Plex has overhauled its apps from the ground up to make them easier to navigate. The teams says it will be able to roll out new features faster as well.
I use JF. It’s ok but still rough around the edges and if we count as JF the apps, I have to admit that the Android TV app is pretty bad, it’s chokefull of very basic bugs, like crashing on start, and missing very basic features like delaying subtitles and the navigation is pretty bad, especially for TV show, navigating between series, episodes and home is a hot mess.
My main issue is that my TV occasionally decides to kill the network, which causes Jellyfin to crash on startup, clearing the server. It’s annoying, but I think the bigger problem is the TV, not Jellyfin.
I think the navigation is fine. I like the scroll by letter thing for movies on the right, and I don’t have so many TV shows that it’s an issue (maybe like 5-10 series? We don’t watch a ton of serials), and my kids seem to navigate it just fine. I did spend some time naming everything properly, so maybe that’s the difference? We rarely navigate though. My kids watch one show start to finish (however much time we give them), we generally watch one movie as a family and are done, and my SO uses it for exercise videos.
I’ve reported my fair share of bugs but the main issue with the android app is that the code is amateurish and poorly tested. Lots of the crash bugs are just devs not checking for non existent values and relying on perfect network conditions.
But yeah, It gets the job done, it’s just not a great app.
Hmm, I haven’t used it much. Maybe I’ll take some time this holiday season to go bug squashing. I did a little of that with the Jerboa app here some time back, so maybe I’ll lend a hand here as well.
That said, I’ve only used it to show my collection to friends or test a new network tweak.
No, No, and Yes – Consoles are notoriously difficult to work with. Not for actual programming, no - Consoles are difficult to navigate POLITICALLY. Xbox, understandably doesn’t like F/OSS software, and PS5 has tons of rules and regulations you must meet.
That’s too bad, but it sounds more like you bit off too much rather than Jellyfin being bad. Once it’s set up, it’s fairly smooth, we just drop movies in a folder on the NAS, name them somewhat appropriately, and Jellyfin frequently recognizes it, though sometimes I’ll need to help it out a bit. Setup wasn’t much more complicated than other self-hosted stuff I run, but I’m also a full-time Linux user for some 15 years and a SW dev by trade, so I guess I’m blind to issues I take for granted.
Yeah absolutely it is a me problem, but the imsinuation is that these jumps are easy. Plex works easier and windows in mpre intuitive, I hate microsoft and will push on with Linux and hopefully jellyfin but it isnt an easy move.
Windows is only intuitive because that’s what you have experience with. If you grew up on macOS or Linux, you would probably find it as confusing as you do Linux right now.
But yeah, it’s a learning curve, and self-hosting on Linux generally requires a mental shift from thinking of things as “apps” and moving to “clients” and “servers.” On Windows, the two tend to be mixed, because managing servers on Windows kinda sucks, but the opposite is true on Linux.
But yeah, do one thing at a time. Get comfy with Linux first, and then learn about self-hosting stuff (including Jellyfin).
I dont know what to do with linux to get comfortable. Outside of doing something like jellyfin, which is basic to most people, I would just be browsing.
Tbh I cant even get my ps5 controller to work properly to play games.
It being FOSS does not make up for it being severely lacking and features in comparison
It does for me. I apparently don’t need all those extra features because Jellyfin completely meets my expectations. I don’t even know what I’d want to add.
GIMP
GIMP is an exception. It’s usable (I made my wedding invitations using it), but you’re right, it’s pretty awful to use. There are tons of related software that’s pretty high quality, such as Krita (drawing) and Blender (3D modeling). I’m not sure why GIMP has such bad UX, but there’s still plenty of good stuff in the FOSS landscape.
That said, I’m not a FOSS purist, I just tend to prefer FOSS for things that I’ll be relying on for many years to come, and self-hosted platforms absolutely counts there. If I decide to bail from Jellyfin to something else, I know there will be a way to export my data, even if I have to build it myself. I don’t know much about Plex (maybe it’s easy to export too?), but if I don’t need the features, I’ll tend to stick w/ FOSS.
hardware transcoding - I think Jellyfin supports it, and it’s an extra fee for Plex; not sure how “good” it is though since I don’t need it, it works fine on my devices
app support - works on my TV, tablets, phones, and desktop; honestly, I can’t think of anywhere else I’d need it
TV shows + DVR - looks like Jellyfin supports this, but I don’t watch live TV, so I have no use for this; maybe I’ll look into it at some point
access more movies/TV shows - I’ll just get a streaming subscription to Netflix or something instead
I’m probably missing a ton though, and I’m guessing Plex has an overall smoother experience. But Jellyfin has been fine so far, so I haven’t had any reason to try others. I only want it for playing my ripped DVD and Blu-ray collection, and it works well for that.
You admit that you’re “missing a ton of stuff” after listing a couple of features
No, I was curious what I was missing, so I looked for a comparison between the two. I’m not “contradicting myself,” I’m trying to compare the merits of both so I’m fair, despite not ever using Plex.
Jellyfin was the first one I tried, and it did everything I needed it to do. So I stuck with it. I heard about Plex and Emby, but I never got around to trying them. I did try Kodi years ago, but I didn’t like it at the time (mostly used it to get Netflix working on my Raspberry Pi connected to my dumb TV on my RetroPie box).
My argument is that I didn’t feel like Jellyfin was lacking anything once I got it set up. If this UX update pisses people off, try Jellyfin, because it does largely the same thing, and it being FOSS is also a pretty neat feature.
Well, Jellyfin is right over there, and it’s FOSS too. Consider switching, it’s pretty great.
I use JF. It’s ok but still rough around the edges and if we count as JF the apps, I have to admit that the Android TV app is pretty bad, it’s chokefull of very basic bugs, like crashing on start, and missing very basic features like delaying subtitles and the navigation is pretty bad, especially for TV show, navigating between series, episodes and home is a hot mess.
My main issue is that my TV occasionally decides to kill the network, which causes Jellyfin to crash on startup, clearing the server. It’s annoying, but I think the bigger problem is the TV, not Jellyfin.
I think the navigation is fine. I like the scroll by letter thing for movies on the right, and I don’t have so many TV shows that it’s an issue (maybe like 5-10 series? We don’t watch a ton of serials), and my kids seem to navigate it just fine. I did spend some time naming everything properly, so maybe that’s the difference? We rarely navigate though. My kids watch one show start to finish (however much time we give them), we generally watch one movie as a family and are done, and my SO uses it for exercise videos.
I’ve reported my fair share of bugs but the main issue with the android app is that the code is amateurish and poorly tested. Lots of the crash bugs are just devs not checking for non existent values and relying on perfect network conditions.
But yeah, It gets the job done, it’s just not a great app.
Hmm, I haven’t used it much. Maybe I’ll take some time this holiday season to go bug squashing. I did a little of that with the Jerboa app here some time back, so maybe I’ll lend a hand here as well.
That said, I’ve only used it to show my collection to friends or test a new network tweak.
Is there a jellyfin app on the Xbox? The ps5? Roku TV app store?
I think no so it’s hard to switch if you have family using many different devices to watch plex.
No, No, and Yes – Consoles are notoriously difficult to work with. Not for actual programming, no - Consoles are difficult to navigate POLITICALLY. Xbox, understandably doesn’t like F/OSS software, and PS5 has tons of rules and regulations you must meet.
Idk, but there’s one on my LG TV.
I tried to switch from Emby to JF but I am grandfathered into free premium Emby and if I switch to JF I would have to pay for live TV guide.
I jumped to linux and downloaded jellyfin… shit is too complicated I havent got time to get to terms with it
Guy who runs Plex on a Ubuntu container on Proxmox.
Yeah see I barely understand that
That’s too bad, but it sounds more like you bit off too much rather than Jellyfin being bad. Once it’s set up, it’s fairly smooth, we just drop movies in a folder on the NAS, name them somewhat appropriately, and Jellyfin frequently recognizes it, though sometimes I’ll need to help it out a bit. Setup wasn’t much more complicated than other self-hosted stuff I run, but I’m also a full-time Linux user for some 15 years and a SW dev by trade, so I guess I’m blind to issues I take for granted.
Yeah absolutely it is a me problem, but the imsinuation is that these jumps are easy. Plex works easier and windows in mpre intuitive, I hate microsoft and will push on with Linux and hopefully jellyfin but it isnt an easy move.
Windows is only intuitive because that’s what you have experience with. If you grew up on macOS or Linux, you would probably find it as confusing as you do Linux right now.
But yeah, it’s a learning curve, and self-hosting on Linux generally requires a mental shift from thinking of things as “apps” and moving to “clients” and “servers.” On Windows, the two tend to be mixed, because managing servers on Windows kinda sucks, but the opposite is true on Linux.
But yeah, do one thing at a time. Get comfy with Linux first, and then learn about self-hosting stuff (including Jellyfin).
I dont know what to do with linux to get comfortable. Outside of doing something like jellyfin, which is basic to most people, I would just be browsing.
Tbh I cant even get my ps5 controller to work properly to play games.
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It’s a FOSS alternative, and that’s a pretty important feature for me. It has worked well so far for me.
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It does for me. I apparently don’t need all those extra features because Jellyfin completely meets my expectations. I don’t even know what I’d want to add.
GIMP is an exception. It’s usable (I made my wedding invitations using it), but you’re right, it’s pretty awful to use. There are tons of related software that’s pretty high quality, such as Krita (drawing) and Blender (3D modeling). I’m not sure why GIMP has such bad UX, but there’s still plenty of good stuff in the FOSS landscape.
That said, I’m not a FOSS purist, I just tend to prefer FOSS for things that I’ll be relying on for many years to come, and self-hosted platforms absolutely counts there. If I decide to bail from Jellyfin to something else, I know there will be a way to export my data, even if I have to build it myself. I don’t know much about Plex (maybe it’s easy to export too?), but if I don’t need the features, I’ll tend to stick w/ FOSS.
Here are some of the distinguishing features I see (looking at this site):
I’m probably missing a ton though, and I’m guessing Plex has an overall smoother experience. But Jellyfin has been fine so far, so I haven’t had any reason to try others. I only want it for playing my ripped DVD and Blu-ray collection, and it works well for that.
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No, I was curious what I was missing, so I looked for a comparison between the two. I’m not “contradicting myself,” I’m trying to compare the merits of both so I’m fair, despite not ever using Plex.
Jellyfin was the first one I tried, and it did everything I needed it to do. So I stuck with it. I heard about Plex and Emby, but I never got around to trying them. I did try Kodi years ago, but I didn’t like it at the time (mostly used it to get Netflix working on my Raspberry Pi connected to my dumb TV on my RetroPie box).
My argument is that I didn’t feel like Jellyfin was lacking anything once I got it set up. If this UX update pisses people off, try Jellyfin, because it does largely the same thing, and it being FOSS is also a pretty neat feature.
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Hauppage TV tuner DVR capability, apps for more TVs and i could kill off Plex, personally