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?
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.