Windows Jellyfin thread for questions and answers

[JMak]

Right
So I have connected an ext hdd to my hp elitedesk and setup jellyfin on it..
All the media is stored on the ext hdd.
I use jellyfin app on my chromecast Hd to stream to my TV.
I have a few queries.....
1...Was wondering if streaming this way also keeps writing data on the storage hdd as well.
2..Does apart from wifi bandwidth this also Consumes my internet data too (I suspect it does)
3.. Every time I turn on the app on tv I have to reselect the source ip as after every reboot (as I switch off my elitedesk when I am not watching anything and most of the day.. It's switched on after 9 pm or so for an hour or 2).. The Ip address of the jellyfin server changes.. Any way to assign a single Ip to it (more of a router thing but I suspect for that I ll have to bind elitedesk to an ip in my router)

 

[SirVer]

1...Was wondering if streaming this way also keeps writing data on the storage hdd as well.

Unless you've configured it to write metadata or have some plugins doing stuff like that, my understanding is that Jellyfin doesn't touch your media folders except to delete stuff.

2..Does apart from wifi bandwidth this also Consumes my internet data too (I suspect it does)

It shouldn't - if your Chromecast and Jellyfin server are on the same network, it won't touch your internet except to pull metadata, which isn't much. You could entirely unplug your internet while using it and everything would likely still work. Streaming your stuff over the internet from your home is usually more challenging and requires explicit setup.

3.. Every time I turn on the app on tv I have to reselect the source ip as after every reboot (as I switch off my elitedesk when I am not watching anything and most of the day.. It's switched on after 9 pm or so for an hour or 2).. The Ip address of the jellyfin server changes.. Any way to assign a single Ip to it (more of a router thing but I suspect for that I ll have to bind elitedesk to an ip in my router)

Your router might have a setting tries to assign the same address to the same device whenever it connects - you could try turning that on. Otherwise, you can just turn off DHCP on your server and make it use a static address, then put that IP in the reserved range in your router's DHCP config.
Alternatively, you could install Tailscale on your server and Chromecast and enter the Tailscale hostname/IP, which will never change and automatically route everything correctly. This might be the simplest option with the least configuration, but I'm not sure if Tailscale works on Chromecast anymore - I know the app had some issues a while back and don't know if they fixed it.

 

[intruderfps]

Right
So I have connected an ext hdd to my hp elitedesk and setup jellyfin on it..
All the media is stored on the ext hdd.
I use jellyfin app on my chromecast Hd to stream to my TV.
I have a few queries.....
1...Was wondering if streaming this way also keeps writing data on the storage hdd as well.
2..Does apart from wifi bandwidth this also Consumes my internet data too (I suspect it does)
3.. Every time I turn on the app on tv I have to reselect the source ip as after every reboot (as I switch off my elitedesk when I am not watching anything and most of the day.. It's switched on after 9 pm or so for an hour or 2).. The Ip address of the jellyfin server changes.. Any way to assign a single Ip to it (more of a router thing but I suspect for that I ll have to bind elitedesk to an ip in my router)

1. Streaming should not be writing anything in the movie folder. Some scheduled tasks do write but its independent of streaming or not.
2. If you've connected over lan with local IP address, there's no need for internet access of its only streaming via lan.
3. Set static IP in your elitedesk. It's easy to do (check google for your OS) and won't change. No need for router setting.

 

[SirVer]

Set static IP in your elitedesk. It's easy to do (check google for your OS) and won't change. No need for router setting.

I would say that setting the static IP as part of the DHCP reserved range would be a good idea since OP turns off the server regularly, meaning that there's a chance that the router could assign that IP to another device while the server is off.

 

[raksrules]

Streaming your stuff over the internet from your home is usually more challenging and requires explicit setup.

Tailscale simplfies this very much. Refer this post (not for setup, just aaise hi).



Btw jellyfin will not use internet unless it is for metadata. I have used jellyfin on my local network even when my internet was down.

 

[napstersquest]

Main reason I use Jellyfin (or store media locally at all) is because I want to keep watching without internet. It works.

Static IP reservation is must in your router for jellyfin server.

Tailscale is not required for devices on the same network.

And about writing to HDD: The jellyfin config folder and postgres contains data like what movies/episodes you are watching and progress, login and logout times, logs etc. Those are written all the time, the media folder itself shouldn't get written much unless you are adding new movies or scanning media libraries frequently.

 

[t3chg33k]

All the other questions are already answered, so won't repeat. However, Tailscale is usable for streaming only for direct connections. In my case, I am under a double NAT environment, so I use Tailscale to connect to LAN through a relayed connection. However using a relayed connection for streaming would mostly be a no-go as the speed falls to single digit Mbps.