Upgrade Time: New Media Player/Server? Emby/Plex/Jellyfin

[SpongeBob]

So I've been using plex for over a decade since someone on here recommended me to simplify things and just a use a Roku with Plex which was super awesome advice. The streaming device may have changed but the server and PLEX stayed.

However.... I'm going to be updating my server in the near future and I'm considering other options especially since I don't really want to pay for premium services of Emby or Plex just for hardware acceleration and all the other features I probably won't use.

Do you even really need hardware acceleration? If my underclocked i7-4770k quadcore can stream just fine why would an AMD 3800X octa core need hardware accelerating/transcoding? Granted my intel server doesn't have a video card where as my new server will have a 3800X. I can also throw an RTX 2060 into it as an option.

Wireless server > Firestick > A/V Receiver. From what I understand Jellyfin uses your network and not the internet to stream. I'm not sure if you need still need the Firestick connected to the internet to use an App to connect to Jellyfin though???

A lot of people mention Docker and Jellyfin. Is Jellyfin all that complicated to setup? Do I need to use Docker? I like that you can be stoned, drunk, and stupid and still set a Plex server up in 10 minutes in windows. If I don't bother figuring out how to use Docker or whatever is it simple?

So what media player do you use on you streaming devices when you use Jellyfin as a server? I swear 80% of Jellyfin reddit searches I do someone always says Jellyfin is just a media server it's not a player!

Can you use jellyfin as a server and Kodi as the media player? I don't know anything about Kodi other than it came from a Microsoft HTPC setup but people always seem to have good things to say about it?

Feel free to dump your knowledge on me, I appreciate it. I don't like to tinker with my servers once they are setup so planning to have this setup for quite some time.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

GPU acceleration for transcoding is generally lower power/effort than CPU. I think it may also be better at handling simultaneous transcodes.

Jellyfin streams media to clients in essentially the same way as Plex. It just doesn't require any kind of subscription. The Firestick or whatever just runs the app.

Jellyfin server can be installed directly on top of an OS, Docker isn't required. Their site should have installers for most platforms. Install/setup may be a touch more involved than Plex (e.g., no central server to aid client/server connections), but it's not hard.

There are official client apps for most OSes/platforms, same as Plex. I run the client off a Roku.

I don't know if there's a Jellyfin Kodi plugin.

 

[SpongeBob]

GPU acceleration for transcoding is generally lower power/effort than CPU. I think it may also be better at handling simultaneous transcodes.

Jellyfin streams media to clients in essentially the same way as Plex. It just doesn't require any kind of subscription. The Firestick or whatever just runs the app.

Jellyfin server can be installed directly on top of an OS, Docker isn't required. Their site should have installers for most platforms. Install/setup may be a touch more involved than Plex (e.g., no central server to aid client/server connections), but it's not hard.

There are official client apps for most OSes/platforms, same as Plex. I run the client off a Roku.

I don't know if there's a Jellyfin Kodi plugin.

Maybe those posts are all dated. Well if Jellyfin has it's own media player for Firestick. I'll have to take a look at it.