For those looking for alternatives, I would only suggest Plex if you’re OK with hitching your wagon to a different company with interests possibly competing with your own. Its great software and easy to set up but they can remove features you like and use at any time. It may be a risk worth taking for you but go into it with eyes open. I dropped them when they removed photo sync and started getting more aggressive about their content offerings.
Jellyfin is my current home and I like it a lot but I recognize that not everyone wants to deal with the setup and troubleshooting.
For some middle ground, there’s also Emby which is a commercial version of Jellyfin.
I like Jellyfin but I do not like the way it shitted up my media directories. I have them meticulously sorted. I don’t want images and database shit in them. I much prefer how Plex keeps its database and metadata separated and in its own directory. I would otherwise love to switch.
You should use jellyfin in docker and mount your media files without write permissions. It’s exactly what I do partially for this but more to ease maintenance and reproducing my server.
For those looking for alternatives, I would only suggest Plex if you’re OK with hitching your wagon to a different company with interests possibly competing with your own. Its great software and easy to set up but they can remove features you like and use at any time. It may be a risk worth taking for you but go into it with eyes open. I dropped them when they removed photo sync and started getting more aggressive about their content offerings.
Jellyfin is my current home and I like it a lot but I recognize that not everyone wants to deal with the setup and troubleshooting.
For some middle ground, there’s also Emby which is a commercial version of Jellyfin.
I like Jellyfin but I do not like the way it shitted up my media directories. I have them meticulously sorted. I don’t want images and database shit in them. I much prefer how Plex keeps its database and metadata separated and in its own directory. I would otherwise love to switch.
You should use jellyfin in docker and mount your media files without write permissions. It’s exactly what I do partially for this but more to ease maintenance and reproducing my server.