this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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ive been using kodi (xbmc was better moniker) since google killed sagetv. i recall attempting plex, but it seemed to lack some open/extensibility (its been awhile).

i have a side project i want to make as a modular plugin generating a cable layout with original air orders and networks/channels... kodi seems most optimal, but ill admit its been a long while since i looked at plex.

so why plex over kodi?

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[–] retro@infosec.pub 51 points 1 year ago (5 children)

For me, Plex or Jellyfin is great if I want to share my library with some friends or family, especially non-technical people. Kodi really needs tinkering and you need debrid subscriptions and requires more local maintenance. It's great for me but I wouldn't want to teach my family how to use Kodi and me having to fix it when it breaks.

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[–] Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Totally different software solutions aimed at different users, and many people use both.

Plex is a Server software that handles media management, libraries, users, etc etc.. and a range of player apps that have a somewhat beginner friendly layout requiring little to no setup

Personally, I run a large Plex server that provides content for my family across dozens of mixed devices in home and out of home, different users have access to different libraries and have different preferences. If needed it will automatically transcode content for remote users out of the home to fit my upload bandwidth and their available speed if they are on mobile. it keeps track of watched content and position for all users so they can move between devices seamlessly.

Kodi is an extensible media player frontend, it can play files from a remote server or NAS but there is no server management, it is just doing basic file access. there are addons for many common services and media sources but there is no user management, no transcoding, no sharing content with other clients etc etc. Having multiple kodi installs on multiple players requires each client to be configured more or less from scratch and no easy way to have multiple setups for different users with their own preferences, libraries and/or content restrictions. It is extremely powerful and configurable and has strong format support.

I have Kodi installed on one of my Nvidia Shield Pros but only use it for playback of surround music files (support for 5.1 flac on plex seems to be limited to audio within video containers for some reason) I find the interface (and all the skins I tried) extremely clunky for use as a music player, the way the remote works within the player itself is unintuitive and makes for an annoying experience restarting the track when you just want to move the playback a few seconds, a bit unfair of course as that isn't what it was made for but that's just my experience.

[–] maino82@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Same here. Plex just makes sharing with family so much simpler. My mom and dad can figure it out just as easily as my kids can and the amount of time I have to do tech support for anyone has been literal zero, which is a huge bonus for me, personally.

[–] sounddrill@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] droidpenguin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Ya Plex vs Kodi is really more an apples and oranges comparison. Should be Plex vs Jellyfin.

That said though, I did start off with Kodi as my own media center on a Raspberry Pi, but eventually discovered Jellyfin and have really enjoyed it. Kodi is great too, but I think Jellyfin is the more refined modern streaming equivalent akin to Netflix that's fully open source unlike Plex.

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 year ago (13 children)

The real question is why anyone would use Kodi/Plex/XBMC over Jellyfin

[–] southernbeaver@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Because Plex makes it so much easier for me to share my stuff with my brother who doesn't live in the same house.

[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 year ago

Absolutely. For my non tech proficient family and friends, it’s easy for them to install an app on their streaming box/stick and send me the login code.

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[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Because my current TV is a Samsung so runs Tizen OS and thus doesn't have an official Jellyfin app.

(I bought it before I ever got into NAS stuff and it still works fine so I'll be damned if I buy another TV before this one stops working.)

 


Edit: A word.

[–] Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago

Jellyfin is great and I follow its development and test it every now an then but it is nowhere near fully featured or well supported enough or me to transfer my family over to.

I will eventually, when it's ready.

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[–] xtremeownage@lemmyonline.com 19 points 1 year ago

Well, I use plex, because I have used plex for a decade, and it just works.

That being said, if I were to use an alternative, Jellyfin is quite fantastic. I actually have a pod running it, just in the event that plex pulls a stupid move, causing me to lose faith in its platform.

But, that being said, I like the plex interface more then Jellyfin, and have grown accustomed to it.

Also, Kodi while powerful and extensible... just feels like a bear compared to Jellyfin.

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They're for different things: Kodi is supposed to be used only on one system inside your network and is full of eye candy. It's roots are as a media app and dashboard for the original Xbox. It doesn't have any streaming functionality, it expects the media to be available locally (either physically attached or over a network share attached to the local system).

Plex was originally designed as a media server and has a Client-Server model to support multiple clients both inside and outside the network. It's more about functionality than looks. It was built from the ground up for streaming.

You can use the Kodi frontend with the Plex backend with a Kodi plugin called PlexForKodi. Same goes for Jellyfin.

[–] CheekyYoghurts@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The real question is why people pay for Plex when Jellyfin is free and open source

[–] RiX@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Plex lifetime pass for 60 bucks in 2014

[–] lemming741@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I know they could close up shop tomorrow, but the one-time-purchase of plexpass beats any sort of ongoing subscription. It does a great job of finding subtitles, it doesn't care how shit my file/folder structure is, and the client is user friendly for the rest of the house.

I prefer jellyfin, but I haven't taken the time to get my library in the right layout for jellyfin to display it right.

[–] Banzai51@midwest.social 5 points 1 year ago

You don't have to pay for Plex.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Been using Plex for 13+ years, have yet to pay a dime.

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[–] Whirlybird@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Because some people prefer plex and being a (optionally) paid product it will very likely receive more and better updates.

[–] drwankingstein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 year ago

those arent even the same thing

[–] mara@pawb.social 15 points 1 year ago

I can use Plex on my PS5 and share it with my friends without having to do DevOps work.

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

Plex was an easy to set up Netflix at home deal with apps on all my devices already for viewing ($5 one time fee for Android, less than a burger) and had some nice tutorials for setting up on a Pi.

Adding stuff is literally drag drop thanks to Samba. Stupid easy for me.

[–] elint@programming.dev 13 points 1 year ago

Because I paid for a lifetime sub like a decade ago and my parents and a few friends connect to my instance. I can't be arsed to move myself and everybody else to a new system when this shit just works.

[–] gveltaine@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Much easier to set up and share with others. Kodi takes a lot of back end work to make it usable and I'm having a hell of a time getting consistent results to different devices from my NAS.

Plex took far less effort to do the same results but their paywall certainly justifies their ease of use

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[–] stefenauris@pawb.social 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My issue with Kodi is that each client had to scan the library and generate thumbnails etc. That should be the server's job which is why I chose Jellyfin. Nicer UI too and more responsive with apps in stores so I don't have to load it manually to fire sticks

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[–] jonuno@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never had what I felt was good performance from Kodi. Of course it might have just been my configuration across the times I used it, but Kodi always felt laggy / slow.

I moved from plex to jellyfin, both of which feel more snappy

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[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

There was a point where a lot of people bought into Plex because it was cheap for what amounts to a lifetime subscription. Plus people don't like change.

[–] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

i heard about Plex first. I'm familiar with the ecosystem and they haven't tried to fuck me badly enough to leave (they haven't tried to fuck me at all)

[–] No_Huckleberry_2023@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Surprised there is so much support for Plex...considering what this group is about, and Plex being in bed with the media conglomerates.

Emby or Jellyfin...

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[–] demesisx@infosec.pub 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I’ll cast my vote: Kodi is far superior to Plex. People are just too lazy to learn something. I have a library larger than Netflix and Kodi makes browsing it very simple.

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[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I was an original xbmc user (original, as in chipped Xbox Classic original - I still have it). I switched to Plex earlier this year. Why? Consistent user experience across multiple devices (three Chromecast GTVs, plus phones, tablets, and laptops), plus centrally managed user profiles for the five people in my house.

Sure - I probably could've done a lot of heavy lifting with scripts and plugins to make Kodi kind of achieve the same thing, but Plex Just Works.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They're two different apps for two different purposes IMO. Kodi is better if you do a lot of local watching and are a tinkerer-type of person who enjoys the setup/troubleshooting process. Plex absolutely blows it out of the water in terms of ease of setup and remote streaming.

This isn't even to mention PlexAmp, which makes up probably 80% of my total Plex streaming, anyway. Again, I think PlexAmp is 10x better than any comparable Kodi mobile app.

[–] newIdentity@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Kodi is horrible on touch devices. I also don't want to have terabytes of files on every device I want to watch something on. Sure, there are workarounds, but I could also just use Jellyfin. Yeah I don't use Plex, I use Jellyfin.

But it's really just mainly because I dislike the UX of Kodi.

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[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried that for a few days and it worked great until something broke.

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[–] exonac@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

From what I know Plex is the simplest solution between my qnap TS-230 and LG CX Oled. Kodi doesn't run on LG OS. This way I don't need any additional device. Without transcoding the TS-230 allows smooth 4k HDR playback even with bitrates up to around 100Mbit/s above that it gets stuttery. But I must say I can't really tell the difference above ~60Mbit/s.

But I love being corrected.

[–] Gimpydude@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Kodi interface. To each their own.

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[–] kratoz29@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Plex is smoother in my Nvidia Shield TV Pro, Kodi does better with anime, as it doesn't want to transcode for stupid reasons though.

[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I used XBMC/Kodi for about 10 years until I tried Plex about a year ago. Kodi's filesystem-centric view on media feels outdated in a world where almost all software is using intelligent search and filtering along with natively supported media info imports. This stuff is possible with Kodi too, but the plugin interface feels dated too. I also found it to be a resource hog on embedded devices.

But Plex has its flaws too. It swings the needle too far in the direction of Netflix-y for my liking, which is why I recently tried Jellyfin.

Jellyfin is a perfect medium between the two approaches in my experience of using it for a few months. I'd recommend any Kodi users who are wary of Plex to try it out.

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[–] glimse@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I switched to Plex because it was easier and I don't use it much anyway. It completely fulfills my needs and it always works - the only issues I've ever had were with the PC my server was hosted on. I've yet to run into any issues that would make me look into switching like I have with other software/platforms I've abandoned

i should have mentioned, i used emby (switching to jellyfin) for remote devices.. i just use kodi for local tv instances in the house.

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