after almost 15yrs my plex server is no more. jellyfin behind nginx with authentik is running very nicely.
Plex still good for the boys that bought the lifetime pass. I understand why people would change. But it’s still the best plug and play option. Waiting until they break the “lifetime” thing and fuck us over.
Didn’t that already happen? Or am I misremembering?
Mostly not yet. They did restrict the bandwidth on relay, but anyone with half a brain can open a port and that still allows apps to direct connect without relay. Honestly I wish could just force it to never relay since randomly my iPad will use relay even when I’m on the same network but that’s more because the new iOS app since the rewrite is dogshit.
Lifetime pass since 2012 here.
I’m pretty certain that you can turn Relay off in your account settings.
Hmm I don’t like dogshit. Nobody ever seems to clean it up.
Welcome to the jelly. ONE OF US. ONE OF US.
Gooble gobble
ONE OF US. ONE OF US.
I’ve been using jellyfin for years.
My best recommendation is DELAY UPDATES and back up before you update.
I have a history of updates breaking everything so you should be careful about them.
All software recommends backing up before an update, but for jellyfin the shit is real, you really want to back up.
laughs in immich
Updating immich brings excitement into my life :)
It’s funny, I’ve heard this so many times. And read through the docs. But I’m a mad lad who has auto updates (I know!) and have never had an issue with Immich.
I’ve had mine on latest for about a year and I haven’t noticed any issues… I have a cron job that pulls it every night too
I’ve been using jelly since just after the emby fork and never had an update issue on docker. Automatic snapshots every 5 mins (amoung other backup tools). means I don’t need to worry much if it does.
Jellyfin still so buggy though. The UI is garbage too. I want to love it… I run both lol.
I have Jellyfin running for years too and it has never broken for me, I use Linuxserver image, so maybe they delay the updates a bit?.. Now, Immich has broken so many times that nowadays is the only docker I don’t keep at latest (and I know using latest is a bad practice, I understand the reasons, but the convenience of not worrying about the versions beats all that for me)
Like the version or the media?
I have it on docker with two volumes, ./config and ./cache
I back up those before each update.
A bad Jellyfin update should not mess with your media folder in anyway. Though you should have backups of those aswell as a rule of thumb.
With respect to the media, you can mount the volume as read only, preventing Jellyfin from accidentally wiping your underlying content.
or just change the folder ownership to whatever user you use in the container, but don’t give them write access. that’s how I do it so I can still edit my media as root.
the config and databases or the media, you mean?
if so, the former, but I mount the meadia with a read only docker volume just to be sure, because chances are I would never notice it
Right? Jellyfin is awesome
Wouldn’t containers make more sense for some of these rather than full blown VMs?
i love jellyfin i just wish there was a nicer way to highlight collections so you could make themed weekly or monthly collections of movies and shows that also still show up in the regular folders… almost like netflix.
That is coming, I saw a PR for that. Just need to be patient.
I’m probably mistaken, but I think there might actually be a plugin for this? I haven’t looked into it myself but I swear I scrolled past a plugin listing similar functionality at some point. Or I could be hallucinating. Or it could even exist but no longer work on the current version of the app. Who knows!?
Unrelated but why a full VM for Linux stuff, lxc is much more efficient
honestly every explanation probably just ends at ‘this is what i learned on and it works’. same way i religiously use nano and try to do everything in bash first. or how a couple coworkers can’t stop explaining their vim workflow and defending python unprompted like it’s a trauma response for them. my current homelab is also running a r9 with 64gb ram and 30tb storage. if i were paying for remote hosting, still using salvaged hardware or being paid, i’d invest time learning newer processes. but containers haven’t caught my interested and this set up takes basically no effort on my part to maintain, so i can focus my limited free time elsewhere.
honestly every explanation probably just ends at ‘this is what i learned on and it works’.
Yeah, lots of these answers basically boil down to “when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
These days the hammer is usually docker/podman/lxc containers instead of VMs though. Like, you don’t need a container to run a self-contained statically-compiled binary, yet people still do it for some reason.
Same.
The time it takes me to write a single function in Python is the same as writing a whole Bash-script using nano.
Also I initially set up my homelab using Docker in a VM on Proxmox. Totally useless abstraction, but I never found the time and patience to migrate the VM to bare metal.Not really useless, it’s an extra layer of management (a good thing). The Proxmox system can be nearly static while giving you external level management of the OS that manages the containers.
I have a 3 server Proxmox cluster running various VMs doing different things. Some of those VMs are my container systems.
Besides, you can run containers directly on Proxmox itself.
I can backup an entire VM snapshot very quickly and then restore it in a matter of minutes. Everything from the system files, database, Jellyfin version and configs, etc. All easily backed up and restored in an easy to manage bundle.
A container is not as easy to manage in the same way.
you can use commit, save/load, import/export for the same thing as VM snapshots
It’s not the same. You then need to manage volumes separately from images, or if you’re mounting a host folder for the Jellyfin files then you have to manage those separately via the host.
Container images are supposed to be stateless. So then if you’re only banking up the volumes, then you need to somehow track which Jellyfin version it’s tied to, in case you run into any issues.
A VM is literally all of that but in a much more complete package.
i’d consider that all a good thing, but i can also see how it’s more work
they’re supposed to be stateless because it’s easier to manage, upgrade, etc… if you don’t want that, you can just use load/save/commit (or import/export: can’t remember off the top of my head which is which) and ignore volumes: it amounts to the same thing… there’s also buildpack rebase so you can swap out the base container and keep your top level changes for quick version upgrades that are super simple to roll back
I’ve never worked with buildpack, so that’s interesting
How not?
If a lxc container is in a btrfs subvolume or in a zfs dataset (those are created easily like a directory, it’s not a partition), you can do a full 1:1 copy in less than one second via a snapshot, keeping all the system files, database, version and configs
Sure, ZFS snapshots are dead simple and fast. But you’d need to ensure that each container and its volumes are created in each respective dataset.
And none of this is implying that it’s hard. The top comment was criticizing OP for using VMs instead of containers. Neither one is better than the other for all use cases.
I have a ton of VMs for various use cases, and some of those VMs are container/Docker hosts. Each tool where it works best.
VMs can also be live migrated to another server in the cluster with no downtime and backups don’t need to take the VM down to do their thing. If in the future you want to move to physical hardware, you can use something like Clonezilla to back it up (not needed often, but still, something to consider).
Both have their places, but those factors are the main ones that come into play of when I want to use a VM or LXC.
How often do you do this?
Backups? I have an automatic job running every night.
Nice. You you restore often?
Whenever I screw something up or something goes sideways. Or when I’m migrating from one host to another.
Stronger compartmentalization
I am still using Kodi. It is feeling a bit long in the tooth in current year, but I can’t complain. I tried Plex because chromecasting is a feature I would love. Sadly it didn’t support the ISOs of my 1:1 rips. Maybe it does now (I stopped waiting for them years ago). As for Jellyfin, they seem to have an anti-ISO stance. One of the devs seemingly (or someone claiming to be a contributor) said I should convert all my media to a more modern format and make my own menus because it would be fun. Oh well, Kodi it is.
i’ve never heard of anyone that keeps dvd menus around. like, i get it for archival purposes but i would never want to actually navigate a menu when i want to watch something. in my mind it’s like sitting through the commercials on a rented vhs. i would probably store a converted copy as well, in a format that would let me specify from the application what track and subtitle i want so i can set a default.
i love old dvd menus :(
maybe it’s because i grew up with vhs first but dvd always felt like a lot of hassle compared to just “put it in and watch”
Blu-ray menus do kind of suck, but they are still mostly good enough to make all the supplemental material accessible (assuming the studio bothered to provide any anymore). But DVD menus (at least during that earlier golden age) add a layer to the experience I never knew I had been missing.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show has some dancing fishnet legs and sexyhorror lips dancing around. You get to see so many extras and choose two versions of the movie and AND a secret Easter egg third version. A smorgasbord. Same for Terminator 2: two good versions of the movie and that lame Star Trek-ish ending one was hidden and I love having the option to not watch it. Plus many more. Fight Club is the only one I can think of to make use of that camera angle swapping button. The DVD versions of Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace wouldn’t work any other way.
Perfect way to kill time when others go for a last minute toilet visit or decide to make popcorn. I am not going to the trouble of transcoding my entire library to get less.
i ripped all my dvds specifically to get rid of the menus because they were slow, hard to use, and full of frustrating animations. they usually just felt like an afterthought.
i’ve never been one to be swayed by extras, it usually just feels akin to jingling keys to get me to buy shit. maybe i’m weird.
Streaming services don’t include any extras. Torrents (so I am told but I would never do that, myself, haha) are just the movie and maybe subtitles but nothing else. I doubt you are in the minority. Anyway, we are both afforded options to enjoy however we like. (Just wish I had chromecast support, but I will live). Cheers.
oh absolutely, it’s fascinating to hear a perspective i didn’t know existed.
I’m also 90% done migrating to jellyfin. I’ve had the instance running for 6 months now, the cultural change to watch jellyfin is complete, except for my wife’s iPad.
Heck, I should just retire Plex. That will force the change.
These are the thoughts of a cold and calloused sysadmin. Didn’t get the email about the change? Too bad.
yeah it took me about 6 months with jellyfin to feel like i was ready to finally kill plex. the thing that finally did it was getting an email from plex asking if i’d like to check out whats streaming on hbomax.
What are you using to watch jellyfin on iOS?
In order of personal preference:
Maybe just try them all out and find the one that fits you best. You could also use more than one (which is what I do).
Maybe, Streamyfin? its the only iOS App with Downloads and Offline-Mode
Swiftfin is what I’m using for Plex on my Apple TV
It’s perfect for me because it supports direct stream and decoding of the file for playback on the Apple TV - because the Apple TV is capable enough to do that.
This is ideal because my NAS server is a venerable but now very long in the tooth HP Gen 8 microserver from 2014, so it doesn’t have the chops for reencoded streaming anymore.
Can also use the web client
Does jellyfin do untranscoded video/audio?
Haven’t used it in years but finally building up my media server again and I remember it had some funky settings for hardware encoding back then which I didn’t need because I was connecting to it via a repurposed gaming laptop that could easily handle 4k content and surround sound by itself.
I use jellyfin for unencoded audio and video on my clients that support it like my newer television, but I also use transcoded audio video on things that can’t handle the higher codecs like the raspberry pi.
What is virsh?
It is the command line interface for libvirt/qemu/kvm on Linux. I usually just use virt-manager remotely via SSH to create and manage my VMs, but virsh can be handy as well.
command-line virtual machine manager
I want to leave too, but I really like PlexAmp for my music streaming. And no, Finamp doesn’t work nearly as well or look as nice.
Finamp is good for android and has a flatpak
PlexAmp is so good. Nothing else comes close.
What about subsonic or funkwhale? I think I also tried a third one I’m forgetting
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try them out. One thing that I hate is critical for me is integration with Android auto. It’s the last Google service I can’t seem to quit. Might have to give up and just roll with Bluetooth instead.
symfonium has been mentioned in this post before specifically for android auto. i had the same hang up with apple car play. i didn’t use most of the plexamp fancy features. i just wanted it to play music and be easy to use when driving. manet finally came along for ios. though i’m still hoping one of the open source apps adds the functionality later.
Oh nice! I’ll check it out.
Navidrome and Symphonium. I use Android Auto every day with no issues.
I just wanna get rid of Plex so bad but jellyfin isn’t going to work for my grandma…
Why? It’s been much easier for me
Grandma? Pls send money.
Host both. Keep plex up for your gma, Jellyfin for everyone else. Tbh Jellyfin is also pretty intuitive. Currently I’m hosting both, but my gma doesn’t use it, so I’ll probably move completely to Jellyfin.
if my parents can navigate it your grandma can :)
If your grandma can handle torrenting over VPN, then she can probably handle Jellyfin.
Grandma probably doesn’t do the actually torrenting herself, chances are OP has a overseerr or jellyseerr type of setup, grandma makes the request and things just flow.
The people asking why confuse me…y’all acting like jellyfin is easy to use on an off-site tv when it’s literally not for non tech savvy people. I don’t understand why jellyfin just doesn’t nut up and make an samsung tv client or something?
My 67 year old Mother has been using Jellyfin for years via Chromecast. Change the TV input to Chromecast and pull up the Jellyfin app. And that’s it. She never leaves Jellyfin and the Chromecast is never shut off, even if the TV is.
It’s amazing to me that you fanboys pretend like Plex is easy to use but Jellyfin is somehow not. It’s generally the exact same interface.
I don’t understand why jellyfin just doesn’t nut up and make an samsung tv client or something?
Because application development is expensive, and they’re open source–not funded by corporate interest like Plex. What exactly about that is difficult to understand?
You can run them concurrently and let grandma continue to use plex.
I’ve heard people had luck with Tailscale playing nicely with non Plex options. I can’t say I’ve tried it. Though I do use Tailscale. Essentially if you setup Tailscale for Grandma it’ll be like she’s sitting on your local network. Even better, set it up on her router and you can literally debug all her Internet problems if you can ping it.
Beyond that a raspberry pi with a battery backup on a 4G subscription connected to the router. That would be the ultimate “grandma” setup. Connect her router/modem power to remote power cycle. But I digress.
The irony of not wanting to use Plex and saying to use Tailscale to let you use jellyfin is just too good.
I understand. I have converted fully to JF which required people to get onn players, and tunnel into my network and it was a lot of work on my end too.
Do what works for you and them.
Long time Jellyfin user here, welcome on board. I think biggest hurdle I should newbies warn about is the lack of availability on TizenOS.
Its possible but needs some extra steps.
This is one of my issue with Jellyfin. It’s a workaround to install the app onto Tizen. Updates are again manual. But zero issues since installation and runs smooth.
not OP, but this has reared its ugly face once or twice with my friends.
i have been running into another issue, though it may be a firefox issue: playing some filetypes fail to play on web browser but work fine on jellyfin app (i believe my settings are correct for hardware decode on server where it can)
i still have to put some time into figuring it out tho (havent really done my research yet)
oh! thank you! this is the answer :(
though… it kinda makes me want to buy a cheepie intel card just to get that sweet, sweet AV1
I’ve actually had the opposite issue where it runs fine on my web browser but does not play on my TV.
i have a lifetime plex pass, but I’d consider moving to jellyfin when their closed-captioning support reaches parity with plex. i regularly spin up a jellyfin container to try it out, but i still run into issues. And jellyfin’s android apps are mediocre (in particular android auto support), especially for music compared to plexamp
I find Jellyfin’s subtitle search much better than Plex’s. Bonus for leaving a subtitle file right along with your file, instead of buried somewhere else so you can’t easily edit it.
Get Bazarr so you never have to worry about subtitle searching again.
For some reason I get permission errors on jellyfin every time I use it. Never with Plex. I’ve gone through the steps to fix it before. But when you change your shit as much as I do. I just stay with Plex because it’s plug and play. And I have the pass. I don’t have the time to fuck with stupid shit with jellyfin.
that’s about where i was at for a long while. manet finally replaced my apple carplay functionality from plexamp and plex lost it’s last advantage for me. i definitely got my moneys worth from that lifetime plexpass though.
For android auto, I use symfonium as it can hook into my jf library
This. I use symfonium for my audiobooks. Great app.
