I’ve been on Jellyfin for years, and I was using Emby before they forked it to create Jellyfin. Prior to Emby I was on Plex.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing but I’ve been using it in a docker container for about a year now and it’s been great. The family love it, which is the main thing.

I love jellyfin! I've been using it for a few years and it has definitely gotten better. Every once in a while, it will incorrectly detect a show and I'll have to manually add it. Usually on obscure or older shows and movies.

Also the Android TV app is AWESOME!

I dunno....

There's a transcoding bug in the Android TV version of the Jellyfin client where transcoding a video with 7.1 audio breaks playback. Even with a Pull Request out there that fixes it (by matching the behavior of other Jellyfin clients), the issue got closed as "not planned". The continued suggestion continues to be "just force everything to play in stereo".

I don't have unlimited bandwidth, so plenty of my stuff gets transcoded in Plex. I can't, in good, conscience, switch my friends & family (most of who use Android TV) over to Jellyfin.

Maybe I need it give it another chance, but 3 months ago it was still hot garbage compared to plex

Jellyfin is great but, to be fair, anything is better than Plex.

I don't have that restriction on Plex? I have 30+ remote users and 4 in home users not counting myself and there is no restrictions what so ever. All can strea 4k without issue. Could you explain more?

Also the Android TV app is AWESOME!

What do you run Android TV on? Raspberry Pi? My cheapo solution has been to use an old Android phone that supports DP alt mode (USB-C to HDMI adapter) combined with a USB hub + generic air mouse/remote + customized launcher.

It actually works surprisingly well. I installed FCast on it, so it even works like a Chromecast. If I'm watching a video on my phone using Grayjay, I can just cast it to the phone and it will start playing automatically. The only thing stopping it from being perfect is that it can't turn the TV on automatically. As a plus, since the phone has a battery, it's always powered on so I don't have to wait for stuff to boot, and it uses relatively little power.

... but overall it's janky and finicky, and the OEM bloatware is probably spying on me, so I've been looking for alternatives that can match the good parts of this setup.

I don't like Raspberry Pis for this because they're overpriced. I have a couple that I could use for this, but I'm hoping to find a cheaper solution, and one that I can recommend to friends/family when they ask. (the Android phone I'm using cost me a total of $15 on ebay)

Wait - what restrictions on Plex?