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[–] 21 points 9 months ago (28 children)

This is for remote streaming. Can Jellyfin be accessed outside the network? I thought that was the difference.

Like if I didn't like Plex and I ran Jellyfin (and I have done), I could access it locally but I couldn't access it, say, from a hotel a thousand miles away. Or it requires a lot more work (and maybe some paid service) to do.

Plex may have gone up, but a bunch of us got it for $100 or less years ago and we are not affected by the new limitations. Still free for our family members accessing remotely. Wasn't free for us to set up.

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  • [+] 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (12 children)
  • [+] 3 points 9 months ago (11 children)
  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (8 children)

    Until jellyfin can be 1 click accessed from anywhere securely over clear net it’s not a replacement.

    It can be, speaking from extensive personal experience. I followed their Reverse Proxy guides, now my tech-illiterate friends access my server over https via a duckdns url.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

    That's a far cry from how most people watch movies and TV though. Most everyone I know uses it through some sort of app on a device in their living room, like a smart TV, fire stick, game console, whatever.

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  • [+] 0 points 9 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Setting up a reverse proxy and dynamic domain is not one click

    Maybe not for the server administrator, but for users, it's mega easy. Download Jellyfin app on TV. Enter URL for server. Login like a normal streaming service. Done. As far as I know, Plex requires these same steps, so if Plex works for your 89 year old grandparents, Jellyfin would as well.

    Jellyfin has also yet to resolve the unsecured api

    In what way is the API insecure? What types of attacks are you concerned about?

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  • [+] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    I posted this below in reply to a similar comment. If you don't like the way the devs have handled the raising of concerns, then fine, that's kind of a judgment call and I can't tell you what you should feel comfortable with. In my limited experience with the Jellyfin devs (including reading through the responses on that thread you linked), I do not personally get the impression that they are downplaying or refusing to correct issues. To me, it seems more like they are prioritizing some issues over others, and the outstanding security issues seem pretty minor for most use cases.

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  • [–] 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I don't run Jellyfin, but I've considered it. From what I understand, you have to set up a reverse proxy or something like Tailscale in order to access it remotely. Doing that safely can take a bit of learning, but the only part that could cost money is getting a domain name.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Is a domain name strictly necessary though? You would need a static IP. I thought you needed something like a VPS or VPN — I know what a VPN is, but I think it was something with a similar acronym — and that was a service that cost money.

    With Plex it just works. When I load up Plex on a remote machine, first it tells me my server is offline, because my server is a Mac and Macs are sleepy bois, so it wakes up the Mac, which wakes up the drives, and then the server loads up and I can play pretty much anything.

    I've ran Jellyfin on both Mac (current setup) and Windows/Intel. I like Jellyfin overall, and it does some cool things Plex doesn't. Like you can fix details Plex won't let you. Like for some reason it only lists the foreign actors in anime, you can manually specify the English voices if you want. Plex doesn't let you do that and AFAIK there's no way to. (There should be an API out there that taps into a service that lets you access any language cast, and there should be a way to set it to dynamically change the cast to whatever language you have selected.) But anyway, Jellyfin is somewhat fine, but to use it on other devices (e.g. an Apple TV box on the same network), you have to do a fair bit of configuring. It's not just, log into the account on your phone and type in the text on the screen. Jellyfin doesn't even prioritise Apple development, but they have come a long way.

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  • Honestly the others in this comment section would be better to ask about accessing Jellyfin remotely, but I can tell you what I know.

    If you go the VPN route, Tailscale is typically recommended, which appears to be free for personal use. It looks like these are the docs for using Tailscale with Jellyfin.

    I host a couple services for my family using a reverse proxy (nginx through SWAG), and I have a free domain name with duckdns. This is not as secure as the above tailscale solution, but has worked for me so far. This is likely how I would add Jellyfin to my workflow, since I already have a reverse proxy and domain name.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    Can Jellyfin be accessed outside the network?

    Yes. Jellyfin is just a Docker container. It can be accessed the same as any other Docker container. Plex simplifies this because they can basically configure all the DNS stuff for you, because it goes through their DNS. But either can be accessed.

    Or it requires a lot more work (and maybe some paid service) to do.

    More specialized knowledge to configure Tailscale or a reverse proxy, yes. I use Yunohost which makes all of this a whole lot simpler.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I also bought Plex years ago for 87€ but i gifted that account to a friend once i got jellyfin up and running.

    You're right - Jellfyin doesn't have a native built-in way to access it from outside. That's the reason Plex intercepts with their own servers when you do remote streaming, that's one of the aspects you pay for.

    Using tailscale (free and setup in like 5 min) you can access jellfin from everywhere. Easy peasy.

    Rumor says that Plex also denies you remote access when you use a VPN or mesh like tailscale.... so ymmv

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Wouldn't it be the same way, you open a port just like Plex, or figure out a reverse proxy. I ran jellyfin for a little while back when Plex used to charge people a fee for using mobile

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