since the bandwidth allowance across all droplets is pooled together.
If you aren't already using a reverse proxy, then do you currently just port forward or use the Plex relay? The only reason I use one is because of CGNAT. Before I moved to a place with only CGNAT I port forwarded for both Plex and Jellyfin.
I just port forward right now, so Plex’s system is basically an overpowered dynamic dns. I guess my next option is to self host a dynamic dns on a numbered xyz domain (yk the $1/yr ones)
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That exposes Jellyfin to the internet
Yes exactly. What do you think plex is doing?
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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. 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.
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 disagree. Sometimes you need to look at the situation as a whole in order to understand the motivation.
Ok, so you're implying people were using their videos for free instead of paying for the streaming services. Then Plex wanted more money so they've started to charge people for using their own stuff.
That's fine, and frankly I agree with that.
But your initial reply to me is still irrelevant to the discussion.
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It's against CloudFlare ToS to use CF tunnels for media streaming like this. You can risk it ig but I have important stuff like domain registrations on CloudFlare so I'm personally not willing to risk getting banned.
I have not used it for streaming, but you’re right. I purposely do not proxy my media traffic for this reason, utilizing their other solutions.
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I would recommend audiobookshelf for the audiobooks, especially if you have your stuff running in docker. It seemed to me like the solutions to force Plex or jellyfin to do books were a bit more hacky than I wanted.
Dude, I'm blown away by how easy AudioBookShelf was to set up. I was going to go with Jellyfin for audiobooks too since I already had my libraries set up, but I wanted to try an alternative just to see. So easy, I was up and running in under 10 minutes! Thanks for the recommendation!
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How to kill a service speedrun any%
They think they have enough users locked in to just pay over setting up another server. They might.
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Well, looks like my decision to stick with Kodi and never bother with Plex is about to pay dividends.
NAS + Tailscale + Kodi is the easiest to setup for me. Works really good.
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Any Kodi users here?
I've been using Kodi to pull movies from my NAS for years.
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Why would you expect this to NOT be paid? It requires them to be running servers to stream the media through, I wouldn't expect this to be a free feature.
I dislike Plex for several reasons, but asking for payment for stuff that costs them money is completely justified.
Why is this getting upvoted? Plex isn't running a server. You are. Your computer and your media files are quite literally "the server" that is serving the files to you remotely. Plex is at best doing authentication.
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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 don’t even get a mention anymore. They fucked their loyal users over so much that they don’t even get mentioned anymore. Can’t 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. 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.
Another company fucked by executives.
