I’d like some streaming help please.
I’ve got a linux mint laptop, a windows pc, an nvidia shield and films that I’d like to watch from anywhere. Can you suggest a best way to do this, or any ‘best’ method that I can adopt?
I’ll add that I’m not great at Linux, and all these devices will be on sleep mode when I’m away from home (apart from my nvidia) - which I believe is always on.
If possible I’d like to keep costs down, but I’m open to learning some new stuff.
Thanks for any help.
Edit: tarted up text.
Jellyfin or Plex are probably your best choices. I believe you could even run the Plex server on your Nvidia Shield, though it might struggle to transcode 4k video I’m not sure.
I’m using Emby for that and loving it (even paying the premium). It’s free too for most features. If i got you right, you have your movies and a pc. Emby runs fine on linux/android/win. Setting up the server is child’s play on win (haven’t tried linux).
If you dislike it and like to tinker more (coz u have to) : Jellyfin (same base as emby).
Or you can pay and go the mainstream-route with plex.
If that is what you’re looking for?
Second Emby. It’s a great Plex alternative.
Jellyfin has also been fine.
I switched from plex to jelly, but (at that time, it might be cooler now) it was horrible. Nothing really worked. Then gave emby a try and bougjt premium a week later. It just works. Has a webhook-support (for my smarthome) and whatnot. No crash, no hickup, no glitch. All just works.
Emby sounds interesting, thanks.
It is. I switched after many years of plex because they started to annoy me. It was a long while ago and zero issues since. Big community and if you’re stuck (which u won’t) you’d get help there
Post this over in Selfhosted - it’s right up their alley.
Some ideas, at a high level:
First you need/want a machine that can function as a media server, but also has low idle power consumption.
Second, a mechanism for secure access for streaming or syncing.
One simple, easy approach that isn’t streaming, but would require copying files first, then watching: install Resilio sync on your file server, share your media folder, and use Resilio on your mobile devices. Then you can (from your mobile device) browse the share with Resilio, select files to sync, and when sync is completed use a local app (say VLC) to watch it.
If you keep mobile-quality media beside your high-quality media, it’ll reduce sync time. After all, a phone doesn’t need 1080 resolution.
Alternative, use a VPN/Mesh network to maintain access to your home network (Wireguard/Tailscale), then use native tools to copy, or use media servers/players to what via the encrypted connection.
Great, I’ll repost, thanks. What’s a mesh network btw?
It’s an encrypted network that’s overlaid on other networks. Wireguard, Tailscale, Hamachi (that’s an old one).
It’s a virtual network using encrypted links to appear logically like its’ own network. All your devices see each other, as if they were on the same LAN, even if they’re halfway around the world.
I’ve used Plex to run a media server from my home in the past, been a few years though. I believe you can still do that with the free version. Then you just need to set up Plex to wake on LAN so the computer you’re using for the media server will wake up when you want to watch something. This does require that the device is hardwired as WiFi doesn’t offer wake options.
Look at Kodi or Jellyfin. For kodi there’s also libreelec (or openelec, not completely sure) so you dont have to tinker with the underlying OS much.
