For over a decade, Plex was the undisputed choice for anyone looking to self-host a media server. Unlike its alternatives, Plex was polished, feature-rich, and years ahead of the competition.

Whether or not your smart TV is spying on you, LG wants to make sure the apps aren't part of the problem. The tech giant is banning webOS apps that use residential proxies to rent out your TV's internet connection to third parties.

I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime, but I still spend most of my time watching free streaming services. We keep Netflix largely because my wife despises commercials, while I use the other benefits of Amazon Prime throughout the year and treat Prime Video as a bonus. The bottom line, however, is that when I’m choosing something for myself, I usually end up opening Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, or Tubi.

After using Jellyfin for a while, I've finally got it running how I want. But the process wasn't without a few issues, and the software comes with a steeper learning curve than Plex. Here are some of the things I wish I knew before I started using Jellyfin.

Paying a monthly fee to stream movies and shows you already own that sit on drives in your house sounds silly when you think about it. Plex built its reputation on solving the home media problem, but it quietly put the best features behind a subscription. Jellyfin does everything Plex does, like remote streaming, mobile apps, offline downloads, metadata, and collections, and it doesn't charge you for any of it.