I tried testing a movie from my home server in plex through firefox and repeatedly got this message, even after reloading.
I knew that they had paywalled the apps on mobile and streaming from outside the network but now they have also blocked watching your own movies through your own hardware.
I do get the point that making software should be able to sustain people but I dont see the move of plex as a fair thing to do. Yes, they have made great software but taking your home server hostage feels like the wrong move.
Even a pop up that says "we need you to donate please" would have been fine. make it pop up before every movie, play donation ads before any movie but straight up disabling the app is kinda cruel.
Anyway, i have switched to jellyfin and it is insanely good. please give it a try. you can run it alongside plex with not issues (at least i had none) and compare the two.
In any case, good luck. Let me know if you need help.
In this thread:
To continue the metaphor: a partner can have many alluring qualities (income, hobbies, looks) but what does that matter if the relationship is abusive? Leaving (and dating someone "worse") can be more difficult that just staying in the relationship, but the priority should be clear.
Jellyfin is the most complex to set up, right? (Just making sure I’m reading this correctly)
My tech-illiterate mom uses my Jellyfin instance with no issues. I sent her a link to the app store, her credentials, my server's hostname and that was it. And once it's set up, Jellyfin is much more straightforward to use than Plex.
Sure Jellyfin has issues and doesn't support as many types of devices, but Plex is far from perfect. I use it like twice a year, and the UI gets more and more confusing with each update IMO.
Jellyfin doesn’t have an app on every App Store. On some, you have to sideload it, by enabling developer mode and connecting to a PC that is running an App Store server. Then the TV downloads it from the PC.
3 - An OpenWRT router with Wireguard connecting to another router 1000 miles away will do the trick.
Great; how do I get my Mother to do that over the phone?
Seriously. I hate when people assume default settings are the only option. You don't even need a Plex account to set up Plex. It will just be less seamless and user friendly. Never adopt the server, configure these via localhost (ssh tunnel works) and then set up your networking. Don't even need to update it, it will run for as long as the database stays stable. Which should be years or more.
Thanks.
One of my pet peeves is when people immediately jump to whatever their fanboy program of choice is regardless of if it’s actually the right program to run in the situation given.
It's also always the Jellyfin fans that get emotional about this. Liking Plex is like a cardinal sin to them and I should be happy to migrate my entire viewership to a new solutions that requires them to install a vpn client on their device.
Every post I see here about Plex is some variation of Gotcha! or Schadenfreude where they expect everyone to say, "oh no, guess I'll pack it up and start fresh"
2000%.
I used to have a list (I might still) of all of the features I was looking for in Jellyfin: if they had all of them I would migrate over. Spoiler Alert: Jellyfin doesn’t have 8/10ths of the features.
I think I’m just going to start blocking the rabid Jellyfin fans and save myself the trouble.
If #3 is your use case, then yeah, pony up the fees. Or learn to code I guess.