I am looking to basically just transition to a small time, forever on, server to support my growing Plex footprint. I don’t need anything top of the line, and I’ve already crimped my lines to the room.

What’s the most cost effective way to go about this? Figured i would come to the pros.

Thanks!

  • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
    3·
    7 hours ago

    As someone who’s used all three (moved from Plex -> Emby -> Jellyfin):

    Plex’s killer feature is the relay and the fact it’s completely transparent for users. You log in with a Plex client (whatever device, whatever location in the world) and it will sort out a connection to the Plex server. Complete no-brainer.

    Jellyfin has been killing it lately, the last 3 versions (10, 11, 12) were all amazing leaps forward. The devs have been really hitting their stride and are addressing fundamental design issues and making Jellyfin better from the ground up. If you want complete independence, openness and control, excellent performance, this is it.

    Emby for me sits somewhere in-between and it’s not necessarily the better off for it. Feels like a compromise or the worst of both worlds. It has touches of Plex’s enshittification streak, it hasn’t addressed any of the core problems like Jellyfin has.

    Both Emby and Plex have issues navigating VPNs and complex/unusual network setups because their plug’n’play approach relies too heavily on autodetection. Plex has the relay to fall back on (provided you pay for it) but Emby doesn’t.

    Both Emby and Plex will move features around and really, really want you to keep paying so it’s anybody’s guess what you’ll be paying for from month to month. Lifetime passes were (can I say it?) a tremendously STUPID idea and now that ship has sailed anyway.

    IMHO, one of these days someone will come up with a way for Jellyfin to provide free, transparent, aecure client+server pairing behind NAT and that will be a huge blow to both Plex and Emby.