Solved Any free alternative to Plex?

Hello!

Since April 2025 Plex charges to stream my personal videos online. I installed Plex Server in the first place so I can watch my videos from another computer via internet. I don't need it for sharing in my local network! Is there a free alternative to do that?

JellyFin is supposedly a good alternative and free.

I will try it. Thanks.

spapakons said:

Hello!

Since April 2025 Plex charges to stream my personal videos online. I installed Plex Server in the first place so I can watch my videos from another computer via internet. I don't need it for sharing in my local network! Is there a free alternative to do that?

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Why not use KODI (FREE - no abominable subscription etc) -- brilliant -- can load it on to remote devices like amazon firesticks connected to remote TV's etc -- needs a bit of setting upas it's not intuitive though so perservere with it -- also VLC can act as a media server too.Why people even bother with things like PLEX these days --no idea - but those are sort of C20 applications trying to exist in a C21 world.

KODI also has a nice (Free) addon feature to dynamically download subtitles from opensubtitles.com (1 time reg required but free).

I've used it with 4 firesticks around the house for 4 remote TV's and it's never been a problem -- set up and select SMB (Windows computers) if your HOST (Source computer where the multi media files are stored) is a Windows machine or choose the next lower option if using a Linux type NAS in the "Add VIDEO section. You can also add things like IPTV for "Dynamic video / live broadcasting streams etc. You shouldn't need any "Server" type app on your source computer to xmit live video streams to remote TV's etc these days.

It is a bit complex to set up but worth the effort -- select "Expert" to get all the options on your remote firestick etc.. It BTW also plays ripped video DVD iso's too with all original menu's etc -- but you need to ensure any commercial DVD is ripped removing any encryption. Set also "Minimum security = SMB1 -- even if you don't use SMB1 and ensure the workgroup name is the same as that of your source computer supplying the video content. Sound works too -- almost any codec.

BTW it also works through VPN's -- provided you have one with "Tunnelling feature" so you can for example exempt local LAN browsing from VPN control !!!.

Cheers
jimbo

Ever since I upgraded my router setup, for anything that relates to WAN access I only use FTP with TLS, which is easy enough to set up with just about every half decent router from Asus. SMB still isn't ideal for anything besides sharing over a LAN or WLAN so, there's no point trying to set it up for WAN access. The playback quality of typical DLNA playback devices (also including that of the built-in DLNA streaming capabilities that you can find in all the latest and greatest Smart TVs) doesn't hold a candle to using a PC. For me, it's foobar2000 for music, MPC-HC with madVR for video. Either that or go home—and stay there. lol

P.S., and if you also must have a good frontend for your movie collection, here you go: EMDB - Eric's Movie Database

KODI is very good.

I had tried KODI in the past, a few years ago, but it needs a lot of plugins to do your job and I am not familiar which ones I should add and how to configure them.

I downloaded Jellyfin which instantly found my videos and were available to the local network within seconds. I even found and installed the Jellyfin app for my LG smart TV. I was afraid it might be available for newer models only (WebOS 3.0), but thank God, it also works in the older models (WebOS 2.0). Accessing my videos from the internet wasn't as straightforward as using Plex. I had to manually add a port forwarding to my router and use my public IP address. However, I subscribed to the free Dynamic DNS service dynu.com and I can now access my videos using an easy to remember domain, rather than my actual public IP address.


I will test it for a few days and then I will uninstall Plex Server.

Thanks for your help!

hdmi said:

Ever since I upgraded my router setup, for anything that relates to WAN access I only use FTP with TLS, which is easy enough to set up with just about every half decent router from Asus. SMB still isn't ideal for anything besides sharing over a LAN or WLAN so, there's no point trying to set it up for WAN access. The playback quality of typical DLNA playback devices (also including that of the built-in DLNA streaming capabilities that you can find in all the latest and greatest Smart TVs) doesn't hold a candle to using a PC. For me, it's foobar2000 for music, MPC-HC with madVR for video. Either that or go home—and stay there. lol

P.S., and if you also must have a good frontend for your movie collection, here you go: EMDB - Eric's Movie Database

Click to expand...

Just to say here that DLNA provides the videos to the client as is, that means without any conversion. My old LG smart TV can play AVS videos, but cannot play HEVC videos which is the format I use mostly lately because you get more quality for less bitrate. Trying to play a HEVC video from network (DLNA) or USB flash drive results in a black screen with audio. However, playing the same video from Plex or Jellyfin is possible since it is transcoded from the server to AVS that my TV can understand. Plex could also resize HD videos for playback remotely to conserve bandwidth. Can Jellyfin do the same? I didn't spot anything similar in settings.

PS: I agree, no matter how good app you have in your smartphone or smart TV, is doesn't compare using a PC connected via HDMI to the TV. Better image quality, support for every video and audio format even many obscure formats (see TSV - Transport Stream Video of my DTV receiver box) plus playback of legacy media such as VCD, DVD, AVCHD, Blu Ray (assuming you have a DVD-RW or BD-R, drive). Another plus is you can play games or even work when needed.

I have a weird issue. Since Jellyfin requires either the local (at home) or my public (elsewhere) IP address to find my media server, I configured Dynu DNS in order to type a user-friendly URL, not my actual public IP address. I also installed their IP updater utility, so I shouldn't have an issue when my public IP address changes for any reason such as a router reset. I tried to connect remotely from my smartphone and other computers using the URL I assigned and the default port 8096, such as

http://my.custom.url:8096

(yes, it is http for port 8096, I also tried https for port 8020, didn't make any difference)

While it worked fine when I first created my custom URL, it doesn't work now for some reason. I assumed that Dynu didn't update my public IP. However, the IP is updated, that's not it. When I type my actual public IP, such as

aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd:8096

I can access my videos remotely, as normal. My router already is configured with the appropriate port forwarding to my PC, or I couldn't access my videos at all, so there is nothing more to do there. In Firewall for Windows, I have already allowed access to port 8096 and to Jellyfin application and to the Dynu IP update utility. Am I missing something? Why the actual public address works but the custom URL doesn't? The utility updates my IP regularly, it should work.

Thanks!


PS: If that makes any difference, I tried connecting from my mobile Gen 4 network (mobile data), but why should that matter?
EDIT: Yes it does matter!

SOLUTION: I had configured my custom URL to use both IPv4 and IPv6 and as I read elsewhere, the Android version of Jellyfin Media Player is confused by the IPv6 address option. I disabled IPv6 and left only IPv4 for my custom URL, voila! It worked! It's amazing how a little detail can screw things! I just post the solution here for reference and to help others with the same issue.

I used to use Plex but switched to Emby instead (I found it a lot easier to use).

Thanks to @neemobeer I now use Jellyfin and I am satisfied. It is a little tricky for the average user to configure it for remote access as it involves advanced router settings (port forwarding) and using your public IP address or DDNS, but once done is very easy to use. I also noticed it updates the library frequently. In Plex I had to manually update the library in order for new videos to become available. In Jellyfin they are available in a couple of hours at the most without having to manually update the library.

One thing I haven't found yet is to play all the results of a search automatically. In Google it says that there is a "play all" or similar button, but I haven't seen any in either my Android phone or my LG smart TV. In fact I haven't seen it even on my browser in the PC. How this is done? It's not convenient having to manually select the next video and click to play every time.

Today Jellyfin in my smartphone started acting weird, such as playing up to a certain time and then go back to the start of the video. I removed, installed again and fixed.

@spapakons: You don't necessarily need to uninstall and reinstall an Android app. You can usually just clear the app's cached data, but if that fails, reset its data instead. This will basically "uninstall" it without needing to redownload and install again. When you run it next, it's like a new install.

I also had a bug in my LG smart TV, all thumbnails were blur for some reason. Solved it by selecting another server, then type the local IP of the Jellyfin server again.

ShowShark is a great Plex alternative.

I realize this is a Windows forum, but maybe you've got a Mac mini or something laying around doing nothing? Make it serve your media, with far less fuss and hassle than Plex or Jellyfin require.

I have my videos disk connected to my main PC running Windows 11, so I will keep using Jellyfin. For the blur bug, I have either to select another server temporarily or just logout and login my TV. My smartphone and other TVs I have tested don't have this bug. Only my old LG (2017 model). Also my father's newer Samsung doesn't have Jellyfin in the Samsung App Store, but thankfully I can connect via the browser. However it is a little harder to navigate through the videos.