I also used plex for my kids for a while and for the longest time I simply put a couple HDDs into my personal PC and ran plex off my PC. It was more than adequate for just letting them watch whatever shows they wanted, no need to go crazy if you don't have the need for more!
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
83 points (98.8% liked)
Selfhosted
40296 readers
224 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
-
No spam posting.
-
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
-
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
-
No trolling.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
This is true... I have a feeling my PC is pretty power hungry. I'll see how hard it would be to get my PC to WoL. I could have it boot up on a schedule and then power off on a schedule.
I can always migrate off it later.
How many drives do you have laying around? Synologys are nice (I have 2) but they’re a little pricey. You could go with one of the plus units and run Plex directly from there.
One of my coworkers got a TerraMaster NAS and installed Xpenology (basically the synology OS) on it. There hardware is a little cheaper.
I think I salvaged like 6 of them. I'd have to dig them out of a box for a good count.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I’ve run a number of generations of servers at home. Generally speaking you just need a raid solution of some sort (motherboard solution, external add-on with interface board, what have you), slap an OS on it and adapt your device usage to include it. It depends on what hardware/software you have available to you. That being said, the last two have been synology models. They’re easy to use, and at some level include an external interface to their expansion cab. I can stream straight to my phone and access my server from anywhere and it has tons of other features I’m unclear on how to use, but I’ve seen plex on the install list, and it runs Linux under the hood.
I also work in IT and I hate for old things to go to waste so a lot of my Plex server is 'salvaged' hard drives from desktops that were collecting dust after the changeover to thin clients.
It's mostly desktop hardware I run, the only thing that's remotely 'server grade' is the Dell Raid card that came out of a decommissioned server also from work.
Also, if you can then encode your files in MP4 for maximum compatibility across devices and less overhead. Plex is great
Jellyfin, not Plex ;)
Jellyfin looks like it has more features and has a non-commercial license
https://github.com/Protektor-Desura/Archon/wiki/Compare-Media-Servers (at time of writing this was last updated Nov 2022)
A close friend of mine has a Plex server, and set it up for the exact same reason lol - he's got a ~5 year old whose TV interests of just a handful of different franchise span like 100 streaming services.
Dude said 'fuck that noise' and set sail.
Kinda awesome that a key driving force for piracy is just parents placating their toddlers, lol.