Media migration was easy enough. I had to move some "extras" around, and I switched to #TheTVDB's metadata to get away from #TheMovieDB's bad opinions, but I was able to keep both media servers running from the same media folder until I was ready to fully switch.
("TMDB's bad opinions": specifically their guidance that shows with multiple "segments" should represent each segment as a whole episode, i.e. making every episode number wrong for a show like Urusei Yatsura. There are other problems with their metadata, but no point in polishing a turd.) [2/]
As for clients: Plex's clients are slick. Jellyfin's aren't, but the third party options are okay.
I'm using an #AppleTV and iPad. #Swiftfin is very much a work in progress for both. It doesn't support Music Video libraries yet, so I didn't stick with it for long.
I switched to Infuse, which is good. I wish it disclosed whether the server's transcoding or if media's playing direct, but I believe the devs who say it's probably always playing direct. It seems to do a better job of that than Plex did on my old Apple TV HD, but bear in mind: I chose codecs specifically for Apple platforms – YMMV. [3/]
Setting up Jellyfin through Docker was much less painful than expected. I'm using the linuxserver.io image, and their docs for it are great. They even give pointers on setting up hardware acceleration.
Jellyfin's own documentation is also very good. One of the fiddlier things I wanted to do was migrate my watch history from Plex. I used a tool called JellyPlex-Watched, which needed an API key for both Plex and Jellyfin. I barely even needed docs to work out how to get a Jellyfin API key, but as for Plex… 😬 let's just say I'm glad to leave it behind after reading Plex's docs on the matter. [4/]
The thing that originally prompted this migration was an internet outage a couple of Christmases ago (yes, it took me a while!) We were stuck for a couple of weeks without internet, and I realized then that I was locked out of my Plex server because I'd upgraded to a version that used centralized online auth! It's been bugging me ever since. There doesn't seem to be a way of backtracking out of it and it made Plex useless in a scenario where a home media server ought to be an ideal solution. Jellyfin doesn't share that fatal flaw. [5/5]
@tojikomori Interesting that you find the default Jellyfin WebUI and apps insufficient. I've been using Jellyfin for several years and have never felt like I needed anything beyond their built-in stuff. Plays all the media I want it to play, at the quality I expect, with subtitles downloaded automatically, etc. Metadata management is a bit finnicky at times but can easily be overridden when needed.
@anianimalsmoe@neatchee that's so weird! Jellyfin supports DLNA, so if your home server's powerful enough to support transcoding then you could try that.
I immediately put Google TV into "basic" mode when I got my new set, effectively turning it into a dumb TV. One of the things I like about Sony's electronics is you can still do firmware updates from a flash drive, so it's never even been connected to a network! I do all the internet-based things through my Apple TV instead.
@anianimalsmoe@neatchee Hey there, as far as I know there are no restrictions we've put on for app availability. Are you able to share any more details?
@neatchee It's complicated! For example, on iPad there are two official client apps:
Jellyfin Mobile is the original official app. AFAICT it's a repackaging of the web UI, so it's fine for browsing but web app wrappers are always kinda clunky. Like the web UI it's unable to direct play HEVC on my iPad, which is a deal-breaker.
Swiftfin is the new WIP platform-native client. It's able to direct play HEVC and the player UI is great, but subtitle auto-selection isn't working yet which is a little annoying. The browsing UI is much less polished and it isn't able to browse all of my libraries yet, which means I can't use it for everything.
@peribotsarahInfuse is the one I've been using for Apple devices. It's mostly good, except that it has a very strong preference for direct play with no apparent override. I have an older Apple TV that struggles with a couple of bigger encodes in my library, so it'd be handy to switch to a transcoded version when needed.
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