After 14 years with Plex, I finally moved my video library to Jellyfin. Why rising costs, feature restrictions and digital ownership pushed me towards FOSS.
This article doesn’t mention the limitations of remote access for Jellyfin, which requires some tricks like reverse proxy or Tailscale. I think Jellyfin is a great option if you only watch/listen on your home network, but if anyone wants to replicate the remote access capabilities of Plex, I typically warn them they are going to have to roll their sleeves up.
Not something that unfortunately works as easily for me to connect my ailing mom’s TV to, and do NOT want to manage the reverse proxy + cert + etc setup for a number of reasons
Yeah it can be more limiting. Personally I got lucky and my mom’s TV runs Android so I could just install a wireguard client.
I will probably at some point bridge her network with mine since I want to install a TrueNAS box at her house for remote backup. So the VPN client will be moot at that point.
Yes the solution is different hardware, like a Google TV, older firestick, raspAP, or flash openwrt on a router. But that’s no longer plug and play and may have other caveats. Besides costing money.
No shade, it’s just not QUITE that simple every time.
Making an account and giving it to uncle fred with a website address is a LOT easier than telling him to install an app on his phone/computer, inviting him via email, then trying to explain to him how to turn it on and off and telling him not to mess with the settings and route all his traffic through my home network.
Someone breakes in, then moves laterally to your home assistant running frigate to watch you sleep at night. Then uses your residential uplink as a proxy to resell on an open market.
After that, the possibilities are practically endless.
Yeah docker isn’t the isolation sandbox some people make it out to be. It’s not meant for that. You very well may have a setup that’s meant for that but it’s more than I’m willing to expose.
Honestly for video I agree, for audio, it’s just me and only in my house or phone so tailscale is fine. If my friends really want audio, they can pay streaming for it.
This article doesn’t mention the limitations of remote access for Jellyfin, which requires some tricks like reverse proxy or Tailscale. I think Jellyfin is a great option if you only watch/listen on your home network, but if anyone wants to replicate the remote access capabilities of Plex, I typically warn them they are going to have to roll their sleeves up.
You’re right, I missed that.
I personally use a reverse proxy and Wireguard setup to access remotely.
Not something that unfortunately works as easily for me to connect my ailing mom’s TV to, and do NOT want to manage the reverse proxy + cert + etc setup for a number of reasons
Yeah it can be more limiting. Personally I got lucky and my mom’s TV runs Android so I could just install a wireguard client.
I will probably at some point bridge her network with mine since I want to install a TrueNAS box at her house for remote backup. So the VPN client will be moot at that point.
just syncthing it :)
Tailscale truly could not be easier/simpler.
Not for all clients, like Roku for example.
Yes the solution is different hardware, like a Google TV, older firestick, raspAP, or flash openwrt on a router. But that’s no longer plug and play and may have other caveats. Besides costing money.
No shade, it’s just not QUITE that simple every time.
Repectfully, I think you’re wrong.
Making an account and giving it to uncle fred with a website address is a LOT easier than telling him to install an app on his phone/computer, inviting him via email, then trying to explain to him how to turn it on and off and telling him not to mess with the settings and route all his traffic through my home network.
That is still one spot where plex holds an edge.
Just fucking yeet it online
expected advice from typical JF users.
What’s the worst that can happen. Someone watches your movies
Someone breakes in, then moves laterally to your home assistant running frigate to watch you sleep at night. Then uses your residential uplink as a proxy to resell on an open market.
After that, the possibilities are practically endless.
It’s a rootless container. Chances are they are not going to do any of that.
Things are on the internet all the time.
Yeah docker isn’t the isolation sandbox some people make it out to be. It’s not meant for that. You very well may have a setup that’s meant for that but it’s more than I’m willing to expose.
Yup! That’s the worst thing that can happen. Now would you be so be kind as to send us the link to your private unsecured Jellyfin server?
I’m tempted to. But I’m not. Just because I dont want to fox my domain here.
Is running in a rootless podman container. I’m confident
How does Plex get around that? I’ve only ever used jellyfin.
If you can spin up a podman container, you can use a caddyfile. Hell, if you can nano, you can set uo a caddyfile.
Honestly for video I agree, for audio, it’s just me and only in my house or phone so tailscale is fine. If my friends really want audio, they can pay streaming for it.
That’s why I’m running both. I use jellyfin, everyone else uses Plex 🤣