cross-posted from: https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639
I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That's it folks. I've been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I'll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I've been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it's time to make it production ready.
Edit: I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying “Just buy a plex pass” are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
And for the thousandth person who wants to say the same things to me:
- YES I know I'm unaffected as a Plex Pass owner.
- My users were immediately angry at it, which made me angry. Our users don't understand what plex pass is, and they shouldn't have to, that's why I had it. The fact that they were pinged even though it should have kept working is horribly sloppy
- Plex is still removing functionality. I don't care that "People should pay their fair share". If Plex wants to put every new feature behind a paywall, that's completely okay. They are removing functionality.
- "But they have cloud costs". Remote streaming is negligible to them. It's a dynamic DNS service. Plex client logs in, asks where server is, plex cloud responds with the IP and port of where server is located. That's it.
- "Good luck finding another remote streaming" - Again, Plex just opens up an IP and port. Jellyfin also just opens up an IP and port (Hold on jellyfin folks I know, security, that's a separate conversation). All "remote streaming" is is their dynamic dns. Literal pennies to them. Know what actually is costing them money? Hosting all of that ad-supported "free" content that they're probably losing money on.
In short, I don't care how you justify it. Plex is doing something shitty. They're removing functionality that has been free for years. I'm not responding to any more of your comments repeating the same arguments over and over.
I'm a server owner and had no idea. If I did, I would have left then.
What's the alternative you're going with?
I've been testing out Jellyfin for a while anyway. I'm honestly surprised how much they've caught up
That's another service that doesn't provide free remote streaming, not without setting up remote access in a way that would also work for Plex. So why is this the change that's making you leave Plex?
Jellyfin absolutely does provide free remote streaming. Plex use to, but no longer will. That is why it’s a change making people switch.
I'll ask you the same question... What steps did you take to get it streaming outside of your house?
You can forward a port in your router like you would with Plex, or you can use a reverse proxy, or Tailscale Funnel if you want to get jazzy wit it.
Then all you do on the client side is pop in the address.
And that's the point I'm making. The work required to expose Jellyfin to the world is the same work to expose Plex. This change to Plex just charges for the relay servers, you can still do free remote streaming in the same way Jellyfin does. So if feels a bit ridiculous to claim Plex is dead and everyone should switch to Jellyfin, when Jellyfin isn't actually providing anything Plex doesn't still do for free.
You’ve misunderstood Plex’s announcement.
This is not correct. The change to Plex affects all remote streaming, regardless of whether you’re using the relay or direct streaming.
To be clear,
It still works with internal streaming, and if you configure the networking correctly it won't know the difference. If you setup Tailscale, you can still do Plex remote streaming for free. You just can't rely on plex.tv to relay your connection automatically.
Ok so before when you said:
What you actually meant was the work required to expose Jellyfin to the world is entirely different from the work you have to do to now expose Plex without paying. And the simplest solution of forwarding a port will no longer work for free, and anyone you share it with now also has to connect their device to Tailscale (if they even can on their device) even if they’re non-technical? And to be frank I’m not even sure doing all that will even work.
Where as with Jellyfin you can remotely stream without having to do ANY of that, for free…
Are you starting to understand why this might make people just switch to Jellyfin?
You can still just forward a port. Just expose the web ui port to the world, the same way Jellyfin does. That's not recommended though, it has potential security issues. The recommended way would require a reverse proxy or tailscale. Then you're right back to the same issues no matter the service you're using.
You can if you pay. If you aren’t paying, you can not remotely stream this way using Plex. I’m not sure what about this is so difficult for you to understand.
You can if you don't pay. The only thing they're blocking is traffic through their servers. If you expose the port to your local instance, they have no control over it. I'm not sure what about this is so difficult for you to understand.
No, you can’t.
Once again, this is wrong. They do have control over it, and they are blocking traffic to your server even if you don’t go through theirs, unless you pay.
You cannot do what you’re suggesting if you don’t pay, on Plex. You can only do it for free with Jellyfin.
Yes you can. If you know what you're doing with networking, the Plex instance will have no idea whether you're remote or not. You can make every remote user look like they're internal to your network. Plex would have no way to stop that. They could incorporate more intense DRM, requiring things like same GPS location, but even that could likely be spoofed.
You’re saying two completely different incompatible things. In your last comment you said “You can just forward a port”. You can’t “just forward a port” or do any of the other things you suggested with Plex for free. Period.
The second thing you’re saying is using a VPN to trick Plex into thinking you’re local. You may be able to do that, but that’s entirely different from “just forwarding a port” or using a reverse proxy, or any of the other normal, easy ways to remotely stream over Jellyfin. It’s not only more work than sharing Jellyfin, but it’s also very limiting based on your users devices. For example, many people are streaming Plex, Emby, Jellyfin on RokuTVs. RokuTVs have an app for Jellyfin that can just connect directly, but it does not have a Tailscale client. So if you want to trick Plex into thinking they’re local, you’d now have to pay money to get them a new device, and then you’d have the configure the VPN on it, and troubleshoot that when it breaks. A lot of people are going to just opt for Jellyfin which is much easier and doesn’t require buying new hardware.
The point that you are entirely failing to grasp is that unless you want to pay up for Plex streaming, it is much simpler, with less limitations, to just switch to Jellyfin for remote streaming.
You don't need a VPN to trick Plex. Exposing the web ui to the world will likely show traffic coming from your router, which is internal. If it doesn't, you may have to mess with some settings, but a VPN isn't required to access the web ui.
Jellyfin is also very limiting based on your users devices. There is no Jellyfin app for Samsung TVs (without sideloading) or Playstation. Users there are shit out of luck.
The thing you're failing to grasp is that Jellyfin is not nearly as simple as you're making it out to be. They both have trade offs. One or which being every single Jellyfin app is complete trash.
If Jellyfin works better for you fucking go for it, but claiming this is the death of Plex, Jellyfin is way easier, is laughable.
This is not the case at all. That’s not how routing, nor port forwarding works. This will work on Jellyfin, but if you do it on Plex without paying, this will be blocked. You are still fundamentally misunderstanding how literally all of this works. And it’s getting to the point where I’m wondering if you’re actually this confidently ignorant, or if you’re just a troll, given the only comments on your account are pro-Plex and anti-Jellyfin.
Users there would be shit out of luck with Plex too, because neither of those platforms support Tailscale or any other VPN. More clients support Jellyfin than VPN apps, so if you’re not paying for Plex, then Jellyfin is less limiting than Plex.
What you’ve failed to grasp is that Jellyfin is exactly as simple as I’ve made it out to be. You can forward a port, give your client an address to pop in, and remote streaming will work flawlessly, for free. You cannot do that same process with Plex for free. Only if you pay for it.
Give the address of the server and login info
I don't understand why people keep saying that. I can stream outside my network. Others can stream it from outside my network. That's remote streaming in my book.
What steps did you take to get it streaming outside of your house?
Probably the same steps you'd need to if you use Plex and are CGNATED (thanks CGNAT for teaching me basic networking).
As a server owner, you should be keeping an eye on tos and updates/changes to the software you use. You probably got an email but ignored it?