- cross-posted to:
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That’s it folks. I’ve been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I’ll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I’ve been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it’s time to make it production ready.
Edit I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying “Just buy a plex pass” are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
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I’m all for switching to FOSS alternatives but this is like complaining that video game companies charge you for playing games on your own computer. Maybe they’re just struggling financially.
More like complaining if a game company comes back to make your game worse after you paid.
“Yea I know you were enjoying Elden Ring and paid for it and host the multiplayer server yourself, but for reasons, all endgame content is going to require players to login and verify a subscription status to play online. Also greatsword have been depreciated and will be relaunched as a separate client: Elden Sword.”
bingo. “Sorry, we know that this game was completely on your computer, but every time you start the main screen the update of the day actually hits our servers and costs us money. About 4 cents a day, but it adds up! No of course you can’t just disable that, instead you will now need to pay us $5 a month to continue access. - Your friends.”
Plex pass pricing didn’t change for 10 fucking years. You can still stream locally (which is exactly what you’re doing if you’re using wireguard with Jellyfin, so you can use wireguard with your Plex and have the exact same experience) without a Plex pass.
If the server owner has a Plex pass then you need do nothing.
And for FUCKS SAKE, do NOT expose Jellyfin to the internet. It is an insecure pile of shit.
Plex also warned a month ahead of time without changing pricing so that people could get lifetime Plex pass at the old price.
How is it insecure?
I got no such warning, but then again I already have had a plex pass for more than 10 years. It’s the best $100 I ever spent.
I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
To be crystal clear to anyone getting this email: if the server admin has a Plex Pass, users need to do nothing to continue as normal. The streaming pass is only for users who aren’t connecting to a server that has a Plex Pass.
What I find shitty about this is that it’s being indiscriminately sent to every Plex account. There’s bound to be lots of people who don’t understand what this means who will be tricked into buying a streaming pass they don’t need at all. I’ve been getting messages from my users all day asking wtf is going on, and I’m getting tired of trying to convince them to just ignore the email.
I was reading your comment and the just came in the inbox. Lol I don’t even use plex at this point.
That’s where my head was. If anything, it threw all of my users into a panic, thinking that they had to suddenly start paying. I had a couple immediately uninstall the apps. I don’t blame them, the way it was worded it was pretty much pushing them that they had to. Plex undid years worth of trust right there with them.
What gets me is that they didn’t message plex pass holders about this first. I would have gladly let my users know that they need to do nothing. Instead I’m fielding all kinds of panicked messages.
Same. Their wording was obviously meant to push them into just buying the membership. They chose language that sounded like you have to buy it ~or talk to your server admin~.
It should have been “Talk with your server owner, <<Server owner name>> to see if you need to purchase a subscription or not”. Language like that would be very clear - but they chose not to do that.
Or even better. <<ServerName>>, which is ran by <<ServerOwner>> already has a plex pass subscription, you can continue watching without a subscription! Gee, how nice that would have been.
WAIT
WHAT?
I guess if they know that the user only connects to one server that has a plex pass then they can filter down the email, the thing that keeps me from trying to move to jellyfin yet is that most of my users use multiple servers as a lot of my friends host plex so we cross share to get more coverage
Who do you think it should be sent to? Only server owners?
They can just adjust their pricing like that without a warning before hand? Who do they think they are?
Sad to see Plex becoming another target of enshittification.
enjoy intro pricing on a Remote Watch Pass
why would someone enjoy paying for what was free?!
They announced this ahead of time. I got the email. They gave everyone a heads up with enough time to buy a lifetime Plex pass and the previous rate.
Right? Absolutely ludicrous. I can’t get over how they can be so arrogant to think they deserve money for that. It’s core functionality that existed before they forked off of emby. They didn’t even write that code. Then they have no infrastructure for it, because it transcodes and streams from my server over my network. Any infrastructure they have in that process is nothing I wanted (looking at the auth that for some reason needs to phone home).
No, this is too far, I’m officially leaving Plex.
And Jellyfin shall welcome you with open sourcey arms.
add some wireguard leases so that you can share access to it with your friends, and presto :)
What do you mean for wireguard? Can’t they just access it directly?
I mean if you want to open up your network to the outside, sure. but a VPN would be a bit more safer, right?
Ah okay, yes I have another thread open elsewhere talking about that exact thing.
Guess how you would get around Plex’s remote streaming fees. Guess what service would be appropriate for tricking two devices into thinking they’re on the same local network.
Incorrect.
They are not charging for local streaming on your network. They are just charging for remote streaming, something that wasn’t part of emby, does use their servers and network bandwidth, and chews up a huge amount of development time.
For comparison, do let us all know which media server youre jumping to that supports secure and seamless remote streaming across a wide variety of devices and ecosystems
Just buy a lifetime Plex Pass and pay for the software you use. If you had years ago this wouldn’t be a problem and you literally would not notice that money being gone at this point.
$150 to perpetually operate a media server with free software updates is a ridiculous deal.
They are not charging for local streaming on your network. They are just charging for remote streaming, something that wasn’t part of emby, does use their servers and network bandwidth, and chews up a huge amount of development time.
I’m sorry, what? How does me hosting my content on my server connected to the Internet with a connection I pay for, to a remote client that I own and also connected to the Internet that I pay for, “use their servers and network bandwidth”? How is basic remote streaming functionality that existed for the entire time I’ve used it “chew up a huge amount of development time”?
Their development time - the things they’re bleeding self-hosted users to fund through this change - is entirely focused on their AVOD-hosting, SVOD-hub garbage that every other streaming startup is doing.
If youre using something like a VPN to connect to your local network you wouldn’t need to pay. What you’re basically paying to support is the ability to connect to your server from anywhere in the world in a secure manner.
This means they’re managing the routing and security elements (on their hardware), which isn’t offered by any open source software. The only software I know comes close would be syncthing where people host routing servers.
OP HAS a plex pass
No they don’t. If they did their users wouldn’t get this message.
So you’re calling OP a liar?
Yeah, or that they misconfigured something or didn’t sign into their account, or that it’s a random bug.
Because if you have a Plex pass your users don’t have to pay anything for remote streaming. And OP is apparently unaware of the well publicized change so I’m thinking they’re the unreliable narrator.
I have a lifetime pass. Shared user got this message. It seems like a generic alert to people without a pass.
Define remote streaming, because they all support it unless there’s some term I don’t know about. Jellyfin allows me to remote stream out of the box - just like Plex used to.
The only thing I can think of that you’re referring to is the proxied streaming thing, which I don’t care about anyway. Jellyfin connects directly to my new server
Streaming outside your local network. And no jellyfin does not.
It most definitely does.
Jellyfin doesnt give a shit about where the server is in the slightest.
Alright then stop bitching about Plex and go use jellyfin if it’s so easy.
I do.
And I wasn’t bitching about Plex. This was my first comment in this thread.
That said, I’m also a lifetime Plex Pass subscriber, since waaaayyyyy back. And I’ll add that this is clearly a shitty money grab, and Plex deserves the complaints.
Uh it absolutely does. Bare minimum to do it is the exact same effort as plex. Forward a port.
Lol, if you expose a Jellyfin server to the open internet you deserve what happens to your devices.
You know what’s a bigger deal? Zero bucks (but please donate to jellyfin as it’s only fair) when you already have your server from which Plex streams your content from and add Wireguard for remote access.
Lmao.
It’s so unfair that plex charges an incredibly small amount of money for development…
also donate to jellyfin development it’s only fair.
Yeah the difference is voluntary. If i can choose to donate $50 to help development on an open source project, or be forced to pay $150 to support some fucking corporate enshittification, youre damn sure id rather donate. But the point is no one has to if they don’t want to or can’t afford it.
I paid $150 like 8 years ago for rock solid media server software with continual updates and client applications continuously updated for virtually every platform available.
You have to be insanely entitled and whiny to think that’s corporate enshittification or a bad value. Get some perspective.
Yeah my perspective is that an open source app that never charges you is better than one than literally fits the definitikn of enshittification by charging more money while decreasing functionality.
Your users can still stream your content because you have plex pass. This is just notifying everyone who’s on a free account.
How is that better? Why is anyone paying to stream your own content?
Because we should support developers.
You’re right. We should support developers.
Here’s Jellyfin’s ‘How to Contribute’ page.
The $90 million in venture capital can nourish the leeches at Plex just fine.
Except it notified everyone whether their server has a pass or not. In other words, people who don’t need to buy a streaming pass were just told they have to buy a streaming pass.
Well no, they notified everyone, and my users freaked out, rightfully so. One immediately uninstalled the app because of it. So, that trust is just gone. Then second, I’m angry that they’re removing functionality that has been free for a decade for… reasons? As I explain elsewhere, there’s negligible cloud overhead for it. If this was a new feature that was locked behind plexpass or something - fine. Removing functionality I can’t get behind. Sure, my server would keep working, but this is the last straw for me. It’s obvious what’s happening over there, and my users don’t trust it. So I’m out.
Does jellyfin let you set up different accounts for remote users so they can keep track of where they are in a tv series (and not give them admin functions?)
Yup!
Yes
Ok, ok that’s solid.
Does it have “library sharing” so one wouldn’t have to login/logout to browse between my own media on my server and media a friend is sharing with me from their server?
No, each server is accessed separately. You can swap between servers easily, but there is no central way to browse all of your servers simultaneously. Jellyfin was designed specifically to rebel against Plex’s centralization, so that’s not a feature they’re ever likely to implement. There are ways to sync your watch history between servers, but it’s using third-party plugins.
I don’t see a technical reason why a client couldn’t log in to multiple remotes to pull and aggregate content through a single interface. No “central” server is required, so if this isn’t an existing feature, I don’t think implementing it breaks any kind of ideology goal on that.
They’re totally different servers. You have to log in to each, but you don’t have to log out of one to log in to the other.
I currently have three up in my browser, each in a browser tab, observing that my siblings and friend who self-host are all into some campy shit. I love it.
I’ll need to take it for a test spin, specifically what the experience is through whatever app they’ve got to run through a tv.
My brother-in-law both share our libraries with a set of people who have accessibility concerns. The Plex interface on a tv blends our two libraries relatively easily for those people. We have the redundancy of the two servers.
For me it isn’t about what I can do, it’s what can the person who struggles the most with what we already have set up get going. I pretty desperately want to move to Jellyfin (already have the Plex pass, so just for ideological reasons) but I’m not going to leave any of my people behind in the process. This is why I’m so hyper fixated on the case of UX for people accessing through a TV app where someone has access to multiple shared libraries.
Setup for remote access by the host is more work, ofc. Remote access on users end can be more difficult depending on how the host sets things up.
Most popular freebie approach seems to be tailscale VPN. Which requires remote users to connect through the Tailscale VPN. And for the host the free Tailscale option has a cap of 3 users. There is probably a learning curve and perhaps frustration for a low-comfort-with-tech type person.
Requires some money but I think the easiest remote user experience is Cloud Flare. This is what my brother does, so I haven’t seen it from his end, but on my end it is very easy to access as a user.
Both have so many help guides online, Tailscale or Cloud Flare.
Been using Jellyfin since plex started to annoy me for using it without an account.
Came here to type this and forgot, and thought this was my comment :D
My god people.
If you setup Wireguard to use Jellyfin remotely, that would also get around Plex’s fees for remote streaming.
Am i reading this wrong?
If you use Jellyfin you no longer need plex. You can both host it on your own domain or do the vpn method.
If you really want to keep using plex then the vpn method will bypass the new restriction but i recommend not staying with software that limits what you can do with it when alternatives exist.
“Alternatives” https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/5415
I used Plex way back when it was really just a desktop client that I ran on a Mac Mini. Once they wanted me to make an account with them to watch my own stuff I found a different solution.
I’ve been on Jellyfin for years and I am sure there are some features that I don’t have, but it works great for my setup. I have a docker running on my NAS and two shield tvs connected around the house. I keep all my content in a codec that plays on the clients just fine and everyone is happy.
Deleted my Plex account as soon as I got this email, using the account link in said email, so hopefully they see the connection.
Glad I switched to Jellyfin last year.
“Yes they are your files on your hardware in your home using your internet bandwitdh. But uh… fuck you.”
All I know is I’ve been told over and over and over that Plex is better than Jellyfin because of reasons, so this latest move won’t have me changing my mind!
Plex user from way back. Gave them up, forgot why, but lemmy woke me up. Plex is charging for what exactly? And why would I continue when Jellyfin is every bit as easy and free? I feel like I’m missing something.
(And yes, I got the implied /s. Most of lemmy is very literal, autistic even, missed it.)
I’m not gonna deny that there are definitely lots of Plex fanboys, but there are also definitely a number of issues that legitimately makes it hard to switch.
For example right now, I can cast from Plex to my Chromecast. In Jellyfin, the cast menu just shows “Play on my device”. Afaik the only alternate app that also supports Chromecast is streamyfin, which seems to be in beta because the cast menu shows icons for my Chromecasts but no name and won’t let me select them.
You state that you have a plex pass and are a server owner. In that case you shouldn’t be affected, yet you’re saying you are… what?
Just because I’m not affected doesn’t mean it’s not enshittification, and removing functionality that was free for over a decade.
the people giving their bandwidth away for free now want money to pay their bills?
To clarify, I disagree with needing an account (sharing my email) with Plex in the first place, and personally would not purchase what is essentially CDN or VPN depending on how plex distributes your content to your end users. However, from these comments it seems like this was a free service they offered and now want money for it, because it is not profitable. Enshittification? Sure, but not unexpected. Apparently this doesn’t affect you if you stream locally either.
This does complicate things though since now users have to consider paying a subscription for network security or begin distributing OpenVPN configurations to people. In some cases it won’t be possible, like on your TV.
That’s essentially my point of view. Plex enshittified. I was angry at how they handled the enshittification, throwing my users into a flurry, but I’m also not surprised that they’re doing it.
In case people aren’t clear on what’s happening, here is a graphic that illustrates what’s happening.
I have never used plex, and never will because I like my privacy, but that 20 usd a year does not sound much. thats less than 2 usd a month
People are angry because everyone’s spent too much time on social media and are used to assuming the worst and flying off the handle.
I bought a lifetime plex pass for like $80 in 2016… is Plex getting more annoying? Yes. But is this a huge affront? No.
and what the hell do they think they deserve my money for anyway? What feature have they brought server owners over the last… 2 or 3 years? Seriously what have they done for us? Last thing I remember is credit skip - which was years ago now.
Subtitle audio sync just went live.
Wait they’re charging people for the privilege of using one’s hardware and bandwidth to share to friends??
Correct! Having users connect to your server and your hardware is now a cloud service according to them.
It IS a cloud service. You should be smart enough to understand why.
How many manual connections have you had to set up for your users? That’s right, none. Why? Because Plex does it for you. That’s that cloud part that so desperately ignoring.
It’s literally just pointing them to my IP. It’s a bit of networking. How many manual connections have I set up? Most of them. I have DNS. I opened up 32400. That’s also all I had to do to get streaming to work with Jellyfin. Literally the only difference in getting Jellyfin “remote streaming” up and running is giving my users their username, password, and (DNS or IP) address.
That’s literally all plex is doing. It’s a dynamic DNS service, that tells your users how to connect to you for you. DynDNS or any dynamic DNS service can do that for you for like, 2 dollars a year, if not for free - or you can pay for a static IP. If someone can run a plex server, then they have enough networking knowledge to be able to set up dynamic dns.
Plex works even without DDNS and port forwarding. What you are talking about is otherwise not possible for people with restrictive firewalls or with CGNAT.
I agree with you that if you expose the service through the internet, then yes, it’s just a DDNS remapping and their costs are tiny, but if you don’t it does go through their infra.
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/5415
Yeah, you should stop that right now.
Two of my favorites are streaming without authentication and the fact that it is possible for a non-user to create a user and then edit other users.
Only if the server owner does not have a Plex pass.
OP HAS a plex pass
I’m very aware, that’s why I said that. OP’s users are unaffected. Everyone got the email. It doesn’t mean that everyone is affected.
If I’m paying for a pass, and my users are getting emails that they need to sign up for a paid account, you better believe I’m getting annoyed. That’s a plain cash grab.
