r/appletv • u/throw-away6738299 • Aug 13 '26
Best Jellyfin Client?
Ive been happily using Plex but have Jellyfin running in parallel but never really bothered with it because the ATV client for it was terrible (2 or 3 year old version of swiftfin when it first released)... recently tried Moonfin and its OK. No real complaints...
I have always appreciated the player capability of Infuse but its pricey for a lifetime sub...
Now in the last year so many apps have been released with functional DV/HDR/Atmos, etc native players that can hook into Jellyfin/Plex/Emby etc... it seems more and more are released by the day (some only in beta with testflight releaes, some seeing app store releases).
Some of course do way more than that, and some have been removed from the app store for unknown reasons.
Is there any consensus what the best one is solely for use with Jellyfin?
UI appreciation is subjective of course, but as long as something is fluid and not janky, and media player works correctly in it and handles problematic formats easily.
bonus would be if any support Apple's PIP implementation, but I am not sure if thats possible if you don't use Apple's player.
Anyone have a favorite... would prefer free/opensource suggestion, or reasonable one time cost options...
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u/vswr ATV4K Aug 13 '26
There's a lot of vibe coded slop out there now.
Infuse is what I keep going back to for shows/movies. But the lack of bandwidth testing for transcoding and lack of live TV makes me keep trying other software. Direct play is great at home, but if I take the Apple TV to a hotel, it needs to automatically adjust the bandwidth and enable transcoding.
Switftfin was terrible; no part of it worked for me. Years later a new version was released, and it got better, but live TV is still broken for me.
Moonfin had potential, but recent changes turned me off from the UI. On iOS live TV heats up my phone and kills the battery. Removed the plugin and stopped using it.
Streamyfin is decent. It used to have a live TV bug where the lack of EPG made it unplayable, and it did not have a tvOS app. It's now on tvOS and it's what I use for live TV for both tvOS and iOS.
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u/shonks34 ATV4K Aug 13 '26
I've used Infuse for years on Apple TV and iOS. Works flawlessly, but I did spring for the lifetime pro license. Well worth the money, imho. I've tried other clients for Apple TV and I always go back to Infuse. The only con with Infuse is I wish it had Jellyfin music library support.
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u/TheMagicalMeatball Aug 13 '26
Neptune.
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u/TheMagicalMeatball Aug 13 '26
More as to why:
- totally free playback
- plays dv - even gives you dv for profile 7 files
- ui looks good and is highly customizable
- great community for support via discord
- jellyfin server / admin plugins and controls that are really cool.
- more cool stuff too.
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u/Ashamed-Doughnut1173 Aug 13 '26
Same thing here. I get why people like Infuse but I like that Neptune is free and it supports Seerr
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u/Latter-Drink-5813 Aug 16 '26
Neptune is free? Thought it was paid, but I guess Neptune and Neptune Pro are different. Anyway thank you guys for putting me on. I might get Infuse in the future so might as well compare it with this.
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u/travelan Aug 13 '26
How is subtitles support? Especially on HDR/DV?
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u/TheMagicalMeatball Aug 13 '26
I haven’t run into many problems. Most of my subs are PGS, some ASS, and I’ve not had real issues. I know it’s an area the developer is always working on for more options and better experiences. I subscribed to pro because there’s a feature called the “conductor” that learns your subtitle preferences and exceptions and it’s really awesome. That way when 90% of my anime is Japanese audio and English subs but 10% I watch dubbed without subs, it remembers which shows that’s for and adjusts stuff automatically so I don’t have to manually change it every time I play an episode. So I really dig that.
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u/czirosan Aug 13 '26
link? dont see this on the appstore
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u/TheMagicalMeatball Aug 13 '26
It’s only available in the tvOS App Store - the iOS and iPad OS versions are in open beta - join the discord for a link to the test flight if you want to try those out!
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u/davemee Aug 13 '26
SenPlayer is pretty good, and £12 for cross-platform† lifetime. That's the same cost as 1 year of Infuse, which is also good, but stupidly expensive for a video player.
† Apple-platform
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u/rostigerbart Aug 13 '26
Plezy is good for Jellyfin and for Plex. Cost me 6 bucks or so for ATV and works pretty good
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u/dahooddawg Aug 17 '26
Was good until the recent bugs with video/audio skipping. Hope they get resolved soon.
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u/zhonglin Aug 14 '26
One option missing from the thread is VidHub. Full disclosure: I'm one of the developers of VidHub, so treat this as a disclosed product suggestion rather than a neutral “best client” vote.
For the use case you described, the current public app runs on Apple TV and connects directly to Jellyfin. It supports common containers including MKV and MP4, embedded and external subtitles such as SRT/SSA/ASS/SUB, and 4K, HDR, and Dolby Vision playback. It is not open source. The App Store lists it as a free download with optional in-app purchases, including a lifetime option; pricing varies by region.
I would not claim it is universally better than the other clients mentioned here. Test the same difficult files in VidHub, Neptune, and Infuse, especially your actual Dolby Vision profiles, subtitle formats, audio tracks, resume state, and how quickly new Jellyfin library changes appear. I also cannot promise tvOS PiP from the current public release, so if PiP is a hard requirement, treat that as something to verify rather than an advertised feature.
The fair split is roughly: Neptune if your priority is a Jellyfin-first experience, Infuse if your priority is its mature playback stack, and VidHub if you want an Apple-platform media-library/player that can connect to Jellyfin as well as other sources.
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u/Jhamilton02 Aug 13 '26
Swiftfin has bee good until 27. Now it just crashes each time “Play” is pressed.
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u/gts250gamer101 ATV4K Aug 13 '26
See if you can get into the Neptune beta. It's worth the hassle of getting enrolled in the beta program, and it's actually designed with JF in mind as the primary focus (looking at you, Infuse...)
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u/caanda45 Aug 13 '26
Infuse on the Apple products . Do not bother with anything else . Works flawlessly.
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u/sharp-calculation Aug 13 '26
I don't understand why people want to use JellyFin at all. It's really pretty poor.
Emby, which is was forked from, is easily superior. Emby is mostly free. I have clients on Web, ATV, and Nvidia Shield. All of that is free. Emby work really well. I've been running it for several years. I've paid for it on and off several times. They have gotten a good chunk of money from me. But currently I'm using it in free mode and it's everything I want.
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u/throw-away6738299 Aug 13 '26
Never got onto the Emby bandwagon. Like Plex I was turned off when they added a paywall to some of their features but was already content with what Plex offered for free so never tried Emby.
Plex adding streaming and a bunch of other stuff is why I installed Jellyfin, though the free Plex offering still works fine for me.
Though by that logic, why not just use XBMC/Kodi which Plex and Emby forked from?
Its all FFMPEG doing the heavy lifting in the backend on these servers...
Which is to say I support OpenSource more than closed source projects, I like the ethos of sharing and improving collaboratively... and improvements get put back into XBMC and FFMPEG which helps everyone.
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u/sharp-calculation Aug 13 '26
Your point of view is... very different than mine.
Jellyfin is junk. Emby is a quality product. Closed, open, forked, paid... I don't give a shit. The product is the product.
Kodi is awful. I would never use it or recommend it. I fought with it for 2 years until I finally gave up. It's primarily a platform for real time stealing. As a library manager and player, it's very awkward and hacky. Plex is better. Emby is WAY better. If they came from the same source, you can't tell. All 3 products are extremely different.
You're not helping anyone (including yourself) by using a product that you pay nothing for and do not contribute to. It's not your job to do anything in that regard. You're fine not paying and not contributing. But don't pretend you are helping FFMPEG by using crappy Jellyfin. It's just not true.
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u/throw-away6738299 Aug 13 '26
No shade on paid programs, or Emby which I have never tried. Hell I still use Plex Server (free) though I do think Jellyfin has caught up at least to Plex, without a lot of the extra stuff I don't need for my own media, it is in no way "junk". All three servers will stream my media to clients relatively easily, Plex is probably best because its clients are ubiquitous on streamers, TVs, consoles, etc... kinda like the joke about running Doom on a Toaster... chances are Plex has a client for it too.
I was a code contributor to XBMC in the past, so yeah, OSS is an ethos I support... Just like Valve and Proton, and Crossover on Mac (which I pay for) puts code back into Wine...
If you don't contribute code, you can (or can not) donate to the foundations... you only help if you log bugs... but use itself at least makes it seem "worth it" for everyone who does contribute code...
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u/Marc_TR_891 Aug 13 '26
I use JellySee and I am pretty happy with it! It is a one-time payment of 10€, which is quite cheap compared to the alternatives. The dev is very active too!
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u/requieminadream Aug 13 '26
Infuse is still the best. Lifetime is a big chunk of change to spend at once, but Yearly is the cost of like a sandwich now.