cross-posted from: https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639

I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That’s it folks. I’ve been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.

They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.

I’ll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I’ve been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it’s time to make it production ready.

Edit: I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying “Just buy a plex pass” are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.

And for the thousandth person who wants to say the same things to me:

  • YES I know I’m unaffected as a Plex Pass owner.
  • My users were immediately angry at it, which made me angry. Our users don’t understand what plex pass is, and they shouldn’t have to, that’s why I had it. The fact that they were pinged even though it should have kept working is horribly sloppy
  • Plex is still removing functionality. I don’t care that “People should pay their fair share”. If Plex wants to put every new feature behind a paywall, that’s completely okay. They are removing functionality.
    • “But they have cloud costs”. Remote streaming is negligible to them. It’s a dynamic DNS service. Plex client logs in, asks where server is, plex cloud responds with the IP and port of where server is located. That’s it.
    • “Good luck finding another remote streaming” - Again, Plex just opens up an IP and port. Jellyfin also just opens up an IP and port (Hold on jellyfin folks I know, security, that’s a separate conversation). All “remote streaming” is is their dynamic dns. Literal pennies to them. Know what actually is costing them money? Hosting all of that ad-supported “free” content that they’re probably losing money on.

In short, I don’t care how you justify it. Plex is doing something shitty. They’re removing functionality that has been free for years. I’m not responding to any more of your comments repeating the same arguments over and over.

  • thundermoose@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    This will affect any server that does not already have a Plex Pass/ Lifetime Plex Pass. If your server does not have one, your remote users will have to pay. The service Plex provides is still worth it though, it largely just works on dozens of platforms and that shit isn’t free to make.

    Sharing a Jellyfin server with others remotely is still a lot more complicated than it needs to be to compete (no, it’s not as simple as opening a port, and if you think so then you’re either lucky or you aren’t sharing with lots of folks). I run both and I would never try to share Jellyfin with non-technical people. Honestly, I wish Jellyfin would start offering an optional paid relay service to fund their development. They could use the revenue to improve their approach ecosystem and still produce mostly open-source software. Homeassistant does this with Nabu Casa and it’s great!

    That being said, the new Plex Android app kinda sucks ass. If there was anything that would make me switch it wouldn’t be having to pay for software, or services it’d be a garbage experience on my most common platform.

    • Lemmchen@feddit.org
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      13 days ago

      Huh? I share my Jellyfin instance to people that are as tech savvy as a Neanderthal and besides some rare hickups everything works acceptably.

      • thundermoose@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        All I can say is that is not at all like my experience with Jellyfin. Every person I’ve ever shared it with wanted to go back to Plex. Most complaints had to do with the jankiness of the various apps. Lots of issues with the UIs acting funny, a few connection drops, and some settings not getting respected. I do also recall an episode of Severance that would not stream in the correct color space in Jellyfin but worked perfectly in Plex.

        • Lemmchen@feddit.org
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          13 days ago

          Well, my users never used Plex before (me neither), maybe that helped to keep the expectations in check.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      13 days ago

      Jellyfin takes more work, but can be a “simple” end user experience if you set it up for them.

      Use a reverse proxy to get a letsenceypt cert for your jellyfin server. SWAG, Caddy, lots of options. Then setup a free tailscale account and add your jellyfin server to your tailnet. Install the jellyfin and tailscale apps on the user android tv/apple tv/computer, then enroll the devices in your tailnet.

      They will have always on, ssl secured, vpn protected media sharing for free.

      • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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        13 days ago

        I’m not a diehard fan of plex or anything, but I would never be able to get my mother in law to properly set up any type of VPN. None of my users are technically inclined. Until Jellyfin has a different solution, I will unfortunately be sticking with Plex.

        • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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          13 days ago

          The lift here is that you setup the end users client. If they aren’t local, buy one and ship it. Since it will be on your always on tailscale vpn, you can then interact with it remotely if needed.

          Android tvs can be had for $35, Raspi 5 are around the same range, with apple tvs about $130. Have people pony up the cash and mail one of what they want out to them.

          That may be too much to ask if you share to a lot of casual friends/family, but its been a successful answer for me.

          • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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            13 days ago

            If it was just my parents and I using it, that’d be fine, but it’s not. In my experience, nothing is quite as simple as “always on”, and if something breaks, even unrelated to tailscale or anything I set up, I’ll be to blame even when it wasn’t my fault.

            It just wouldn’t work for my users, unfortunately, and I don’t want to be responsible for endpoints on networks that someone else owns. I’m not denying that it’s possible or that it works for some people.

            That’s the real benefit of a solution like Plex - it makes it so I only have to manage my own network, and if I want to invite someone new, I just ask them for the email attached to their Plex account, and I’m done.

            I also am curious where you’re finding rpi’s for $35.

      • thundermoose@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        Yeah, I’m not interested in setting all that up and maintaining it for every user I share with. For myself, this is exactly how I access Jellyfin remotely, but I am not explaining to my remote family members how to set up a VPN on their TV.

  • Samsy@lemmy.ml
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    11 days ago

    As someone, who started with jellyfin, I never saw the reasons for the existence of Plex. There is no difference and people pay for it?

    Hey Plex users, save your money and buy a coffee for the jellyfin team!

  • Qlin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    12 days ago

    Do you guys know a way on jellyfin to download media to the phone in lower quality/ less storage intense? This is the only thing I miss in my jellyfin instance

  • Wizzard@lemm.ee
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    13 days ago

    I’m done with Plex - They won’t get my recommendations. My holdoff buying PlexPass were the little bugs that always mattered - Pausing for more than a few minutes HARD locked up the stream, the stream had to re-init to load subtitles, and then the MAJOR issue with “What files is Plex NOT seeing” and other indexing issues. I paid for my Android app, happily. But now, telling me I can’t stream my own media, after paying for the app? Y’all can F right off with that. I’ll be finally setting up Jellyfin ASAP.

  • commander@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    The more users on Jellyfin the better shot it has at getting more developer attention and users willing to contribute financially even if just occasional one off donation. How it goes with any open source application. More users, more developer interest, more feedback from users, subset of users willing to financially support the project

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    12 days ago

    I am also a Plex pass person. Multiple times over in fact. I actually have a dedicated account for my server administrator that’s separate from the account I use to watch content. Both have Plex pass lifetime.

    I’ve been familiar with this coming down the pipeline for a while and because I have Plex pass, I too, am unaffected, as are my users.

    At the same time: here is a piece of software that I paid for. It’s “server” software, sure, but it’s just a software package. What it does isn’t really relevant. The fact is that it processes data stored on my systems, processing by my systems, using my hardware, and sends that data over the Internet, using the Internet connection I pay for separately, and delivers that data directly to the people I’ve designated as capable of doing so.

    The only part of this process that Plex, the company, has any involvement in, is limited to: issuing an SSL certificate, managing user accounts and passwords, and brokering where to find data (pointers to my systems).

    You can get a free SSL certificate from let’s encrypt. User accounts, authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA), is a function of pretty much everything that you remotely connect to, whether a Windows SMB/cifs share, your email, even logging into your own local computer regardless of OS… And honestly, brokering the connection isn’t dissimilar to how torrent trackers work, DNS or a goddamned IP address punched into a browser.

    They’re offering shockingly little for what they’re asking, and the only thing that’s on the list that would be costly in the slightest is having a DNS name for the server (registration of the domain, DNS services, etc). And given the scale that they’re doing these things at, the individual costs per name is literally pennies per year.

    This is not a good look at all.

    I have domain names coming out of my ears. I’m tempted to buy one more and just offer to anyone that wants it, to have a subdomain name under that to run their Plex alternative on, so you can get a let’s encrypt SSL certificate, and stay safe on the Internet. I don’t want the feds snooping into what totally legal Linux ISOs are being shared.

    I just don’t know how to program at all, so I have no idea how I would go about setting up a system for that. The concept would be to automate it, and have people create an account, then request a DNS name under one of my DNS domains, and have a setting if you want it to have an A record, AAAA record, or cname (if you have a ddns setup). Once the request is in, it would connect to be DNS provider and add the record for you.

    The part I’d want to have as a check on the system is to make sure that you’re hosting jellyfin or something from the address you submit, to prevent people from using it for unrelated purposes; but even with that… Do I care of people do that? Probably not. I would limit how many addresses you can have per account.

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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    13 days ago

    I don’t use Plex. I have never used Plex. But based on the one time I tried, this doesn’t surprise me even a little bit.

    Years ago I installed it on my NAS, it was a one click download package. I installed it and hit the button to set it up. And then it prompted me to make a cloud account.

    Why do I need a cloud account? I am logging into my local server and I am not sharing anything with anybody nor am I subscribing to any cloud services. I have no need of a cloud account. But, the way they built the thing, you need a cloud account to log into your local system.

    I did not create a cloud account. I uninstalled it. I concluded that a company that claims to care about user privacy, but requires cloud integration in an area that absolutely does not require cloud anything, does not actually give a shit about privacy. I Googled and found that the requirement for a cloud account was, at the time, a fairly new thing. Lots of people didn’t like it. I concluded that this company was beginning to enshittify, although this was years ago and none of us had heard that word yet. But either way, it was obvious that the company was moving in a not customer-friendly direction and I did not want to be along for the ride.

    My choice has been proven right several times over the years since. And yes, every time they remove a feature, or make some other customer unfriendly decision, I retell this story.

    The moral here is that a company either cares about its customers or it doesn’t, and it’s usually pretty easy to tell which one fairly quickly. When one bad decision is made, and not corrected, others will follow.

    Synology is the latest example of that. For anyone not paying attention, they have recently announced that their 2025 series units will only work with Synology branded hard drives, which are of course more expensive than standard Seagate or Western Digital drives (which work just fine). But if you look, the bread crumbs are there and form a trail. Over the last few years they have removed features, for example the device is no longer can decode h.265 surveillance video, and the units will no longer display SMART data for ‘unsupported’ drives. I say no longer because they used to, but an update changed that so they no longer do.

    Bottom line though is don’t do business with companies that don’t respect you.

  • drspod@lemmy.ml
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    13 days ago

    Trying to monetize the piracy of your users. That’s a bold business strategy.

    Look, I know a lot of people could be using the sharing feature to share material that is in the public domain or that they own the copyright to, but let’s be honest: most of that sharing would be considered an “unlicensed public performance” by the MAFIAA.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      13 days ago

      to monetize the piracy of your users

      that’s generally what gets sites and services in ‘trouble’

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      13 days ago

      They sold to private equity a couple years back. The enshittification started that day.

      • jonathan@lemmy.zip
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        13 days ago

        They took VC funding (which is also bad), selling to private equity is very different (they strip mine businesses).

    • T156@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Trying to monetize the piracy of your users. That’s a bold business strategy.

      Some time ago, never mind how long precisely, Plex were trying to legitimise themselves, by adding streaming from official sources, etc.

      I would be curious if this is meant to be a deterrent, or just to look like one by making piracy expensive, so they can eat their cake and have it too.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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        13 days ago

        It’s not that expensive. You can buy a lifetime pass for like $70 when it goes on sale. That’s like half the price I pay to Comcast each month for my internet.

  • PhAzE@lemmy.ca
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    13 days ago

    Your users are getting that because they have a plex account that they use to stream. They might stream from just you, but they could stream from any other shared server they’re connect to. That’s why they get this email.

    If you have a plex pass and are a server owner, they can ignore this and keep streaming from you for free.

    If they try to stream from a server owner who does not have plex pass, it won’t work unless the user themselves have a plex watch pass, which let’s them stream from any server that doesn’t have plex pass.

    Since you have plex pass, your users won’t be impacted at all.