I migrated to Jellyfin from Plex several months ago and I’ve been struggling to get a good experience on my my Apple TV which is where I watch most of my content. I’ve been using the native Swiftfin app and I’m sorry but it’s awful. Lots of serious usability issues and there hasn’t been a release in over 4 months. I can’t anymore with it.

Gave infuse a try and it seems a lot more polished but it’s a subscription model and I don’t do software subscriptions, especially for something that’s accessing my local data. Not opposed to buying outright but it’s a bit steep at $94. I’ll gladly spend that if it’s worth it, but has anyone noticed any serious issues with Infuse that should make me steer away?

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[–] rlhe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 year ago

I don't do subs either, but I think Infuse is so good I made the one exception. I've been using it for about a year and haven't had any issues. It does everything I've wanted it to do. However, at $10/yr for the subscription, that lifetime price is way too ridiculous. I'll pay the sub and move on to whatever looks better each time the subscription is up for renewal.

I've also read various app reviews that lifetime only applies to the current version (i.e. 7.x), so you'd have to pay lifetime again for the v8. I can't verify this of course, so take it with a pound of salt.

The only irritation I've had with Infuse is that it only understands "aired date" metadata. If you have something in "dvd order" it can't download that. This is a problem people have complained about for quite a while. I don't think this is an issue for you though since I think you're getting your metadata from JF anyway so Infuse doesn't have to do it?

[–] moddy@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hate subscriptions too, but infuse is one of the rare exceptions. Killerfeature: Your appleTV gets DTS-Sound. The missing DTS-compatibility was the main reason I did not want an Apple TV!

[–] Contend6248@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

DTS to PCM conversion. Essentially the same, but only essentially.

[–] tiwenty@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I agree with the others. It's 10€ a year, plays everything on every Apple device I get, and it gets shared to my family. I use it way more than the officiel JF players.

[–] DevilBoom@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I’m a huge Infuse fan. I started on Xbox Media Player on the OG XBox. Which turned into XBMC then Kodi. I moved to Plex then Emby and now JF. With lots of other software tested without becoming a daily driver.

Infuse is my favourite client of all time. It’s polished, looks good, has all the features I need for a TV client and feels like an app designed for tvOS should.

I too don’t really do software subscriptions. But for Infuse I’ve made an exception. A couple of reasons for this.

First all the features listed above deliver a solid experience.

Second this isn’t a static piece of software - here is the change log: https://firecore.com/releases. It gets regular, often meaningful updates (and if you go into their forums and make a worthwhile suggestion, within reason, there’s a chance it’ll be implemented).

So the devs deserved to be paid. Whatever model that is - £10 every few years for new versions or a similar monetary value as a sub.

What I wouldn’t do is buy the lifetime version. It’s £100. I pay yearly at £8.99 which is about the cost of a coffee + croissant or a burger meal, a single cinema ticket is about £15. Infuse comes out at 17p a week. I use it most days, easily 10 hours a month. It’s a relative bargain. I plan to subscribe until the official Swiftfin client matures enough to be used. Like you say it’s got a few issues at the moment. Let’s say that takes another 3 years. That’s still only £27. I’d have to sub to Infuse for 11 years for the lifetime version to be worth the cost. I’m hoping Swiftfin will be ready for prime time by then.

My setup isn’t too fancy. Apple TV connected to a Denon amp which powers a 3.1 system and an LG OLED as the screen. It looks and sounds fantastic through Infuse. No real issues I can think of for my needs. It plays back every file format I’ve tried.

[–] rdschouw@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It’s totally worth it. I’ve been using Infuse for a few years now and I use it daily on multiple devices (2 Apple TVs, iPhone, iPad and MacBook).

It plays everything reliably. They fix bugs quickly and make regular improvements. The only feature missing is transcoding (in case of bandwidth issues) support - at least on Plex - but since you play local I don’t think that’ll be an issue for you.

[–] James_Baxter@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have had the same issues, so following for answers.

My best free solution at the moment is to just use the Plex app on Apple TV.

[–] eximo@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Swiftfin is the best free option on Apple TV. It's not perfect but works well enough.

[–] James_Baxter@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

It works, but not well enough on Apple TV. Autoplay doesn’t always work, the navigation is clunky, and having to always toggle different player/modes to get things to only sometimes work is not ideal for kids. The Plex app is mpv based and has worked with everything I’ve thrown at it so it’s the better free solution.

[–] bakaMonoGatari@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It doesn’t work well enough.

on deck shows things at random. Shows that haven’t been watched/updated in years showing at the top of the list for no reason. It’s different every time the app is launched.
doesn’t automatically refresh. Several shows may have been updated/new episodes added while the app is in the background and they don’t show up unless I force quit and relaunch
watched flag on episodes not visible when viewing list of episodes. I have no idea what episode I’m up to without clicking into each one.
now for some reason it doesn’t save my server info and I have to re-enter/log in every single time.

If it weren’t for these bugs I’d be fine with it.

[–] weedwhacking@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Infuse is so good I’ve been using it on my Mac too instead of the website

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