If your gaming console is the center of your living room, you don't need a separate streaming stick to watch Jellyfin. You can access your LocalNode directly from your Xbox or PlayStation.
Overview
Getting Jellyfin onto a gaming console depends heavily on the manufacturer. Microsoft provides an official app in their store, while Sony is much more restrictive, requiring a workaround using the console's hidden web browser.
Watching on Xbox One & Xbox Series X/S
Xbox has excellent official support for Jellyfin, and the app handles high-quality video playback very well.
Turn on your Xbox and navigate to the Store.
Select the Search icon and type in Jellyfin.
Select the official Jellyfin app and click Get to install it.
Once installed, launch the app from "My games & apps".
When prompted for a Server Address, type in http://localnode.local:8096.
There is no official Jellyfin app in the PlayStation Store because Sony does not allow third-party developers to publish media player apps easily. However, you can still watch your content perfectly fine using the web browser.
For PS4:
Navigate to your PS4 home screen and open the Internet Browser app (the icon looks like "www").
Press the Triangle button to enter a web address.
Type in http://localnode.local:8096 and press R2 to go.
Log into your Jellyfin account.
Press the Square button to make the video full screen once it starts playing.
For PS5:
The PS5 famously "removed" the web browser, but it is actually still there—just hidden.
Go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Link with Other Services.
Select Twitter/X and click Link Account.
A browser window will pop up asking you to log in. Do NOT log in. Instead, click on the small Twitter bird icon at the top of the window. This takes you to the main Twitter homepage.
If you have a friend message you the link http://localnode.local:8096 in a PSN message, you can also just click that link directly from the Game Base to open the browser.
Log into Jellyfin and start watching.
💡 Tip: Because the PS5 method is tedious, we highly recommend pinning the Jellyfin URL as a message to a friend or an alt account in your PSN messages, so you can just click it anytime you want to watch.
Console Limitations
While gaming consoles are incredibly powerful, they are not dedicated media players. They often lack support for modern video codecs like HEVC (H.265) or AV1 inside the web browser.
If you try to play a 4K HEVC movie on a PlayStation 4 via the web browser, your LocalNode will be forced to transcode the video into H.264 on the fly. Ensure your transcoding is set up properly if you plan to use a console as your primary playback device.
