I loved Plex, I even paid for an annual subscription, and on occasion I considered a lifetime purchase.
I even ran it on a few machines, one for movies and TV, one for music only (I have a large and complex music collection) and one with a backup of the first that was also on 24/7. Both of the video servers also had hardware transcoding. The music collection didn't need hardware transcoding of course.
Eventually Plex went down the road of paywall, and for convenience and respect for an awesome product I didn't mind. But over the years things that were free were paywalled, more and more and more. Now even TV listings are paywalled. All but basic services were now impossible to access or change without a subscription.
Then things began to grate, they added new streaming services, now some might consider this a good thing, but personally I didn't. The idea of a personal media server offering a service I didn't want or need was too much. Turning it off was possible but not easy to do. More and more streaming providers were added, integration with Netflix and Prime were also happening though at a reduced quality and stereo only sound.
But the incident that broke me. My broadband went down while Virgin media did some work, and it was out for a few hours.
Even at home I couldn't access any of my Plex servers. Not one. They had to phone home to let me in, and because I had no access to the internet... they couldn't let me login.
That was it for me. Once I had access to the internet, I jumped on Reddit and asked what alternatives there were, and Jellyfin was recommended by several people.
https://forums.plex.tv/t/no-broadband-n ... lex/809654
It took a little getting used to, but once I things setup as I like it, I could easily replicate my config on the other machines. And yes if my internet goes out, I can still use Jellyfin. All I'll say is it's different, not any more complicated or any easier, just different. It still does EVERYTHING you need, no better and no worse. Best of all?
Jellyfin is FREE
https://jellyfin.org/
