The PLEX / Emby / Jellyfin Thread (Home Media Server)

[raksrules]

Since many of us have either repurposed some old hardware or have RPi or some NUC being used to create a media server, I thought about opening this thread where people can ask questions on the software side of things w.r.t any of the media server apps you use like Plex, Emby or Jellyfin or if any other that I am not sure of.
You can also comment on what kind of setup you have, how much storage you utilize for the server, best practices you follow, tips for fellow users.
Or people with queries can ask them here and someone else can help them.
You can also talk about applications that consume content from any of these media servers or connect with them directly or indirectly (sonarr, radarr, jackett etc).

 

[hotshot05]

I am using Jellyfin on the Gigabyte Brix S (Intel J5005, 8 GB RAM, 2 TB HDD + 2 TB m.2 SATA SSD)
The HDD is used for torrent downloading mainly. Use the SSD to store the files in the folder from which Jellyfin picks it up.

Jellyfin android app works well. I had uploaded old travel videos (Panasonic camcorder videos which are in a strange format. Normal android phones need MX Player to play it. The Jellyfin android app can play those files without a hitch) and some shows and movies. All work well on Android app of Jellyfin.

 

[Kmkaks]

This thread is godsend. Can someone recommended a good tutorial video or read to do this streaming properly? I am unable to stream any decent rips to Apple TV via plex irrespective of upgrading wifi to 5ghz. It’s almost always buffering, and never allows fast forward/rewind. The server is an ryzen 2500u laptop with hdd.

 

[msankadi]

Can't believe kodi hasn't been mentioned yet. Have been using it for years, it keeps getting better and better. Now i dont even need to use madvr and kodi in itself plays hdr flawlessly on windows to my projector.
I guess for those with non hdr displays might still want to use madvr through kodi though


I hve a nuc which runs kodi that is connected to my projector.

 

[chetansha]

I am currently using netgear r7000 flashed with merlin xw rt firmware, attached a 500gb usb hdd (ext4), using as torrent downloader and store music.
I access the same on android player which i have installed kodi. Player connected to tv / mx5021.
At one time had 16tb of storage, dumped everything after i got airtel 100mbps broadband .

 

[djdgr8]

This thread is godsend. Can someone recommended a good tutorial video or read to do this streaming properly? I am unable to stream any decent rips to Apple TV via plex irrespective of upgrading wifi to 5ghz. It’s almost always buffering, and never allows fast forward/rewind. The server is an ryzen 2500u laptop with hdd.

This seems like you are trying to connect to plex via the internet instead of direct connection. You might wanna take a look at that.

 

[t3chg33k]

I use Jellyfin Server on my Windows tablet with Core M 5Y10 processor and 4 GB RAM. Have never had any issues with the server struggling, but of course I don't use transcoding.

On the client side, my Samsung TV directly displays the Jellyfin server as a "source" whereas I use Kodi with the Jellyfin plugin on Fire TV. On other devices, I use the client app. Worst case, I can still stream from the browser on a device which does not have a client. Also, like the fact that video speed and subtitles are integrated with Jellyfin as I normally watch all movies at 1.5-1.8x speed.

The storage though is a 2TB USB 3.0 HDD connected to my router, as I also access it over SMB/FTP for other files.

 

[raksrules]

This thread is godsend. Can someone recommended a good tutorial video or read to do this streaming properly? I am unable to stream any decent rips to Apple TV via plex irrespective of upgrading wifi to 5ghz. It’s almost always buffering, and never allows fast forward/rewind. The server is an ryzen 2500u laptop with hdd.

It appears that your server is trying to transcode the videos and make it work on apple tv. It is not your wifi which is bottleneck, transcoding is. I suggest try to have a x264 video and see whether it works fine.
Also in jellyfin at least, I can turn off transcoding for a particular user and that is something I have done as I use ipad and it cannot handle x265 videos in jellyfin app (but apps like nplayer work ok for all formats).

Just so you know, jellyfin team will be working on a TVOS app which will handle most formats without transcoding. I guess for now it would be good for you to use vlc player and play videos over upnp / samba.

 

[raksrules]

I use Jellyfin Server on my Windows tablet with Core M 5Y10 processor and 4 GB RAM. Have never had any issues with the server struggling, but of course I don't use transcoding.

On the client side, my Samsung TV directly displays the Jellyfin server as a "source" whereas I use Kodi with the Jellyfin plugin on Fire TV. On other devices, I use the client app. Worst case, I can still stream from the browser on a device which does not have a client. Also, like the fact that video speed and subtitles are integrated with Jellyfin as I normally watch all movies at 1.5-1.8x speed.

The storage though is a 2TB USB 3.0 HDD connected to my router, as I also access it over SMB/FTP for other files.

I am disappointed that jellyfin app on Android or IOS or firestick don't have playback speed control. Only way to have that is to play video in browser.

 

[t3chg33k]

I am disappointed that jellyfin app on Android or IOS or firestick don't have playback speed control. Only way to have that is to play video in browser.

Jellyfin is listed as uPnP server though, so can be directly accessed using VLC or any other player with speed controls.

 

[hotshot05]

I use Jellyfin Server on my Windows tablet with Core M 5Y10 processor and 4 GB RAM. Have never had any issues with the server struggling, but of course I don't use transcoding.

On the client side, my Samsung TV directly displays the Jellyfin server as a "source" whereas I use Kodi with the Jellyfin plugin on Fire TV. On other devices, I use the client app. Worst case, I can still stream from the browser on a device which does not have a client. Also, like the fact that video speed and subtitles are integrated with Jellyfin as I normally watch all movies at 1.5-1.8x speed.

The storage though is a 2TB USB 3.0 HDD connected to my router, as I also access it over SMB/FTP for other files.

Is it possible to install and run the Android version of Jellyfin on the Firestick? Is it compatible with the remote?

 

[raksrules]

Is it possible to install and run the Android version of Jellyfin on the Firestick? Is it compatible with the remote?

Jellyfin is available on firestick app store directly. No need to sideload or anything. And yes fully compatible with remote but interface is different than web and not so great but functional.

 

[raksrules]

Jellyfin is listed as uPnP server though, so can be directly accessed using VLC or any other player with speed controls.

That is true but then the update of my watch status or rather remembering location of the video where I stopped etc is not available and doesn't get updated on server.

I was using nplayer to play videos over ftp on my iPad as jellyfin app didn't play many formats and nplayer cannot sync with jellyfin server. But now I use infuse which can sync watch history and everything with jellyfin server fine.

 

[Ramadhir Singh]

posted a little observation on other thread- linking it here as well- https://techenclave.com/threads/dlna-player-recommendations-for-fire-tv.199186/post-2283178

 

[raksrules]

Just wanted to update how I have gotten about using Jellyfin clients.

On my iPad, I use Infuse Pro to access my Jellyfin library so I don't need any transcoding. And best part of Infuse pro Is that it will do trakt syncing and had my most desired feature, playback speed change.

On my firestick I used to initially use Jellyfin Android Tv version app but cosmetically it Is not great in terms of UI design and also it does not have playback speed control. I also tried their Jellyfin debug version which is an alternate but official version with far better UI and I can chose external player like VLC (which has playback speed control). This worked great but biggest drawback is if I have to leave a video in middle of playback, the status doesn't get updated back to jellyfin (when using VLC or any other external player).

To overcome, all these issues, I am now using Kodi with jellycon plugin (not jellyfin plugin as that has serious sync issues) and it syncs status back to jellyfin fine due to having kodi sync queue. But kodi by default doesn't have playback speed control and if it has, it is using keyboard keys on laptop which isn't possible on firestick so I got one really obscure addon for kodi where I can set playback speed and it worked beautifully.

 

[msankadi]

Why not just use kodi. It is open source and by far the most flexible solution

 

[tommy_vercetti]

For audio https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.unicornsonlsd.finamp

 

[raksrules]

Why not just use kodi. It is open source and by far the most flexible solution

But what would be the source of my media if I use kodi?

 

[msankadi]

But what would be the source of my media if I use kodi?

it can be anything...kodi has all streaming solutions' inbuilt addons like Netflix, prime video. In addition it has hundreds of addons for watching Iive tv.

You can also use local content, kodi supports hdr now and plays all formats flawlessly.

You can create a server out of kodi too and use it for streaming your local content. It can also be installed on any android/windows device including fire stick.

Basically kodi can do anything any other media server can and probably better. However, it might require a little bit more effort in setting it up due to the number of flexibilities available in the tool.

 

[raksrules]

it can be anything...kodi has all streaming solutions' inbuilt addons like Netflix, prime video. In addition it has hundreds of addons for watching Iive tv.

You can also use local content, kodi supports hdr now and plays all formats flawlessly.

You can create a server out of kodi too and use it for streaming your local content. It can also be installed on any android/windows device including fire stick.

Basically kodi can do anything any other media server can and probably better. However, it might require a little bit more effort in setting it up due to the number of flexibilities available in the tool.

I have actually used Kodi extensively back in 2015-2017 period when I was in US and wanted access to Indian TV shows (tarak mehta and bigg boss and stuff) and at that time, OTT wasn't really such a big deal then so I had to depend on websites like desitvforum and idesitv and had addons which scrapped data from these to provide easy access to those shows after they were telecast.

The reason I bought RPi4 was that I wanted to setup a local media server for my downloaded content. Jellyfin app I am using and works fine on Firestick but for my iPad where I cannot install Kodi without jailbreaking, I am relying on Infuse Pro. This app is actually superb but is super expensive so I have sideloaded in my iPad / iPhone / Wife's iPhone.

I personally feel Kodi is great and addons make it great media player for external content but the inability to use on my iPad (and having a great alternate too). I rarely use OTT apps and most media consumed is from my local media as I mentioned that I need to have playback speed control which most OTT apps don't provide. Also Kodi requires me to do a lot of setup and tweaking for things to look good with skins and such and I honestly dont have time for all that. That is why I go for easy to use solutions wherein I can stream media asap with minimum barrier. So gist of my usage it..

Server - Jellyfin installed on RPi4 with 5TB External HDD hosting all media.
Clients -
iPad / iPhone - Infuse Pro (sideloaded) which has jellyfin support, another option is nPlayer using which I can only use over SFTP / Upnp so no playback syncing back to jellyfin server.
Firestick - Kodi with jellyfin addon OR Jellyfin debug app with external player