The DVD screensaver was perfect: unobtrusive and did what it was supposed to do: prevent your CRT screen from burning-in an image. On top of that, it gave you something to look forward to when it would perfectly hit a corner (which some people thought was a myth; sadly the GIF version does not).
Now, any screen in your home is fair game for intrusive ads. Why make something simple, elegant, functional, and unobtrusive when that otherwise idle (or even in-use!) screen can be crammed with ads.
It sucks and can’t handle subtitles well.
I too want a good plex alternative that:
Jellyfin doesn’t require client fuckery. Just URL, login, password.
It takes a little more work on the server side though, particularly to use https connections while self hosting.
And I’m not sure what robust subtitle support you’re looking for, but jellyfin will show them when I enable them afaik.