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I use Emby instead of Plex or Jellyfin; mostly because it has an Xbox client, and I've already got a lifetime licence. One of my most active users only watches via Xbox.

Really don't like Plexs centralised user system or the overall direction they've been headed for years, so I moved away from that long ago (8+ years ago at least). Jellyfin wasn't up to par at the time (though they've made leaps and bounds of progress in that time), and Emby has always supported more types of devices\clients. Their device limit (the client count limit with premeir) has never come into play for me, but I know there are larger user bases out there where that is a problem.

Embys development is extremely slow though, taking YEARS to implement simple features or even address major concerns. Plus their support sucks without the community stepping in and providing it on behalf of the staff. Luke (the main dev) is better at copy+pasting candid responses than he is at actually interacting with human beings.

I have both. Plex for family and Jellyfin for me. I still don't have hardware transcoding working (probably a permission thing. It's always permissions) and haven't had much time to tinker this year. Plex just... worked.

I can use Jellyfin without transcoding, but only one or two users at a time is all my CPU can handle.

The lack of library sharing is what's keeping me on Plex.

The ability to watch media across servers, and even transparently pull it for local transcode when necessary is just an amazing feature.

There's still a bunch of outstanding API security issues last I checked, so it's not secure enough for me to open to the web.

Teaching friends and family to use it with a VPN is a whole another can. Also, you'll have to make sure the VPN is secure and users don't have access to the rest of your network...

and then you'll have to deal with client apps/access for mobile, android boxes, TVs, and Chromecasts...

I got lucky with the Plex Pass too so I can only ride this out to the end until Jellyfin catches up. (also, I'm not good to contribute code)

Admittedly this was 4 years ago, but the lack of documentation was frustrating. I don't know if remote streaming or transcoding was even a thing back then, but I could find little to nothing about much of anything. Now I just don't have the time. I switched to Stremio + plugins for TV and movies, and I'm content to keep using Plexamp for my vinyl rips until it stops working.

if you install it and do not add plugins or mods or download them manually or with another tool, there is no way to pull subtitles.

You also need to sideload the app because it's not available in app stores.

That's the blockers for me... though the plugin for subtitles that now exists I have yet to try, and it may make it doable.

I have tried it but having Plex handle the out-of-home routing for me securely is a great feature Jellyfin doesn’t have but doesn’t for obvious reasons and I justify that as why I pay Plex. I have thoughts and better knowledge now about how to properly implement it, but I’m not sure I want to rebuild my current setup that just works with very minimal upkeep.

That and I am on someone else’s Plex server who updates it much more than I do. Mine just supplements theirs with stuff they don’t have and one-offs I’ve wanted and found. I’d still be using Plex even if I did rebuild with Jellyfin today.

But if these price increases keep coming, I may make the switch. It’s tempting to shell out the money for the lifetime membership, but I don’t have faith in companies, including Plex, to keep up their end of the deal on these things.

I use both still, Jellyfins UI can be a bit janky sometimes and it does not sync viewing progress of the same episode or movie across UHD and HD content, which Plex does.

Overall I think Jellyfin is better though.

I have both. My main gripe with Jellyfin is the the Google TV app. It doesn't seem to have an easily accessible skip 30 or jump to next chapter option. If that was improved, I might be ready to ditch Plex.

Can it import my Plex settings, categorized titles, and watched lists for all my users? And whatever other things I’m not thinking of…

It’s on my radar, but I have a lot of data, custom images, etc. it would need to be 1:1

I definitely have noticed that it is important to install metadata plugins like imdb, as well as fanart, in order to feel closer to Plex. Users like seeing Rotten Tomato and IMBD scores, in addition to cast info and such.

I only use my library with jellyfin and only locally. I left plex a few years ago. What I really want to set up next is a UI that uses a simple remote control and ditch the Roku interface so I can be seamlessly offline.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

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