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Comment by hart_russell | Hacker News Reader

Eh, I was happy to pay Plex a one time fee of ~$120 for a lifetime license. I'd rather just set up Plex in a docker container and expose that port than deal with a bunch of services constantly needing doctoring in my homelab.

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I've run both and Jellyfin is actually easier to run IMO, since it is in package managers. Also has free android/iphone app. What do you think you have to do in Jellyfin you don't in Plex?

How easy is it to get family and friends to connect to your Jellyfin on like their Roku or Apple TV?

Right now I just have them make a Plex account and they just login. Easy on my part since I don’t have to be tech support.

I send them an email that contains a link to jellyfin.mydomain.tld with their new username and password, plus a few tips for how to get the most out of it (I wrote a template a few years ago).

It's not any more work for me than giving a user library access on Plex, but it does require I have a reverse proxy and a domain.

Would you mind sharing your template?

Sure. I think this was originally written by GPT-3.5 but I've tweaked it a lot since then. I try to keep it short enough that people will actually read it all the way through while still answering some of the more common questions.

    Subject: Welcome to <my real name>'s Jellyfin Media Server 

    Hi there,

    Welcome aboard! You now have access to my media server and can enjoy my library of Movies and TV Shows.

    Here are your login details:

    Link: https://{JELLYFIN_DOMAIN} (bookmark this!)

    Username: {USERNAME}

    Temporary Password: {PASSWORD}

     Please update your password as soon as you log in for your security:

    Log in with the information above. Click your profile icon (top-right corner, looks like a person). Choose "Profile" (same icon again). Enter the current password and your new chosen password, then click Save.

    Tips:

    Jellyfin works like any other streaming platform, you can browse, watch, and favorite. It always keeps your place and remembers what you were watching so it's easy to come back to.

    Jellyfin can be used in a web browser, or you can find apps for phones, tablets, and some TVs.

    Browse the full list of movies or shows available by clicking the boxes under "My Media" on the home page.

    You can request new media by visiting {REQUEST_DOMAIN} and logging in with your same Jellyfin username and password. Please only request things you are sure you will watch in the next month or two.

    Jellyfin and Ombi are software packages that I run on my own computer, but I did not build them.

    Please reply to this email if you have any issues.

    Enjoy!

I see both sides, I paid $5 in 2013, but each time I use it I feel like they keep pushing their own content to the home screen.

I tried to use search the other night, for a movie I know I have. It listed 30-some entries, all for their "Plex content" bullshit. I can't find a setting that turns that off. I have no interest in them trying to become a half-assed Netflix.

I too have the lifetime pass. A group of us collectively manages >1PB of content via Plex. But we need an offramp to derisk enshittification, and Jellyfin is that readiness capability. If you have no option to switch to when the time comes, you are SOL. Even if I did not use Jellyfin today (I do for a music catalog, but it is not primary), I am willing to provide them recurring donations to make sure they are ready when I need them.

(ymmv, I work in risk management, a component of which is vendor risk management, so the professional mental model gets applied to home systems when applicable; rug pull? not on my watch, and the rug pull will happen eventually)

How in the world did you amass a petabyte of content?!

Over the lifetime of a group of people.

With a fiber connection, 5-20 terabytes/month is nothing. I could probably ramp it up, but I'm only looking for 1080p content. The only thing that keeps me sub-petabyte is that my budget doesn't allow for a NAS with enough bays (and 20tb disks going up to $500ish here lately surely hasn't helped).

Really, just start downloading every new release and you wouldn't even have to dip into the back catalog much.

I understand your reluctance, I was not very optimistic when I started installing Jellyfin.

Turns out it is pretty straightforward and I never had to deal with the hassle of maintenance. The two non-mandatory configuration steps I had to make were: - the file permission to share Jellyfin's library with my torrent daemon. But IIRC this is the same with Plex. - the nginx reverse-proxy with WebSocket for the "watch together like" feature to work

If you already have docker containers setup, then it is absolutely no different to run jellyfin compared to Plex.

reverse proxy and domain setup

You need it for direct streaming in Plex as well.

I was happy to buy a lifetime pass many years ago, but as they've removed many of the features I cared about (offline auth, plugins, photo backup, watch together, etc.) I have come to realize that I directly funded enshittification. I wish I could've bought a lifetime pass to the version of the software at that time instead of a lifetime of downgrades.

Jellyfin is also a single docker container, by the way. That would've been an easy thing to verify before making this comment.

it's not a single container if I want to be able to have friends/family access it. That would have been an easy thing to think about before making this comment.

You have to set up port forwarding either way. If you haven't yet, go do that now (ask chatgpt to help), it will dramatically improve your Plex remote streaming. Check settings -> remote access and it'll show green.

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