As you may have seen Plex decided it was OK today to send an email showing me what my friends have been watching. To be clear, this is Plex telling other people what I’ve been watching from my server, with my files, and this is not OK.

https://imgur.com/a/DYR4wlh

We all knew it was a matter of time before Plex started collecting data on our libraries and sharing it with advertisers. What happened to their “we don’t know, and don’t want to know, what is on your server”?. This, for me, is proof that those fears were absolutely founded in reality. On what planet would I ever want this information to be shared with friends on family on an OPT OUT basis?

It’s totally unacceptable to collect this data in the first place. It’s totally unacceptable to share this information with uniquely identifiable information. And it’s totally unacceptable to do this without explicitly asking me if it’s OK.

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about this as a server admin, because technically these are Plex users and their marketing email preferences are controlled on the user side in the Plex website preferences. Not on your server.

This is an absolutely egregious overreach.

Thank goodness there are alternatives available in the form of Jellyfin and Emby. I left my Plex server up after the Jellyfin January challenge we did on the Self-Hosted podcast but because of this I feel that I have no choice but to take it down for good.

    • TattooedBrogrammer@alien.topBEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Problem is my user base are TV and mostly non technical people. No way they setup and maintain a JellyFin install. That’s why Plex just wins.

      • zim1985@alien.topBEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        What? Why would they need to setup a whole install to use your server? Just connect to the server in one of the numerous apps and login to your account?

          • R0GG3R@alien.topBEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Chromecast in JF never worked…
            When I click the chromecast icon in JF “Play On” (top right) I get “Google Cast Unsupported”.

            How did you manage to get it working?

            • norebly@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              Android required, no iphonies

              Jk, i eagerly await ios support but for now android only

              • R0GG3R@alien.topBEnglish
                2·
                1 year ago

                Windows browsers such Firefox, Chrome, Vivaldi, Brave have the same issue. It’s not OS or device related, it’s how Chromecast has been implemented in Jellyfin.

                https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/6840#issuecomment-1042905147

                I’m also the developer of a local media server, and I’ve easily managed to bypass the Chromecast client-side issues by doing a server-side discovery. Now no matter how I access my media content, I can always send it to a Chromecast, because the CC and my server are on the same network, so the CC can easily be discovered over Avahi/Bonjour/mDNS. Then it can be the server itself to provide the client with a list of discovered players, not necessarily the other way around.
                The fact that there’s no server-side logic to manage the Chromecasts, and instead we rely on the client to discover them, explains why things are so broken. Why not provide a server-side CC scan logic as a backup for users who don’t use Chrome on Android but run the server on the same network as the CC, instead of relying on such a brittle client-side implementation?

            • DarthNihilus@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              You need to be hosting jellyfin behind a reverse proxy so that it works through https. Chromecast doesn’t support unsecured sources.

              • R0GG3R@alien.topBEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Yup… I have a reverse proxy. Chromecast in Emby works, Chromecast in JellyFin doesn’t. Really weird.

                • DarthNihilus@alien.topBEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  Then yeah idk that makes no sense to me. The only time I had problems with Jellyfin chromecast was when I wasn’t on https.

      • XTJ7@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I am also strongly considering to make the switch now. Any notable drawbacks/learnings from using it for 6 months?

          • Big-Finding2976@alien.topBEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            They mean Smart TVs. My Dad’s Samsung TV has a Plex app, but no way to install anything like Kodi that would let him use Jellyfin instead of Plex to serve media.

            • ONE_BIG_LOAD@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              There’s a Jellyfin app for Tizen (Samsung TV) but it’s kinda stupid to get installed and is kinda sluggish. Actual playback is perfect however.

                • ONE_BIG_LOAD@alien.topBEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  If it helps, I think my TV is either 2018 or 2019 and Jellyfin app works. But yeah definitely take a look

                  • Big-Finding2976@alien.topBEnglish
                    1·
                    1 year ago

                    I checked and his TV is a Samsung UE40ES5500 which he bought in 2013, so I’m pretty sure it doesn’t use Tizen unfortunately.

            • GoTeamScotch@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              PSA: Pre-built images are available, which avoids having to compile the app yourself. https://github.com/jeppevinkel/jellyfin-tizen-builds

              The install process is pretty straightforward. I’d recommend giving it a try. More or less copying commands, then you’re left with the Jellyfin client on the TV. Works great once installed.

              No Kodi sadly though.

            • frostycakes@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              I think Vizio doesn’t have a Jellyfin app either, unless they’re also using Android under the hood like Fire TV?

            • swiftb3@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              Amazon stick is the cheapest (easy) way to turn any TV into a Jellyfin TV.

              • GoTeamScotch@alien.topBEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Personally, I’m getting increasingly annoyed with my Fire Stick. It’s kind of sluggish, and very locked-down. You used to be able to sideload a custom home launcher, but Amazon is cracking down on that. Their launcher is filled with bloat and ads. Recently I’ve noticed mine auto-playing Amazon Prime video trailers on boot which makes me want to throw it out the window.

                I have JF installed on my Samsung (Tizen) TV and it works great. And the TV will auto-launch back into JF on boot… something I wish Fire Stick allowed.

                • swiftb3@alien.topBEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  Strange, I haven’t experienced that, but I’m also connected to Amazon Canada, so maybe it’s different.

                  Even side loaded Steam Link to stream games and it works pretty well.

                • divDevGuy@alien.topBEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  Amazon Fire days being based on Android appear to be numbered. Doesn’t mean JF or any other client can’t have a React-based client for whatever Vega becomes if/when launched, but I’d expect it to take some time. The prior effort for a React-based client seemed to have died a number of years ago.

                • 8bitcerberus@alien.topBEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  I’ve been tossing the idea around to set up a cheap mini NUC-like box, like a Beelink or something similar. About the same prices as an Apple TV or higher end Roku, and you can either use Windows, Linux, or even Android on it. Just needs a convenient remote to navigate it without needing to hook up a mouse and keyboard, or gamepad, and it would be a great little set top box.

                  Also I’m kind of surprised there aren’t more Linux distros for this already. We’ve got gaming console-like dedicated distros in Batocera, Lakka, RetroPi, Recall Box, etc. even stuff like SteamOS, or customized clones like Bazzite, Holo and Chimera. Where’s the TV focused OS? The closest I see are typically just running Kodi on boot, which is ok I guess, but I want something more like an all-around HTPC where Kodi is just an application I launch when I want to watch something, rather than the sole UI.

                • SteppkenPislmick@alien.topBEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  How has been your experience with higher bitrate/quality stream directplay?

                  On my 4-5 year old Samsung TV I notice sluggish playback with 4K and high bitrate files with the Tizen Jellyfin app.

                  With plex the same files were working fine.

                  On my Desktop (using MPV) all files playback fine.

                  Now I think about buying something like a FireTV stick or Xiaomi TV Box…

                • Morley__Dotes@alien.topBEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  I’m also not a fan of Amazon’s streaming devices. I grabbed a 4k fire cube for $50 last year during one of their sales. This thing already lags like crazy and recently started playing an ad when you first turn it on. Annoying.

                  My 2017 NVidia Shield still rocks.

              • Big-Finding2976@alien.topBEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Yeah, I use one myself. He’s already using all the HDMI ports on his AV receiver though, so there’s no room for any extra devices.

                I know modern TVs can send the audio from the TV to the receiver, so in theory he could plug the stick into the TV instead, but his one seems to only be able to send certain formats that way, and you can’t see the receiver’s overlay on the TV when using it that way, so it’s impossible to adjust anything.

            • levogevo@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              Not sure about if Samsung TV has Google play store where the jellyfin or infuse app exist, but you can do chromecast / airplay if not Google play store

              • Big-Finding2976@alien.topBEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Definitely no Play Store on his TV. I don’t think it has any Chromecast /Airplay apps either, but even if it does I don’t think they’re any substitute for Plex or Jellyfin.

              • Znuffie@alien.topBEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Samsung TVs run Tizen OS, not Android TV, so obviously no “Google Play Store”.

                Also apps are pretty restricted, most are just able to use web-technologies, so nothing heavy-handed.

                The process in getting TV Apps approved on platforms like Samsung’s Tizen OS is pretty annoying for most developers/open-source stuff.

                There is an actual app for Tizen TVs, but it needs to be sideloaded manually: https://github.com/jeppevinkel/jellyfin-tizen-builds

    • tehgreyghost@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I would love to switch but their agent is so bad. It only finds like 10% of my videos. I dont want to spend 80 hours searching the metadata one at a time.

    • Shmoogy@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      What’s the safe way to expose jellyfin for users to access without a vpn or cloudflare tunnel (tos)

    • trowgundam@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Unfortunately Jellyfin is just missing features. Opening and Credits skip? Nope. There is a plugin, but it doesn’t work with the Android client. On that front the Android client is so temperamental. Half the time it just doesn’t work on my Nvidia Shield. The UI is really clunky as well. I was using it for several months and the app just frustrated me so much I just went back to Plex.

    • highly_confusing@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Does Jellyfin have an adequate apple TV iphone and android client with library sharing thats comparable to plex? Im not trying to start a war here, i just want to know. Only reason I don’t use jellyfin is because back in the day it didnt have library sharing or a decent apple tv app.

    • metajames@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Is there some way to send a invite to someone from your jellyfin where they just need to install the app and follow your link? Or some other way to seriously streamline install and setup?

      The whole use this hostname and managing reverse proxy etc is the reason I have not switched. It’s just not user friendly for a grandma or typical consumer. That’s the majority of my users.