2025-04-18, 06:39 PM
Hey everyone,
I'm currently preparing to set up a home media server using Jellyfin. This will be my first time meaningfully working with a media server so my knowledge is surely limited and I'm trying to research and come up with a pretty solid plan before I really get started. The server will actually be hosted at my parent's house, not where I live, so I want to give my parents access to the media. They happen to be in the market for a new streaming box or similar solution anyway, so I'm trying to get a grasp on what streaming box and client set up will be best for them. From what I have gathered, the Android TV client for Jellyfin is not fully featured, and I've seen some people post complaints about even just the general smoothness of the experience. My parents aren't exactly the most tech savvy, nor do they exactly have a sharp enough eye to tell the difference between full quality vs transcoded media, so it isn't a huge deal, but I would like to come up the most robust solution I reasonably can for them. The media server will contain some 4k rips, as well as some lower quality ones. Ease of use is also a big priority here, as I mentioned my parents aren't super tech savvy.
My specific question at the moment is how the Kodi client differs from the Jellyfin client when using a Jellyfin server. From what I understand, Kodi is essentially just a media player (with some other features that I don't think are relevant to this conversation), so my question is does it actually solve any of the limitations of Jellyfin on Android TV, or do some people just prefer it for more subjective reasons like UI layout and things like that? Does it run better, does it help with handling Dolby Vision or HDR10+ content (which I've seen can be an issue on some of those Android TV boxes, but might just be an inherent limitation of the OS rather than the client?). I guess more broadly my question is just what does Kodi do that the Jellyfin client does not?
To reiterate, I am rather new to this and though I have been spending a lot of time doing research, I've been learning things sort of out of order. I'm sure there are holes and errors in my knowledge at the moment, so hopefully you'll bear with me. Thanks in advance!
I'm currently preparing to set up a home media server using Jellyfin. This will be my first time meaningfully working with a media server so my knowledge is surely limited and I'm trying to research and come up with a pretty solid plan before I really get started. The server will actually be hosted at my parent's house, not where I live, so I want to give my parents access to the media. They happen to be in the market for a new streaming box or similar solution anyway, so I'm trying to get a grasp on what streaming box and client set up will be best for them. From what I have gathered, the Android TV client for Jellyfin is not fully featured, and I've seen some people post complaints about even just the general smoothness of the experience. My parents aren't exactly the most tech savvy, nor do they exactly have a sharp enough eye to tell the difference between full quality vs transcoded media, so it isn't a huge deal, but I would like to come up the most robust solution I reasonably can for them. The media server will contain some 4k rips, as well as some lower quality ones. Ease of use is also a big priority here, as I mentioned my parents aren't super tech savvy.
My specific question at the moment is how the Kodi client differs from the Jellyfin client when using a Jellyfin server. From what I understand, Kodi is essentially just a media player (with some other features that I don't think are relevant to this conversation), so my question is does it actually solve any of the limitations of Jellyfin on Android TV, or do some people just prefer it for more subjective reasons like UI layout and things like that? Does it run better, does it help with handling Dolby Vision or HDR10+ content (which I've seen can be an issue on some of those Android TV boxes, but might just be an inherent limitation of the OS rather than the client?). I guess more broadly my question is just what does Kodi do that the Jellyfin client does not?
To reiterate, I am rather new to this and though I have been spending a lot of time doing research, I've been learning things sort of out of order. I'm sure there are holes and errors in my knowledge at the moment, so hopefully you'll bear with me. Thanks in advance!