Advice on A Media Server with current set up

[MARITIMER]

Hi,

I’m new to this Forumn and am excited to see that many of you are very helpful to novices. I've read thru 10 pages of threads on this Beginner section and have not yet seen any suggestions on my topic. I apologise ahead of time if this has been dealt somewhere else and i missed it.

Over the years I have plundered thru my home theatre set up and have terabytes of my collection digitized on a very poorly set up WD My Cloud Mirror that only works 90 % of the time and not to its full potential. I’m convinced its neither a hardware or software issue but instead a user interface () issue as to why I have network problems. As noted, it still works 90% of the time and really that’s not why I’m posting on here today.

After years of using the Nvidia Stream box and kodi and VLC as my player I have begun looking at a media server platform. I’m hoping some of you can look at my system noted below and tell me if I should attempt to install and integrate and interface face Jellyfin to work with it. Based on comments from a friend using Jellyfin might streamline not only the front end (like a good media player) but also the back end.

I’m not very technical so go easy on me.

Here is my home system.

• Panasonic 65" VT60 TV
• Bell Fibe HH3000 Modem/Router
• Motorola dcx3400 pvr,
• Yamaha HTR-6063,
• Sony bdp-s590,
• Paradigm 5.1surround speaker system
• Wd My Cloud Mirror NAS-
  • Z drive- 4 TB with 2 usb ports to add more. These 2 rear USB ports are not currently connecting properly??
  • Ethernet connected to HH30005 mainly WD separate hard drives (2-5TB)
• NVIDIA Shield Android TV P2897 Ver 9
  • HDMI to Receiver
  • using mainly Kodi and VLC as players.
  • Currently only connecting to Z drive WD Nas
  • Chinavision cvsb-983 remote connected to Harmony One
• Media
  • Music- a combination of MP3, Flac, and other Hi Res such as SACD, DTS, TS, m2ts, wav etc.
  • Movies/Concerts – no 4k, AVI, mainly MKV, and some hi res
  • TV shows – MKV
• I usually break down storage by Music, TV, Movies, concerts, Kids, sports, and Christmas. I can provide the capacity of each category.

Basement - The above is mainly my basement set up. Its 5.1 and is used for most tv watching. (Sports, news). Most Concerts are via Blu Ray Disc as well as via Kodi or VLC from Z drive NAS. Same goes for music. Movies and TV Shows are 95% via Kodi/VLC from Z drive NAS. So about 5% of the time I take a blu ray concert disc played via Sony 590.

Main Floor - I have a 55” tv and blu ray player and Chromecast upstairs hooked up to 4 Sonos and bose 2.1 speakers. The Ray and Tv are hooked to the HH3000 via ethernet. Sonos links to network via wifi. On the main floor 95% of the music is streamed from Spotify.

My main focus is quality sound. I find sometimes I need to use VLC rather than Kodi on some of the Hi Res files. I’d also like a seamless flow from the Z drive NAS with an easy interface to play the media. Kodi updates every time you open it and it slows things down.

I do like the Kodi meta data feature but it doesn’t handle sub titles as well as id like.

I can access the Z drive from the TV upstairs when a second person wants to watch a diff movie.

I would love to investigate Jellyfin. I think I’d prefer it over the paid solutions by PLEX and Emby.

I hope Jellyfin will work well with my 5 separate HD as well as WD My cloud Mirror (Z drive) and with Nvidia Shield. Does it have a good media player interface? Do I set it up on my windows desktop and add my media from the 5 HDs as well as the NAS z drive ? I see where it has a Nvidia version but I assume I would install the windows version of jellyfin and somehow point the Nvidia to it?

What is Docker and do I need to concern myself with it. As you can tell I’m not very technical especially when it comes to set up and network stuff.

I want something that can play all my hi-res files easily and I can access all my files on every drive and when I update content one or 2 of them then I can easily see them on the player.

I also like the thought that at some point I can access my data files at my cottage or brothers’ house.



Sorry for the long post and I hope my questions are clear.

 

[Movie2099]

Hi,

I’m new to this Forumn and am excited to see that many of you are very helpful to novices. I've read thru 10 pages of threads on this Beginner section and have not yet seen any suggestions on my topic. I apologise ahead of time if this has been dealt somewhere else and i missed it.

Over the years I have plundered thru my home theatre set up and have terabytes of my collection digitized on a very poorly set up WD My Cloud Mirror that only works 90 % of the time and not to its full potential. I’m convinced its neither a hardware or software issue but instead a user interface () issue as to why I have network problems. As noted, it still works 90% of the time and really that’s not why I’m posting on here today.

After years of using the Nvidia Stream box and kodi and VLC as my player I have begun looking at a media server platform. I’m hoping some of you can look at my system noted below and tell me if I should attempt to install and integrate and interface face Jellyfin to work with it. Based on comments from a friend using Jellyfin might streamline not only the front end (like a good media player) but also the back end.

I’m not very technical so go easy on me.

Here is my home system.

• Panasonic 65" VT60 TV
• Bell Fibe HH3000 Modem/Router
• Motorola dcx3400 pvr,
• Yamaha HTR-6063,
• Sony bdp-s590,
• Paradigm 5.1surround speaker system
• Wd My Cloud Mirror NAS-
  • Z drive- 4 TB with 2 usb ports to add more. These 2 rear USB ports are not currently connecting properly??
  • Ethernet connected to HH30005 mainly WD separate hard drives (2-5TB)
• NVIDIA Shield Android TV P2897 Ver 9
  • HDMI to Receiver
  • using mainly Kodi and VLC as players.
  • Currently only connecting to Z drive WD Nas
  • Chinavision cvsb-983 remote connected to Harmony One
• Media
  • Music- a combination of MP3, Flac, and other Hi Res such as SACD, DTS, TS, m2ts, wav etc.
  • Movies/Concerts – no 4k, AVI, mainly MKV, and some hi res
  • TV shows – MKV
• I usually break down storage by Music, TV, Movies, concerts, Kids, sports, and Christmas. I can provide the capacity of each category.

Basement - The above is mainly my basement set up. Its 5.1 and is used for most tv watching. (Sports, news). Most Concerts are via Blu Ray Disc as well as via Kodi or VLC from Z drive NAS. Same goes for music. Movies and TV Shows are 95% via Kodi/VLC from Z drive NAS. So about 5% of the time I take a blu ray concert disc played via Sony 590.

Main Floor - I have a 55” tv and blu ray player and Chromecast upstairs hooked up to 4 Sonos and bose 2.1 speakers. The Ray and Tv are hooked to the HH3000 via ethernet. Sonos links to network via wifi. On the main floor 95% of the music is streamed from Spotify.

My main focus is quality sound. I find sometimes I need to use VLC rather than Kodi on some of the Hi Res files. I’d also like a seamless flow from the Z drive NAS with an easy interface to play the media. Kodi updates every time you open it and it slows things down.

I do like the Kodi meta data feature but it doesn’t handle sub titles as well as id like.

I can access the Z drive from the TV upstairs when a second person wants to watch a diff movie.

I would love to investigate Jellyfin. I think I’d prefer it over the paid solutions by PLEX and Emby.

I hope Jellyfin will work well with my 5 separate HD as well as WD My cloud Mirror (Z drive) and with Nvidia Shield. Does it have a good media player interface? Do I set it up on my windows desktop and add my media from the 5 HDs as well as the NAS z drive ? I see where it has a Nvidia version but I assume I would install the windows version of jellyfin and somehow point the Nvidia to it?

What is Docker and do I need to concern myself with it. As you can tell I’m not very technical especially when it comes to set up and network stuff.

I want something that can play all my hi-res files easily and I can access all my files on every drive and when I update content one or 2 of them then I can easily see them on the player.

I also like the thought that at some point I can access my data files at my cottage or brothers’ house.



Sorry for the long post and I hope my questions are clear.

How much are you willing to spend?

 

[MARITIMER]

How much are you willing to spend?

Sorry I should have included that information in my post.
im not planning on spending a cent. In my post I referenced Jellyfin as it’s supposed to be free open source. I’m retired and my HiFi budget is limited. If I needed to upgrade to a newer Shield or a Roku I could swing that. But my focus initially was to wok with what I have.

 

[VMPS-TIII]

I don't believe I have heard anyone mention Jellyfin on this forum. You might ask for help on the Jellyfin.org site if that's your direction?

I'm using Audirvana for my streaming from a notebook. It's $96 and provides a great interface. It will work as a server on a PC or Mac and also on your laptop if you don't want to dedicate a computer to streaming. There are also other standalone hardware solutions available that take over the operation without a PC/Mac. Sorry I'm not able to offer Jellyfin support.

 

[Movie2099]

Sorry I should have included that information in my post.
im not planning on spending a cent. In my post I referenced Jellyfin as it’s supposed to be free open source. I’m retired and my HiFi budget is limited. If I needed to upgrade to a newer Shield or a Roku I could swing that. But my focus initially was to wok with what I have.

Ah. I'm not familiar with Jellyfin. I have used PLEX, but just the free version. I really wasn't that impressed with it. Was very slow and trying to watch a movie from it was terrible. Unfortunately, that's where my knowledge on this ends. Unless you were feeling like dropping $12k. Cause then I would have a pretty damn good solution. If you win the lottery, let me know. I'll let you know what you should get if that happens.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I have heard about Jellyfin. It will provide both the front (client) and back end (server).
The product so far seems somewhat interesting, but there are a few problems with it:
a)Jellyfin client support is extremely limited. It should work on your Android-based Shield (2017 Non-pro).
b) The feature set for Jellyfin is still far behind its commercial cousins.
c) If you enjoy the software, why not to buy it, to support the developers. I bought Plex Pass Lifetime at a 50% sale. Just subscribe to the Plex newsletter and wait a few months.
The elephant in the room is if you'd bought the Shield Pro version, you'd got a Plex server with hardware transcoding built-in, without a plex pass.

Docker: Think of Docker as virtualization 2.0 or virtualization-lite. The biggest benefit of Docker is the Docker public repository, where "apps" or containers get published. The closest thing you could think of is Google Play or the Apple app store. Except a bit more technical and not as pretty It will however make install of new "apps" easier and updating them could be 100% automated.

One of the better public guides I saw is this one - I highly recommend reading it.

AutoPirate |・∀・

A fully-featured recipe to automate finding, downloading, and organising media

geek-cookbook.funkypenguin.co.nz

One thing to keep in mind is Docker Swarm is mostly discontinued, while Kubernetes is full steam ahead.
You also don't have to go with a container cluster. a single docker instance and a Portainer (GUI to manage containers)

 

[BMXTRIX]

Plex is free for in-home use and should certainly be tried out by those who are interested in media server options.

Like so many others, they often tend to focus on what new features they can add over really dialing in their existing product to deliver the absolute best features it possibly can. This is something I see over and over again from major manufacturers as well. But, as a plus, it has actual commercial support and widespread usage on a long list of devices with many smart TVs supporting it natively, and excellent support in other streaming services.

Plex Pass is something you can purchase after you give it a trial run.

What I loved most about it was how seamless and brain-dead easy it is to use overall. This was a serious step up over any other platform I had used before, including Kodi which I found painful to implement. I installed Plex on my main PC, used it for a few weeks, didn't like it on that PC so I uninstalled it. I then put it on a spare PC that it is currently running on and has been for a couple of years now. Basically no issues whatsoever. Occasional updates to the server. Sometimes I reboot the PC (not often). I have family members outside my home who view my collection as well. Works well for them.

 

[TankTop5]

This way over my head but I’m going to follow just to pickup tidbits by osmosis.

 

[MARITIMER]

Thanks for the comments so far. I’ll check out the Funky penguins guide. I’m also planning to spend some time researching this site as well as you tube. I’m in no hurry as Kodi and my current set up isn’t terrible. I tried installing Emby a while back but didn’t have a clue what I was doing and ended up deleting it all. So I real,y appreciate all the responses and hope this thread generates more posts as I’m confident other less technical people are interested in similar solutions.

 

[NINaudio]

Since you've already got a Shield TV I would suggest Plex. I store all our media locally on my desktop and stream it over the network to the shield. I would suggest setting it to not bother authorizing out to the web for any local IP addresses. This means it will all still work locally even if you have an internet outage for some reason.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

this maybe useful read:

Plex vs Emby vs Jellyfin vs Kodi: In-depth Comparison [2020] | SHB

Plex vs Emby, which one to pick? Or, is Kodi better? What about the newcomer Jellyfin? This is the most in-depth Emby vs Plex comparison you will find.

www.smarthomebeginner.com

 

[BMXTRIX]

this maybe useful read:

That page is great! I think it does a fair job of representing the different services.

No question to me that Plex is a locked down system. I think it is underplayed a bit just how easy it is to use. It's 'scary' for many people, like @TankTop5 above, to get involved in something like a home-grown media server. But, Plex not only makes it super easy, but they have support across a LONG list of devices.

Every one of my family members has Plex installed and they can playback movies and TV shows (and music) from my server. That's a pretty deep list. My brother is giving me his entire collection of movies to add to the server. He has no idea how much work that will be for me, but such is life.

The main thing being that if you already have Kodi and have a library of videos, then Plex may be ideal to allow that collection to be easily streamed throughout the world and the library updated without any thought. That was core to me. After dealing with dedicated media players (Dune HD) for years, which were highly rated, but had a lousy interface and no integrated library creation system, Plex is ideal. It is locked down, but for those who just want something that works, this is not a bad thing. It is so deeply integrated into so many different platforms that the single lifetime fee is nothing when you look at all the features you get along with it.

I can't state, strongly enough, how much I've enjoyed using Plex these past couple of years. I think I'll go watch a movie now... wait, I'm at work. (not that it will stop me!)

 

[MARITIMER]

That page is great! I think it does a fair job of representing the different services.

No question to me that Plex is a locked down system. I think it is underplayed a bit just how easy it is to use. It's 'scary' for many people, like @TankTop5 above, to get involved in something like a home-grown media server. But, Plex not only makes it super easy, but they have support across a LONG list of devices.

Every one of my family members has Plex installed and they can playback movies and TV shows (and music) from my server. That's a pretty deep list. My brother is giving me his entire collection of movies to add to the server. He has no idea how much work that will be for me, but such is life.

The main thing being that if you already have Kodi and have a library of videos, then Plex may be ideal to allow that collection to be easily streamed throughout the world and the library updated without any thought. That was core to me. After dealing with dedicated media players (Dune HD) for years, which were highly rated, but had a lousy interface and no integrated library creation system, Plex is ideal. It is locked down, but for those who just want something that works, this is not a bad thing. It is so deeply integrated into so many different platforms that the single lifetime fee is nothing when you look at all the features you get along with it.

I can't state, strongly enough, how much I've enjoyed using Plex these past couple of years. I think I'll go watch a movie now... wait, I'm at work. (not that it will stop me!)

Thanks to you all for the comments. If i can BMX - you use plex to organise and be a back end foundation and is your player Kodi? If yes -does kodi play all you files and pass thru all the high end files ?
I have Nvidia Shield which has almost all of the above on it. But i think whether i go plex or Jellyfin that i'm supposed to install same on my desktop as opposed to on the Nvidia. can you confirm ?

 

[BMXTRIX]

Thanks to you all for the comments. If i can BMX - you use plex to organise and be a back end foundation and is your player Kodi? If yes -does kodi play all you files and pass thru all the high end files ?
I have Nvidia Shield which has almost all of the above on it. But i think whether i go plex or Jellyfin that i'm supposed to install same on my desktop as opposed to on the Nvidia. can you confirm ?

So, you may want to look in the Media Server sub-forum on these very Audioholics forums for some existing discussion of Plex.

Plex is VERY easy. You need to install the Plex server on a device which is on and running 24/7. In my case, I chose to install it on an old PC I had sitting around, literally doing NOTHING. So, I threw a hard drive in it and installed Plex Server. Plex server runs on any spare computer you have, or can run on your main home computer. It can ALSO run, I believe, on the nVidia Shield, but I'm not sure which specific models support the Plex Server program.

Once you install the Plex Server program, then it will allow you to tell it which directories all of your media files are stored in. You can add additional categories if you would like and you can add multiple folders for each category as you like. You can have your files stored across multiple networked hard drives as well if this is your setup, or you can just point it at a single folder on a local hard drive. So, you have good flexibility and ease of use the setup.

Once the server is installed and configured, which took me about 15 minutes to do the FIRST time I ever installed it. After using Kodi and other apps I didn't think that was all there was to it! Then Plex Server will look up all the information for all the files you have and get cover art and information for those files. It will periodically scan the hard drives for any updates, and will update the file information. For me, this typically happens in less than an hour. So, if I add a new movie to my collection, Plex has it in the library within the hour with cover art and everything else.

For PLAYBACK - You need a Plex player. The Plex player can be installed on a TON of devices. On your phone, on your TV, on Roku, on the Shield TV, on Amazon Fire, on AppleTV, on Samsung, Sony, and most other displays directly.

The player will ask for the login and password you created when you setup the Plex Server and then it will connect to your server. Kind of like logging in to Netflix or any other streaming service. From there, you are done.

This is why I say it is worth giving Plex a try. It is extremely quick to install, extremely versatile with the playback devices it supports, and if you don't like it, you can uninstall it in 5 minutes.

As for playback, it supports 4K video on devices that have 4K video support. I use Roku Ultras for my playback devices and they look really good. Keeping in mind that the quality of the original encode will significantly impact the quality you get out of the playback devices. Time and time again, the Shield is the top recommended playback device for Plex.

My one gripe is the lack of support for ISO files. So, my Blu-ray discs which I had ripped 1:1 to my network drives I ended up re-encoding as lossless MKV files, which Plex supports just fine.

There are bugs, as there are with all the other systems, but there is a very large support community and Plex does address things.

At the very least, this is something which I think people should 'try' if they are interested as the setup is just so easy. I know I spent about 3 hours messing around with Kodi one night just to get it setup and figured out, then I realized I couldn't just play it back easily on my TV. It was designed for 'computer' use. That wasn't at all what I wanted and I didn't find the interface convenient in the least. Plex really solves this.

My emphasis, if it wasn't clear enough, is that it is so easy to setup and try out, that you should do so. Just download the server to your home computer, and set it up, then go to your Shield, or any other smart TV/device in your home and install the Plex player. You can be watching movies or TV shows very quickly.

Some basic questions you can often just Google and the Plex support articles will come right up with answers.
IE: what music formats does plex support

What media formats are supported on Xbox?

Media Support The following information is about media/encoding support for our Xbox app. General Video Support Content matching the following...

support.plex.tv

 

[MARITIMER]

BMX,

Thanks so much for the long reply. That took you time and thought at a busy time of year.

Independently, I've been doing my own research and have read a few articles. this trek was started by a techie friend of mine. I may wait until he decides then follow his path. In the meantime i appreciate any and all comments in this thread.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

This comment will be regardless of which media server you select, and all 3 mentioned above work in the same way (with asterisks)

You play the video from the server to the client directly or as is - this is the best-case scenario. However the client must be
a) able to support the video format natively (you don't need to worry about generally newer devices support most video formats and
b) even more importantly, the connection speed must be high enough - this is generally no problem at home, but what about if you're streaming it from a mobile device or crappy DSL home internet from your family member's place?

So what if either a) or b) do not apply? Then the media server will need to transcode (re-compress) the video in real-time to convert the format or to reduce the needed connection speed.
This is where things getting a bit hairy. Transcoding video files isn't easy to process for a computer - it's very well understood but very resource-heavy. You could have a media server using only the cpu - in this case, and you'd generally need to build a fairly robust server with lots of fast cores. Another method is to rely on the video card's hardware acceleration. Newer Intel desktop chips that have video card on-chip support something called Intel QuickSync. Nvidia GPU's starting from GTX1050 (and newer) support the most common video formats transcoding.
Using hardware transcoding allows you to save CONSIDERABLY on CPU power. Case in point, my home server is running on tiny Intel NUC with Atom-based Celeron J3455 cpu. It is not a fast cpu by no means. It barely makes over 2k in PassMark: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+J3455+@+1.50GHz&id=2875
But since it has QuickSync - it's good enough for 3-4 simultaneous transcodes without taxing cpu too much.
To save some money and resources, I installed the Ubuntu Linux server on NUC for OS. Installing and updating Plex on the Ubuntu server is very easy.

Now the fine print: Plex and Emby only support hardware transcoding with paid versions, where Jellyfin supports it in the free model.
As BMX said - Plex is very easy and just works - With Jellyfin good amount of Tech DIY is needed.
For example, encrypted, remote access (SSL) is a single check box in Plex, but a much more involved process in Jellyfin.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Independently, I've been doing my own research and have read a few articles. this trek was started by a techie friend of mine. I may wait until he decides then follow his path. In the meantime i appreciate any and all comments in this thread.

While not a bad plan, you may want to consider that your techie friend may not be available to help you with a techie required setup and maintenance project.

Likewise, I'm serious... Install Plex. If you have 15 minutes free tonight, just install it, tell it where your libraries are, then walk away. It will do everything for you from that point. You don't have to use it forever, but for SURE... the headache I had with other products was it was a 5 hour process to get a basic configuration up and running then a ton of reading on plugins and other features on how to just get basic stuff working. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! Plex just works. It's quick to try, and quick to get rid of if you decide you hate it. But, instead of wondering what is best, try it. Then try the others as well. Take them ALL for a test drive. Then make a first-hand informed decision.