this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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413
Jellyfin is not just good... but better than Plex now?! (vger.social)
submitted 12 hours ago by aeharding@vger.social to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I've feel like I've used Plex forever. I also feel like every couple years I try Jellyfin to see how it's going. Recently I tried it again because of Plex restriction on more than one user.

Well, I just tried it again and it's substantially improved! This time it actually properly detected most of my library!

Also the Android TV app is AWESOME! No more glitches, lagging, and freezing trying to play my stuff like Plex did. It is butter smooth.

Wow! I'm impressed and I just deleted Plex. Good riddance.

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[–] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 6 points 53 minutes ago (1 children)

I don't use it for myself but my experience with Jellyfin is the subtitles UX kind of sucks. It got a lot better on the Android TV app recently (ty to the maintainer!), particularly with improved subtitle support, but because of ExoPlayer it still can't play bitmapped embedded subtitles easily, only .srt subtitles.

The experience on iOS/appletv with Jellyfin/Swiftfin was so bad that I ended up recommending Infuse. Infuse is a great app, but it's not a libre app, which kind of clashes with the rest of Jellyfin in that regard. And, once again, it needs massaging: unless you want to be popped up with a buy Infuse Pro pop-up your video and audio has to be in certain codecs.

As I said, I don't use these things, myself. I don't even have a TV. But every now and again, I will put a file up for some relatives, and I want it to be totally directly playable, because my server is just an old laptop. So I have to spend a lot of manual time making sure the files are juuuuust right. If there comes a day where there's direct playback with embedded PGS or SRT subtitles on all platforms that will be the day the Jellyfin suite of software becomes 10/10 software for me.

[–] priapus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 minutes ago (1 children)

Embedded subtitles definitely work, and I've used bitmap ones before, although I generally avoid them so I'm not sure if they consistently work well. Directly playback also does work with those subtitles, so if you had issues it was likely related to codec support.

[–] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 minutes ago

Unfortunately I can't play around with it anymore because I live a thousand miles away from everyone I support who actually uses Jellyfin. My experience with the Android TV app was embedded SRT subtitle support is now 100% good as of late last year, but embedded PGS trips things up so much that I cannot use them.

[–] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 5 points 55 minutes ago

I still maintain that Emby is better than Jellyfin. I try it again maybe once a year and every time I end up back on Emby. It just runs better, works pretty flawlessly and doesn't lose my libraries every so often. Music playback is better by far on Emby and that's my main usecase.

Hardware decoding would be nice, but I don't have a system I could use this on for either and I've not had trouble without it.

[–] priapus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 minutes ago

I genuinely do not understand the issues people are having with Jellyfin subtitles. I just have Bazarr set up to automatically download and they play on every device (web, android, iOS, roku, android TV) with zero issues.

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 9 points 1 hour ago

The applications aren't that good. That's the only thing keeping me from switching completely. Subtitles, aspect ratio, audio track selection just don't work as expected. In some cases I can only pick the aspect ratio and no subs and sometimes the other way around? Also if I have no subs for a movie, I can't search for them on the fly - good feature of plex. As it stands, jellyfin video player is not up to my standards and I can't switch yet. I use it for porn though. That works fine.

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Although I have my issues with plex, jellyfin has its own problems:

  • STILL can't clear out the TS transcoded files automatically. So if you watch a bunch of TV episodes on a weekend, your jellyfin container will run out of space and break.
  • STILL can't handle subtitles properly. I swear, this must be jellyfin's Waterloo.
  • jellyfin cannot demux 5.1 and present stereo sound on certain streams. I think this is a tooling issue. But it's low level enough that I can handle it manually with mkvtoolnix myself on the few cases it happens.
[–] notfromhere@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 hour ago (3 children)
  • I’ll have to check but I haven’t had an issue with the transcoded files filling up.
  • Subtitles work as expected for me but all of my file names are in English, are the ones you’re having problems with file names in another language perchance?
  • That last one I fixed myself by wrapping ffmpeg around a script I wrote that forces 5.1 to transcode to AC3 so it goes to my speakers properly.
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[–] Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

This last one is why I have to use Plex instead of jellyfin on my tv. The jellyfin roku app fuckin sucks and refuses to demux anything.

[–] superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Does anyone have any recommendations for migrating their Plex library over to Jellyfin? One day I fully expect to migrate over but when I do i want my full watch/listen history to come with me.

[–] jimerson@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You might just be able to point jellyfin to your media directories and then let it scan them.

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 11 minutes ago* (last edited 11 minutes ago)

That won't migrate watch history

[–] Getting6409@lemm.ee 1 points 1 hour ago

This isn't a complete solution, but trakt.tv covers a lot of ground. I started using it for getting a consistent history of watched shows between jellyfin on the road and kodi at home. It works okay enough for this, though at times it does seem that one or both of the plugins can fail to log a watched show. I would guesstimate a 90% success rate.

[–] GuardYaGrill@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Been using Jellyfin along side the ‘ARR suite for about a year now, my biggest issue is with Subtitles.

On the IOS/iPadOS apps of Jellyfin subtitles seem to prevent media from streaming, tried utilizing Bazaar but have had no luck.

[–] MorningThunder@lemm.ee 2 points 26 minutes ago* (last edited 25 minutes ago)

I used to have similar issues, was due to my PC not being able to handle the transcoding. Enabling hardware acceleration with the correct settings fixed it for me.

[–] CaptainHowdy@lemm.ee 13 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

I've found the opposite to be the case unfortunately. Plex "just works" while my jellyfin server had almost constant issues with subtitles (two of my frequent users need these because of hearing problems) and would frequently crash requiring docker restarts.

I adopted jellyfin very early, used it for many (maybe 6?) years and these problems only got worse over time.

I always prefer open source (often to a fault) but I am glad I switched to Plex a few months ago. I got the lifetime pass for cheap for black Friday. I still leave jellyfin running for a few users, but everyone else has already switched over.

[–] notfromhere@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

What are the issues you’re having with Jellyfin’s subtitles? Do you know if there is an open bug report or feature request that is tracking the same?

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

I had the opposite. Jellyfin just works. Plex kept losing my movie folders, refused to play videos, wouldn’t screen cast, had problems with audio tracks, there always seemed to be a disconnect between app and server, they refused to connect despite both being the correct versions. It worked great initially, but got steadily more and more problematic over time. I gave up, even though I’d paid for it, and made a jellyfin server and have had zero trouble since.

Don’t know why two programs should have such radically different experiences, they should just do what they’re supposed to.

[–] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The only problem I'm having with jellyfin is around subtitles, but it's getting better all the time. I bought the plex lifetime license a few years ago, but we've moved our whole house to jellyfin now.

[–] notfromhere@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Can you describe the subtitles issue you’re having? Do you know if there is an open bug report or feature request open on github or Jellyfin’s website?

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Not op but in my case it's the client ignoring embedded subtitles

[–] notfromhere@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Which client are you seeing the issue on and can you provide more info on the type of embedded subtitle (run mediainfo on the file if on Linux)?

[–] tabular@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Not got to try it out properly yet. Waiting on new AMD GPUs, hoping for a low-end encoder or I ma get access to a RX 480.

What does Jellyfin use .NET for?

[–] notfromhere@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Jellyfin is a fork of Emby which was written in .NET. The server backend and web page are all (or mostly) .NET is my understanding. It makes use of external programs like ffmpeg on the server or VLC on the apps.

[–] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 33 points 5 hours ago (6 children)

After having been shafted by sublime text I will never believe anything called a "lifetime subscription" is such.

A "lifetime subscription" is just a "until we decide otherwise" subscription

[–] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 4 points 2 hours ago

I don't mean to be glib or upset you, but you still have lifetime access to the versions of Sublime Text for which you paid; you just don't get free updates to the next version. AFAIK, that's been the way they've done things for years.

[–] mbirth@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 hours ago

After having been shafted by sublime text I will never believe anything called a "lifetime subscription" is such.

Care to elaborate?

AFAIR SublimeText licenses are always only for a specific major version. And they sometimes might work for the next major version. So, I guess you’ve just installed a newer version for which your lifetime license isn’t valid anymore.

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[–] M137@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Is just not as good*

[–] clb92@feddit.dk 5 points 3 hours ago

What problems are you having with it?

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