So glad I stopped using Plex, it worked fine but was so bloated with useless garbage and I did not feel like I could trust it with my data.
I need a plex.com account to use my own self hosted instance? Uninstalled.
I need a plex.com account to use my own self hosted instance? Uninstalled.
Yes it is not perfect and they made mistakes along the way but comments as such just tend to ride on the sentiment that vilifies all non OSS products as if it's something inherently bad, the "us vs them" attitude is something I see time and time again here.
The fact that this is all it enables just reinforces the idea that it should be optional. All of the core functionality is possible to implement without requiring an account.
> The fact that this is all it enables
Not sure where you got the idea that linking is the /only/ thing an account gives you. One feature I quite enjoy is syncing watch status between servers. So if one has multiple servers they use (multiple they control or friend’s servers) their watch status can be synced. In my case I have a travel/portable Plex server and my main Plex server so it’s nice to have my watch state kept in sync.
And there are more features from having a central account, this is just one of them to disprove that linking is the only reason you need an account or that it’s the only feature of having an account.
Plex still seems slicker than Jellyfin in some ways but after that experience I'd certainly consider a switch. Offline is the only reason I still use plex, but their offline setup is pretty buggy too.
Yes, they keep adding cruft, I just ignore or hide it. That said, I didn't know I wanted Plexamp until they gave it to me, and now I love it.
I buy all my audiobooks on Audible, remove the DRM, then put them on my server so I can use Prologue instead of the default Audible app. Yes, you give up WhisperSync but I rarely use that anyway.
Even if they did have the account, the unforgivable part is that you cannot use the mobile app for your family and have people have different profiles because the plex pass is tied to a profile. That’s a sleazy cash grab that drove me off of plex.
An example of this is sunsetting Plex Sync and replacing it with Plex Downloads.
At the time they used the whole 'Sync never worked right' argument to justify why they got rid of it. In reality, Plex sync used to allow any user to download videos from any server where the server owner had plex pass.
Now with downlods, the user must have Plex Pass to download anything.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/downloads-sync-faq/
There are other examples where they have done this as well.
There are few environments that seem to attract the sort of discussion where every single person feels justified in writing a 12 paragraph vitriolic entitled screed drawing from the same bucket of recycled quips. To say that you actually like Plex is some sort of great offence that attracts at least a few replies telling you that you’re wrong.
I’m so incredibly confident that there’s a large contingent of people that wouldn’t care an iota that Plex phones home, if not for the fact that they’re so deep into the Plex Hate scene that they’ve learned to be up in arms about it.
I’m not a gamer but have interacted with gaming communities here and there as I’m sure we all have to varying extents. I see the Plex community as pretty similar. I think it attracts the same sort of ‘power user’.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200430283-network/#:~:text=...
Wasn't this the case from the beginning?
The best of Jellyfin is that it's truly self hosted. But no matter how much set up I do, the experience is still never too good. I don't really like the UI/UX but I could get used to it. My biggest issue is how it handles the folder structure and metadata for series. They will always have to be neatly organized in folders to be properly picked up. You can't throw an episode file here, an episode in a folder there, the rest of the season in another folder and so on. They're just seen as independent material, no metadata. This makes the watching experience very stunted.
And anybody could log into their plex account on my instance! The way they handle accounts for self-hosted instances is either deliberately convoluted or ineptly designed.