Background: I’ve been writing a new media server like Jellyfin or Plex, and I’m thinking about releasing it as an OSS project. It’s working really well for me already, so I’ve started polishing up the install process, writing getting started docs, stuff like that.

I’m interested in how other folks have set up their media libraries. Especially the technical details around how files are encoded and organized.

My media library currently has about 1,100 movies and just shy of 200 TV shows. I’ve encoded everything as high quality AV1 video with Opus audio, in a WebM container. Subtitles and chapters are in a separate WebVTT file alongside the video. The whole thing is currently about 9TB. With few exceptions, I sourced everything directly from Blu-ray or DVD using MakeMKV. It’s organized pretty close to how Jellyfin wants it.

What about you?

  • Spooky Mulder@lemmy.4d2.orgEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    The short answer is because it’s a fun project, and I wanted to see if I had it in me to make exactly the media server I want.

    The longer answer is that I wanted something dramatically and fundamentally different from what either Jellyfin or Plex have to offer.

    • Can run without breaking a sweat on junk/old/cheap hardware like a Raspberry Pi or old laptop.
    • Can be safely Internet-facing – no anonymous access, and no web-based admin features or API.
    • Hyper-lean and minimal. All-in, I wanted something on the order of 1MB for client app, server, all dependencies, everything.

    I don’t see either of those goals happening with a contribution or fork, because achieving them would require some dramatic feature deprecation.

      • Spooky Mulder@lemmy.4d2.orgEnglish
        1·
        3 hours ago

        Yep, transcoding is the main reason I had to buy any new hardware when getting my library going with Jellyfin.

        For me, the main draw of Jellyfin wasn’t the transcoding. It was being able to browse and stream my library from anywhere. My partner and I would alternate weekends hanging out at each other’s places, and we just wanted access to the library from wherever we were and whatever device we were using.

        I was willing to put up with weeks of encoding to get everything into a web-compatible format. But that’s just me and I know it’s not for everyone. I’m curious where the palatibility for that is on the spectrum more broadly.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      All-in, I wanted something on the order of 1MB for client app, server, all dependencies, everything.

      Okay that’s gotta be radically different!