ive been using kodi (xbmc was better moniker) since google killed sagetv. i recall attempting plex, but it seemed to lack some open/extensibility (its been awhile).
i have a side project i want to make as a modular plugin generating a cable layout with original air orders and networks/channels… kodi seems most optimal, but ill admit its been a long while since i looked at plex.
so why plex over kodi?
I start up the plex server service on my win10 main machine to stream videos inhouse to my xbox plex app manually on demand. I kill the service whenever it is not needed. I provide video files manually without any automation and torrenting. I actually don’t know if this simple use case can be solved as easy as plex with kodi.
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I mean… emby or jellyfin would be a better replacement for Plex.
But why not those? I bought a lifetime Plex Pass for $30 or something ages ago when the competition was garbage, so I already have a smoothly working setup for Plex. No reason to force my kids, their grandparents, etc, to a new interface for very little upside. Plex just works. I have tried the others and they’re okay, but nothing compelling enough to force the change.
Every time I tried Kodi, I could make it work, but it was slower, uglier and less reliable than alternatives.
But I don’t do Plex, I use Jellyfin. Plex feels like one of these games where you pay full price and it keeps bothering you to pay even more for extra stuff.
Plex has a lot of issues but that criticism I do not get: they have one payment tier. If you pay, no features are held back.
The only exception I can remember is when they had that stupid arcade game feature, which was a separate monthly fee. It’s long dead now.
I use Plex and have the ‘lifetime’ licence.
There have been bugs that don’t get fixed for years, while a bunch of new features I dont use keep getting released.These are incredibly infuriating; downloads, server not connecting until app reset, library browsing glitches that only get worse each year…
I have not switched to Jellyfin yet due to my specific setup, but it will happen, or I’ll go mad, whichever comes first.
I use Kodi with the Titan Bingie Mod v2 installed as the front end skin. It looks and controls exactly like Netflix, which isn’t a great streaming service anymore, but their UI is probably the best and most familiar. Only trouble I have is that I can’t connect to my server via VPN, only a rawdog connection, but it’s my home network so I’m not super worried.
Imma be a weirdo here: I use Emby.
I wanted subtitles on Chromecast and Plex was the only thing that could do it without burning them in (at the time, maybe jellyfish can do this now)
To be honest it’s entirely because Plex was what I first discovered and setup, and I liked it enough to pay for a pass
Same. Back when most of us adopted it, Plex was really the only game in town of you wanted a wife and kids friendly setup.
Why is the hype for kodi? Its just a (not good) media player
Kodi with trakt for me
Much easier to set up and share with others. Kodi takes a lot of back end work to make it usable and I’m having a hell of a time getting consistent results to different devices from my NAS.
Plex took far less effort to do the same results but their paywall certainly justifies their ease of use
Strange. Kodi for me was a breeze to set up. Set up a file source, set the client to update library on start up, tweak your thumbnails and skin preferences, done.
My difficulty lies in consistency across multiple devices, it’s a process that i haven’t been able to overcome easily and though i learned SQL my NAS is a bit closed though so I may upgrade that soon
I can use Plex on my PS5 and share it with my friends without having to do DevOps work.
Well, I use plex, because I have used plex for a decade, and it just works.
That being said, if I were to use an alternative, Jellyfin is quite fantastic. I actually have a pod running it, just in the event that plex pulls a stupid move, causing me to lose faith in its platform.
But, that being said, I like the plex interface more then Jellyfin, and have grown accustomed to it.
Also, Kodi while powerful and extensible… just feels like a bear compared to Jellyfin.
Plex is superior because of one app: Plexamp
I didn’t know about this. I just installed it.
Question. How can I access my library with this but not the main plex app? I’ve never been able to get video remotely with my VPN. And even on the main app music isn’t available. But it works in plexamp.
Plexamp is for music only
The real question is why anyone would use Kodi/Plex/XBMC over Jellyfin
Because Plex makes it so much easier for me to share my stuff with my brother who doesn’t live in the same house.
Absolutely. For my non tech proficient family and friends, it’s easy for them to install an app on their streaming box/stick and send me the login code.
How is different from jellyfin? 🤔
They just need to create a Plex account. For jellyfin, they need my server’s up address, right?
Don’t they need your server’s address with Plex? 🤔 and wait, address or domain? Anyway, is it a problem to give them a link like jelly.john.com or watch.john.com
Have you used Plex before? No they don’t need to know anything. They sign up and you grant them access (or even just give them a user in your home and they just sign in by texting you a code). It is as easy or easier than signing into your typical streaming app. Just extremely easy. Jellyfin is great and I hope they keep going but they’re not at the same level as Plex. I’ve been using Plex for nearly a decade now and I’ve tried out jellyfin a few times. I’ll keep trying because I don’t want to use Plex forever but I’m not going to pretend they’re the same. Hopefully they will be eventually.
In the case we are talking about different self hosting things
I used to have Plex with a domain
It’s not a problem for me to connect domains, dns, reverse proxies, etc. Because i’m already hosting like everything, email, my own dns server, websites, nextcloud, basically everything
Plex has a reverse proxying service and can do upnp for you so it works with dynamic IPs out of the box with no need for a domain or forwarding ports. It defaults to upnp and falls back to the Plex hosted reverse proxy which also uses a dynamically generated subdomain and gives you a free SSL cert. Granted I prefer to host my own reverse proxy anyway with my own domain (when I had a static IP I just forwarded a port and set up an A record) but out of the box Plex does make it much easier for a non technical user to hit the ground running.
If I were you, I would just use jellyfin and don’t mess with Plex Jellyfin is opensource, doesn’t collect any data, and just faster in my experience
I do use jellyfin, I run it side by side with Plex on the same Intel nuc with quick sync - both with the exact same media folders added - and I let my friends choose. I don’t think a single one of them prefer jellyfin unfortunately.
And crashes more and has more annoying bugs, that they say working as intended. The one that bugs the hell out of me is when you download another copy of an old movie it gets added to the new category. It is my biggest issue but then there is the no intro skip no screen caps well fast forwarding. And yes I know there are plug-ins for both but the authors of the players don’t support third party plugins.
I just created accounts for my family, so they didn’t need to create accounts or anything. And no you don’t need ip address specifically if that’s what you meant. You can use dynamic DNS services and reverse proxies so you just have a regular web address like “https://jellyfin.somewebsite.com”
Is it different from jellyfin in sharing?
Kodi has a nicer interface imo. Kodi as the player and Jellyfin as the “backend” is a great combo imo.
Jellyfin is great and I follow its development and test it every now an then but it is nowhere near fully featured or well supported enough or me to transfer my family over to.
I will eventually, when it’s ready.
Kodi works way better for local network content in my experience
In what way? Curious because I’ve never had any issues with plex on my local network.
Plex is based on XBMC/ KODI, and both excel at basically being a VLC - playing anything and everything locally or over the LAN. Jellyfin on the other hand is excellent at creating a personal Netflix you can access from outside your network, but because it runs through the browser youre more likely to have transcoding issues and you’re not going to have that Swiss-army knife, can-play-everything-you-throw-at-it like Kodi and Plex can. I use both.
kodi is more ‘media center’…audio/video/static imaging…hell, plugins to gaming… jellyfin/emby is an excellent transcoding/end-user-streaming platform. i see them as complimentary to eachother
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There’s an addon for that (I haven’t used it)
Only for the web
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And here I just press the right arrow key lol
Plex has so many antifeatures I can’t ever imagine using it, and Jellyfin is okay enough to use.
Because my current TV is a Samsung so runs Tizen OS and thus doesn’t have an official Jellyfin app.
(I bought it before I ever got into NAS stuff and it still works fine so I’ll be damned if I buy another TV before this one stops working.)
Edit: A word.
I prefer jellyfin myself
Ya Plex vs Kodi is really more an apples and oranges comparison. Should be Plex vs Jellyfin.
That said though, I did start off with Kodi as my own media center on a Raspberry Pi, but eventually discovered Jellyfin and have really enjoyed it. Kodi is great too, but I think Jellyfin is the more refined modern streaming equivalent akin to Netflix that’s fully open source unlike Plex.
I just use plain ftp server, streaming clients always give me problems, today work tomorrow not
