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  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    There are a LOT of pros and cons.

    Pros:

    • Developed by a professional, multi-disciplined full-time team with some security oversight.
    • Hosted caching of The Movie DB for faster lookups
    • Provision of SSL communication to and from your server without any special setup
    • FREE EPG data caching
    • Centralized server management from the web
    • Low-speed relay for those stuck behind CGNAT.
    • A REALLY solid mobile media player (sorry, but plexamp beats the pants off the JF alternatives)
    • Centralized Login for your friends and family with email-based password reset
    • 2FA already set up
    • A nice reflector gauge to see if your* ports are open and what your limits are
    • Great client support on a LOT of devices
    • Search is fast out of the box, even with extensive collections
    • Their clients tend to do a better job supporting all the decoding features on every player

    Cons:

    • Not free
    • Not Open
    • They have a lot of your historical data and will eventually sell it when they sell the company. This is not going to be optional. That data is worth a lot and they likely already have enough EULA rights to sell it to whoever asks. Imagine if the MPAA gets in on the fun.
    • Their security history is quite dicey
    • The lifetime membership will eventually be enshitified as it’s not economically sound in the long run
    • They constantly change the terms of the agreement.
    • They constantly remove features people are using
    • They constantly push to share data between users
    • They constantly push Ads
    • They are making previously free features pay.
    • Their investors are starving, which makes them a liability.
    • Their clients are generally slower.

    edit: * a word