Best Alternatives to Plex for Your NAS

[@joesworld396]

I'm not looking to replace a subscription service with another subscription service. The purpose of a media server I build and pay for myself is to no longer subscribe to anything.

[@user-ic6xf]

Jellyfin is so close to being perfect. Needs 3 things. 1. More client apps. 2. Better metadata management 3. easier remote access.

[@BobFace22]

Kodi user here. NAS is just set up with SMB, Kodi on a ShieldTV can play anything, no transcoding needed, no problems with subtitles that seem to plague other programs. It just works.

[@thezfunk]

I use Kodi as well. I have playlists shared with a Maria database on my NAS. There is an XML file you load on each client and it has just worked for years.

[@blcjck8121]

Good on you. If you like to play around with stuff, and the potential of a little bit more performance, try looking at NFS instead of SMB. Simpler too.

[@BarnstormNZ]

I had a similar setup for years. Installed jellyfin about a year ago and use kodi as a front end with a jellyfin plugin. Best of both worlds

[@waynebagger643]

@@BobFace22 I might have a look for one. I have a second Kodi client running on a Dell Optiplex. It works well but is a bit too big. I was going to replace it with a mini-PC but a Shield, well, sounds like it's made for the job. Cheers!

[@pelle7771]

​@@thezfunkYes, and MariaDB also shares the information for the Media Data.

[@itskdog]

The limit is only 4 items in a poll if you have images as it uses more vertical space. Remove the images and you can fit more options in the space.

[@waynebagger643]

Jellyfin here, initially because it allowed hardware transcoding with my AMD GPU, but have since moved to an Asustor NAS. I also run a Kodi box in the living room for free-to-air satellite and terrestrial TV. Any programmes i do record can be played easily, anywhere, on almost anything. Works well for me.

[@certefied1]

Im using jellyfin on an asustor nas to. How did you get the hardware transcoding to work. I tried several things but cant get it to work

[@waynebagger643]

@@certefied1 on my Asustor AS-5404T I just installed the Jellyfin app from App Central, then in the Jellyfin admin dashboard, looked at playback settings, transcoding and picked Intel Quicksync. On the TrueNas Scale box, it was much the same, except in the TrueNas app settings for Jellyfin I had to give it access to the AMD Radeon Pro WX3100 card I have in there, then do the same in the Jellyfin admin settings, except for choosing VAAPI. CPU usage went from basically 100% to 5%.

[@waynebagger643]

​@@certefied1 go into Settings, General, Media Mode tab, then tick (or check) Enable Media Mode

[@elmeromero303]

Kodi on NVIDIA Shield playing directly from NAS or local attached SSD. I know it's old school but never had an issue. Shield is the most powerfull Hardware and Kodi plays everything with ease. No licenses, no crappy subscriptions 😊

[@camouflage6245]

Watching you for over 2 years and today I finally ordered my first NAS, this video is perfect timing.

[@nascompares]

Thanks bud

[@danp6504]

Same here lol

[@SRMB1]

Jellyfin + Tailscale works well for remote play for free

[@WillFuI]

That’s what I do. The only downside is if u are having more people connect to it and u care about keeping passwords secure u have to make them make a Tailscale account

[@SRMB1]

@@WillFuI I don’t let others remote in. It’s just when I travel and want to stream on the tablet. I’ve had issues with the connection not being strong enough to let others use it. Not sure what the deal is. May be I was trying to stream too large of a file. What quality settings do you use for remote watching?

[@WillFuI]

@@SRMB1 well normally I run a Speedtest to see how my connection is and normally I just stream at that. So at work i mean at a random building i stream at 480p 1.5 amd on my tiny phone it looks fine. I haven’t tested it over super long distances like 100 miles + but i would imagine it would be fine just more buffering.

[@SRMB1]

@@WillFuI yeah I was trying to stream an HEVC from Massachusetts to NH and I think transcoded to 1080 and it was hit or miss. The HEVC file was a high quality file which didn’t help. High bitrate audio and video. When I have time I’ll have to mess around with it again. Def the easiest way I’ve found to remote in tho

[@WillFuI]

Jellyfin user here. I have had issues with jellyfin getting upset when I use hardware acceleration on specific video types. The cpu I use is more than powerful enough to do 2-3 videos at once. It being free was very important to me. My parents love it

[@WillFuI]

I use Tailscale to be able to watch my stuff anywhere

[@RichardErkens]

I have a Plex lifetime licence and paid only $50 when it was on sale many years ago. Now you can still get it for $80-90 when on sale. Was using Kodi back on the original Xbox and on my old NAS. On the new NAS (64TB) I use Plex and try also Jellyfin at the same time, but that one is not as good as Plex and Kodi yet. But I believe it will get there one day

[@NickBR57]

Emby here. I have a Plex lifetime licence but it's junk. It will not catalogue TV shows accurately however much help I give it with IMDb and tvdb IDs. Plex can offer all the bells and whistles it likes but if it refuses to catalogue properly and overwrites manual catalogues I create, it's of no use to me. Jellyfin was such a pain to install that I gave up. Emby works perfectly, catalogues perfectly and uses my hardware acceleration, allows me to do parental controls and just works flawlessly

[@jbdragon3295]

I have a Lifetime with both PLEX and EMBY. They both have their pros and cons, but PLEX has the edge for me. For example, the TV program guide is FREE, where it's $25 a year for a 3rd party service. I do really like how EMBY groups Movies together. I have zero issues of PLEX not cataloging TV shows correctly. That has been working perfectly for me. I do play around with EMBY, but everyone at this point is used to PLEX. I also like Tautulli for PLEX to keep track of use from everyone over what is built into EMBY, but it is built in which is a plus, whereas what is built into PLEX is pretty limited.

[@MrNo0p]

little fun fact, DLNA is also supported by the PlayStation 3. I've used it in 2008 to 2010 as a streaming endpoint streaming legally acquired Anime from my PC to my TV and for movienights at my friends. It's barebones but easy to grasp. It just works when you've set it up right once. It was mindboggling for my friends back then, that you could stream movies from my pc to the ps3 at their homes. Crazy how the mediaworld has changed the last 15 years in a blink of an eye. r/n i'am using plex. I've bought a lifetimepass years ago for little to nothing 30€. It's great because it's supported or built into most smart TV's/sticks these days. But idk if it's really worth without the pass. You could also run a PC with a beefy CPU as a transcoder and use your NAS only as storage for video streaming. Just sucks when you go to a movienight and turn off your pc out of habit. You could also optimise the files beforehand that way it should work with most NAS computing power even without the pass.

[@An.Individual]

Kodi on NVidia Shield Pro here. I just Play the mp4 file from either SMB share or locally attached HDD.

[@LouisGiliberto]

Jellyfin. Have a lifetime subscription to Plex but dropped it because it went downhill. Jellyfin has some rough edges, but it's really good and constantly improving. Emby would be my second choice. I run it in a docker container on my Qnap with hardware decode setup. The Linux Server docker package has the correct stuff for hardware decode. The Jellyfin standard docker container does not and requires a bunch of changes.

[@Story_Teller_Everyone]

Problem is there is less apps for it example for Apple tv

[@LouisGiliberto]

@@Story_Teller_Everyone True! My son wants it on Xbox, and no app there either. Definitely a show stopper if there is no app for our preferred client platform. Part of what me jump to Jellyfin though is the open source. Plex refused to fix certain things and no one could do anything about it. Hopefully new Jellyfin clients will be forthcoming.

[@timotmon]

@@Story_Teller_Everyone Totally valid point but it's slowly making it's way into other devices. Doesn't appleTV have Swiftfin? I don't know how well it works. I was mad there was no app for Samsung TVs but it sounds like they're working on it. Either way I happened to a Roku stick and it's available there and works great.

[@0nyxghost]

I use Kodi because Plex does not support .iso file format. I can install Kodi, enable SMB and point Kodi to the media folders that are shared. It scans the folder fo meta data and I check it for errors from file names or choose different posters and art backgrounds. Kodi works on Android phones, Android TV (nVidia Shield) and Windows computers. Kodi on Windows will playback 4k media, Blu-Ray and DVDs with no additional effort. I add my shared folders as favourites on the system menu, done. My media devices have read only access as a user. Using a Kodi Build is full optional. Simple, quick to setup and easy access.

[@peterschmidt9942]

I like Kodi as a front end player for TVs and use it myself. But not a fan of it's scraping capabilities (especially when it gets them wrong). Very cumbersome to correct when that happens. I also tried to install it on my daughters TV using a HDD as a media source and didn't work out well at all unfortunately.

[@kwinders]

Picked up Lifetime Plex over 10 years ago at 50% off for the extra features even though I didn't have a server at the time, just in case I would in the future. I built my NAS 1 year ago and now have added most of my discs, and it's great not having to handle and deal with the physical media and can just play on demand.

[@pascalmartin1891]

I do this with Kodi. Because I want to record TV shows, I also installed Jellyfin, and use my existing Kodi as a client. Since I installed Jellyfin, I used it to consolidate all my media.

[@russha5891]

Same, a lifetime plex when on sale is great, BUT what I like is being able to get family connected because just about every device/smart TV has a plex client, so it is just log in and go. (They live with the terrible order, till I visit and rearrange the home menu - Why plex cant default to movies/TV Series first, grrr). It is that it just works for most people, and they can use it like other streaming services, which is why I recommend it . I dont want to be their network engineer.

[@JamieStuff]

I bought a lifetime Plex Pass a few years ago. Not that I needed the added features, but because I wanted to support the project.

[@jbdragon3295]

I got my Lifetime over a decade ago and got more than my money's worth. Just does so much more than when I first started using it.

[@praetorxyn]

I run the LSIO Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin containers all on the same DS918+ all pointed at the same media library. They all have their pros and cons. Plex does the most things that piss me off. Emby has a few things that piss me off. Jellyfin is missing some things I wish it had, but it barely does anything that actively pisses me off. So Jellyfin is the one I use most of the time.

[@fairmania]

I have a server running OpenMediaVault which then allows SMB shares and miniDLNA access to any and all machines, Raspberry Pi's on the TVs running OSMC (a Kodi variant) or DLNA if wished, and direct access from the PCs for playback using VLC media player. Music is fed through my Marantz all-in-one streaming system.

[@emibulls]

I use Emby, which is running on a Raspberry Pi 4 in a container (via portainer). I just point my samba share to it and that's it. I also have a VPN set up, so I can view / listen to my stuff from anywhere. It's pretty nice, but I'm on the Emby free tier, so I can't download stuff in advance (only stream it). At some point I will get around to figuring out how to make a Jellyfin container and move to that, but for now I'm pretty happy with this setup.

[@georgiehogman2001]

Plex and infuse on Apple TV. Infuse is fantastic.

[@glujaz]

Infuse and smb on my side, works like a charm. WebDAV for nextcloud is not working though...

[@worf77bb1]

I love Emby, I find it super easy to customize and like the set up. I purchased a lifetime pass. I am on this chanel now because i am looking into getting a starter NAS just for Emby. I have it running on my PC and want to stop that.

[@OliwerHallblad]

Couldn't agree more! it's kinda interesting to see that people who change to emby stay there. I like it because of the simplicity, setting it up was easy and to get people to stream it was also super easy. I could just send a small guide to my friends and family on how to log in and after that I don't need to help them anymore.

[@ChrisM541]

Look at the many miniPC's around. All you need is an N100 based system. Add a suitable direct attached storage enclosure and your set. This set up is significantly cheaper than equivalent dedicated NAS enclosures.

[@worf77bb1]

@@ChrisM541 Thank you!

[@OliwerHallblad]

@@ChrisM541 How well can a N100 system transcode 4k HDR videos? I've also been looking at getting/building a nas but I'm having a hard time finding good data on what I should get. Is a 11th gen i5 enough for 2 4k HDR streams? Can it handle transcoding but will struggle if you skip a lot?

[@peterschmidt9942]

Thats my choice as well for the server part and been using it for years.

[@JustFeral]

DLNA also works in Kodi. Lol, so even if people want to use Kodi and dont want to fuss with the library importing, they could just still use DLNA in Kodi. IT really can be as simple as that for 90% of people's home networks.

[@GanZAndaZ]

Started back in the days with XBMC which now is Kodi. Than i tried Plex and Videostation on Synology NAS for a amount of time. But finally i moved to Jellyfin. Of course I donated for the hard working developers. So everyone has his/her favorite. Nothing more nothing less. Just my 2 cents.

[@tomperrone1195]

Biggest problem with all of them - and Emby comes closest to solving - is support for HEIC (Apple iPhone photo format). I have a lifetime Plex Pass, Lifetime Emby and have installed Jellyfin… standalone on a mini PC and on a QNAP NAS. None of them do it all… some are buggy, not fully baked, or stable. Will keep trying them all u til everything works! So basically for the rest of my life!

[@FoundDeath]

We just need a good Jellyfin app for Samsung TVs 😔

[@peterschmidt9942]

Yeah I'm not a fan of the Jellyfin app itself from the Google playstore. Maybe try Kodi with the jellycon plugin

[@dobrzpe]

i side loaded onto my samsung. it works!

[@sultanoswing]

I was pleasantly surprised to see a Jellyfin app in the official LG app store - for my 5 year-old LG C9.

[@dobrzpe]

@@sultanoswing um, LG isn't a Samsung...

[@IntangirVoluntaryist]

I just got setup on plex, it is totally awesome, seems like there are no downsides so far but i guess ill watch the video and see lol before plex i was using upnp because my nas hosted it built in and all my TV's and old consoles and blueray players could access it but ya after switching to plex i'm blown away, it love its interface and metadata fetching, and subs fetching. it's like having my own streaming service

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

Great summary, thanks! I'm an Unraid user with Kodi clients (low power MSI Cubi boxes in my case). Looked at Jellyfin, but it really added nothing for my use case. Love the fact that you prefer Confluence, btw. None of that dreadful Estuary nonense in my set up. Oh, and DLNA is also great, although I mostly use it for audio clients. I run Twonky Server under Unraid for that.

[@sayemprodhanananta144]

JF started as emby fork. It's still suffering from that codebase

[@philosoaper]

I planned for a long time to upgrade to a synology...but then synology took a dump so I dumped synology and built a DIY NAS instead... omg, I should have done that years ago. I paid a small fraction of what plex lifetime pass costs today so...worth it! I might ditch plex some day, but not really feeling a need yet...jellyfin just isn't quite there yet

[@Speiger]

Wait wait wait wait... The one feature I WOULD LOVE TO SEE. Jellyfin linking to synologies quick connect is actually possible? Could you make a tutorial on how to do that? Because that is LITERALLY THE only feature i am missing. And i did a ton of research and found NOTHING. Personally i started with Video Station because its so simple, then i even wrote a tool that could make bulk metadata editing easier, which i am planning on open sourcing too, well at least the writer/reader of the file format because there is non working out there atm. Which will happen soon (TM). But the thing that let me finally move from Video Station to Jellyfin was: the VideoStation app on the PC wasn't even able to play my TV Shows... Honestly please make a tutorial on how linking jellyfin to the QuickConnect feature of synology!

[@JeanPierreVenson]

Disclaimer: I am a Jellyfin server dev member. We dont support Synology directly. The Community app is not maintained by the official JF team but an 3rd party and has no special integration into Synology per-se. Further do we not usually recomend running jellyfin on a synology nas anyway because your run of the mill pre-build NAS system is very underpowered and transcoding needs a lot of horse power. But QuickConnect should just be enabled and then you add the default port 8096 of jellyfin to your Control Panel > External Access > Router Configuration and that should be it.

[@Speiger]

@@JeanPierreVenson thank you for the comment. I have installed jellyfish on a 420+ disk station and imported my media there too. With hardware acceleration (it's an Intel celleron) the transcoding works just fine. There are a few annoyances with jellyfin (like trick play not showing a progress bar when it starts running) but overall it has been a good experience. Regarding quick connect. No quick connect isn't supported. Mainly due to the app not being able to set the port after the VPN has resolved the URL. It would be really epic if that were fixed. Because quick connect doesn't put a 24h access timer your local IP like ddns. (When you disable quickconnect your server instantly becomes inaccessible. While ddns you have to await the IP pool change) Anyways thank you.

[@DavidJones-pi8rl]

Great video, as usual. Fantastic resource I refer to very often, even though I am in Australia. (Thanks for including us Antipodians in your Amazon Prime Day videos!) BTW, you might want to fix the B&H URL link.

[@DavidM2002]

It looks like I'm one of the few to use DLNA almost exclusively. I do have a paid subscription to Plex, but DLNA is just too easy to use with a well organized folder structure.

[@LouisGiliberto]

I tried DLNA, but with large collections it can be slow and painful.

[@jjones2582]

What about Channels? Did you forget they added a local content option a while back?

[@mcwild11]

How to stream and especially WHY stream it that way! Thanks, those last 2 options were great additions, because you explained, that they use completely different concept from the usual 'self hosted netflix". KODI is a player, uPnP is a protocol, but mentioning their support on embedded devices is great info 😁👍

[@pascalmartin1891]

I have been using two kodi (living room and bedroom). I installed a Jellyfin server and now use kodi as a client. Jellyfin give me a much better TV recording experience than Kodi (I tried), and then I consolidated my media files on this server..

[@timdineen6491]

Hey Robbie, what about local media players like Zidoo and Dune HD. Definitely cost more, but can be worth it for consumers looking for high quality playback.

[@wfp9378]

Tried Emby and Plex. Picked up a Plex Lifetime pass. Never looked back. . Kodi and Jellyfin were very under developed back then. If it were today I would be comparing Jellyfin and Plex. DS Video WAS also an easy to connect option before I got Plex Lifetime pass. Synology dumping it cost them a lot of good will as it was easy to set up for the non technical.

[@mimirovinj100]

Emby is nice because the premium feature is tied to the server. If the server has premium everyone can enjoy premium features

[@felipeavalos3404]

I stop worring, just installed Nova Video Player in a couple of cheap Onn TV Boxes and that was all. I guess my needs are simple.

[@MrBjorn6]

Is Zidoo considered something different to plex?

[@RQuinton79]

I haven't changed from Plex yet, but I'm seriously considering it. I don't mind paying for software, even if there are free alternatives. However, that means the paid software has to justify the premium. Plex has been the easiest plug and play (for me personally) media server that allowed me to get up and running from my NAS to multiple devices in the house for my family. The interface is easy to use. It worked. Now, for me and my families needs, Plex's premium justification is no longer there. It's bloated, buggy, and more and more "features" are forced on me. Why would I pay a premium for that? I'm more than ready to move on.

[@patricksp71]

EMBY user I love it and I don't have to jump through hoops to install and use Jellyfin and then do the same with my other devices. The Parental controls on EMBY are the best.

[@tomwalton6661]

I listen to my music through a Sonos system, does this make a difference to what you’ve said? What would you use? The 45,000 limit in Sonos is a big problem!

[@cemerson]

At 1:16... I think you mean deprecating, not depreciating. It's being phased out, not losing monetary value!

[@nascompares]

Lol fair play, ya got me! *slowly starts eating dictionary by way of repentance*

[@berndkemmereit8252]

Judging by the Video I would go with DLNA, as this is exactly what I need. Local access for the family to movies, easy and uncomlicated.

[@ericprivate2572]

Jellyfin is part of the truenas app suit. And it is available in the app store of our fire stick

[@Teleport73]

Kodi is definitely the top choice for me. The Aeon Nox skin is most recommended.

[@sheldonkupa9120]

Nice, well rounded up video! An important aspect of Home Nas fore sure! I own only custom built nas systems. Recently tried jellyfin, instead of libre elec. A test install on linux mint was ez, surprisingly jellyfin ran well on a fire stick. When you have your media sorted, named and set up properly, its very good. Transcoding on Ryzen 2200g was just perfect. Recommended. On libre elec the jellyfin is not up to date, and logitech media server is not so ez. I prefer lms still over kodi/plex/jellyfin for music in the house. As i have set up my movie bib for kodi, for some reasons plex always gave me headaches recognizing my movies. Metadata are not compatible. I spent days to tag my movies for kodi manually, so not doing it again. Jellyfin had no issues at all with my metadata. Libre Elec can be used as a small footprint server, as Kodi can serve Dlna/Upnp, Samba share, Airplay oob and a lot more via plugins.

[@rory2569]

Plex just works for me. So never had to dive into others. Running plex with intel gpu transcoding via docker to smb nas shares. All filtered via their own vlan controlled by pfsense. Yes over kill some would think. But I like to segment my network.

[@hellowill]

Jellyfin. Very easy setup on unraid. Surprised by the comments saying it was hard.

[@rudypieplenbosch6752]

Jellyfin here, but Jellyfin has many silly errors that never seem to get solved. Previews not being updated, subtitle getting out of sync during viewing, worse video quality than with plain vlc playback. Can't find data of films that are obviously easy to find on IMDB etc. The community doesn't seem to care for it anymore, these bugs are in for many years.

[@Jetta4TDIR]

I have started noticing the same, I've also noticed that the hardware transcoding gives me issues too

[@sunnyvilles]

Jellyfin is amazing and an open source product , the aim should be to promote open source than praising paid products . found an issue ? then raise it in the communities maybe someone else has solved it . We must understand that to keep the idea of open source alive is way more important than having 8k video transcoding ( or whatever you get my point )

[@OldFellaDave]

Emby Lifetime user here and would never leave it for anything else. The easiest and best to use hands down. I have it streaming around the house to every smart tv (Emby client installed on Smart TV's, no other hardware needed), and every device ie Xboxes, iPads, Android and Apple Phones. I have two friends tapping in via external access and my daughter used it for all of her viewing while in the UK for a year. Works great with my Sonarr/Jacket setup to grab all my new TV eps. Paid for it once about ... damn, I can remember when ... easily 15 years ago. Used Windows Media Centre before it, that's how long ago ;) One off $119 cost that's more than paid for itself. The only thing I need to do is - get a NAS that will support/run the Emby Server and get it off the PC that runs it.

[@petrolthreads_]

I've used emby since mid/late 2000s when it was an add-in to Windows Media Centre called "Media Browser" ("MB" - that's where it's name comes from) so won't change any time soon, but this poll must be a bit depressing for the emby Devs - I too though emby would definitely be 2nd in the list.

[@dadgamer6717]

DLNA here. old atom netbook runs on micro usb. vlc on clients. sorted.

[@miecz8316]

Main problem with kodi is, no transcoding, and also watch history is problematic if i want to share it across few devices

[@-Rosieanna-]

I got a DS215j years and years ago and paired it with 4 usb TV tuners to record freeview and a weetek play with the satellite card added as a local network IPTV server to access freesat as well. I’ve used tvheadend since day 1 for tv since it had synocommunity support & xbmc/kodi support. I also ripped dvd & CDs for the nas too to stream as raw content to kodi over smb. It’s worked perfectly and barely touches the internet…. Only now I have to not update to DSM 7 or I permanently loose access to freeview. A new synology box on dsm7 makes recording tv legally so much harder / more steps than using usb sticks. Now video station is gone… It’s genuinely upset me to the point that I’m thinking of doing an xpenology build so I can run a VM that can process the tv sticks while using dsm 7 … or even to just run the final dsm6 build for the rest of time. I feel quite surprised synology think removing features like usb and h.265 is something that’s ok to do when devices were sold with those features and physically have those capabilities :/

[@Stoney_Eagle]

I've been writing my own from scratch, I'm tired of all the limitations 😊

[@calilifestyle]

I couldn't get my head around jellyfin. It felt like it took way to much work

[@JanVP1]

How to avoid maintaining Kodi media db on each client? Can they all read from a single source db?

[@1337Unlucky]

Hi I'm new to NAS and I have been researching a lot, I found your channel and saw your installations of TrueNAS in an Asustor one. I want to learn and thinker with it more because i like to experiment with docker and i data hoard a bit; but a NAS is a bit pricey. I am making a shot here in asking if you have an Asustor NAS you want to get rid of and sell it ill be much interested. Thanks a lot for helping me learn more about this subject.

[@blcjck8121]

Kodi on a dedicated device. It is hands down the performance/customizability winner, above any of the media server softwares. Running on e.g Odroid N2+ with CoreELEC (Kodi distro), that's about as good as it gets. A couple of downsides though depending on use case, is no transcoding and limited device support list. Also Robbie you dinosaur. Try changing to one of the Aeons, hell even Estuary (standard) is better than that Confluence fossil of a skin 😁

[@peterschmidt9942]

Personally I use a combination of Emby Server on a NAS for the backend and Kodi for the front end on a TV with an Embruary skin. The reason being is I just found Plex server too cumbersome to install on the NAS compared to Emby. And Jellyfin server is essentially a stripped down version of Emby anyway. Plus Jellyfin isn't natively available on QNAP (well neither is Emby now but it's available from the Emby forum whereas Jellyfin isn't). I'm also not a fan of the Jellyfin front end player and interface and much prefer Kodi's. While I like kodi as a front end, I found the scraping also cumbersome and prefer Emby to do that part of it. And to tell the truth, it also just doesn't work well on a TV and a HDD combo. Did I mention that Emby server with Kodi and embycon is all free? We could have the FOSS debate of Emby vs Jellyfin but in the end, all I want to do is play my shows with the least amount of back end effort to maintain it. And for me, this combo works pretty well (other than the Embruary skin resetting every now and again)

[@mazchen]

This is the way. 😊

[@cybernetix86]

Not sure you will be able to help, but I have an old Intel computer I use as a server with TrueNas, it's an intel i7 4770 with 16 gb of ram. Is it better than a new NAS or should I upgrade to something newer? Right now, my biggest problem is the transfer speed. It's super slow, maybe I messed up something somewhere. Thank you. Keep your good work!

[@dcefola]

I have a Synology NAS that I just upgraded to DSM 7.2.2 and Plex to 1.41.1.9057 After the upgrades PLEX wouldn't start I tried to downgrade PLEX but I can't since I upgraded DSM so I saved the database and uninstalled plex When I reinstalled I used the Claim method but PLEX setup a new server instead of reclaiming my original server. I removed the "new" server and now the original server is is the only registered server in my account. Any idea how I can reclaim that server so I don't love all my stuff?

[@chaosfenix]

I would say that a lot of it depends on your level of skill. If you are just getting started I would say start with both Plex and Jellyfin. You can run multiple applications on the same computer anyway so you shouldn't feel like you just have to use a single one. This would give you a chance to see which will work better for your use case. IF you can figure it out Jellyfin will probably be the better option in the long term bug I feel many new users will gravitate towards plex for ease of use. For more experienced users though the open source nature of jellyfin is a strong argument. As for Kodi and DLNA.. I would say they are basic and not simple or easy to use. Yeah they are low in resources but because they lack a ton of features they are not really going to be a good fit for 99% of users.

[@clansome]

Got my Plex Pass and haven't looked back. Still use a HTPC (lovely SilverStone case) as both Client and server although the time has come to upgrade to a NAS I believe. I am very worried about getting all that data (currently using 2@12TB individually) as I want to put them on 2@14TB [schucked] drives I already have and then use the existing 12TB drives in a RAID set up.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

I had Plex, and it didn't cost. Does it cost now? I don't want anything that I have to pay for continuously.

[@agrumpycapybara]

Have Synology fixed the memory leak for DLNA? If I have it enabled, men usage is at 80% after a week on my DS918+.

[@user-kg6uj6ji5p]

Jellyfin still have some problem with outsync subtitle on various codec. Sometimes i play with Emby

[@lamar9525]

Wow! Very informative!

[@the_uggh]

Plex was way too easy. Paid $90 like 5 years ago and havent had to fiddle with it much since.

[@MikeyRussell88]

I have no problem with subscriptions for software like Plex after all feature and security updates requires developers to maintain it and they cost money. For me the cost side really is about value for money.

[@antoniodelatorre1846]

Emby user + wireguard vpn for remote connections.

[@deathcometh61]

I do both. Me, my local network is jellyfin. Remote for family is plex. I like plex for the simple thing it is. Little setup and done. Emby: I hated it. Tried and did not like it. Jellyfin: I enjoy it checked all the blocks I wanted. Kodi: too much configuration.

[@eXca1iburN]

Kodi is good for security! Client only means code you didn't write is not running on your server/nas (which could be hijacked to turn you into a botnet node), you can set up a user to have read only access to media directories only, and your data is kept much more secure. The need to worry about updates on server software simply doesnt exist. If you want remote access, you can set up a home network VPN.

[@mrkdwld]

I switched from Plex to emby because emby had variable playback speed, a very important feature for me, that Plex didn't have. I highly regret it. Often it was impossible to connect to emby remotely. Despite all settings being correct, I regularly had to reset it to function. But wat really angered me was that Emby replaced my carefully synced subtitles with the first one it found on open subtitles. Ok, I'm partially responsible for this as I didn't had the setting right, but it was so I clear, that I had a lot of work to correct it all again. I switched back to Plex ( lifetime pass) and never had any issue. Plex now has variable playback, so is perfect for me

[@MaartenT]

That's why I use a different account for software like this to access my files which has read-only access. If it needs to download a subtitle file, it can download it in a specific folder for subtitles and read it from there. I have no experience with either Plex, nor Emby, but that's how I used to do it with Kodi anyway. I have no trust in either the software, nor my own missclicks if it has the option to delete files and such.

[@mrsharps]

This is a great walk through of the options. But I wish we could normalize the idea that it is fair for software makers to monetize their efforts.

[@arthurng7653]

I use Infuse 😄

[@craigbrockman7893]

Juast found your channel and love the insights. You have several videos touting the Synology DS224+ and did some great benchmarking. I might have missed it - but did you do all that with the 2gb of memory (only)? If so, that's impressive and makes me wonder whether or not if I get one if I would even need to get 6gb. My main use cases are plex/streaming to my Quest 3 or roku and backing up of photos. Thoughts?

[@Bytional]

I mainly use Emby, but I am more moving towards Plex and jellyfin, Emby in recent year is really slow in their dev team

[@gplgr]

hello I bought a ds923+ and I am happy but I have a problem with plex etc because I can't even see content upload from my drone or mobile that is 4k. can I buy something to enhance it? if I buy a nvidia shield or another nas just for plex, what is your recommendation?

[@_Jem_]

I don't understand why Jellyfin hasn't made a proper installer for Synology, I think if they did and even charged a small amount for it Jellyfin would be more popular. As it is its just to dam hard to install using Docker.

[@heron5045]

Thx for the vid

[@dkickelbick]

WTF! Kodi gets flagged because some people use it to do "illegal" stuff with it? Does it mean, that Windows and MacOS will get flagged as well? I use Kodi (specifically OSMC) for year. Never had problems, never regretted it.

[@criostasis]

Biggest issue to me was/is app support and remote connectivity with all other apps vs plex. Plex has always been easy, works well and the plex app on all my devices just works. Jellyfin was easy to setup and looks great but the app sucks. Constant issue with playback and remote play isnt possible without jumping through hoops.

[@OGH3294]

Use Plex and Jellyfin both have their own good and bad.

[@ThePeterR66]

thanks robert

[@TazzSmk]

at this point I just don't understand why people can't play files directly using something like VLC with mapped SMB shares

[@Jetta4TDIR]

I stopped using plex when they hid hardware transcoding behind a paywall

[@SuperMactendo]

I used to be an avid Kodi user because I have my DVD collection in ISO format.. but I have mostly Rokus in my house, so it was a pain. Im looking to migrate to Jellyfin but that Means I need to transcode all the movies to a video format.... it sux as no other media service can handle ISO correctly

[@clementdetruche3764]

allways the best

[@GroundDwellerStudioS]

Ooh, I'm rarely early to a vid. Also, I'm heavy in Plex, but always open to a new software.

[@nascompares]

Good man! Hope the video either helps you see if the grass is greener, or massively validates your decision to stick with Plex. Have a great weekend bud

[@TecSanento]

Dlna for my level of library is just unusable :'D

[@TheOriginalCoda]

I ditched Plex years ago. There's no advantage for me over Kodi on an Nvidia Shield TV talking to my Linux raid. Plus I don't get spam any more because of Plex's database getting hacked.

[@gregsb3454]

Synology - DS VIDEO

[@LeonardoRibeiroLeo]

Why would anyone want an alternative to perfection?

[@Makumbi]

Jellyfin has no means to continue audio where you left off. It only does that for video.

[@knightone57]

I have so many problems with plex I get annoyed by that I hate using it.

[@narniaphuket]

Jellyfin > All