Tips, updates, and guides from the JellyWatch team.
Dolby Vision comes in 8 profiles and they don't all play on every device. This guide explains every DV profile (5, 7, 8, and the others), which clients support each, how to identify the profile of your files, and how to convert Profile 7 Blu-ray remuxes to Profile 8 for wider compatibility.
Plex alternatives in 2026: with Lifetime Plex Pass at $749 and remote streaming paywalled, the community is leaving fast. This guide compares Jellyfin, Emby, Immich, Navidrome, Kavita, Komga, Audiobookshelf, Stremio, and Kodi - which one fits your use case?
Four self-hosted photo platforms, four completely different philosophies. This in-depth comparison covers AI face detection, mobile auto-upload, RAW support, video handling, storage architecture, and which combination gives you the best Google Photos replacement in 2026.
Three operating systems dominate the homelab space for running Jellyfin: Unraid (flexible, user-friendly), TrueNAS SCALE (ZFS, free, Docker-native since Electric Eel), and Proxmox (hypervisor with LXC and VMs). This comparison covers Docker support, GPU passthrough complexity, storage architecture, backup capabilities, community size, and total cost of ownership for each platform.
Is self-hosting actually cheaper than paying for streaming services? This detailed financial analysis compares the 5-year total cost of a self-hosted media stack (Jellyfin + hardware + storage + electricity) against the combined cost of Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, YouTube Premium, and Google Photos. Includes hardware amortization, electricity costs, and the break-even point for different library sizes.
Direct Play uses zero CPU. Transcoding can max out your server. This guide explains every playback method in Jellyfin, why transcoding happens, how to identify it, and how to force Direct Play on every client for the best quality and lowest server load.
Emby and Plex are the two biggest commercial media servers in 2026. This honest comparison covers pricing, hardware transcoding, mobile apps, privacy, Live TV, and which one deserves your money - or whether you should skip both for Jellyfin.
Jellyfin handles home videos and photo slideshows. Immich is a full Google Photos replacement with AI face detection, mobile auto-upload, and search by content. This comparison helps you decide which to use - or how to run both together pointing at the same files.
Jellyfin handles music alongside video. Navidrome is built exclusively for music. This comparison covers audio quality, Subsonic API, mobile clients, scrobbling, and which delivers the best self-hosted Spotify alternative.
