[M95D]

I use Kodi. I never used Plex or Jellyfin. I'm not even sure what they are. They look like media players, but... over the network? I don't really understand how that works. In a web browser? Why whould anyone run a media player in a browser? Can anyone explain?

[bigstrat2003]

Essentially, think of it as Netflix for which you provide the media yourself. A browser is one possible way to connect, but clients exist too (e.g. a Roku app and so on). Having the ability to connect with a client running on something connected to your TV is nice, as is the ability to connect remotely (if you open up the ports on your firewall of course). It also gives you things like remembering what shows you were watching and giving a shortcut to the next episode, intro skipping, transcoding, and so on.

[M95D]

Nope. I still don't get it. (Maybe because I'm too old for this stuff?)

> think of it as Netflix for which you provide the media yourself.

Netflix is a provider of content. If I have the content, why do I need a provider for?

> Having the ability to connect with a client running on something connected to your TV is nice

(???) But that's what I'm doing now with Kodi.

> as is the ability to connect remotely (if you open up the ports on your firewall of course).

Wireguard (only one port), and all home LAN is accessible, not just one service.

> It also gives you things like remembering what shows you were watching and giving a shortcut to the next episode

Kodi does that too. Or maybe you mean it remembers between player devices? See ep.1 on player A and it shows up as seen when I start player B too? That's nice. I think I read somewhere that Kodi can use a remote MySQL/MariaDB for it's library too. I could probably set up a shared DB.

> intro skipping

How does it know where the intro is and how long?

> transcoding

If I were to install Plex/Jellyfin it would be where the storage is - on a router that also serves as a NAS. It doesn't have the power to transcode anything, not even audio. Meanwhile, the lowest spec phone can play everything. So, why would anyone transcode in 2026?

[mingus88]

> Netflix is a provider of content. If I have the content, why do I need a provider for?

I have never used Kodi. Does it organize your content? Does it download summaries for every episode? Does it create thumbnails and posters for you? Create mobile transcodes and allow you to cache downloads on your clients?

Does it allow you to create a home with managed accounts? Can your friends and family access it without setting up wireguard, dynamic dns or other manual access methods?

From what I see, Kodi is a media player but I don’t see what else it really brings to the table if you really want a streaming service experience.

I have used XBMC, Boxxee, mythTV and a bunch of other OSS media platforms over the years and Plex is just the most polished and feature rich that I haven’t had a need to look at anything else for a long time.

[M95D]

> Does it organize your content?

There is a delete function (if enabled in options), but generally no - files stay where they are. There is a searchable library where files are sorted into various categories. I never used it much, though. I do file management with a file manager.

> Does it download summaries for every episode? Does it create thumbnails and posters for you?

It can, but I take great care to keep those options disabled. If enabled, it would leak the contents of my library to imdb, tmdb, cloudflare, amazon, microsoft, palantir and God knows how many 3-letter agencies.

Thumbnails are ok. They are extracted from the video file. There is a local cache that doesn't pollute the remote storage where the video files are.

> Create mobile transcodes and allow you to cache downloads on your clients?

No. This is the client. I already expressed my doubts about the need for transcoding in 2026.

> Does it allow you to create a home with managed accounts? Can your friends and family access it without setting up wireguard, dynamic dns or other manual access methods?

Anyone can just turn on the TV and have free access to everything in LAN. Why create accounts? I don't give access to outsiders.

> I have used XBMC

It's called Kodi now. :) But the name change was a long time ago.

> From what I see, Kodi is a media player but I don’t see what else it really brings to the table if you really want a streaming service experience.

Yes, that what I don't understand: What exactly is this "streaming experience"?

I turn the TV on, navigate to a file, press play. What else is there?