PLEX vs Emby vs Jellyfin - What is the Best Media Server?

[@grenburl]

Jellyfin developers did NOT get the open source code from Emby to then start Jellyfin. Some of the developers from Emby were not happy with the decision to start charging for something that was always meant to be an open-source free software project. So those developers took THEIR code, rightfully so under the GNU licensing, and started up Jellyfin as a true open-source software that will always be free. This is even stated on Jellyfin's about us page.

[@Mascotabaco]

32 comments... Almost 2000 views... and nobody told you that the mobile versions of plex are not free (Free version will only let you stream 1min of video)?! Ayayay!!!

[@counterfit5]

Mobile versions are free if you have Plex Pass

[@sabianwarner5316]

@@counterfit5 so not free then

[@CoolKillkennyCat]

@@counterfit5 same as emby...

[@vitoswat]

@@CoolKillkennyCat actually emby mobile apps are free. Hint is to connect from local network for the first time. Then you can use it locally or remotely w/o issues for free.

[@azhar17kkk]

Thank you

[@luigybetis]

I would love to see a Jellyfin set up tutorial!

[@collin7776]

I used jellyfin for a while, hated that it has to store a copy of the media your watching in a cache directory. Started being a problem when playing 4K content then it started crashing and that cache directory wouldn't empty itself anymore.

[@luigybetis]

I have been using it for a month, I have some trouble loading but seems pretty good so far. I don't have 4k content so it is alright for me :)

[@Brenryz]

@@collin7776 dude wtf. if you're on a home network why are you bothering with transcoding. that whole thing was super lame from the start. long before teh millenials brought on this whole problem by eating up monthly subscriptions making it so popular there was XMBC and Kodi. Kodi still around always was about piracy. If you have gigabit ethernet or even 500 meg wifi there's no reason should be transcoding making those problems. bluray remux is like 30 Mb bitrate. and if yer all millenial ya probably getting those 8 gig releases cuz millenials dont know any better. prob need to watch some Gen Z life hack videos, probably.

[@ibd1977]

I've recently dropped Plex due to its inability to stream content with DTS audio. Now with Jellyfin and am pleased to report that DTS audio can be played even though its trancoded back to dolby digital for surround sound. The audio quality and emersion is still very good.

[@rudypieplenbosch6752]

I had Plex 2 days, was not bad, but i started to get hints about a payed version. So deinstalled it and got Jellyfin, its great. It looks great, easy to configure. Very happy with it, thanks for your info.

[@grv7437]

Man I totally see your channel blowing up in a few weeks. Its amazing to see how many newer people have taken interest into linux and you're doing a great job to explain basic stuff to newbies and intermediate users. Thanks a lot for the hardwork!

[@TechHut]

You were right thank you for the good vibes btw :)

[@MAGAMAN]

Linux is crap for any real work.

[@lqlarry]

Thanks for the video and I would love to see a Jellyfin video.

[@Brenryz]

ikr. i got like 2 mins in and was like ok when is he going to show it off so I can briefly see it in action.. and then scrubbed through and i'm like wtf. now i totally get why Gen Z makes fun of millenials

[@eakinj]

I just updated an old Laptop to Win 10 and installed Jellyfin and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. I have not try it with any clients away from the laptop as of yet, but I really think it's the way I'm heading with this. I look forward to any future videos you make on it. thanks again

[@alexbinder]

I paid 74.99 USD for a lifetime pass for plex in 2014. So invested here and it just works for me.

[@8yr0n_q]

For File renaming, I use Filebot - a small charge associated but it lets you bulk rename for both TV and Movies

[@jeffjordan3806]

I've used both Plex and Emby for years. I switched to Jellyfin about 1 month ago and haven't looked back. The naming convention for TV shows is a little hassle, but other than that, it's great. Handles home videos and photos perfectly, although I had to convert all photos to jpgs. The things you pointed out were what I didn't like about Plex and Emby.

[@estebanod]

Convert to jpg? Aw hell no I’m not giving up on png lossless quality

[@cyclonebee2205]

@@estebanod agreed that's a huge loss

[@MrQuay03]

No heic format too?

[@RickyCash]

All Plex online content can be turned off on the server level so you are not forced to see it.

[@UmbraAtrox_]

tried that today, following their tutorial where i had to remove 4 lines from preferences.xml mine only had 3 of those lines. when i removed them server broke. seems like atm you can't so i probably replace plex with jellyfin.

[@ericpowelson1991]

@@UmbraAtrox_ What!? No! You literally just go into your PMS Settings > Online Media Sources and disable whatever you’re not interested in.

[@WrenAkula]

*account level Your users will have to do the same (or just unpin them) if they don't want to see it either.

[@justjeepin]

I also am a longtime Plex user who's been trying Jellyfin. I like it so far and would love a Jellyfin setup video as I may learn something from your setup. Also, any hints on accessing it from outside the home network would be very helpful (that's where I'm stuck and Plex excels at).

[@rrpedrigal]

You need to learn how to use reverse proxy + cloudflared and set it up on your server. :)

[@leopold7562]

I had started using Plex as a way to rid myself of the expensive Sky subscription, but I found live TV tuning to be overly laborious - it would take many seconds to eventually pull up a programme, which would cause the WAF to plummet quite sharply. Emby's TV tuner is much better, it pulls up a channel within a couple of seconds. That said, having to pay five bucks a month still seems a bit excessive, so I may give Jellyfin a try.

[@jordanjoestar-turniptruck]

Small correction: you have some parental controls for free in Plex and can have a few profiles. However, they're not customizable and you only have young child, older child, teen, and adult profile types to choose from, which determine whether they can watch pg, pg-13, or r movies, and similarly rated tv shows. You can kind of work around this by manually changing the rating of your movies and shows, but that is tedious work, especially depending on the size of your library, and of course won't work on live tv or streaming services.

[@UncleDiddles]

For someone literally looking to just organize/play media at home, with or without transcoding, subtitles, and different audio streams, Plex is the best bet. Plex Pass is worth the money.

[@dathyr1]

Im sorry but I am staying with PLEX, I really like what it has to offer. 5 dollars a month is fine with me for what I get. I have my MEDIA DVR/server all setup to watch/record digital antenna local TV channels. All is working great for me.

[@Destide]

Big fan of Jellyfin, If you can get a lifetime Plex pass on sale it's great too especially if you have a lot of people in your household on multi devices. Shame the Emby team moved away from free they've positioned into a no mans land where there's not much compelling me to use it over the other two.

[@chandrakiran2796]

Jellyfin actually shows up right away on the android tv app maybe you changed the jellyfin port from 8096 to something else. It shows up automatically even on all my devices.

[@marshallhyasi6213]

Congrats on 100k !, looking forward fot Jellyfin tutorial!

[@PANDA-ns5bu]

what i hate about jellyfin is their issues. like i use jellyfin one day then the next day it just stops working. i have to reinstall, and even after that it doesn't work sometimes. yesterday i updated it to latest edition and watched a movie. today i'm seeing that jellyfin has been uninstalled from my laptop like wtf! i reinstalled again today and it still not loading. plex doesn't give any of this headache. jellyfin might be free but it's filled with bugs.

[@jemi011]

I have that same problem that is why I purchased Plex it is worth every penny

[@monish05m]

For the perfect naming part of the video about jellyfin @6:30, just use Radarr and Sonarr to manage your medias and they will name everything perfectly.

[@montehasspoken]

I'm trying to compare with plex and so I’m trying to set up Jellyfin now, things I've encountered so far are 1) Adding media and folders super easy (like in plex) 2) Amending metadata / images so far is easy 3) It’s a lot slower / crashes during web navigation on my pc (usually after metadata changes) 4) Remote access requires you to set up your reverse lookup / own dns, need to research but that’s a pain and kind of ruins the switch from plex. Would love a dummies guide to setting this up. 5) Live TV has no DVR and unless you’re in America there is no Free XMLTV meaning $6/year for schedules direct membership (if they have a UK one that’s correct) Overall I think this is excellent open source software but does require a fair bit of technical knowledge that the average user doesn’t have. I’m going to stick with it and hope I’m able to figure out the reverse lookup stuff (especially when I don’t have a fixed ip).

[@thms93]

I am an Emby premium subscriber. I like the CarPlay/AndroidAuto and SmartTV (WebOS) support, and that i can run the server on my raspberry pi in my cupboard dockerized. Not disappointed. I don't expect to find anything perfect that's also free of charge so I'm okay with paying... software does not grow on trees lol

[@tparadox88]

This video is over two years old now and I had to check the date because the Android TV app automatically discovered the Jellyfin server I installed today, but I would just like to say that I heard that Jellyfin's naming scheme is really strict and I was worried about having to rename my files which are all only loosely titled in a few different scraper friendly formats, but it identified almost everything, even things that Kodi didn't know what to do with. It's also super easy to identify the things that Jellyfin didn't get right in the web interface, which has always been a huge pain for Kodi. The biggest glitch in identification I've seen is that I had saved bundles of different subtitles for the same episodes in folders named with just the number of the episode they're for, and Jellyfin added those folders as seasons of that show with no episodes available because they're only SRT files.

[@rectify2003]

I have just spent hours setting up Jellyfin and it’s finally working very well. Great video, thanks ps on Linux

[@matthewbartke4424]

I was using Plex and very recently decided to swtich to Jellyfin. Like TechHut guy, I just want to use it for my personal media. I didn't spend months ripping all my DVDs and BluRays for nothing. Wow, Jellyfin is way better. It is much faster and way more stable. Via the web interface, it is a lot easier to correct movies that were identified wrong or not at all. Night and day. The biggest reliability difference is short home videos that I have up there. I'd miss part of videos after going through a few because loading would take long and longer until they app on any TV/Browser basically froze or crashed. It runs fast and reliably using Jellyfin.

[@darXcore]

Thanks, very interesting, please do the Jellyfin dedicated vid, thanks a lot.

[@overhand4]

Hi, "safe & securish" remote access is not simply enabled on Jellyfin so did you have a tutorial on this setup? Thanks!

[@djlucasd]

Yeah I tried Jellyfin for a few days, then moved to Emby. Night and day difference, even with having to pay. It's worth it.

[@frankguarneri2771]

Great video on your choice of media server. I am also thinking of installing Jellyfin on Mint. Please provide a tutorial for this. Thank you

[@ShaneDocPuff]

I love and use Plex like most, I was lucky and bought the lifetime back when they first offered it years ago and it was only $20. I am way too much set up in the system to change now.

[@stolinski]

For anyone looking at this, Jellyfin does not have a Samsung tv app where both Plex and Emby do.

[@TaylorConroy4T8]

Awesome video! Always love the content and your take on projects - would love to see your Jellyfin setup! :D

[@lytwyna2]

Great video. Thank you! But I have to ask. What kind of fish are those? I love the white fish going nuts in the background at around 1:16 :P

[@CoreTorque]

Sir I salute you! Going searching to see if you made a set up video for Jellyfin now. Thank you xo

[@toddfarkman2177]

Plex stopped working on WIndows 8. One thing I used to like about Plex is that it would work without the internet, that it would look for a local server. That changed. It's cool to access my Plex server elsewhere, but I liked the idea of keeping everything local. So I was forced to switch to something else. I chose Jellyfin because I don't want to be strong-armed like Plex to either pay for stuff or have ad-driven content forced down my throat. Jellyfin is simple and LOCAL. Exactly what I wanted. I just want to stream my own content. Some features are not there or maybe I just don't know how to do it. But I can live with it.

[@zakariaspersson3136]

Thank you. will try Jellyfin today. Using Plex now.

[@TheAceWolfe01]

Plex is not making you see the on-demand content.. It's very easy to hide it and never have to see it again.

[@Monk2699]

Your videos are really informative and very well done. But you missed my favorite paid plex feature and that's the ability to skip intros. I'm a huge fan of the trailers and free content that Plex offers. But, with that said, your arguments for Jellyfin are very compelling and I think I will give it a try. Thanks again for a great video!

[@touchai1482]

I think you can skip intros in Jellyfin too

[@dragonclaw88]

i LOVE my jellyfin...1983 movies and 8600 tv shows at the moment...dropped plex completely

[@goldchainrosary2258]

Lets get that Jellyfin setup video! would like to see those YT tricks

[@syralk4]

for renaming you can use tinymediamanager or filebot

[@KamenTcholakov]

Nice video, Thanks! To my surprise, Jellyfin didn't play my clips from my Nikons and phones. Also is a bit of a nuisance to setup on my Linux Mint desktop. Emby works a bit better with playing stuff and is easier to setup and use. Plex... thinking to try it, but maybe not ;) My LG TV has a Emby client, works OK there. I am considering to get Emby license - looks pretty good.

[@koossmith5617]

Started using Jellyfin but I have one or two issues with it. I need my unplayed filter to stick. Doesn't look like it is a feature yet.

[@sundeshbalraj]

+1 for the Jellyfin setup and tricks video

[@HearMeLearn]

I have Plex and I mean tbh having multiple users and a mobile app for free app access is basically going to be the reason I’m going with jellyfin

[@jaredgarlock1594]

If only Plex gave you the option to uncheck the content you don't want to see when you first login to the app. Then you wouldn't be annoyed with the extra stuff Plex offers that you don't like. Oh wait it does.

[@brunodherrera]

I just suscribed to get notified for the Jellyfin setup tutorial. please don't let us down

[@pittro7186]

I tried Jellyfin but the one feature i use a lot is which is missing...with a big media library in Movies or Shows there is no option to shuffle play ..i know you can shuffle play from a playlist but i like to use my whole library with that feature

[@renovxperts]

Thanks a ton. Some useful insights. A tutorial on Jellyfin would be great please.

[@richardsinton2157]

I have a bunch of music videos (mainly .iso) and need a media server that will enable me to use the DVD menus (for track selection, etc.) Plex will not play .iso. Can anyone tell me if Emby, Jellyfin or any other will allow access to menus via the Android app?

[@freegmail3856]

Need a Jellfin tutorial on setting up remote access. I have it installed and it's working well with no issues, but I'm not going to put it up on the internet until I learn how to secure it.

[@durgeshkshirsagar116]

I tried all the three. Plex app on Samsung Tizen tv is great. Emby app is quite buggy. Seeking media is an issue on Samsung tv. Jellyfin is slowest amongst all. I hosted it on same server but it is very much slow and resource hungry. Even I compiled Tizen app by myself for jellyfin. App is super slow and takes a lot of time to load and it is bugful.

[@justincase1898]

I set up an old laptop as a video converter using handbrake... easy kind of kool to find out i can just use jellyfin ontop of that 20.10 os to stream my conversions! thanks for the vid man keep up the work... love the fish btw there was one clip in there where a white streak shot to the top of the tank totally distracting... love it... you should do a live fish tank stream lol @techhut

[@davidlaker4460]

I don’t have a smart home but plex supports it through webhooks. Dim lights etc on starting a movie.

[@josecintron85]

I have been using Jellyfin for way over a year and there is a Roku app for it I have it loaded on my 2 Roku devices... Maybe that was released after this video, but I could swear that I have had them for almost 2 years now.

[@juyouranfa]

Yes please make a advance setup and usage video on Jellyfin

[@angelgerena4277]

Super informative thank you!!! And yes please create that Jellyfin tutorial thank you!!!!

[@reloader9114]

Same here love to see a jellyfin setup

[@proctoscopefilms]

Bro you have always been my go-to channel so I say this with all respect -- you cleaned UP in the last year ! Lookin' good !

[@BirkinIdk]

I just gotta say, I had never used a media server before Emby. I always just had a loose folder full of movies, no real rhyme or reason, nothing really jumps out at you, same with my music library unless using a media player. I absolutely love Emby, it's absolutely incredible what it can do with being able to pull art, descriptions, trailers, etc. I could see myself purchasing the lifetime premiere service in the future.

[@MrBeetsGaming]

I could have swore the android plex app cost money to watch full episodes

[@allu797]

I think they made it free

[@TheGreatMcPain]

@@allu797 No, according to it's GooglePlay page it still says you need to do a one-time payment, or a PlexPass.

[@flemmingandersen5244]

You can login to emby from your browser on mobil phone and use it as if you was home on your pc. I use chrome browser so i just made a shotcut to started it fast on the phone..

[@bradleystevens9833]

Great video. Checking out Jellyfin, myself.

[@adrianwiuk]

Should the title be 'What is the cheapest Media Server?' Jellyfin certainly isn't the best, so the real debate is between Plex and emby. I have lifetime subscriptions to both, having used emby for about 5-6 years before switching to emby for the last 4-5 when Plex made you sign in to their service to use the media server locally. At the time I felt Plex was still the better option, but I didn't like how they were heading with privacy and control. I still check out Plex from time to time, and I think emby is now a better option if you just want your own local media server.

[@BobBrewster]

I know you say jellyfin doesn't do trailers and extras. When I rip my DVDs, I usually include the extras from the DVD. Will jellyfin be able to handle these extras in a local directory? I just watched your jellyfin part 1 video. I'm interested in the part 2 now, because I want to see tips and tricks for managing media and extras for both movies and shows. Thanks!

[@stephanieking4444]

Please do make that vid on setting up Jellyfin. I am planning to turn an old computer into a media server....only waiting for a graphics card to be kindly donated by a friend who is buying a new one for themselves

[@IsusVonBier]

Which CPU and GPU? If it's and intel cpu and older gpu, it's better to use cpu for transcoding.

[@stephanieking4444]

@@IsusVonBier it's not an intel but an AMD CPU. As or graphics, it's ATI (so also AMD)

[@Rolltide101x]

I just switched to Jellyfin from Plex due to Plex being a bit of a pain to setup on Manjaro. (Plex is honestly pretty annoying on Linux in general but Manjaro in particular it was really annoying and I finally just said screw it I will try something else lol)

[@will300c]

i have always had audio sync problems with jellyfin, i used it for about a month. I moved to emby and i have not had that issue

[@DhruvSondhi05]

Awesome Videos !! This is a Gem Of A Channel !!

[@TheGreatMcPain]

3:35 Wait, Plex's android app is not free. It has a free trial which allows 1 minute of video/music playback. You still have to purchase it via in-app purchase ($5 dollars last I checked), or have a PlexPass. Not sure if they fixed this, but before I got my PlexPass I had issues with the app not recognizing that I purchased it after a GooglePlay update. I'd have to clear GooglePlay's cache before the Plex app would properly work.

[@RichardErkens]

I have Plex and tried jellyfin on my windows system. Results: Needed 3 installs to finally get it working. One movie folder added without a problem, after that no folders I try to add show up. Installed app doesn't find the server automatically on the network. Tried 5 different movies where jellyfin was only be able to play one. So the windows version is not that good in my opinion. I would suggest Kodi or Plex with a lifetime pass as they work as expected

[@smjure]

Always great topics, enjoying watching your videos, thanks 🙏👍

[@Markokk888]

Basically saying jellyfin is the best because firstly it's open source, no bs, no bloat, simple, light on the resources, easy to set up and will still work even if the world is gonna go down. yeah you know what i'm gonna choose :D

[@creepygnome]

FYI Plex supports smart home integration via its Web Hooks feature.

[@DMS-pq8]

Emby is much easier to add TV seasons but other than that Plex is superior

[@johnrowley3049]

I would like to use jellyfin but I have a problem my IP service is Fiber with a all in one modem/router and the ISP will not allow you to change any settings. so when i Try to setup a client no ports work. any advice?

[@howling-wolf]

I guess emby has changed their plans as their mobile app was free for me to download a couple of months ago. I live in Germany and downloaded via the playstore.

[@SM-qp4qw]

2 years later what are you using now?

[@liink_rock]

please tidy the cables under the desk, your lights are highlighting them..

[@malcolmholmes2596]

The emby andorid app works perfectly for me free with no 1 minute limitation. Apparently random people on their forums have reported it working for them too... Im using it by using their synology dsm 6 package on a xpenology machine. Ive switched to jellyfin tho for the free hardware encoders. It was sort of pain in the ass to get hw transcoding to work through docker tho. The documentation on the websites (emby and jellyfin) didn't help at all but i found a useful tutorial on reddit. Right now im using a j1900, 4gb of ram and hw transcode with Intel quick sync with the igpu.

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

Nice looking Fish Tank! Well ain't that a hoot. I got in a video... Lol Nothing has changed from that video or this one. I am thinking of moving to Jellyfin though as I just watched the Part 1 of the Media Server setup today (9-13-21). This video also is elevating that thinking. Going to have to give it a try and see how picky it really is cause I have 8tb of video I really don't want to go and edit all the file names of all the family videos and movies. Well see I guess... LOL Thanks for the video and giving my suggestion a try... LLAP

[@nocode3738]

a jellyfin setup video would be great

[@darillfow]

I love the jellyfin! I've had plex for many years it was great until they became the very thing we hate, putting their stuff first like advertisements, their streaming movies in front putting our servers in the "back" behind the scene as if our movie collections aren't important anymore. So yeah plex has been thrown in the garbage, out with the old in with the new JELLYFIN! ;)

[@STONJAUS_FILMS]

how do i install this on my truenas scale? is there a need to create a user on their website first?

[@danuw3lls]

Plex downloads still don't work properly, and everyday you open it there's new bloat. Switching to Emby or Jellyfin haven't decided yet.

[@jpmcgreg]

Question what do you use for ripping your dvds?

[@MegaMijit]

what is the OS you use on your server and why? mine is just regular old windows 10 but i feel like it should change it

[@georgemartin1383]

I use plex because it supports more devices. Jellyfin is not on Xbox or ps5

[@notthere83]

I never understood the big appeal of transcoding. Any media that I own digitally is already at a streamable bitrate. Why would people horde uncompressed files, needing tons of storage and having the server consume a lot of power during transcoding? I get that there are some who are all about the best quality for a given scenario but... if I'm on the go with a bad connection, I wouldn't want to stream lores video anyway. And if I'm on a decent connection, a 13 mbit stream will be fine. Ohhh hang on a second... US still has download limits in a lot of places, right? Then it would make sense...

[@edstar83]

Download limits in the age of internet streaming and internet of things is pretty pathetic.

[@notthere83]

@@edstar83 Yup. Although - it's been pathetic for over 10 years. :D Because it was around then that the prices per GB that ISPs need to pay dropped rapidly and flat rates became common in many countries.

[@jbdragon3295]

I have lifetime service with Plex and Emby. Plex is my main app and have been using it for years. Emby I play around with. I like how Emby does movie collections over Plex. On the other hand, for live TV, the program guide data in Plex is free for me bring lifetime account or your paying monthly or yearly forvPkex, where as with Emby, you need to pay $25 a year for a 3rd party service. Plex also auto cuts out commercials. I don't think Emby will do that, I'll have to check that out.

[@patolaba]

Can you install it on a NAS WD ???

[@EPrimeify]

Which one works best on my TV?

[@offroadpatriot7219]

Virtually no reason to not use Jellyfin. There are even work arounds to do cloud uploading through Jellyfin.

[@squirralien1863]

I am considering a change, I use plex and like it but the last manual update has made it disappear and now I have no access to it, also Plex doesn't pick up all my media and I have tried changing names a meta data I think its called and still it just won't do the job, maybe half of my documentaries do not show up and less than half of my kids shows.

[@hernantz]

Do you use something like sonarr? Where do you get content from?

[@nedywest71]

Thanks! How about Dolby Vision on Jellyfin?

[@milkom2021]

Cool aquarium screensaver

[@zigazajc6763]

Buying Emby lifetime license is the best thing you can do.