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> I have set up systems for others that have worked with nearly no issues for years

The two issues I had over the years was: My SSL cert expiring (not really a Jellyfin issue).

My FireTV updated the Jellyfun app to a version that no longer supported the server version, this was pretty frustrating becuase I just wanted to sit down and watch some TV instead of messing around with a upgrade.

In saying that; Kodi also ran fine for years without issue. My main issues with Jellyfin are scrubbing difficulties and subtitles going out of sync or not being able to change their timings, same with audio timings.

Had the same with an LG TV. Workaround by running with http (not https) on local network.

> The two issues I had over the years was: My SSL cert expiring (not really a Jellyfin issue).

If your SSL cert is from Let’s Encrypt, certbot will auto-renew it for you

How does this work on a LAN or other private network? Can it?

You can do DNS based challenges without exposing your network itself if you have a real domain name.

Thanks, I did use Let's Encrypt and had certbot setup but didn't realise the renew process required port 80 open (I had blocked it on my firewall).

You don’t need port 80 open, you can do DNS based challenge.

1) Transfer your domain to someone who provides a DNS API like DigitalOcean or Cloudflare

2) download the appropriate plugin for certbot (certbot-dns-digitalocean, certbot-dns-cloudflare)

3) get an API token and config the plugin with it

4) set up a post-renew-hook to do a `service nginx reload` to reload the new cert

sample instructions for DO https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-acqu...

Thanks for your reply, this was really helpful I will give it a shot.

Another annoying thing about Jellyfin is the inability to disable subtitles by default. Doing it manually every time gets old.

Another annoying bit on the client side, the Android app appears to choose audio tracks at random even though I have English preferred. I have all of a show ripped the same way with dual audio tracks and jellyfin can't be consistent. Plex never had this issue with this show.

I do this with audiobooks, too, but consider libro.fm instead. Same pricing last I looked, and part of my monthly subscription goes towards my local bookseller.

That said, a +1 to Prologue from me. Fantastic app.

I'll check that out. Sometimes when I'm moving between an audiobook and my kindle I use the official Audible app (WhisperSync is pretty freaking cool) which is the main reason I've kept my Audible subscription. Though there as some books I have no plan to read+listen so I'll look into libro.fm!

Hmm, I checked a book on libro.fm and it was $66 vs $22 on audible.com. That's a pretty big difference.

You can get book credits with a monthly subscription, I think when I was doing that it was about as good a deal as audible. libro.fm also has the advantage of being DRM-free from the start

Oh, right, I do the subscription, so it's $15/mo for 1 audiobook, plus 30% off further purchases. I guess I don't "audio-read" that much, so that's a good deal for me. (I actually have credits saved up, which don't expire.)

I mostly agree, but the Plex UI is infuriating.

Adding a new users is harder to find than it should be. Force a particular resolution to a user (Original!) is too hard. The content they push - I don’t want it.

I like it, but it isn’t perfect at any stretch.

That's why I left plex. Every app changed interfaces around too much and resulted in frustration for everyone in my family.

I don’t think it’s perfect but I don’t have the same complaints as others re: the UI. To me it’s perfectly functional.

Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome or I’m blind to what everyone else sees but I rarely suffer bad UI if I can help it. Plex has always just made sense to me for the most part. There have been some revisions that grated at first but as long as my media is only a few click away I’m happy.

> You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex

Ironic you say this, since Plex Pass is virtually required if you want full control over streaming your media. I'm not sure you quite get it yet.

I mean, I never said Plex was free. I paid for lifetime Plex Pass like 4+ years ago so I don’t have any ongoing costs.

I have no issue spending money (which is why I use Plex and not Emby/Jellyfin), I have a problem when you literally cannot spend any amount of money to get what I consider the best experience. Even if you pay for every streaming app on the planet you can’t get the experience Plex can provide (with media acquired legally or otherwise).

Unfortunately, the Plex experience is subpar for me. It frequently freezes, even on good connections, transcoding is low quality and doesn't use max quality even on a 600 Mbit line, and other jank.

Browsing my library and selecting videos to play is amazing, just the actual player itself is nowhere near as good as Netflix's.

If only there were a way to at least tell it "never transcode, just always play original quality". It's been years of this feature being requested, yet my server still tries to transcode.

You use Plex because you think it's easier to use than Emby/Jellyfin. It would behoove you to recognize where you have been successfully marketed to.

It's odd to reply to a thread about a piece of software that has always been FOSS, and parading the solution you paid for while saying "You can't pay for a better solution than something I've paid for!"

Jellyfin is a better solution than Plex, and you're not paying anything! Imagine that.

It’s odd to care so much that someone enjoys a piece of software they paid for even if an open source alternative exists. I have said absolutely nothing against Emby/Jellyfin, just that I personally use Plex. I even mentioned Jellyfin in my original statement on equal footing with Plex:

> You cannot pay for an experience that rivals Plex (or in this case Jellyfin).

You omitted that from your quote. I was stating that running your own media server (no matter the software) is better than using the streaming services. I use Plex so I talked about Plex. I wasn’t refuting the article, I was making a statement about how shitty streaming has gotten.

I didn't omit anything. I focused on a sentence you led with. More importantly, I definitely don't care whether or not you enjoy Plex. I left that ecosystem 4 years ago because the writing was on the wall, now Jellyfin blows it out of the water performance wise. Didn't even have to pay for the pithy Plex Pass!

> I was stating that running your own media server (no matter the software) is better than using the streaming services.

Maybe you should have stated that in the first place...? It is certainly clearer in terms of the message. Nobody said you can't talk about Plex, just that it is weird to lead with "I paid for this!" on a thread about free software that isn't what you paid for. If you didn't pay for Plex pass, your comment would fit better. If the Geerling article was about Plex, your comment would fit better, but it wasn't, and it doesn't.

Can you be more precise? I used Plex as a free user for a while before getting a Pass, and I seemed to have full control over my media - I could watch it remotely, etc.

Plex has fallen behind free alternatives, which is no surprise because they already have most people's money. You're not paying for a higher quality experience when you pay for Plex Pass. You're paying for functionality that has been free in other alternatives for awhile, like hardware transcoding.

Performance wise it's also bad compared to the competition.

So... No specifics other than hardware encoding?

I don't pay them for hardware encoding but for other services that the alternatives suck at. Once you know you have to pay you don't really care what you have to pay for and what you don't.

There are downsides to Plex, but do realize you're conversing with people who've used multiple options. I try Jellyfin once or twice a year and it's objectively a worse experience each time.

And again, when I used the free version of Plex the viewing experience was perfect. I guess I just don't need hardware encoding?

Hardware encoding and general performance are quite a lot of reasons. I don't think you're making your argument in good faith when you are clearly not pushing these systems to their limits like some of us are. There's no need to act like you've really tried running Jellyfin when you just chose the easier option and stuck with it.