AIOStreams with Jellyfin apps

Your AIOStreams instance on ElfHosted is not only a Stremio addon. It also answers the Jellyfin API, on the same URL. Point a Jellyfin app at it, sign in, and your addon results show up as a browsable library with posters, search, episode lists and resume.

We build this into every private AIOStreams instance. It is not a separate product and not an optional add-on: if you have a private instance, it is already switched on. (If you see it called JellyStreams in our Discord, that's the name of this feature.)

Get your $1, 7-day free trial!

Can I use AIOStreams with Jellyfin?

Yes, and on ElfHosted you already can. You do not have to install Jellyfin, run a plugin, upgrade a Jellyfin server to a particular version, or stand up a second machine. Add your AIOStreams URL as a server in a Jellyfin app and sign in.

There are two other ways to combine the two, and they are worth knowing about: the Gelato plugin inside a real Jellyfin server, and Remux, a Jellyfin-compatible media server that takes AIOStreams as one of several sources. All three are compared in Stremio in Jellyfin apps. This one is the option you are already paying for.

What problem does this solve?

Stremio doesn't ship for every device. The big one is Apple: no App Store build for tvOS or iOS, so the official route is an IPA you sideload yourself, which wants a Mac, a signing certificate, and a reinstall when the signature lapses. Roku has no app at all and no plans for one. Smart TVs are better served than they used to be (Samsung Tizen 2019+, LG webOS 2020+), but sets below those cutoffs are out, and the LG listing is not available everywhere. The browser build is limited by what the browser will decode.

Jellyfin clients cover all of those cases, and every one of them installs from its platform's own store. Your AIOStreams instance sits in the middle: it speaks Jellyfin to the client and resolves streams through your addons, so a device that has never heard of Stremio can play what AIOStreams finds.

Which apps work with it?

Built and tested against:

• Infuse (Apple TV, iOS, iPadOS, macOS)
• Swiftfin (Apple TV, iOS)
• Strand and Fusion
• The official Jellyfin apps (Android, Android TV, Fire TV, web)

Other Jellyfin clients generally work, since this is the native Jellyfin protocol rather than a bespoke scheme. Not every client in the wild has been tested, so if you find one that misbehaves, tell us in #elf-aiostreams and we'll look at it.

How does it work?

flowchart LR
    Client["Jellyfin app<br/>(Infuse / Swiftfin / Strand / official)"]
    JF["AIOStreams<br/>Jellyfin surface"]
    AIO["AIOStreams<br/>addon engine"]
    EMDB["Cinemeta metadata<br/>(via emdb)"]
    SRC["Your configured addons<br/>and providers"]

    Client -->|"[1] Jellyfin API"| JF
    JF -->|"[2] catalogs, posters, episodes"| EMDB
    JF -->|"[3] resolve streams"| AIO
    AIO --> SRC
    JF -->|"[4] redirect to the stream"| Client
    SRC -->|"[5] bytes, direct to your device"| Client

1. Your Jellyfin app connects to your AIOStreams URL and signs in, against your AIOStreams config credentials. There is no second password store.
2. Browsing comes from Cinemeta, served through our emdb metadata cache. That is the same board Stremio shows you, so the library is populated on day one whether or not you have any catalog addons enabled. Any catalogs your AIOStreams config does expose appear alongside it.
3. Pressing play resolves that title through your normal AIOStreams pipeline, honouring your filters, your sort order, your providers and your proxy settings.
4. Your player is handed a redirect rather than having bytes proxied through us.
5. The stream flows straight from its source to your device.

Nothing is downloaded, nothing is imported, and there is no library scan to wait for.

What do I get beyond plain playback?

• Search across the board and your catalogs, the same as any Jellyfin server.
• Resume and watch state, kept on your own storage.
• A version picker on a movie's page, so you can choose the release rather than take whatever came first.
• Skip intro on episodes, where crowd-sourced timings exist. Coverage is partial; no data simply means no button.
• Real codec, resolution and audio-language data where a release has been fingerprinted, so your client picks the right audio and subtitle track instead of guessing from the release name.

Do I have to set up a server myself?

No. The pattern going round at the moment is to rent or claim a free cloud VM, install Docker, run an addon server on it, and point your apps at that. It works, and if you enjoy that sort of thing there is nothing wrong with it. What you are signing up for is a machine you now own: SSH keys, firewall rules, port forwarding, container updates, and a free tier that will reclaim an idle instance out from under you.

Here, the server already exists. Your AIOStreams instance is the server, it already has a hostname and a TLS certificate, it is already updated, and the Jellyfin surface is already listening on it.

The same reasoning applies to running the addon itself, covered in self-host AIOStreams on a VPS or Oracle Free Tier vs ElfHosted.

Does every device share the same setup?

Yes, and this is the real benefit once you have more than one screen. Your addons, filters, providers and sort order are configured once, in AIOStreams. Every Jellyfin app you sign in on gets that same configuration, and watch state is kept on the server, so you can start something on the Apple TV and pick it up on your phone.

Change a filter in AIOStreams and every device sees the change. There is no per-device configuration to keep in sync, because there is no per-device configuration.

What are the limits?

Worth knowing before you start, because these are design decisions rather than bugs:

• One account. Your AIOStreams config is the login. If you need separate profiles and watch histories for a household, that is what Remux is for.
• No transcoding. Streams go direct to your player, so your device must decode the format natively. Native TV and mobile apps handle nearly everything; browsers need AVC/H.264.
• No local files, no WebDAV. This serves your AIOStreams results and nothing else. Mixed libraries are a Remux or Jellyfin job.
• Nothing extra to configure. Configuration lives in AIOStreams, which is the point. There is no second admin UI.
• Private instances only. The public community AIOStreams instance can't hold per-user playback state, so this is not available there.
• A few stream types are hidden, specifically those that need custom request headers to play. A client following a redirect can't send them, so those sources are excluded rather than offered as a choice that always fails.
• Multi-file library entries appear as folders, so a single-file entry costs one extra tap to open.

How do I set it up?

How does this compare to Remux and Gelato?

Side by side, in Stremio in Jellyfin apps: three ways, compared.

The one-line version: AIOStreams' own Jellyfin support costs nothing extra and needs no configuration, Remux adds users and mixed sources, and Gelato inside Jellyfin gives you a real Jellyfin server with transcoding.

What users say..

We're rocking some excellent TrustPilot Reviews, and here's what some of our usersfriends say..

I am new here, but today I learned realized that Elfhosted is one of the best free and open source software communities I've seen, and FOSS communities have been at the center of my life since the 90s (Perl, PHP, Symfony, Drupal, Ethereum, etc.). Great open software built by great people who care = great community, and that is something special.

You've done an amazing job @Funky Penguelf with the platform you provide and this place has an awesome mix of active community caretakers and software creators that I've seen here so far like BSM, Spoked, LayeZee and other elf vengers. Keep up the energy, productivity and community and take time to enjoy it and appreciate each other!

@skwah (Discord)

As a happy Elfhosted customer—who also self hosts MANY things across about 10 severs (dedicated, VPSes, and VMs running on Synology), I wouldn’t switch to self hosting the services I get from Elfhosted. They just work with very little effort configuring things, and the support the owner and his team provides is second to none. Plus I love being part of a fledgling—but quickly growing—enterprise.

/u/jatguy. (Reddit)

I’ve been using this service for a while now, and honestly, it’s a game-changer compared to anything else I’ve tried for managing my media library. The support is fantastic—super quick, and if the staff aren’t around (which rarely happens), the community steps up right away. I can’t imagine going back to any other platform.

Before this, I had my own setup with a NUC, NAS, and tools like Sonarr and Radarr. It worked pretty well for a while, and my internet speed was high enough to stream without any buffering. But in the end, it wasn’t worth the time or headache of managing all the storage and keeping everything running smoothly.

Now, with this service, everything runs smoothly in 1080p+ with no buffering issues. The interface is really easy to use, which makes managing everything a breeze. Plus, having a whole community of smart people available for guidance is a huge bonus.

I was sold from the start, which is why I quickly upgraded from a 1-month to a 3-month subscription, and I’m planning to switch to a 1-year plan soon. This service totally pays for itself, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. It’s been really impressive.

@seapound (Discord)

Best possible options for anyone looking for the do-it-all option along with the best customer service ive experienced in this space so far. Id rate it a 6 if I could but its limited to 5/5...

@hashmelters (Discord)

(responding to a discussion re the cost of ElfHosted vs mainstream streaming / self-hosting):

I didn't know that the goal of this project was to compete with large companies running/renting entire DCs. I was under the impression that the goal of this project was to manage the updating of almost selfhosted applications on a shared platform with other users. Basically, be my sysadmin for me.

That being said, paying for services is the 'easy button'. There is a real world cost incurred for the time saved. Time is money. Time is the most valuable currency that exists. Once time is spent, it's forever lost, one cannot retrieve it again (yet). In my mind, there are 3 options for use of time with respect to: mainstream, selfhosting, elfhosted.

• mainstream - my time is valuable and I don't want curated content and I don't care what content that I have the ability to consume. I only like what's popular.

• elfhosted - my time is valuable, I want my own curated content without being forced to browse past the same damn entry 500 times just to find out that I can't watch the movie I want because it's not available in my current location or was removed last week from mainstream providers.

• selfhost - I care about costs and I have nothing but time to waste or I want to learn about the backend of the systems involved. I'll pay for my own VPS/homelab, electricity, manage the OS, manage app updates, figure out how to make the apps talk nice to each other, create my own beautiful frontend.

I know how much my time is worth, does that reddit poster know how much their time is worth? Without knowing what you are worth, you can't make effective capital expenditures with respect to the time it will take to recoup the capital.

I know I don't need elfhosted at all for my use case. I choose to stay with elfhosted because it's my 'easy button'. It's an efficient capital expense for the amount of time it saves me managing my own hardware, apps and saves me electricity costs. I'm also in a situation where I don't have upload bandwidth from my home to serve HD content to myself remotely. If I lived back in a city, I would still be here. My time is worth $$/hr.

@cobra2 (Discord)

"Just wanted to check in here and let @Darth-Penguini and anyone/everyone else know...WOW. I have been struggling with storage for years, maintenance of Docker containers, upkeep, all of it. Elfhosted is so freeing. It's an amazing service that I hope to be a member of for a long, long time!"

@Fingers91 (Discord)

"I would recommend ElfHosted to anyone. It has been great so far and made life a lot easier than running my own setups. If you’re in the fence give them a try and help support this great community."

Zestyclose_Teacher20 (Reddit)

"thanks for the help and must say this is the best host I every had for my server 🙂 10/10 🙂 All other places I have try have I got a lot buff etc. Your host can even give me full power on a 4K Remux on 200GB big movie file . That's damn awesome 😄"

@tjelite (Discord)

"What an amazing support system these guys have Chris and Layzee i think it was! Both are very patient with me even though I am a newbie at all this. Very thorough and explained everything step by step with me

I couldn’t ask for anything better than the service I have received by these guys! Happy happy client❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"Very happy customer. Great service"

@ronney67 (Discord)

"Very good customer service, frequent updates, and excelent uptime!!!!!"

@ed.guim (Discord)

"I had my own plex-arrs setup on hetzner for years. Yesterday I deleted everything as elfhosted has gone above and beyond it. And it has a fantastic, active community as well! Very friendly, helpful and like-minded folks always willing to help and improve the system. Top notch!"

@alon.hearter (Discord)

"Absolutely Amazed with the patience and professionalism of all Elf-Venger Staff including bossman penguin❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"@BSM went above and beyond to make sure I had all the one on one support needed with my sub. Thank you for your patience! Elfhosted continues to be Elftastic !!"

@bfmc1 (Discord)

"really enjoying the service from elfhosted. The setup is really easy from the guides on the website. And the help on the discord channel is really quick."

@jrhd13 (Discord)

"Support is amazing, and once you find a setup which works best for you it works perfectly, very happy 😊"

@fiendclub (Discord)

"great fast service, resolved my problem and really friendly"

@allan.st.minimum (Discord)

"Great service and sorted out a billing issue super quick and easy."

@scottcall707 (Discord)

"Very friendly support, resolved a problem with my account! I also appreciate the community that has been built around the service!"

@leo1305 (Discord)

"excellent customer service and very fast replies"

@yo.hohoho (Discord)

"Loved the simplicity, experience and support"

@y.adhish (Discord)

"Very friendly help as always, problem solved, one happy elf here!"

@badfurday0 (Discord)

"Great Helpful and Fast support. Thanks!"

@.mxrcy (Discord)