The home media server space has witnessed a significant surge in recent years, with numerous options vying for dominance. Two prominent players in this arena are Jellyfin and Emby. While both platforms offer unique features and functionalities, they also share striking similarities, causing some to wonder if Jellyfin is essentially an Emby clone. In this article, we’ll delve into the capabilities and philosophies of these two media servers, exploring their history, core features, and technical underpinnings to answer the question: is Jellyfin an Emby?
History Of Emby And Jellyfin
Emby, formerly known as Media Browser, was first released in 2007. It has since become one of the most popular home media server options, with a user-friendly interface and robust media management capabilities. Emby’s open-source roots and strong developer community have helped shape the platform into a versatile tool for media enthusiasts.
Jellyfin, on the other hand, emerged as a fork of Emby in 2018. A group of Emby developers became dissatisfied with the commercialization of the Emby project, which led them to create an independent, open-source alternative called Jellyfin. This new project aimed to preserve the core values of Emby while avoiding the introduction of proprietary code and closed-source components.
Jellyfin: A Fork Of Emby
The development of Jellyfin was motivated by the desire to maintain the spirit of open-source software and separation from commercial interests. Jellyfin inherited much of Emby’s codebase, which enabled it to start as a robust platform with a solid foundation. Since its inception, Jellyfin has continued to receive contributions from its open-source community, evolving and refining its features.
How Does Emby Compare?
Emby, the original media server, has continued to evolve alongside Jellyfin. It offers many of the same features, but with some differences in implementation and focus. Emby places more emphasis on user experience, boasting an elegant interface and solid support for smart home devices and mobile apps. However, some users have criticized Emby’s increasing commercialization, citing concerns about data collection and proprietary code usage.
Technical Comparison: Emby Vs Jellyfin
While Emby and Jellyfin share many similarities in terms of features and functionality, there are some key differences beneath the surface.
DLNA/UPnP Support
Both Emby and Jellyfin offer robust support for DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) protocols, making it easy to stream media content across various devices on the network. However, Jellyfin has an edge in this regard, thanks to its commitment to open-source and adherence to standard specifications.
| Media Server | DLNA Support | UPnP Support |
|---|---|---|
| Emby | Yes | Yes |
| Jellyfin | Yes (Enhanced) | Yes (Enhanced) |
Transcoding And Playback Support
When it comes to media playback, both Emby and Jellyfin offer robust support for a wide range of codecs and file formats. However, Jellyfin, being an open-source platform, is often quicker to adapt to emerging formats and support experimental features.
- Both Emby and Jellyfin support hardware-accelerated transcoding for efficient video playback on a wide range of devices.
- Jellyfin edge-supports transcode queueing, eliminating performance dips during concurrent playback sessions.
Philosophical Differences: Emby Vs Jellyfin
At its core, the main distinction between Emby and Jellyfin is their philosophical approach to development.
Emby’s Business Model
Emby, being a commercial entity, derives revenue by offering advanced features and premium support for businesses and power users. While Emby offers a ‘free tier,’ some advanced features require a subscription. This business model is geared toward delivering a premium experience and generating revenue.
Jellyfin’s Open-Source Philosophy
Jellyfin, with its commitment to open-source, is funded solely by community donations. This eliminates concerns about revenue-driven decision-making and enables a focus on user freedom and customization. By being independent, Jellyfin allows users to modify and customize the software to fit their unique needs.
Freedom to Customize
Jellyfin stands out from Emby in providing users with complete freedom to customize the media server experience.
Emby allows for some level of customization through add-ons and API use, but this requires a level of programming expertise.
Jellyfin, on the other hand, allows users to access and modify the underlying source code directly. This power is offered through Jellyfin’s approach of a fully open-source community-driven model.
Conclusion
As both Emby and Jellyfin offer powerful home media server capabilities, they are certainly being compared ever more frequently. It seems fair to say that Jellyfin is indeed built upon the core foundation laid out by Emby. Both media servers cater to distinct audiences and applications. In the end, whether Jellyfin is considered to be an ‘Emby clone’ depends on your perspective on customizability, openness, and philosophies regarding open-source software.
What Is Jellyfin And How Is It Related To Kodi
Jellyfin is a free and open-source media player and media management application that bears a strong resemblance to Kodi. Jellyfin was actually a fork of Emby, which in turn was also inspired by Kodi, another open-source media player. The reason they are similar is because of Emby’s origin from MediaBrowser, an open-source project. However, Jellyfin is not just a clone of Kodi, but an alternative that seeks to improve upon the existing features.
Jellyfin continues to maintain the Kodi-like interface and also allows-addon support, albeit limited. One key difference between Jellyfin and Kodi however is the license. While Kodi’s license, GPL, requires that derivative works also be under GPL, Jellyfin, licensed under Apache License 2.0, needs no such requirement on derived projects. With free software rights like these, it makes it a better choice for a select group of individuals and developers that want all that Kodi has to offer without the GPL constraints.
What Was Emby And How Did Jellyfin Emerge
Emby was initially an open-source project, known as MediaBrowser, first released in 2007. However, over time Emby was eventually closed sourced by its developer, and a group of users decided to create an open-source fork. They then proceeded to develop this fork into what would become Jellyfin. This allowed them to steer the media player in a direction the original developer may not have considered and allowed for the reintegration of several features removed from Emby.
Through Jellyfin, the developers aimed to revive the original spirit of the first versions of Emby while abandoning certain concepts. Over time, since forking, Jellyfin has received updates fixing major issues and filling gaps within its codebase, thus improving functionality and accessibility. And through constant user feedback, Jellyfin manages to live up to expectations to fill gaps between Kodi and Plex’s offerings on the market.
Is Jellyfin An Emby
Despite the similarities, Jellyfin cannot be considered an Emby due to developers choosing to create a new, fully licensed fork under Apache 2.0. Jellyfin branched off from the open-source Emby roots in its early days before the proprietary licensing kicked in, due to these reasons Jellyfin still lives on with a legacy that also bears an uncanny resemblance to Kodi.
Jellyfin also enjoys freedom in terms of software modification. This again means since Jellyfin branched off, support has exponentially grown with an original build through some original software like Kodi. It’s clearly a software clone yet definitely enjoys greater degree freedom in comparison to Kodi from its developers.
Why Should One Choose Jellyfin
If users are intrigued by the idea of running Kodi but prefer the ease of navigation provided in Emby, Jellyfin might be a more desirable alternative to explore. By joining an ecosystem built heavily around user demand and backed by a supportive community, any potential issues can be addressed promptly by the open-source community, reducing any impending frustration from using Kodi.
Jellyfin can also gain an edge over Kodi. As several concerns in being overwhelmed with the massive Kodi feature support while still finding it great. When people shift from one version to the next significant, several plugins fail to load which are simply abandoned, even with strong backing from the Kodi user community and development group. This leaves users on older Kodi software or having compatibility issues.
Features Unique To Jellyfin
While Jellyfin is undoubtedly very similar to Kodi in several aspects, there are various significant features that set it apart and establish its unique identity. Jellyfin supports most major devices and formats including live TV, and transcodes your media when needed to give it functionality on low-end devices that may have compatibility issues in other media software.
Jellyfin also seeks innovation from customer feedback that showcases what most customers may be looking for when trying media streaming services. It boasts better support for some existing Kodi add-ons and improved plugin support. The constant quest to keep pace with a more Kodi user-friendly approach sets Jellyfin apart and creates an inviting space for users considering migrating from Kodi.
Can Jellyfin Replace Kodi Or Plex
Even though Jellyfin is gaining popularity thanks to its simple interface, ease of use and open-source nature, Jellyfin still lacks in certain add-ons or pre-installed configurations for user-based plugins. Nonetheless, as a clean alternative it certainly opens up many doors for its users with ample freedom and flexibility for third-party add-on customization, an assortment of valuable content to stream, manage and enjoy movies and TV series from afar, together with family.
Considering this it offers an option for those who might prefer Jellyfin’s overall aesthetic, or would further build upon existing capabilities to make personal user improvements without worrying about any prior conflict with their operating system with custom development and/or user rights. This way Jellyfin still garners an ample amount of admiration in regard to Kodi’s and Plex.
Will Jellyfin Hold Up To High End Systems
While media streaming continues to grow across a wide array of devices, there is always concern about specific software compatibility and performance, thus Jellyfin is run on a modern robust media platform, and allows performance configurations for enhanced navigation, better metadata processing and transcoding also, gives more compatibility.
Also, developers can make full use of modern languages as Jellyfin makes its constant development be highly adaptable and intuitive for end users. Now, with Jellyfin software running across Android, Windows, and even iOS users would be happy to notice seamless playback with a whole web of customization and limitless possibilities as they browse through large media collections with their systems.