I tried testing a movie from my home server in plex through firefox and repeatedly got this message, even after reloading.

I knew that they had paywalled the apps on mobile and streaming from outside the network but now they have also blocked watching your own movies through your own hardware.

I do get the point that making software should be able to sustain people but I dont see the move of plex as a fair thing to do. Yes, they have made great software but taking your home server hostage feels like the wrong move.

Even a pop up that says “we need you to donate please” would have been fine. make it pop up before every movie, play donation ads before any movie but straight up disabling the app is kinda cruel.

Anyway, i have switched to jellyfin and it is insanely good. please give it a try. you can run it alongside plex with not issues (at least i had none) and compare the two.

In any case, good luck. Let me know if you need help.

  • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    162·
    20 hours ago

    Plex really needs to do a Tailscale style connection to your server. But instead they chose to keep their outdated method of funneling all of their traffic through their servers, and need to charge lots of money in order to pay for it.

    • rezz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      201·
      20 hours ago

      Considering both Plex and Tailscale are going toward VC exits, Headscale and Jellyfin is the only FOSS way atm.

      • Kogasa@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        16 hours ago

        I just use nginx on a tiny Hetzner vps acting as a reverse proxy for my home server. I dunno what the point of Tailscale is here, maybe better latency and fewer network hops in some cases if a p2p connection is possible? But I’ve never had any bandwidth or latency issues doing this

        • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          14 hours ago

          If you are using wireguard from the VPS to your home server, it buys you nothing more. If you have mobile devices connecting directly to the home server, Tailscale will let them connect directly in most cases, which is nice.

          • Kogasa@programming.devEnglish
            2·
            13 hours ago

            The direct connection is cool, I just wonder if a P2P connection is actually any better than going through a data center. There’s gonna be intermediate servers right?

            Do you need to have Tailscale set up on any network you want to use this on? Because I’m a fan of being able to just throw my domain or IP into any TV and log in

            • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
              1·
              34 minutes ago

              I have Tailscale (actually headscale) set up on all my devices and the performance is good enough I don’t turn it off when I’m home and on the same lan as my server. The connection is p2p so it’s just a little encryption overhead. When I travel to other networks like my mobile network, or various corp wifi networks, it continues to try to get a p2p connection. Only sometimes corporate wifi networks block p2p and the traffic round trips through my VPS. It does take a lot of load off the VPS compared to the old way with openVPN. It also continues to work “for a while” if the VPS is down.