portable jellyfin stack
from darkknight@discuss.online to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 22 Mar 17:01
https://discuss.online/post/17526899

I’ll be vacationing for a month and want to setup a portable jellyfin server/stack. I’m not sure how good the internet will be, website says 300 mbps, but I won’t know until I’m there, so not sure remote playback is an option. I already have a n100 minipc I bought for a backup firewall, so I’d just need to buy RAM for it.

Here’s what I’m thinking would be the easiest setup for this:

to get media on nas, docker containers on nas OS:

Is there an easier way to get media on the nas, or better options (or anything I’m overlooking) for any of it for those that have done a portable/offiline media server? Thanks in advance!

Edited for formatting

Edit: the consensus seems to be that this is overkill. I had a good reason at some point over just a laptop, but after sleeping on the feedback I don’t remember what it was.

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

sxan@midwest.social on 22 Mar 17:14 next collapse

What, exactly, is your end goal? To have a way to play movies that you’re bringing with you on the hotel TV?

Edit: I only all because this seems like a hell of a lot of work just to play movies while you’re traveling, when you could just play them with VLC directly.

Or, if you really want to steam movies to your phone, put VLC on your phone, run minidlna on the computer, and plug it into a GL-iNet Slate Plus.

But if you’re really, like, going to some big get-together and are responsible for media entertainment for a crowd of 20 in a rental, then yeah, taking Jellyfin makes sense. But the hardware doesn’t, unless you make damned sure there’s nothing that’ll need transcoding. One movie, most CPU/GPUs can manage, but if several people are transcoding multiple movies at the same time, it’ll be a fairly beefie machine.

darkknight@discuss.online on 22 Mar 17:17 next collapse

Yes, mostly just to have stuff to watch without commercials.

skoell13@feddit.org on 22 Mar 17:20 collapse

Are you aware of findroid? It’s an android app that also lets you download the series and watch it in offline mode like other streaming services. Maybe this is an option.

darkknight@discuss.online on 22 Mar 17:27 collapse

Yes, I’ve used it in the past to download some stuff offline for airplanes, but I think that would be more cumbersome to download that way than automate it using sonarr/radarr, (unless this has gotten better in the past year or so). I’m expecting to have quite a bit of media on the nas since it’ll be for an entire month.

ladfrombrad@lemdro.id on 22 Mar 19:38 collapse

You’re gonna be on an aeroplane for a month?

e: tongue in cheek and all aren’t SD cards are a thing these days? You’ve got the obvious network solutions but if you’re off the grid?

Why bother?

darkknight@discuss.online on 22 Mar 17:35 collapse

VLC is an option I hadn’t considered, I’d still have to get the media on the hdd, but something to consider for sure. I won’t be hosting any showings, this is just for personal viewing.

sxan@midwest.social on 22 Mar 19:10 next collapse

Yeah, then definitely just install VLC. Far easier than mucking about with Jellyfin.

darkknight@discuss.online on 22 Mar 21:28 collapse

That’s fair. I’m already very familiar with jellyfin, so the setup wasn’t much concern, but the other options provided are good.

CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee on 22 Mar 20:17 collapse

I agree to just fill up the HDD with media and bring that to play with VLC. Setting up the *arrs and usenet seems like a lot.

Like someone else suggested, maybe just bring a laptop and then you can manually torrent the few new episodes of whatever show you’re currently watching rather than dealing with the automation aspect.

Sibyls@lemmy.ml on 22 Mar 19:13 next collapse

I download all my content to my laptop/phone and then just run a server from there, either using jellyfin, vlc, or casting software to my firestick.

But since it’s a month long, it’s a decent amount of content. I mean, you’re already planning on buying ram so you could spin up a virtual server for like 15 bucks or less and just use that for a month.

Also since you’re bringing this pc, it doesn’t have to be crazy. I’d just use Windows or any OS you have and serve my content on the network using Jellyfin or VLC. Since it’s jellyfin you can use their clients and avoid transcending, and should be set on a mini pc.

darkknight@discuss.online on 22 Mar 21:25 next collapse

I had considered that as well. I’m just thinking out loud.

River_Tahm@lemmy.today on 23 Mar 15:34 collapse

Do you even need to run the server locally? I’m still working on transitioning to Jellyfin but Plex would let you download media to watch offline. Just natively in the app, no need to install the server on the vacation device.

Sibyls@lemmy.ml on 23 Mar 18:24 collapse

Good point. I have used the Fladder app to download content!

catloaf@lemm.ee on 22 Mar 19:28 next collapse

What are you planning on playing it on? Hotel TVs are often locked to their cable boxes, or have the TVs in frames. I’d probably just use a laptop.

Or do vacation things. I can watch TV at home.

DaGeek247@fedia.io on 22 Mar 20:40 next collapse

Usually they just disable all the hdmi ports except for cable and don't bother to lock the final hdmi port to a specific device. So long as you have a long hdmi cable and nimble hands, it's not too much effort to just pull out the cable hdmi and put in your own.

catloaf@lemm.ee on 22 Mar 20:44 collapse

If you can reach it. I’ve seen hotel TVs mounted in furniture that prevented access without tools.

darkknight@discuss.online on 22 Mar 21:25 collapse

I’ll be taking an android tv box with me, so the tv lockdown is a concern. I’ll be taking my laptop w me in case I need it. I considered just installing jellyfin on that too.

i understand the ‘do vacation things’, i like to watch tv while i fall asleep, so there’s that.

Some good things to think about here.

ohshit604@sh.itjust.works on 23 Mar 16:35 next collapse

Why not just host the stack at home and VPN in? Jellyfin is pretty snappy I don’t think you’ll struggle much network wise.

darkknight@discuss.online on 23 Mar 17:15 collapse

That is plan A, I have had buffering issues doing this at various hotels though. This is more of a plan b setup. That probably wasn’t clear.

zenpocalypse@lemm.ee on 23 Mar 17:57 next collapse

Love your edit. Sounds like me, lol.

jawsua@lemmy.one on 24 Mar 01:47 collapse

I feel like some sort of duplication is the best way to go. Like, have a full stack at home, and have a small mini PC full of NVME that mirrors just the storage you want, and keep the local jellyfin stack up to date otherwise with like docker and watchtower. Then you can unplug and take it with you when you leave, no muss no fuss.