Selfhosted

I got fed up one day with Plex because it blocked me from getting to my server from one of my televisions. My LAN's internet gateway was down and Plex was useless even though all the content was on the local network. I'm sure there's configuration things or something that I could have changed but in the end I decided I didn't want to be pressured into buying anything and I didn't like the constant commercialization of Plex.

So I installed Jellyfin and never looked back. Yes, it's missing a few features but you can get around that with nginx so totally worth it not to be harassed.

Genuinely Plex has become so obtrusive about NEW FEATURES, NOW WE HAVE THIS, USE THIS THUS WAY!!! and then also my libraries have somehow become even slower to load. I've been using jellyfin way more often

Jellyfin or Emby.

What’s plex better at?

Are you runnin multiple subnets? If so you need to enable them all as local nets in plex or else it’ll trigger this.

Well that's one less customer they'll have, it's time to take your money elsewhere!

Edit: oh right.

I would go with jellyfin, but my stupid old Samsung TV has tizen and can't find a way to install it.

User error, at least you figured it out. It’s always free to stream in your own network.

People often involved with piracy probably love entering personal information in that context...

I used Plex about 12 years ago. The first time my internet went down, and I couldn't use it, I stopped using it. Garbage. Not what I wanted.

I used Windows Media Center as long as I could, I loved it. But, eventually, I had to leave Windows 8 behind. Now I use Jellyfin and SABnzbd, it works okay most of the time, but I don't serve media to the outside, so I don't know if it works for that.

And this is why I'm setting up Jellyfin. I paid for a lifetime Plex pass a while ago, and I would have been happy to toss them some more money if they had just stuck to the core service (like Nabu Casa/Home Assistant - absolutely worth $7/mo), but nooooooooooooooo Plex decided to spin up their own streaming servers and go down that path instead.

I smell an IPO coming soon.

I don't have the link(s) on hand but there's a Tizen build of Jellyfin for Samsung TVs. It runs rather slow on my old tube so I wouldn't recommend it outside of a last resort. It's actually smoother for me to just open the app on the TV and then remote control it from a browser/app on another device (my Steam Deck is my homelab universal remote). But you can use the Tizen dev tools or a simpler docker container to push it to the TV.

For my folks I got a cheap Walmart brand Android box (Onn 4k Plus). I installed Jellyfin from the app store then black hole'd the thing because I'm wary of cheap Android apps and their history of supply chain attacks. It's much more responsive and also leaves me with the option of installing additional stuff like Smart Tubes, Retro Arch and whatnot.