• The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I didn’t get into self-hosting until recently, and people recommended Jellyfin, so I don’t even know what I’m missing with Plex, if anything. It feels like Jellyfin does everything I need.

      • hperrin@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        You’re missing getting to pay for it. Imagine how good it would feel to see $750 less in your bank account.

        • tempest@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          I mean Plex definitely has a value add. Around here people will scoff but Plex is far easier to work with for non technical users.

          If you shared your library externally Plex was definitely easier it’s just that they have started to extract value from that which does suck.

          • TwiddleTwaddle@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            6 months ago

            Easier sure, but it comes at the expense of all traffic (even streaming to a device on your local network) going through their servers. If you have an internet outage or their servers go down, you can’t even stream media locally with Plex. No such issues with Jellyfin.

            Edit: apparently my frustrations about this were based on something I set up incorrectly, so +1 point for Plex working locally without internet, -1 point for ease of use/setup if I had this wrong for years without knowing it or finding the fix on my own.

            • 123@programming.dev
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              6 months ago

              I tried to use it about 3 years ago on an apple tv. It tried finding the server on my LAN and never could do it reliably, so I found it more annoying.

              With Jellyfin/Swiftfin I do have to punch in the hostname or IP, but it works fine for me and the people in the house. The only annoyance is getting signed out every few months, but I’m not sure of that’s a server or client issue on Apple TV and happens infrequently enough that I have not bothered to look up the reason.

              Edit: should have said that I used to use Plex before ~2012-2018, and with more ease that after the updates that dumbed down the interface. Maybe its changed and better now, but no reason for me to care.

            • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              You’re not alone. The first time I lost access to my locally-stored content when my internet went out, I searched for a solution. There is, one, but it’s not obvious–or at least wasn’t back when I encountered this problem. I don’t know why it would be the default setup, I can’t think of a good reason, only nefarious ones. It’s one of the reasons I dumped Plex, in spite of having a life-time pass I paid $75 for, I stopped trusting them.

      • CH3DD4R_G0B-L1N@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        You’re missing the early days when plex lifetime pass was ~$50usd and jellyfin wasn’t a thing (that I know of). I believe Kodi was the only real competitor at the time, and it was much less friendly.

        Plex has slowly moved in a less user friendly direction, but still meets my needs and I’ve easily gotten over $750 in value from the…almost 20 years, wow…I’ve been using it.

      • ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
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        6 months ago

        I felt the same way with my Kodi installs, I had a pi in every room that used a shared library db so I could pause in one room and resume somewhere else, nfs shares for media, a config file and done.

        I bought a lifetime Plex pass a decade or so ago and shifted everything except my music to Jellyfin about a year ago. Now I’m looking into dispatcharr to round everything out.

  • SirMaple__@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Couldn’t pay me to use that software lol

    Used Kodi and now using Jellyfin.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I think it is. A price hike this massive can only mean they‘re banking on panic buyers who think they can save hundreds of bucks if they buy it now. Meaning Plex probably knows it‘s over and they just want to make as much money as possible before filing bankruptcy or something. At least that‘s what it looks like to me.

      • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        I have to agree with this, I think they bet on more people subscribing as a result of their external connection subscription requirement, didn’t and are panicing because they don’t want to downscale enough to be able to be maintained.

    • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      the plex lifetime pass is a solid “stop beating him he’s already dead” scenario for me because I lost any interest in it like 4 price ups ago now.

  • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    It’s still hilarious to me that Plex, a project forked from the XBMC (now Kodi) free open-source app for organizing and playing one’s own entirely legally obtained video files, is a big streaming business thing that charges people money.

    It’s like finding a tree in the forest that gives out infinite free apples, and then setting up an apple-selling table right next to it stocked with apples you obviously got from that tree.

  • Piranha Phish@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    This is almost certainly a ploy to get an influx of buyers before the cutoff of July.

    They want to round up all the people that they think were considering a lifetime pass, but were holding out.

    I guarantee you when July comes they’re going to reduce the cost to somewhere less than $750 and much closer to the current price due to “we listen to our customers” when really it was the plan all along.

    They’re using the Decoy Effect and FOMO.

    • mrnngglry@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Or maybe they want monthly/annual/whatever subscribers, not lifetime, and so they’re making the lifetime pass prohibitively expensive. I have a lifetime pass I purchased a few years ago but after running Jellyfin alongside Plex for a few months, I don’t think I could recommend Plex to anyone who simply wants to host their own media.

  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    I saw this email and it just read as a desperate cash grab for a company that doesnt plan to be around in 3 more years. Pathetic.

  • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Hmm, perhaps I should sell my lifetime pass. I won’t, but I should. (Switched to Jellyfin long ago)

    • auzy1@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      What are you hosting jellyfin on? I find it crashes when scanning on my Synology

      • Xanvial@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I hosted my jellyfin in Synology DS224+, but I need to upgrade the RAM first, 2GB is not enough for jellyfin, I added 16GB so it has 18GB total now

      • demonsword@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I guess it depends on which synology/ size of media collection. I also host jellyfin on a synology (DS923+), in a moderate-sized media collection (~ 9TB) and it never crashed

      • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I’m currently using a mini PC in my 10" rack, but also ran it on an old server that used to be my desktop.

  • dudesss@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    As always, donate to the FOSS alternatives instead.

    In the case of Youtube Premium, donate to Ad Blockers instead.

    • modus@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I do. It works well enough and my grandmother doesn’t have to configure Tailscale. Would I buy a lifetime pass today? Hell no. But I got in early, so why not?