- cross-posted to:
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
Plex has announced a massive price increase on the service’s Lifetime Plex Pass. On July 1, the lifetime subscription option will go from $249.99 to $749.99, an increase of 200%. The price hike will only apply to new subscribers, with no changes to monthly or annual subscription pricing.
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My Jellyfin server goes, “Burrrrrrr!”
That’s just gonna drive lazy people to learn how to use something open source like Jellyfin.
Would be nice if Plex showed their numbers; what they pay in licensing, maintenance etc and profit
Wait wait wait so… you pay THEM to let YOU share YOUR media? Wha?
Posted this link earlier and it got deleted with no mod log. Anyone able to explain so I can avoid future issues?
Plex announces that it is tired of having all of these customers buying their software
Laugh while you can monkey boy! But in 2037 when its $75000 for a lifetime pass, I’ll be the one laughing then!
If you just live long enough this is an amazing deal! A steal I tell you!
If you don’t see it that way you are timid and weak and don’t have the confidence to survive another 6 or 7 decades!
Literally 10x the price I paid for mine
Early adopter club 🙌🙌
Early rejector club. Jellyfin gang.
I have underwear older then jellyfin. Plex was the only option for some time
Edit: Alright, alright, it wasn’t the only option, but it was the cleanest/easiest way to make a home server feel like a streaming service that I knew of at the time
It was?
I started streaming video in around 2001. Over SMB. Using VLC as the client.
Then I switched to using iTunes as a server.
Then came XMPP/Kodi.
And eventually, Jellyfin.
Every few years, I’ve tried Plex, and it’s never done quite what I wanted, and required security/privacy compromises. About the only thing it has going for it is that the client and the server will run on just about anything.
XMPP
I think you mean XBMC.
I do indeed :D
Although I still use XMPP.
As I said in a different comment, I think “only one of its kind” was probably a better fit, at least in terms of collected features and sharing capabilities
I have underwear older then jellyfin.
And plex still does some things better.
I was using MythTV long before Plex came around.
I guess what I should have said was “only one of its kind”. As far as I knew, it was the only one that did all the metadata stuff to give it the “streaming service” feel. Being able to share my library to others outside my home without hassle was also big
XBMBC (later Kodi) gang present!
There were and are plenty of alternatives to Plex. Plex was never, “the only option”.
What about Emby?
The scary part and the reason I never paid is because I think they will shut down plex soon. No one is paying for streaming services anymore and those giants will start coming down on the gov to do something about it. EU is coming down pretty hard on IPTV and torrent sites already.
The EU shouldn’t because most of those streaming services are American. So it’s only good for us if people pirate. It offsets some of the tariffs Trump has levied.
And it’s those services’ own fault. They offered a decent value for money for years. Now they keep wanting more and more. Rising fees, content disappearing to other platforms but still asking for more money. Adding ads and then asking for money to remove them. Eventually people are sick of it and go like 🖕
I don’t know why anyone would pay that instead of using Jellyfin. I’ve had my server up for years now and it works great.
Last I looked, jellyfin auth and public facing security were less than ideal.
How far has that come in the last few years? I have plenty of people using my Plex and it’s been secure. I had heard a public facing Jellyfin wasn’t super secure.
Honestly, 95% of the reason I use Plex is so I don’t have to manage user passwords and troubleshoot issues for my friends and family. I just grant access.
I moved from the default jellyfin login method to using Authentik as the identity provider. Now its part of my homelab setup where all services have SSO, and I don’t have to create/manage an account for each person for each service.
Does that break Jellyfin apps on smart TVs or media devices?
A lot of people seem to have concerns with how Jellyfin handles access control and some have stated that the developers marked some major issues as “won’t fix”. Is there somewhere I can catch up on that?
I only need my server to work locally so I haven’t messed with that part personally. But I’ve read that setting up tailscale is straightforward and works fine. There are many other solutions to the problem. I would definitely invest a lot of effort before paying for Plex.
Great; how do I setup Tailscale on my mother’s Roku TV?
Unfortunately, that’s probably not gonna happen without some new hardware.
You could setup a wire guard at the router (can you setup tail scale on a router? idk). If she’s renting the ISP router, replacing that could save a 100+ a year, depending on how much the isp is scamming her for it.
or you could repurpose a minipc/nuc from bay and set up a jellyfin streaming box with tailscale.
If you have the extra hardware, you could also setup a local server with her jellyfin and use wiregaurd/tailscale to remotely connect to it and run backup/sync during off-hours.
It’s essentially a one time fee for an indefinite service of handling the vpn side of the setup.
I use Jellyfin on my local network and plex externally because I don’t know how to route specific traffic with openvpn on my phone and can’t be bothered switching it off and on when streaming things 😅
I’m not sure how it’s sustainable, and am surprised they still offer the life pass at all though.
I guess a lot of people buy it who don’t need it?
I still probably wouldn’t pay the current price for it though, I got it about a decade ago lol.
Oh also plexamp has a better UX than jellyfin for music, but I don’t think that alone would justify the current price.
Tailscale is the answer to easily and remotely access jellyfin and your server. Its easy to setup and very secure.
I didn’t find it that easy to set up 😅
but I’m sure I would find it easier if I was more motivated e.g. saving $750 by setting it up 😅
You’re not wrong. I would just rather learn Headscale or nginx or any other option than pay that Plex subscription. But I’m sure there are people out there who have extremely valuable time and wouldn’t hesitate to fork over 750.
ah yeah, I paid $50, not $750 😂
I don’t believe plex pass acts as a vpn.
yeah but it removes the need for one in most use cases
It kinda does when streaming remotely, if you don’t have any open ports it gets routed through Plex’s servers
It’s not literally a VPN no but it does route data
I haven’t checked in on Jellyfin for a while now, but don’t they still have issues with hardware transcoding support?
Not to mention the lack of software clients on other platforms for just playback that Plex has been established on for years and even multiple device generations like with PlayStation, Roku, Fire Stick, etc.?
Also you have to configure your own reverse proxy / Tailscale set up to securely access a content library remotely, right - as opposed Plex’s relatively simpler remote access configuration?
Surprise, surprise, a paid product with salaried developers has more features than a volunteer project!
More people using Jellyfin, more people who will contribute, through code or donations. It’s worth a downside to swap over.
Hopefully that gets better - I run both side by side pointed at the same folders so the exact same media is available in both. I offer all my friends the choice and list every alternate app I know of, inevitably they all prefer Plex.
Especially given the new “lifetime” price. More people will switch to Jellyfin. Plex lifetime might be shorter.
More people using Jellyfin, more people who will contribute, through code or donations.
Doubt.
What about Emby? Why is that never mentioned?
I have not personally experienced any issues with hardware transcoding. My server is an old Dell Optiplex and I use clients on Linux, Android, Roku and Shield.
Yes you are correct about remote access and if that was a priority for me, I would happily learn that part instead of paying for Plex.
Especially on non-GPU systems, Jellyfin is slower at transcoding than Plex. I don’t know the internals, but I have both running in the sam machine, and Plex is always noticeably more responsive. Not by a huge margin, but still it is.
What about Emby?
I haven’t looked at Emby in a long time. Last I checked, it wasn’t as capable or feature rich as Jellyfin or Plex
Massive price hike causes massive customer hike to Jellyfin lol
I already have lifetime but there have been increasingly more and more yellow/orange flags recently.
For you jellyfin folk: Is there a good solution to being able to cache/download episodes/movies ahead of time for “offline mode” with any of the android clients yet? Last time I checked that was a pain point and most solutions boiled down to “just download the file and use VLC”. At which point… why am I running a media server when I can just mount a samba share at home?
My sole problem with jellyfin is the ease of use for remote access. I can’t explain to my 60 year old mom, or 80 year old grandma how to set up a VPN.
I’ve said this exact same thing in the past, and been shouted down by the Jellyfin crowd. There is a lot of apologia in the FOSS community, and Jellyfin is one of the worst offenders. It has several known security exploits, and should never be accessible outside of your LAN. But every time I mention it, I inevitably get some chud responding with “lol I’ve had my port forwarded for years and been fine” as if that is a valid security audit.
And this means your only real option for remote access is a VPN. But that makes sharing with friends/family extremely difficult.
Especially if those family/friends also want to run their own servers, because Jellyfin doesn’t have a centralized “here are all of your servers” home page.
It also means you end up playing administrator to all of the “I forgot my password for the ninth time this week, can you reset it for me” inane requests.
Plex does all of those things really well. Want to share with a friend? Just send them an invite link, and they can access it with their own account. Want to access multiple servers, because you have a few friends who also run theirs? Easy, they can send invite links to you, and you’ll access them all directly through the home page. Family member forgot their password? They can click the button and follow the prompts to reset it themselves.
Especially true on reddit, the Plex hate is real - yes they’re raising lifetime pass, but it’s not valuable to them for you to buy it. That’s why it’s raised until you only want to use the subscription.
Yes, an Android app called Streamyfin.
What flags have you seen?
Honestly if you’re a smaller server, or anywhere decent at tinkering Jellyfin is the better product at this point
I tried switching and I’ll try again. But getting https reverse proxy was a lot of moving parts that I never got working.
The instructions were a long chain of learning:
Install ngnx for reverse proxy
Ngnx only available as docker
Install docker
Docker not working because I don’t understand it.
Install podman
Give up and go back to 3d printing where I have a backlog of stuff that actually needs to be done.
Caddy is way easier than all the other reverse proxies, it handles certificates automatically
Nginx does not require docker…
I think it’s the other way around. Jellyfin recommends docker.
Just install tailscale and run everything behind it. Too easy to set up
Can a random person (my mother in law and other non techie family) connect to my tailscaled jellyfin using a Roku or AppleTV? I thought tailscale needs a wireguard client.
Spoiler: They can’t. There is no Roku Tailscale app. AppleTV recently got VPN support.
Everyone loves to yell “Jellyfin” without realizing all of the shortcomings because it’s free.
I’m willing to work past a lot of shortcomings when the alternative is $750. Plus anything learning how to overcome those shortcomings will have benefits beyond just setting up jellyfin.
Well, I have no shortcomings with it, so yeah I yell Jellyfin. We have both of our tvs on cheap android boxes with it and tailscale installed and our phones with it installed to remotely access. A few extra steps to set it up? Yes, but extremely worth it and easy to access and use once it is set up. Worth the cost savings in the end? Yes. Jellyfin also does everything we need including more that we dont and also has a ton of amazing plugin support to add alot of cool features. Oh, yeah its open-source. So, yeah I think Jellyfin offers alot to be yelled about.
It does. People often throw this out there as if it fits all situations, but it doesn’t. Plex is handling the proxying for you which is what makes it so easy.
A better comparison, if running your own reverse proxy was too complicated, would be to use something like Cloudflare Tunnels. However that’s still extra steps, they dont want you media streaming on their free plan, and you still have the issue of Jellyfin not being the most secure code that you really want to open up to the whole internet. That’s why a one size fits all answer is difficult.
This is why I dropped jellyfin immediately. How do I explain / get these extra steps working for family? People should have gotten the lifetime when it was cheap, and I’m surprised they even offer it anymore - some companies are dropping it, i.e Tesla FSD.
Well they can if those tvs allow the tailscale app to be installed. If not then Walmart sells very cheap ONN 4K boxes for like 20 bucks and then the tailscale and jellyfin apps can be installed on that.
I can kind of understand why they don’t want users buying a lifetime pass. It means they will not get any further funding from that person. It’s worth the tradeoff when you are smaller and need funding, but kind of a hinderance once you are more established.
Either way, I’m glad I purchased the lifetime pass when it was much cheaper years ago.
Yeah Lifetime Passes are unsustainable for a service. The only reason they exist is to attract some early adopters, keep them and if lucky enough have them bring more customers.
The only viable path forward is to discontinue the purchase of new lifetime licenses, or make them exponentially expensive.
At this point, I think we all can see the critical tipping point of enshittification writing on the wall for Plex.
I know everyone says Jellyfin, but given how easy Plex still handles hardware transcoding on many common current standard NAS configurations as well as the somewhat non-standard network configurations needed to otherwise easily yet securely access content remotely from external locations, not to mention the decent UX and deep integration across all client platforms whether web, iOS, Android, Smart TV, and even things like PlayStation and Xbox hardware, but do others here have some any thoughts on how to jump ship to get 1:1 features here at some point?
Many people have been on Plex for more than a decade and have seen it slowly try to reposition its business model to one that is leaning toward something more akin to a streaming subscription rather than a simple personal content library software… but I still have yet to feel the need to switch… at least not yet.
I was an early adopter to Plex, came over from Boxee when it was a thing and bought a very inexpensive lifetime pass.
I jumped ship about a year ago to jellyfin. I use tailscale and just help people set it up. After initial setup, it’s a toggle and start jellyfin and it functions pretty close to Plex. My users use the Onn box or Nvidia shield. Almost nothing has to transcode. I had issues with poorly encoded mp4 files but mkv streams flawlessly without transcode. Transcode itself is limited by graphics chip.
One note, I don’t add people to my tailscale, each user has their own tailnet and then I join it to mine by inviting them to my server. This gets around the 3 user limit.
Overall, some annoyance and pain but not bad and people went along with my plan and now it’s just normal.
My thing was, it’s my server. If they want what I have then buy an Onn or whatever and spend 15 minutes setting things up. Or don’t. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
How does it work on TVs? You start Tailscale on the TV, and have to toggle it every time you use Jellyfin?
You dont have to toggle it on. It can be set to be on at every boot automatically. We turn our android boxes off and when we turn them back on, tailscale is already connected and Jellyfin stays open and is on screen when turning the box on. As far as tvs go, if the app is available then it would be the same.
Oh, that’s great. But just to be clear, when it’s toggled on, that means all traffic on that device is getting routed back through the host Tailscale client (not just Plex), right?
These days the user limit is at 6 users. That could be large enough for a family, though not quite sufficient if you want to share with a whole bunch of friends .
Ok cool, now let me stream to my own network locally without the internet…
you had one fucking job, Plex!
I use Infuse for that. Works great.
