[wiether]

Weird article.

Not only does it acknowledges that Plex is still far better than Jellyfin with its whole ecosystem, but it also depict pretty nicely the entitlement of the users overall.

On one side, they paid $75 more than five years ago for a piece of software for which they still receive weekly updates. On the other, they talk about how leadership at Jellyfin decided to throw the blanket after a burning themselves out for free.

Up till now, Plex kept their promise regarding the Lifetime pass: we still receive updates, we still have all the features. So, unless they change that, they haven't broken their promise. It seems only fair from them to try to run a sustainable business, which you can do without renewed income. They have to find money. They raise subscription price: no impact on existing Lifetime pass owners. They add ad-supported features: no impact on existing Lifetime pass owners. I don't see a single add wherever I access my Plex library, I have hidden their "free" library. I still have 100% of the features I had when I bought the Lifetime pass. Except that I have now access to more features.

Sure, nobody forced them to say "Lifetime", but I don't see how I could be mad if they decided to release a completely new version that is out of the Lifetime scope. I would still have access to the old one, but if I was interested in the new one, I would have to move to one of their new plans, that looks more sustainable in the long run.

Plex is still the easiest one to use for regular user or for the people, like me, that act as IT support for their family and friends, and don't want to spend their evenings and weekends tweaking their aunt's TV just for the sake of using Open Source software.

[reprodev]

OP here. Thank you for reading and it was something that's been brewing in my mind for a while. I agree with you and didn't really know how to approach it becuase I've got a lot of really good things to say about Plex and sure as hell have benefitted from the lifetime license.

Recently, I've been asked more and more by friends and family to set up Plex for them as it's "free" and "easy". I do the basic setup or walk them through it. Then they want to share to their libraries to others or just watch off their connection and hit the wall of having to have a subscription.

Then they bring me Jellyfin as the alternative from something they saw on XDA. I'm not too quick to help them set that up just because of the current state of it and having to find them players on their various devices. As you mentioned, I've been spending pretty much be spending all my free time helping them set it up but I think Plex being so cost prohibitive now so Jellyfin will start to become the defacto option as what we'll be tweaking for those of us that act as IT support.

[EnnEmmEss]

Hi, Since you're here, I just wanted to alert you to the fact that the link you posted w.r.t donating to Jellyfin doesn't work. https://jellyfin.org/donate gives a 404 and the correct link for donating is at: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/contributing/direct-donati...

[reprodev]

Thanks for the heads-up I'll get that changed now

[reprodev]

I've updated that now and done a quick check so it's actually linked to the devs properly. Much appreciated and thanks for reading the article

[wiether]

Thank you for your reply

I can see how scary the price increase on the Lifetime pass looks, and I see it as a deterrent to push people to something like the 5 years plan which looks like a good deal to me

The pricing around Remote Watch Pass is a bit weird to me because I haven't got any complaint from people access my server, and I know they don't have any kind of pass, so I'm not sure why it should be needed?

But having to pay 30/year to access someone else's server, who's already paying a regular Pass and the infra, sure seems abusive

[reprodev]

No problem at all and thanks for giving me your point of view on it. The 5 year plan seems a bit strange, again I understand that Plex and it's not too bad of a deal but I think the changes being so quick have really taken a lot of folks by surprise me included.

The Remote Watch Pass explanation was just a bit confusing when it first got announced. I was helping someone build their first one and they are now having trouble with accessing from off their network to do some automation with their Watchlist. I ended up just telling them to buy it for the month and see how it went as it seemed like it was just a paywall issue. Turns out it was something to do with their Windows setup in the end but something that just worked now being so obfuscated takes away the ease of setup and really confuses more than informs.

If you have the Plex Pass then anyone connecting to they shouldn't need the Remote Pass it so that's probably why you haven't had any complaints from people accessing yours as long as you have it. It's more for people who are sharing their library without it so if you have a few people accessing then I don't think it's unfair to ask them to chip in a bit to future proof you but I think we'll be having similar questions in 5 years time when this one expires for people who picked it up.

I'm still a really big fan of Plex but it's getting harder these days to actually recommend it while the pricing is really all over the place. My advice these days is just get it now and assume the price for things will go up and not down.

[wiether]

Thanks for the explanations around the Remote Watch Pass thing!

It was nice having a chat here because you felt more nuanced than in the article and we basically agree overall!

[reprodev]

Thanks I'm glad it made sense as the Remote Watch Pass and the Jellyfin founder exit was the thing that really formed this article in my head to begin with.

I really appreciate the friendly chinwag too I've enjoyed it. I didn't want to overload the article too much but I think going forward with the other ones I've already planned I'll have to bear that in mind to try and capture more of that nuance as a lot of these truly aren't. I've also really enjoyed the different viewpoints on here and I've learnt a lot more about to be challenged in a good way about how other people are using Plex in the real world and not just my sometimes echo chamber of a circle.

[sparky_z]

> leadership at Jellyfin decided to throw the blanket after a burning themselves out for free.

What does this mean?

[zbentley]

I think that they meant “throw in the towel”? Not positive though.

[wiether]

That's what I meant, yes!

I always have a hard time with this one because, in French, it's not a towel that is thrown: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jeter_l%27%C3%A9ponge

The French version version naturally comes to my mind, even when I'm thinking in English, and then I can't find the translation because it's too close, yet so different.

[zbentley]

I mix up "throw down the gauntlet" and "throw in the towel" at least monthly, don't worry.

[wiether]

It means that I haven't slept enough to not make mistakes!