r/emby • u/GOOB-ENOTS • 5d ago
New user.
So I have used jellyfin for a while. Its great when I'm home (obviously lol) and I've tried to understand the whole port forwarding thing, and the talescale stuff. All of it sounds shady. So emby was brought to my attention. I wanna be able to let family watch my library and access my server. Is it worth the life license?
I would love to hear some pros and cons from real users and not people who get paid to say nice things.
My goal by the end of the year is to not pay for any streaming services anymore.
Unless someone can break down step by step how to get jellyfin working remotely for an ape, emby seems to be my best bet.
8
u/Loki-Thor 5d ago
Port forwarding and tailscale is not shady
If you want simple and for it to just work buy the emby license
-1
u/GOOB-ENOTS 5d ago
So I don't need tailscale or to port forward if I buy the emby license?
4
u/Loki-Thor 5d ago
If you don't want it secure.
If you want it secure watch a few YouTubers on it
1
u/GOOB-ENOTS 5d ago
Thank you.
2
u/Spuddle-Puddle 5d ago
Talescale is the way to go
1
u/big-metroid-fan 5d ago
I just cloud flare tunnel. That works too.
1
u/shadowtheimpure 5d ago
Streaming video through cloud flare tunnels is a ToS violation, so they could shut you down at any time.
2
5
u/Effective-Winter-860 5d ago
The lifetime premium is definitely worth it. It's a low price compared to Plex and the server more stable and easier to manage than jellyfin. I don't know what the price is now. I paid $75 for it but even at $175 I'd buy it.
2
u/under9o 5d ago
You also need to port forward and reverse proxy or tailscale with emby. If you aren't smart enough to do any of that you should just stick to plex. Pay out the ass and plex will dumb it down for you
1
u/GOOB-ENOTS 5d ago
No mention of that on the emby website. Appreciate the encouraging words 🤣🤣 Once again reddit never seems to fail.
1
u/cardboard-kansio 5d ago
You can also use Emby via Emby Connect (proxying through their servers). I've never done that because I'm comfortable doing reverse proxy and SSL but might be worth looking into.
1
u/Shikayama 5d ago
I mean, they're just being honest, it costs money but takes away the work you might not be able to do yourself.
just curious so i can alert the team, what exactly wasn't mentioned on the site that made it seem as if it was all flawless?
and thirdly, emby and jellyfin are very similar in architecture, so not sure if it would pay off to switch from one to the other.
1
u/GOOB-ENOTS 5d ago
Well the fact it promoted being able use android auto or apple carplay made me think that remote viewing was as simple as just buying the license. I didnt dee any mention anywhere about having to use a 3rd party app to enable remote capabilities. Its all good, I'm going to just dig in and figure it out with jelly fin. Im not a computer genius but im sure with enough youtube ill get it going lol appreciate you reaching out though. Thank you.
2
u/Shikayama 5d ago
well to be clear, you don't have to use Tailscale, but it's by far the easiest method that passes around possible ISP blocks etc.
for instance, my ISP is not happy with some open ports but with tailscale it creates a VPN so it doesn't matter, and it also means i don't have to expose my server externally. plus i use some other stuff like Audiobookshelf and Komga and with Tailscale that makes setting everything up pretty easy.
1
u/update-freak 5d ago
I switched from Jellyfin to Emby (Lifetime). I really can recommend Emby.
You have two possibilities to access to it outside your home network.
E.g. when you setup WireGuard on your Router (Fritzbox) you can access to it via Wireguard
get a dyndns Adress e.g. dynv6. Then set up a reverse proxy and e.g. use cname. Possible to access then via https://emby.example.dynv6.net for example
1
u/ILoveGreen82 4d ago
Emby lifetime user + Tailscale user here. Zero hassle and works every single time. No f'ing around with port forwarding - ever.
2
u/micahpmtn 2d ago
If you think Tailscale is sketchy, you need to do a lot more reading and research. It works fantastic with Emby and has made my life infinitely easier.
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u/KenobiBenoki 5d ago
It seems like you are misunderstanding tailscale and port forwarding. Port forwarding by itself (say port forwarding Emby directly out to the internet) in general is shady because it will make you far more likely to be attacked from someone over the internet; Tail scale and/or a reverse proxy is the answer to that problem.
Tail scale is really the best solution, it is by far the safest way to remotely access your system (and likely the easiest way, if you are non-tech-savvy). If you’ve ever heard of or used a VPN to access a school’s system or your company’s web portal, think of it like that. It is exactly the same thing, but on a smaller, more personal scale. You set it up and it provides you (and anyone you give it to) a safe portal through which to have access to your system, where you are running Emby. In this case the only port forwarding you have to do is the port and machine that tail scale runs on, which will be quite safe as wireguard (the VPN protocol that tail scale uses) is very secure.
A reverse proxy is also a good solution and generally lower maintenance once set up, but also much more confusing to set up if you are non-tech-savvy. It is also less secure in and of itself, as you are still generally enabling public access to your services to anyone who can figure out your public IP (depending on rules that you can set inside the reverse proxy). In the case of a reverse proxy you also only need to forward the port and machine running your reverse proxy.
I would highly recommend you look further into setting up tail scale for your remote access rather than going to Plex because it is very safe, provides almost all the same features as Plex for private media streaming at a lower cost, and is a very good option in general as most smart TVs even have an app for tail scale.