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Self hosted media stack / arr

gigatoaster

gigatoaster

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Hello there

I’m curious, what is your ecosystem for home-media, self hosting platform?

I am making some research and there are a lot of tools, protocols, software:

- Media server platforms like PLEX, Jellybin, Emby, KODI…

- Media automation like Radarr, Sonarr…

- Hardware like NAS, Mac mini, Docker…

- Scrobbling service like Trakt

- Torrent / Usenet but not sure it is allowed to talk here

- Network protocols like SMB, FTP, WebDAV…

What do you use at home?

On my side, I just use a Mac mini M1 as a server, an Apple TV with Infuse Pro configured with webDAV (with WebDAV Nav Server) and it works flawlessly!

It was very easy to setup, I’m not into command lines and scripts…yet!
 
Jellyfin running on a Synology NAS in docker as backend, and Infuse Pro on Apple TV (also on iPad for when I'm away from the TV) as frontend. Infuse Pro has Trakt and iCloud sync built in, and I use both. I don't download new stuff often enough to bother with the arr stuff. Also OpenVPN (on the NAS) to connect when away from home.
 
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I’m curious to understand: what would bring Jellyfin (or PLEX) additionally to a given setup with only a regular Mac & Infuse Pro on Apple TV?

@pgolik: what NAS do you have and how full is it? Do you keep your movies/ TV shows after watching them, hence the NAS or you use it also for something else?
 
The advantage of Jellyfin over just serving the files through SMB, NFS or WebDAV (at some point I tried them all) is mostly in much easier and better metadata management and editing. Particularly if the Apple TV is an older model (like mine) with limited storage and RAM, letting Jellyfin take care of things like metadata, posters, subtitles, etc. works better. Also, if for any reason Infuse stops working (I hope not, it's great, but closed-source software sometimes gets discontinued), I'll have an easy migration path to another client, keeping all the metadata intact.
My current NAS is a Synology 925+ with 16TB (3x8TB in a RAID configuration with a single drive redundancy, one slot left to populate). RAM bumped to 8GB (planned more, but not with current prices). Currently about half of that is free, movies and TV shows take about 2TB, the rest is other data - photos, Time Machine for my Macbook, Synology Drive backup of wife's PC, etc. It also hosts my VPN server (it has a built-in application for OpenVPN) and a few other services in docker (like pihole, homebridge, and infuse + grafana for my diy meteo station). Under the hood it's a low power efficient Linux machine, very flexible if you want to go beyond what is offered by the (good and polished) GUI. I was considering going full diy route (Linux/proxmox, TrueNAS or something similar), but with current prices of PC parts it hardly makes sense, and my old Synology served me uninterrupted for 8 years.
I do keep my shows and movies after watching them, some I like to rewatch, some I revisited with my son as he grew up. I still have lots of physical media (CDs, DVDSs, Blurays) that I plan to rip, but currently have no time. I do watch lots of contents on streaming services - I torrent only those that are not easily available by more legal means (and those that are only available from Disney, f* those guys). For my occasional downloads I just fire up Transmission on my Mac, but there is a torrent client for Synology if you don't want to involve your computer.
 
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I see. For some reason SMB speed is 70 on Infuse Pro speed test, while webDAV is 320. I chose the ladder and I can now play 80+ GB movies.
 
gigatoaster said:
I see. For some reason SMB speed is 70 on Infuse Pro speed test, while webDAV is 320. I chose the ladder and I can now play 80+ GB movies.
Click to expand...
Could this be because of Apple's implementation of SMB?
IMG_1301.jpegIMG_1303.jpegIMG_1304.jpegIMG_1305.jpegIMG_1306.jpeg
 
Impressive, very nice. 👍

I wonder why I fuse recommends by default SMB, clearly webDAV is superior.
 
How do you organise your data?

Do you create a folder like watchlist on the client (or server or both?).

On my side, I only have one folder, called Torrent. I delete the files after watching them. Maybe one day if I have a NAS, I would build a collection of TV shows and movies but SSD prices are too high for the moment as we all know.
 
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I organise them into folders server-side, just like iTunes does.
My primary setup still runs on Home Sharing.
Plex/Infuse I use only for satellite recordings with DVB subtitles and DoVi Profile 5 clips as Home Sharing still does not support DoVi on the tvOS side.
Serviio/Bluray player is needed to play back DSD music and any Bluray rips with Dolby Atmos with TrueHD and/or Vision Profile 7.
 
I’ve been trialing several services for downloading. Like Torrent debrid stuff, NZB and others! This is fun! But the HDD gets full very quickly when the movie is 80 GB. I felt nostalgia when I discovered internet & eMule and I had to learn everything by myself but also with strangers on forum. What a time to be alive.
 
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My setup is simple.

Synology 2-Bay NAS DiskStation DS220+ with two 4TB Western Digital 4TB Red Pro NAS HDDs.
Everything is ripped to MKV.
I convert everything to AC-3 audio and reduce the video size to 720p (if greater than standard DVD).
Watch the content on Apple TV via VLC app.

Don't get unwanted fluff that I don't need, just the files.
My hearing and eyesight don't justify larger media files.
I can store more with less this way.
 
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This interesting because I was doing some research about NAS. I always had a bias against NAS. But the size of REMUX is insane so I looked at UGREEN plus 4 4 TB SSD and my wallet said no. My 2Tb mini is getting full so I’ll just watch & delete. Maybe in 2 to 3 years when prices go back to normal, I will reconsider it.

I like the extra meta-data to look at actors or similar movies. But yeah, VLC is the most efficient and it just works.
 
gigatoaster said:
This interesting because I was doing some research about NAS. I always had a bias against NAS. But the size of REMUX is insane so I looked at UGREEN plus 4 4 TB SSD and my wallet said no. My 2Tb mini is getting full so I’ll just watch & delete. Maybe in 2 to 3 years when prices go back to normal, I will reconsider it.

I like the extra meta-data to look at actors or similar movies. But yeah, VLC is the most efficient and it just works
Click to expand...
Consider getting a simple 2 bay diskless NAS. Then purchase a single drive. Personally, unless you plan on doing a ton of 4K media, a simple 4TB is a good place to start. Remember this, you want to store stuff you intend to watch more than once, not stuff you can easily get off a torrent site. As your collection grows, add the second drive. You don't need to treat the drives like a RAID setup.

And you really don't need an SSD for this type of storage either. HDDs are still the industry standard for a reason.

A media server makes sense if you have content that you know you will watch again and again. No point in keeping stuff just for the sake of having it. Most of this stuff doesn't age very well content wise. You're either a Dr. Who fan or you're not. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
 
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That’s on point. I tend to watch & throw every time. But since I discovered TB, I feel building a media library. For the moment there ar plenty of shows and I tend to watch 90% of the time TV shows. I’ll see. So far I have 8 movies…666 GB. This is insane.
 
I just use inFuse on the ATV that connects to the media folder on RAID Drive hanging off my Mac Mini in the next room. Nothing fancy. Media library size is probably 5TB.
 
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I'm running an unraid NAS, with docker running Plex and all the arrs. It mostly services a couple of 4K apple TVs in the house, and then all the mobile devices.
Graduated from a synology 418+, to a self-built unraid box with an intel quicksync chip and haven't looked back - it's great.
I know plex has it's detractors, and I'm not sure what the future holds - but it's been great for me over the last 10+ years, can't really fault it. The watchlist function integrates seamlessly with radarr and sonarr, I use it for my music with lidarr and plexamp (Lidarr is pretty flakey - but it works well in my setup), and then I use libation (linked to my audible account) and plex to house my audiobooks, which play great through prologue on my phone.

It acts as a time machine destination for our laptops, and I'm just experimenting with some home automation stuff, local dropbox alternative, and then adding a local AI into the mix too.

FYI, I have two small nvmes as the cache, but everything else is on an array of spinning disks - no issues at all - you don't need SSDs for storage
 
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