this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Wireguard so you are always seen as being on the local network. This bit of assholery is easily defeated.

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[–] Buske@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago

Another company fucked by executives.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I already pay for plex pass but I'm going to start looking into jelly fin out of principle. I will not support the enshitification of a service I use and this is how it starts. Soon they will have tiered subscriptions and then the cheap one will be taken away and the cheapest paid one will be stuffed with ads then all tiers will be stuffed with ads then they will jack up prices again or charge more for sharing with family or block it all together to force your family to get their own sub and the circle of enshitification will be complete.

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[–] quack@lemmy.zip 41 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Can’t say I have a huge issue with this - Plex isn’t FOSS and the infrastructure to make this happen isn’t free. Other options are available if you don’t want to pay the fee.

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (5 children)

But what infrastructure does this feature require? I'm direct connecting to my own personal server with perhaps credential handling and a handshake handled by Plex servers to connect. None of the media is passing through their servers - or it shouldn't be if it is.

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip -1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

I would look into how Plex works.

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[–] TedZanzibar@feddit.uk 22 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Judging by the rest of the thread I'm going to get downvoted for this, but what the hell:

I'm sure I'll switch to Jellyfin eventually but I tried it out a few weeks ago to see what all the hype was about and it just... wasn't great. It was difficult to setup, with way too many overly-complicated settings, and then it refused to play one of the two test files I tried. Like it or not there's a reason that Plex is the dominant player in the game, and a large part of that reason is that it verges on plug-and-play for simplicity of both setup and use.

Yes, it sucks that they're removing remote streaming for free users, but I imagine there's a significant chunk of users who don't know or care how to properly open their server up to the world and are relying on the Plex proxies for their streams (which happens entirely in the background), and those aren't going to be cheap to run. Maybe putting them behind a paywall will provide the resources to make them faster.

I did buy a lifetime pass last time they announced a price hike; it's honestly paid for itself many times over, and I've been encouraging other users I know to do the same before this next one, because yes, it is a significant hike this time around. That said, while I wouldn't pay monthly for it, I do still feel like the lifetime pass is tremendous value for such a polished product. It's a shame they've had to do it at all, but I don't begrudge them for it.

[–] brot@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It was difficult to setup

I'm not really sure here - I just did the setup and you literally paste one command into your terminal. There you'll find the Jellyfin IP and port, visit it in a browser and you'll get a simple wizard which guides you into setting up your libraries. Which also is not complicated, you just select a folder where your stuff is?

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[–] Xartle@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They seem to be getting a lot of hate for this, but Plex is not FOSS... They have the roots but they currently have like 100 paid employees and are trying to make a business out of it. They have to do something to make money to pay people every month. My $75 10 years ago isn't going to do much for that... The fact that they've made it this far without folding is impressive.

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[–] shan23@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

As someone looking to get into self hosting and was researching plex. What’s been the experience like using jellyfish with non techy people? This is mainly something I want to set up for my parents

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

As a techie I hate this answer but it's hard to beat a Roku with Plex from an ease of use standpoint. My 70+ year old parents have no problem navigating it.

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[–] dishpanman@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Jellyfin is very versatile but a bit clunky. I have it set up for my parents on their Roku and it works well enough for them. I set it up for other family members on their WebOS TV but they don't really use it. I used to use it with Roku as well, but had issues with some captions, Dolby Atmos and HDR. I finally broke down and got an Nvidia shield, which fixed all my problems since the developers focus on Android TV the most. I also have Plex, and it is easier to set up, looks more polished, but is less versatile.

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[–] Presi300@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (9 children)

How to kill a service speedrun any%

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 37 points 1 day ago

This is the best ad campaign Jellyfin could have asked for.

[–] gdog05@lemmy.world 568 points 2 days ago (127 children)
[–] obinice@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Alas my TV (LG WebOS 2) doesn't have an application for Jellyfin, or I'd have switched years ago :-(

[–] gdog05@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Is there an emby app available or Kodi? The base of Jellyfin should work in either. Plug and play as far as I'm aware with maybe some issues for certain versions.

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[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Well this is a good reason to finish my migration to Jellyfin I think.

I only use remote streaming a couple times per year, so paying for plex pass just for that seems a bit silly. Their online-only account auth is also super annoying if the internet is down.

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (11 children)

I gotta be honest, when I look at the problem pragmatically, it'll be a lot easier to pay $20 a year than to switch to jellyfin and get all my users to figure out how to install clients and make it work for them.

I'm already at the point in my life where my primary concern is making things work smoothly, and if I need to throw money at something to make it work smoothly, the choice is a no brainer. (At least for some values of "money")

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Dammit, my friend just said he would give me access to his file server, all I have to do is install Plex. Presumably this announcement means that will become impossible without a subscription.

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[–] Uncut_Lemon@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I stopped using Plex shortly after they started forcing logging in with your online Plex account to connect to LAN only based server. The writing was on the wall all those years ago. Who wants to be locked out of their media when the internet is offline, completely defeated the point of self hosting local infrastructure

Jellyfin, while lacking a bit when I first migrated, has continued improved over the years and it has been joyful to use. Plus Jellyfin supported hardware transcoding before Plex did, which was a gripe I had with Plex at the time.

I stream from my server remotely and share with Family without hassle. I dunno where Plex is trying to go, glad I bailed long ago

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[–] randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

I just want to make sure I read this correctly. It says that if you're a Plex plass holder already that remote streaming changes won't affect your service. This means that if I have the lifetime subscription and host my own server than users whom have not payed for Plex pass can continue to access this server without issue correct?

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