DIY Network Media Server

Hattrick17

Hattrick17

Junior Audioholic
Good day,,
I am interested in building a new network Media Server and am looking for some links to some quality builds. I have built 3 PC in the past so a Media Server shouldn't be too hard of a task. Of course it will need a great ripping device capable for 8K Video. HDMI 2.1 as well per the MB. Not sure what case to start off with? I hear external power is preferred over internal power PC power sources? Thoughts on that? Next is would be MB and CPU. The rest I can probably figure out.
 
WookieGR

WookieGR

Full Audioholic
A networked media server doesn't need HDMI 2.1 and there are no 8K ripping devices or software. Fortunately, all the latest Nvidia RTX 3000 series cards are HDMI 2.1.

Unless you are planning on it being a HTPC inside the living room which is an entirely different configuration, a "server" can be any Windows 10 Pro PC with at least an i5 quad core or better with 16GB ram or better and any cheap graphics card an SSD drive for the boot and perhaps other SSD's or a beefy NAS if you plan to use Sonarr and Radarr for content retrieval. Any mid tower case is sufficient since servers can be stored anywhere in the house as long as you have an ethernet connection. My NAS is 67TB but you may be starting small with only a 4TB or 8TB hard drive inside the server case.

Ripping content can be done with MakeMKV and there's an endless supply of 4K and 1080p Bluray available online through torrents and usenet. Of course there is the ethical and legal questions here but the reality is, a lot people find it easier to download uncompressed movies in bulk rather than spend countless hours babysitting the ripping and organizing process of entering your own physical media.

A HTPC (Home Theater PC) will need more robust hardware and more expensive GPU with a pretty GUI and case with a wireless keyboard/mouse all in one type device or even a remote control.

PLEX Server is the ideal method of accessing your stored and organized content. With that on your server you can stream uncompressed movies and their audio to mostly any device with the PLEX app installed. Literally every modern TV and streamer has the PLEX app. I use Nvidia Shield Pro (3 of them) in my home to perfection.

I know this bit of info doesn't help you at all but this year I will have videos physically building a new media server to replace my existing one along with the software apps and configuration to automate populating the NAS with TV shows and movies along with configuring PLEX server. Start to finish turn key home media system that rivals kaleidescape but at a fraction of the cost. Essentially what you are looking for. There are videos scattered about Youtube covering pieces of the puzzle at different eras of home theater but nothing truly current, concise and all in one which I hope to change.

I have most of the parts sitting in my server room such as the ram, the 12 series i7 chip, PCiE4x NVME drives but got severely derailed on my audiophile 2 channel stereo room project currently taking place. I'll revisit the media server build once i recoup my losses.
 
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AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
This has probably been discussed in the HTPC Section.
 
T

Truett

Enthusiast
A networked media server doesn't need HDMI 2.1 and there are no 8K ripping devices or software. Fortunately, all the latest Nvidia RTX 3000 series cards are HDMI 2.1.

Unless you are planning on it being a HTPC inside the living room which is an entirely different configuration, a "server" can be any Windows 10 Pro PC with at least an i5 quad core or better with 16GB ram or better and any cheap graphics card an SSD drive for the boot and perhaps other SSD's or a beefy NAS if you plan to use Sonarr and Radarr for content retrieval. Any mid tower case is sufficient since servers can be stored anywhere in the house as long as you have an ethernet connection. My NAS is 67TB but you may be starting small with only a 4TB or 8TB hard drive inside the server case.

Ripping content can be done with MakeMKV and there's an endless supply of 4K and 1080p Bluray available online through torrents and usenet. Of course there is the ethical and legal questions here but the reality is, a lot people find it easier to download uncompressed movies in bulk rather than spend countless hours babysitting the ripping and organizing process of entering your own physical media.

A HTPC (Home Theater PC) will need more robust hardware and more expensive GPU with a pretty GUI and case with a wireless keyboard/mouse all in one type device or even a remote control.

PLEX Server is the ideal method of accessing your stored and organized content. With that on your server you can stream uncompressed movies and their audio to mostly any device with the PLEX app installed. Literally every modern TV and streamer has the PLEX app. I use Nvidia Shield Pro (3 of them) in my home to perfection.

I know this bit of info doesn't help you at all but this year I will have videos physically building a new media server to replace my existing one along with the software apps and configuration to automate populating the NAS with TV shows and movies along with configuring PLEX server. Start to finish turn key home media system that rivals kaleidescape but at a fraction of the cost. Essentially what you are looking for. There are videos scattered about Youtube covering pieces of the puzzle at different eras of home theater but nothing truly current, concise and all in one which I hope to change.

I have most of the parts sitting in my server room such as the ram, the 12 series i7 chip, PCiE4x NVME drives but got severely derailed on my audiophile 2 channel stereo room project currently taking place. I'll revisit the media server build once i recoup my losses.
Hi, did you publish info on your server build? I am interested in doing a really nice theater server build. Maybe in addition to Kaleidoscape. I am all ears!
 
ban25

ban25

Audioholic
As WookieGR said, you don't need HDMI 2.1 or a GPU because it is a network streamer. I built a home server on an 8-core AMD EPYC ITX motherboard with 140 TB of direct-attached SAS storage using an LSI Logic SAS HBA. The server runs Ubuntu Linux with PLEX for video streaming and Roon for music streaming.

On the client side, I run an NVIDIA Shield Pro (2019) attached to my AVR. PLEX on the Shield can stream lossless Dolby Vision and Atmos as well as output native 24 Hz content. I have a variety of Roon Ready endpoints around the house in the form of the Bluesound Node and Powernode, as well as my AVR itself (Integra DRX-8.4) pending a firmware update.

The motherboard I am using is this one, from AsRock Rack:


It has dual 10GbE NICs which I run bonded for 20 GbE on my network (my workstation is also 20 GbE).

The motherboard is configured with 64 GB ECC RAM and the aforementioned LSI Logic HBA, which is connected outboard to 14 SAS drives (10 TB each) running ZFS. The NAS is shared out via Samba. Apart from Plex, Roon, and Samba, there's not much running on it.
 
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