As you may have seen Plex decided it was OK today to send an email showing me what my friends have been watching. To be clear, this is Plex telling other people what I’ve been watching from my server, with my files, and this is not OK.
We all knew it was a matter of time before Plex started collecting data on our libraries and sharing it with advertisers. What happened to their “we don’t know, and don’t want to know, what is on your server”?. This, for me, is proof that those fears were absolutely founded in reality. On what planet would I ever want this information to be shared with friends on family on an OPT OUT basis?
It’s totally unacceptable to collect this data in the first place. It’s totally unacceptable to share this information with uniquely identifiable information. And it’s totally unacceptable to do this without explicitly asking me if it’s OK.
Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about this as a server admin, because technically these are Plex users and their marketing email preferences are controlled on the user side in the Plex website preferences. Not on your server.
This is an absolutely egregious overreach.
Thank goodness there are alternatives available in the form of Jellyfin and Emby. I left my Plex server up after the Jellyfin January challenge we did on the Self-Hosted podcast but because of this I feel that I have no choice but to take it down for good.
Made the switch to JF about 6 months ago, Never looked back!
JF has no proper chromecast support… ☹️😤
Yes it does.
What do you mean? I have used chromecast with Jellyfin many times.
Chromecast in JF never worked…
When I click the chromecast icon in JF “Play On” (top right) I get “Google Cast Unsupported”.
How did you manage to get it working?
This is why! It’s a crappy implication…
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/6840#issuecomment-1042905147
You need to be hosting jellyfin behind a reverse proxy so that it works through https. Chromecast doesn’t support unsecured sources.
Yup… I have a reverse proxy. Chromecast in Emby works, Chromecast in JellyFin doesn’t. Really weird.
Then yeah idk that makes no sense to me. The only time I had problems with Jellyfin chromecast was when I wasn’t on https.
Android required, no iphonies
Jk, i eagerly await ios support but for now android only
Windows browsers such Firefox, Chrome, Vivaldi, Brave have the same issue. It’s not OS or device related, it’s how Chromecast has been implemented in Jellyfin.
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/6840#issuecomment-1042905147
You have to use the Play Store version
iPhone has no Play Store. I got the app from the AppStore for iPhone, no luck, chromecast does not work.
Ohhh, that’s too bad then.
I am also strongly considering to make the switch now. Any notable drawbacks/learnings from using it for 6 months?
Is it supported on tv makers?
https://jellyfin.org/downloads/clients
There is your answer.
It says available for Android TV and WebOS. Which are the TV OSes now most of the time.
I also recently installed it on Tizen(Samsung’s OS) and using the docker container(https://github.com/babagreensheep/jellyfin-tizen-docker) it was stupidly easy and the hardest part was enabling developer mode.
Guess it’s too late to change the stupid name.
It is what it is, until it isn’t
No Apple TV client. Bummer.
AppleTV + Infuse
Wdym TV makers?
They mean Smart TVs. My Dad’s Samsung TV has a Plex app, but no way to install anything like Kodi that would let him use Jellyfin instead of Plex to serve media.
Amazon stick is the cheapest (easy) way to turn any TV into a Jellyfin TV.
Yeah, I use one myself. He’s already using all the HDMI ports on his AV receiver though, so there’s no room for any extra devices.
I know modern TVs can send the audio from the TV to the receiver, so in theory he could plug the stick into the TV instead, but his one seems to only be able to send certain formats that way, and you can’t see the receiver’s overlay on the TV when using it that way, so it’s impossible to adjust anything.
Personally, I’m getting increasingly annoyed with my Fire Stick. It’s kind of sluggish, and very locked-down. You used to be able to sideload a custom home launcher, but Amazon is cracking down on that. Their launcher is filled with bloat and ads. Recently I’ve noticed mine auto-playing Amazon Prime video trailers on boot which makes me want to throw it out the window.
I have JF installed on my Samsung (Tizen) TV and it works great. And the TV will auto-launch back into JF on boot… something I wish Fire Stick allowed.
How has been your experience with higher bitrate/quality stream directplay?
On my 4-5 year old Samsung TV I notice sluggish playback with 4K and high bitrate files with the Tizen Jellyfin app.
With plex the same files were working fine.
On my Desktop (using MPV) all files playback fine.
Now I think about buying something like a FireTV stick or Xiaomi TV Box…
I’m also not a fan of Amazon’s streaming devices. I grabbed a 4k fire cube for $50 last year during one of their sales. This thing already lags like crazy and recently started playing an ad when you first turn it on. Annoying.
My 2017 NVidia Shield still rocks.
Amazon Fire days being based on Android appear to be numbered. Doesn’t mean JF or any other client can’t have a React-based client for whatever Vega becomes if/when launched, but I’d expect it to take some time. The prior effort for a React-based client seemed to have died a number of years ago.
I’ve been tossing the idea around to set up a cheap mini NUC-like box, like a Beelink or something similar. About the same prices as an Apple TV or higher end Roku, and you can either use Windows, Linux, or even Android on it. Just needs a convenient remote to navigate it without needing to hook up a mouse and keyboard, or gamepad, and it would be a great little set top box.
Also I’m kind of surprised there aren’t more Linux distros for this already. We’ve got gaming console-like dedicated distros in Batocera, Lakka, RetroPi, Recall Box, etc. even stuff like SteamOS, or customized clones like Bazzite, Holo and Chimera. Where’s the TV focused OS? The closest I see are typically just running Kodi on boot, which is ok I guess, but I want something more like an all-around HTPC where Kodi is just an application I launch when I want to watch something, rather than the sole UI.
Strange, I haven’t experienced that, but I’m also connected to Amazon Canada, so maybe it’s different.
Even side loaded Steam Link to stream games and it works pretty well.
PSA: Pre-built images are available, which avoids having to compile the app yourself. https://github.com/jeppevinkel/jellyfin-tizen-builds
The install process is pretty straightforward. I’d recommend giving it a try. More or less copying commands, then you’re left with the Jellyfin client on the TV. Works great once installed.
No Kodi sadly though.
Why would you install Kodi to use Jellyfin?
There’s a Jellyfin app for Tizen (Samsung TV) but it’s kinda stupid to get installed and is kinda sluggish. Actual playback is perfect however.
His TV is a few years old, so I’m not sure if it uses Tizen but I’ll have a look, thanks.
If it helps, I think my TV is either 2018 or 2019 and Jellyfin app works. But yeah definitely take a look
I checked and his TV is a Samsung UE40ES5500 which he bought in 2013, so I’m pretty sure it doesn’t use Tizen unfortunately.
I think Vizio doesn’t have a Jellyfin app either, unless they’re also using Android under the hood like Fire TV?
Not sure about if Samsung TV has Google play store where the jellyfin or infuse app exist, but you can do chromecast / airplay if not Google play store
Definitely no Play Store on his TV. I don’t think it has any Chromecast /Airplay apps either, but even if it does I don’t think they’re any substitute for Plex or Jellyfin.
Just don’t use Samsung tv then and get an inexpensive android TV box…
Infuse is Apple only AFAIK
Samsung TVs run Tizen OS, not Android TV, so obviously no “Google Play Store”.
Also apps are pretty restricted, most are just able to use web-technologies, so nothing heavy-handed.
The process in getting TV Apps approved on platforms like Samsung’s Tizen OS is pretty annoying for most developers/open-source stuff.
There is an actual app for Tizen TVs, but it needs to be sideloaded manually: https://github.com/jeppevinkel/jellyfin-tizen-builds
Then why use the shit when you can get a GoogleTV stick for less than 20 bucks.
etc.