FANSFIRST25
Plex's Fan Friday Week is live.
25% off is about as good as it gets with Plex!
Code is: FANSFIRST25
25% off Lifetime Plex Pass A$119.99 @ Plex
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Cant you just stream them over the net from your home PC anyway? Without Plex pass?
Like via the website on the phone? I think I tried it once or twice and it was rubbish. Being able to go straight to the app and watch in HDR made the experience super smooth.
Via the phone app, over 4G, remote to my home server.
Can choose to play in "original quality" or it will auto scale of your connection sucks as mine frequently does.
At one stage they limited it to 1 min playback but that seems to be gone for over 6 months at least.@LlamaOfDoom: Fair enough! I originally signed up for the mobile streaming, so if that's no longer part of it I still got my value from it and maybe others will save the coin :p
@LlamaOfDoom: 1 minute play back is for free accounts streaming on their phone. You can pay a one off $5 fee to stream as long as you want on your phone. Alternatively find someone plex premium already and get them to add you to their home plan and you'll unlock it for free.
@LlamaOfDoom: no you are correct. You use to be able to stream on your phone for free as much as you like but then they brought in the one minute playback for free accounts on mobile devices. You can still stream on the web browser on your phone but just can't stream via the app on your phone
Not every flight has free WiFi, FYI
Inb4 the Jellyfin fanboys.
Thoughts on each one?
I've got static IP and looking at setting up a server
Assumed jellyfin was the go to but open to change
Jellyfin is ok-ish. Less bloated than Plex, but not as polished.
The main issue is the clients for Jellyfin sucks. The devs seem competent at backing backends, but not the frontend UX.
This is the issue.
Apple clients all have an issue where the client doesn’t report back incomplete with format so the server doesn’t encode. So essentially it just won’t play.
Dealbreaker…
Second this. The clients are sometimes buggy (especially casting related) and poor UX consistency across clients on different OSes.
To be fair, a bunch of the Plex apps suck too, especially the TV ones.
Try Emby.
Emby is just the closed source grandparent of Jellyfin. If you're going to use a paid solution you might as well use Plex.
But yeah you’d have to host with Jellyfin and reverse proxy
Looks like they've FINALLY added Direct Mode, so it might work better now. Still hard for me to support them. They denied there was a problem, then admitted there was a problem and annouced Direct Mode but kept delying it over and over again.
Here's an example of the absolute piss poor level of support.
https://community.firecore.com/t/alphabet-location-indicator…
Having letters when scrolling has been requested over and over again since 2017. Such a basic feature. Latest update fro 22 days ago.
This is on our list for an upcoming version, but wasn’t able to be included in 8.0.
This is what they do. Keep promising features so people stay subscribed to their subscription. Oh next update it will be included….oh we didn't include it….Next update will have it….oh we didn't include it…Next upd….
I can't support a company that treats their customers like fools.
@PainToad: Are we talking about Jellyfin? They are not a “company” and don’t need to deliver anything. They are volunteers working on this on their own time, unpaid.
I also was annoyed but just moved on. It’s unfair to put people down providing free services like this in my opinion.
If anything I am thankful they are still working on this at all to keep a free alternative for countless people.
Are we talking about Jellyfin? They are not a “company” and don’t need to deliver anything. They are volunteers working on this on their own time, unpaid.
See above. My comment is in regards to Infuse, not Jellyfin.
I also was annoyed but just moved on. It’s unfair to put people down providing free services like this in my opinion.
I don’t like Jellyfin. But I’m not angry about it as I know they’re doing the best they can and are open source.
If anything I am thankful they are still working on this at all to keep a free alternative for countless people.
Me too. I hope one day they catch up to Plex. Not there yet (or close).
@PainToad: Ohh I see, yeah I briefly read good things about it but not about to pay for yet another app. With all that adding up, might as well sign back up to all the streaming services anyway haha.
But yeah especially combines that charge need to deliver and given they all start from a amazing open source project like Jellyfin, I expect A LOT of extra features to be delivered for the money…
Back when I set up my server a couple of years ago, I went from Plex to Emby because Emby seemed a lot easier to set up than Jellyfin, but was a lot better performance-wise than Plex was. I think it's a good medium between the two other options.
Have used both for the last 2 years. I found plex to be the best. Jellyfin is fine if you are only using local playback and if your playback devices have the jellyfin app available. My hisense TV running vadiaa only had the plex app. This will be the case for most locked down OSs.
If you plan to stream/download over the internet plex is much better. The plex clients work much better than the jellyfin clients on most devices. It will also streamline hardware transcoding. Jellyfin uses fmpeg for its transcoding and i think plex uses there own solution. On a linux server plex just worked with an nvidia gpu however jellyfin would throw a lot of errors in regards to cuda despite it being installed.
Another thing plex does is handle SSL certificates so all plex traffic over the internet is encrypted by default.
On jellyfin you would have to set this up manually using reverse proxys and lets encrypt.You don't like Jellyfin because you apparently have zero idea how to set it up properly, no offense but this isn't JF's fault.
I have none of these issues and I have multiple remote/interstate users that happily stream 4K (transcoded or otherwise) over dozens of devices/apps (phones, tablets, TVs, PCs) and all OSes.
All free and running on a cheap USFF with QSV.
Sure Plex is polished, but you have to deal with closed source and middle man stuff. Great for people who don't care to tinker I guess.
Btw ffmpeg is essentially behind any encode/decode/transcode application, including Plex.
@Grish: Plex and Jellyfin have their own forks of FFMPEG it's completely possible things work better than one or the other.
Also, both will most likely be calling FFMPEG with different arguments, so again it's completely possible things work better than one or the other.
Try not being a fanboy.
@PainToad: Fair chance there's not a lot in it, ffmpeg are kind of the kings of video codecs. I'm not aware of or have stumbled across any issues with JFs implementation of it, have you?
Fanboy? Advocating open source and cutting out middleman, bloat and possible privacy/security, not to mention free.. that's not narrow minded fanboism.
Fair chance there's not a lot in it, ffmpeg are kind of the kings of video codecs.
And fair chance there is.
I'm not aware of or have stumbled across any issues with JFs implementation of it, have you?
Maj957 has.
Advocating open source and cutting out middleman, bloat and possible privacy/security, not to mention free
All good things. But being open source doesn't negate all issues.
that's not narrow minded fanboism.
No, but attacking someone simply because they've had a different experience than you with Jellyfin does.
Jellyfin doesn’t have any download/offline functionality so useless for travelling where you don’t have reliable internet.
@iLurk: The lack of official download support is an issue has been open for years on the Jellyfin github without any development towards making it happen so I'm not incorrect.
The Jellyfin forums themselves confirm theres no built in first party offline playback ability. Only that files can be downloaded and played back elsewhere
The (Android only) functionality in the screenshot above shows a file being downloaded but it needs to be played back using a third party video player like VLC. I'm not saying Jellyfin isn't a great idea its just that in practice its simply not as good.
I did some more googling and it appears there are now some third party clients which support this on iOS too. The most reliable is paid Infuse and costs $3 per month or $150 for lifetime so it's barely cheaper than Plex pass monthly and more expensive than this deal for lifetime.
There experimental support in the unofficial StreamyFin software but it's not finished and doesn't appear to have half the features other clients have.
@stirlo: @stirlo Yeah I normally just download to my phone and play with vlc but I think I see what you're saying now. So plex allows you to download and play within the app?
@iLurk: Try Findroid (the best jellyfin client) for media playing, it features offline play/download. Syncs progress once you return online. Flawlessly.
@iLurk: Yeah with Plex it’s just like offline mode for Netflix, all in the app. It’s not super reliable though. As sssbp commented on Android Jellyfin seems to do something similar. iOS still needs a paid option until the free options get developed more.
@stirlo: What i was trying to say. Jellyfin is great but it isn't as good and easy as plex yet. Doesn't mean there is no place for it. Just depends on your needs
I'm late to the party!
I have been waiting for this, nice one.
I love Plex! I use it to stream my completely legitimate content from my PC to devices both at home and away. It was the first software I discovered that does what it does, though I’m sure there are other good options out there. I started with the free version, but after trying it, I paid for the lifetime subscription. A friend introduced me to it, and I haven’t regretted it one bit!
Of course! By "completely legitimate," I obviously mean all my personal backups of DVDs I legally own but somehow lost the cases for. I was definitely not referring to those meticulously organized, 80GB+ 4K remuxes with perfect sound that. Nope, nothing shady here at all!
Like GabeN says, it's a service issue.
ive had mine forever when the sale price was half this amount but honestly the last couple years this app just keeps getting worse. used to be so simple, now it has all these features and can't do anything well. not alone in this problem of course seems to be defacto trend, but its remarkable how quickly things can turn in wrong directions…
What specifically are you noticing?
basically what the others have said. the UI just sucks now… it's like they've moved everything towards making a tonne off you as the product in the backend bizz of basically spying on your consumption, legal or otherwise and selling it off… wouldn't doubt thats always been the case & that should be an alarm in and of itself, but it's clearly moved down that route in the design path as well, becoming this jack of all trades master of nothing mess. rather just being a solid library management & media streamer, which it really was for a long time…
important lesson, as i said; same could be said of basically all current software. teams of idiot developers which they've always been a bit terrible at implementing basic things & fixes people need. i imagine the dev direction is as above, in the nefarious direction or worse, no direction. just doing things for things to do. not much thats not in this boat, where devs make things actively worse than they were 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 years ago… it's the bloated spyware horseshit model…
Worth noting that they are in the middle of developing a new UI for the front end, initial impressions seem to be really good so far.
As for the current UI, yeah there's a lot of stuff that's been added on over the years, but they've always been good about letting you remove it as well. I haven't had any issues hiding stuff like the Plex ad-supported channels, the Discover feed etc.
Keen to know what issues specifically. I've been using the free version for years and never had an issue. Have been thinking of picking this up for a while.
I gave up a long time ago because it kept adding adding menu folders of weird crap and stupid features that you couldn't remove. I'm just using native DLNA at the moment.
Completely agree. It's constantly hiding my libraries to push their own content and IPTV bullshit. I just want it to list what I've got in a handful of folders and have it easily stream so I don't have to constant manage it. But apparently that's too hard for Plex these days.
It's mildly annoying having to customise displayed libraries on every new client but it is not too big an inconvenience.
I tried this so that it removed their recommendations etc but it also removed my continue watching list. So I went back to how it was. Might try again. Overall I'm very happy with Plex and sharing my 16tb server with family and friends.
Except it randomly reverts every few months.
@Phoenixzeus: Interesting - I've never had it revert across desktop clients, mobile clients and on an apple TV.
Yeah it's a bit rubbish, but turn them off once per device and it's done. It's not "constantly" doing this.
As someone who used Plex way before it got popular I agree/disagree.
I disagree because it used to be sooo broken. Streams would just stop working because of random bugs and updates would break features regularly.
I agree because the UI has just gotten so cluttered with a whole bunch of junk that I don’t want to look at.
I read your comment a few days ago and was feeling pretty pressemistic towards Plex. However the couple of days since I started to use plex on my Synology NAS, I found it so easy to use, setup on the NAS takes a couple minutes to figure out. Then downloaded Plex onto my TV, phone, ipad and everything else I use and was super impressed with how streamlined the process was. Even turning off all the random extra features they have is super easy.
Even turning off all the random extra features they have is super easy.
Yes, very easy. Until the next bloated "feature" that is by default, opt-out.
God bless I'd been waiting for this and literally just tried the subscription feature! You're a legend!
been waiting for the 25% off deal to come back since missing it last December! thank you
This or infuse for ATV ?
Anything but Infuse.
It's pretty…but it's trash. The devs are also incredibly slow to implement basic features. Which would be understandable if they were a small group of open-source volunteers, but considering the subscription they charge, it should be better.
FYI you can you Infuse with Plex/Jellyfin, but like most Infuse features it barely works (unless you have a tiny collection). I haven't used it for about a year (I simply gave up on the empty promises of things improving soon).
it's trash
That's a pretty sweeping statement. I've used Infuse serving wireless 4K over SMB for about 4 years and it's been absolutely flawless. It has a good rep, and I daresay that they can get away with charging a subscription model for a media player app because it looks and works well.
By all means if it doesn't justify its value for you then don't pay for it. What does "should be" better means? Not to invalidate your experience, but it would be useful to quantify how it has failed you. How big is your big library? What do you actually use?
I've got both (mostly have Plex Pass for hardware decoding outside of home), but I exclusively use Infuse locally. Plex app on Apple TV used to give me so much grief - mostly issues with sound delays IIRC. Infuse has almost never let me down :)
I use Infuse on my AppleTV 4K (1st gen I think it is) for local 4K streaming from my Plex server. I have a 12TB collection tip to base (accounting for curve) and it was very quick to setup and works well (so I disagree with @PainToad about Infuse barely working). If I'm watching other stuff I use Plex because it's what I'm familiar with. On my mobile devices it's all Plex.
The Plex client on AppleTV would stutter for about 20% of the 4K videos I was watching. And sometimes it would try to transcode a 4K video that it should have been able to direct play. Infuse will direct play any of the 4K videos I throw at it (at least, it has done for the last 6 months or so).
The Plex issue was fully reproducable for particular videos, but I couldn't really find the fundamental problem. I assumed it was 4K HDR and/or Dolby Atmos, but it wasn't every video like that - some played well. It was related to high bitrate, but it wasn't just high bitrate, because some high bitrate videos played perfectly. It was related to audio codecs, but wasn't just the audio codec - I tested videos encoded with all the different codecs I could find and had good experiences with all of them most of the time. There is some chatter on the Plex forums about thermal throttling but I'm skeptical because I could reproduce the issue on specific videos within seconds of starting up a "cold" AppleTV - maybe I'm misunderstanding how quickly an AppleTV can heat up. My issue felt more like a compatibility issue. There is some talk about Plex's lack of hardware acceleration on the AppleTV. That might be it but I don't have any evidence for that except forum posts. I think some 4K video looks better on Infuse but I haven't done any blinding or triangle tests (yet) to confirm this.
Anyone using Plex debrid and care to comment if it's still working after the Real Debrid changes over the past few days? Was keen to get it setup but not sure how much has been affected since.
Torbox + Stremio is the new go-to. But I'd wait a couple days as their servers are imploding from the Real Debrid mass-migration.
What happened with real debrid and stremio?
RD has had to comply with some EU regs. Specifically not caching content, killing on demand, for now.
Waiting for the dust to settle before making a decision.
@HelpWanted: Content is still cached, it's the API or hash that they won't release so addons can't see if the content is cached.
@sween64: I knew it was something like that, I'm not a tech genius!
That's why I'm waiting to see what happens, as you said the content is there it's how to access it easily for us non tech types. Kodi was my go-to with the bits and bobs connected.
I think there's talk of something & something with Plex works. I'm more a sports watcher so looking and waiting for alternative solutions for that.
i believe Torbox is based in South Africa. Alldebrid is the other popular one in France
Nah its in SA. They use servers in the Netherlands, while still EU they have been pretty chill thus far.
RD still works fine with Stremio - Torbox is trash still.
You can also jump on the /r/premiumize sub and ask cody_premiumize for a 3 day trial. They also have their once a year, BF, sale on at the moment.
30gb/day sucks unless all you want is to stream the occasional show. Particularly if you want high bitrate 4k encodes.
Yeah I’m not sure about the fair use limits. Heaps of new users on reddit are worried by the long time users are like nah it’s fine.
I believe the big difference is streaming cached sources from PM doesn’t go towards your 1000 GB quota.
@sween64: hmm that's not so bad then. I suppose their cached content will improve as users migrate from RD.
@heef: From what I’ve seen on reddit, most users that have left RD have gone to PM. Partly because they’ve always been a competitor and they’re currently having their once per year sale.
I’m gonna stay with RD for the moment and see what happens.
I have been trying to use Plex but still found that AirVideoHD works better for iPads
its sad that AirVideoHD is no longer being maintained…Thanks, finally got my lifetime pass!!
Just use Stremio, it’s free.
I like good solutions, not easy flacky solution.
Had lifetime pass for years and used free for many more before that, and thinking about switching to Jellyfin. Plex gets worse with every passing year for me, keep on adding stuff I not only don't care about but actively don't want on my system, and seemingly every week I have to deal with annoyances like completely re pinning my libraries on my shield as it removes them and tries to send me to their library that I'm not interested in. Frustrating experience.
Never had anything like that happen on any of my clients. What sort have things have they added that you don't want that you can't just deactivate?
Biggest recent example would be them pushing their own content constantly. It sucks to have to explain to people who I'd like to share content with that no, none of the crap that shows up when you open the app for the first time is relevant, you actually have to fart around to find the content you want. Not the seamless experience it once was, which matters when you're trying to convince people away from overpriced streaming services that "just work".
Fair enough, I don't share beyond my household so not been an issue for me.
Yeah they are actively making the whole thing worse and less user friendly by pushing their own content and IPTV crap.
Set your privacy settings
Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about this as a server admin, because technically these are Plex users and their marketing email preferences are controlled on the user side in the Plex website preferences. Not on your server.
sorry if this is a noob question, but whats the main benefits of the paid version over the free. is there more content or just less ads etc?
If you Google "plex pass features" the first result has a good summary.
I love not being able to watch content from my Plex library without an internet connection! Great software.
There's an easy fix for that if you google it.
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I wasn’t sure if it was worth it, but I’m away for work for a month so having my Plex on the go is so damn good! I pre-loaded a season of Scrubs for the plane ride :p