It was forked but somehow lacked a huge amount of functionality that Emby had (and still has) Like I think it only supported films, not music or TV shows. The app infrastructure was awful across fire stick, Roku and android and wasn’t backward compatible with the Emby apps. I just didn’t see the point of forking it if you’re just going to make it worse or only address the server side and neglect the clients. The whole thing has to work together with good clients and server.
Looks like you need a closer view about actual functionality. Jellyfin supports movies, tv-shows, music (there are also apps just for music), e-books and live-tv.
As I need hardware transcoding, that makes emby immediately non viable for me. I also usually watch via various apps and on tv, which, if you don’t have emby premiere are also not free to use.
Stepping aside from this particular thread for a moment. Could you share why you need hardware transcoding?
Admittedly, I don’t quite understand what components would build a better machine as far as a media server goes, but I turned off hardware transcoding when I first set Jellyfin up on a NUC. The only issues I have are the startup speed of the app, and every now and then it crashes when loading the library and I just relaunch it and it’s fine.
I’ve assumed it’s the Nvidia Shield doing the heavy lifting as far as playback goes, because I’ve never had a recurring problem with playing any particular file. I’m starting to think I don’t really appreciate the benefits of hardware transcoding.
Probably bandwidth and client device power limitations. Maybe they are using an old tv with a jellyfin app so it doesn’t support 4k video files / new codecs.
I regularly watch on my server when I’m not home and a few friends of mine also have access to it, so I need the content to be available in SDR and lower bit rates. When I stream from home, I‘d like to have access to the full quality and HDR though, so either I need multiple versions of each film or hardware encoding/tonemapping and a used gtx 1050ti was a lot cheaper than the required storage would be to have 4 or 5 versions of every film.
But yes, if you’re only streaming within the same network, hardware transcoding isn’t necessary in the slightest. But then a SMB fileshare might also suffice…
Ah I completely forgot streaming away from home. My travels tend to have limited internet access, and so my practice is to download things we might watch through Findroid.
Given your friends have access to your library, what do you think would be required (ideally) for streaming to work without transcoding? As simple as a beefy internet connection, a 4k screen and them having a Shield or equivalent?
I only ask because I know a number of my circle use Shields already and I think the ones in my neighbourhood are all on gigabit connections. Might be worth looking into so long as I’m not in for upgrading the machine. I’m more of a set and forget person myself.
Well, my internet connection would have to be a lot faster, and they would all need devices that support UHD h.265 and HDR10 playback. But if you have have gigabit upload and they all have shields or similar with just as fast connections, you’re good to go without transcoding (if no one wants to access it through mobile)
We’ve got about 2.5 gigabit up and down in my neighbourhood so we’ll be good in that department. I’m going to see if any of my group are interested. I suppose the limit here will then be how many streams my machine can handle at one time. Guess I’ll find out. I appreciate your insight.
when did you last try it and what clients? I’ve got friends/family accessing my library and I see them playing back stuff constantly and never seen or heard of any issues. This is across web, AndroidTV, Chromecast, Roku and mobile devices.
Last time I tried it it was a much worse experience than Emby across all devices and for all media types. I don’t understand all the love it gets.
Worse how? Jellyfin was forked from Emby, and since then has continued to improve in my eyes.
It was forked but somehow lacked a huge amount of functionality that Emby had (and still has) Like I think it only supported films, not music or TV shows. The app infrastructure was awful across fire stick, Roku and android and wasn’t backward compatible with the Emby apps. I just didn’t see the point of forking it if you’re just going to make it worse or only address the server side and neglect the clients. The whole thing has to work together with good clients and server.
Jellyfin has supported Music and TV shows since the start
Looks like you need a closer view about actual functionality. Jellyfin supports movies, tv-shows, music (there are also apps just for music), e-books and live-tv.
I kinda wonder how I’ve been watching shows for years, then…
Yeah jellyfin still has a number of issues that should be worked on, but it’s nowhere near as bad as you claim
It’s free and open source. That alone is a big plus. And it works fairly well. What does emby do better, that warrants paying $120 for it?
I haven’t paid anything for it
As I need hardware transcoding, that makes emby immediately non viable for me. I also usually watch via various apps and on tv, which, if you don’t have emby premiere are also not free to use.
Stepping aside from this particular thread for a moment. Could you share why you need hardware transcoding?
Admittedly, I don’t quite understand what components would build a better machine as far as a media server goes, but I turned off hardware transcoding when I first set Jellyfin up on a NUC. The only issues I have are the startup speed of the app, and every now and then it crashes when loading the library and I just relaunch it and it’s fine.
I’ve assumed it’s the Nvidia Shield doing the heavy lifting as far as playback goes, because I’ve never had a recurring problem with playing any particular file. I’m starting to think I don’t really appreciate the benefits of hardware transcoding.
Probably bandwidth and client device power limitations. Maybe they are using an old tv with a jellyfin app so it doesn’t support 4k video files / new codecs.
I regularly watch on my server when I’m not home and a few friends of mine also have access to it, so I need the content to be available in SDR and lower bit rates. When I stream from home, I‘d like to have access to the full quality and HDR though, so either I need multiple versions of each film or hardware encoding/tonemapping and a used gtx 1050ti was a lot cheaper than the required storage would be to have 4 or 5 versions of every film.
But yes, if you’re only streaming within the same network, hardware transcoding isn’t necessary in the slightest. But then a SMB fileshare might also suffice…
Ah I completely forgot streaming away from home. My travels tend to have limited internet access, and so my practice is to download things we might watch through Findroid.
Given your friends have access to your library, what do you think would be required (ideally) for streaming to work without transcoding? As simple as a beefy internet connection, a 4k screen and them having a Shield or equivalent?
I only ask because I know a number of my circle use Shields already and I think the ones in my neighbourhood are all on gigabit connections. Might be worth looking into so long as I’m not in for upgrading the machine. I’m more of a set and forget person myself.
Well, my internet connection would have to be a lot faster, and they would all need devices that support UHD h.265 and HDR10 playback. But if you have have gigabit upload and they all have shields or similar with just as fast connections, you’re good to go without transcoding (if no one wants to access it through mobile)
We’ve got about 2.5 gigabit up and down in my neighbourhood so we’ll be good in that department. I’m going to see if any of my group are interested. I suppose the limit here will then be how many streams my machine can handle at one time. Guess I’ll find out. I appreciate your insight.
Cheers.
when did you last try it and what clients? I’ve got friends/family accessing my library and I see them playing back stuff constantly and never seen or heard of any issues. This is across web, AndroidTV, Chromecast, Roku and mobile devices.