Hi, I’m fairly new to the self-hosted universe but I like the idea of self-hosting media (I’ve looked at Jellyfin and Plex). But as I understand this requires quite some money and a lot of work. I don’t think it’s worth it if I put in all that effort just for myself but I’d love to build a small private streaming between me and my friends. We used to share and swap blu-rays after all, so it would be cool to build a shared collection.

My question is if that’s possible and if anyone has experience with this? I’ve read that Jellyfin and Plex are meant as home-media-servers and I’m not sure what limitations that implies. Can people access the library from outside networks and will that affect the streaming quality/speed? What specs would the server need to ensure it can handle a bunch of users? Is there a software that is better suited for this use-case?

Thanks in advance for any help!

  • NeatoBuildsEnglish
    2·
    2 hours ago

    I use plex mainly but run jellyfin alongside it for people that watch on mobile.

    I started with my old desktop that had an Intel cpu with quicksync and put unraid on it, i started with 2tb disk and gradually switched over to 14tb drives now I’m at 100tb total storage.

    I have several famy friends coworkers using it now, at first no one was really interested but as streaming prices went up and content got more dispersed people started jumping on board.

    Now multiple friends setup their own servers so its really good coverage especially if I need to take mine down for maintenance the wife can keep watching stuff from other people’s servers.

    Things you need to find out is if you are behind a cgnat or other isp issues