this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is a huge problem. The blueray remux might be 80 gigs. Most children’s devices will already be filled with other crap.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Your kids will be ok without the 4K60 version of Paw Patrol.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Correct, they could do without, which is why I rely on Plex's transcoded downloads to cram a cross-country flight's worth of stuff onto their iPads.

Good suggestion though.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Or you just get a smaller version to begin with and save your hard drive space and your compute time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

You've kind of keyed in on one of the things I was hesitant to say:

There are two big uses for an "offline" media library.

Some people just use it for all the stuff they grabbed off the pirate bay (probably avoid TPB in 2025 but...). You don't really care about quality and just want to consume media.

Others, like myself, primarily use it to rip/back up their blu rays and UHDs and the like. If I am watching on my TV in the living room? I want that to be the highest quality I have available and I want to revel in every shadow gradient and so forth. If I am watching it on my computer? I don't need anywhere near that much detail. And on a tablet? Compress that shit like an exec at netflix just saw the storage arrays.

That is the benefit of transcoding and offline caching. It means you, as a "server", just focus on backing up your library/finding the best quality rips or whatever. And you, as a "user", don't have to worry about figuring out how many different versions to keep so that you always have an appropriate version for whatever your use case is that week.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I run ffmpeg on my phone. Alternately, I could shrink the file on my server and then download it without much trouble. You’re in a vanishingly small subset of users who know enough to care about file-size and know what can be done about it, but can’t be bothered to do it themselves.

I was avoiding suggesting getting more storage, but it sounds like in your case, keeping a 720p x265 version of each file(~1gb per movie) on-hand would cost you nothing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Alternately I could keep using plex.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, I bought the Lifetime Plexpass when it was on sale years back, so I have little reason to change my own setup, but I still have even less reason to stan them at Jellyfin's expense.

Seriously, one is a paid service executing rug-pulls, and the other is a free and open-source project. This level of nit-picking at Jellyfin is a shit stance to take.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 18 hours ago

I'm not so much nitpicking Jellyfin as I am highlighting how crucial transcoded downloads are for my use case, and attempting to get you to have empathy for that use case.

Like, based on the headline I was ready to try out Jellyfin because fuck Plex, but alas, I can't bail just yet.

Maybe being silent on the matter is best, people asking for features is a dumb way to improve software.