I've stopped paying for software outside of games almost entirely. SaaS is a universally terrible UX and it's impossible to actually purchase software anymore. Especially with local LLMs around to smooth out all the rough edges when it comes to FOSS life is good. The experience of never waking up to having something be worse off than it was before is sublime.
I worry I over-index on my desire for control but it's just so so nice to have my tools work every day and never break, and never change under me and just always do the thing they are supposed to do.
I tried Jellyfin after some frustration with Plex and found it an inferior relative to Plex so I'm still on Plex. Lifetime Plex Pass is the solution here for now given Plex has not clawed back any features and in fact has added features to the pass.
One thing Plex does better is media detection. Like you can plop all your shows in a folder and it still will make sense of it. Jellyfin insists on a very specific directory structure and file naming. It’s very frustrating if you only want to watch a show and not interested in maintaining a perfect library.
Is there anything around that does _not_ force a management system? I really just want a thing that primarily just tracks if I've seen a particular file, secondarily maybe let me control playback from a different device. Actually figuring out what media those files map to is a distant third.
It's astounding how much every single system out there fights and fights and fights against showing you your directories, as they are.
I started but didn't finish a Rygel + local-search (nee Tracker) plugin to try to finally get that. I wish the upnp media services were better. I keep telling myself I'll build a nice client/controller... Some day.
Yesterday, I went to try to cast music from the Plex app to the Vizio Smartcast SP70 I had just bought (awesome speaker, weighs 900 lbs and is as wide as my closet door)... but you can't do music on the Plex phone app. Like, wtf, when did this happen?
So, now I need to try to install the older Plex app on my phone with Sideloadly, because Plex is more interested in streaming shit to me and trying to be Netflix or Paramount+ than it is in doing the the thing it always did best and that no one else was doing: allowing me to stream things to my own devices from my own storage.
It gets frustrating. At some point, no matter how bad Jellyfin is, it will be better than Plex because Plex is trying to become worse than anything else. I guess I got my Lifetime Pass long enough ago ($75) that I've gotten my money's worth out of it, but goddamn.
I switched to Jellyfin and also don't regret it. I agree the quality is lower, BUT that sacrifice in this case was worth it given Plex's shitty track record. If any of y'all are interested in helping the Jellyfin project, that would be dope!
I've stopped paying for software outside of games almost entirely. SaaS is a universally terrible UX and it's impossible to actually purchase software anymore. Especially with local LLMs around to smooth out all the rough edges when it comes to FOSS life is good. The experience of never waking up to having something be worse off than it was before is sublime.
I worry I over-index on my desire for control but it's just so so nice to have my tools work every day and never break, and never change under me and just always do the thing they are supposed to do.
I tried Jellyfin after some frustration with Plex and found it an inferior relative to Plex so I'm still on Plex. Lifetime Plex Pass is the solution here for now given Plex has not clawed back any features and in fact has added features to the pass.
I went straight to Jellyfin ans I find it awesome.
I wonder what exactly am I missing.
One thing Plex does better is media detection. Like you can plop all your shows in a folder and it still will make sense of it. Jellyfin insists on a very specific directory structure and file naming. It’s very frustrating if you only want to watch a show and not interested in maintaining a perfect library.
They both insist on their own systems and both are wrong.
Is there anything around that does _not_ force a management system? I really just want a thing that primarily just tracks if I've seen a particular file, secondarily maybe let me control playback from a different device. Actually figuring out what media those files map to is a distant third.
It's astounding how much every single system out there fights and fights and fights against showing you your directories, as they are.
I started but didn't finish a Rygel + local-search (nee Tracker) plugin to try to finally get that. I wish the upnp media services were better. I keep telling myself I'll build a nice client/controller... Some day.
Yesterday, I went to try to cast music from the Plex app to the Vizio Smartcast SP70 I had just bought (awesome speaker, weighs 900 lbs and is as wide as my closet door)... but you can't do music on the Plex phone app. Like, wtf, when did this happen?
So, now I need to try to install the older Plex app on my phone with Sideloadly, because Plex is more interested in streaming shit to me and trying to be Netflix or Paramount+ than it is in doing the the thing it always did best and that no one else was doing: allowing me to stream things to my own devices from my own storage.
It gets frustrating. At some point, no matter how bad Jellyfin is, it will be better than Plex because Plex is trying to become worse than anything else. I guess I got my Lifetime Pass long enough ago ($75) that I've gotten my money's worth out of it, but goddamn.
Plexamp is actually a really good music app for phones
PlexAmp is a Plex official app for music streaming.
I switched to Jellyfin and also don't regret it. I agree the quality is lower, BUT that sacrifice in this case was worth it given Plex's shitty track record. If any of y'all are interested in helping the Jellyfin project, that would be dope!
More than the price, the privacy concerns and previous outrages justify using Jellyfin IMO.