Asklemmy

So, any of those will work with almost any distro. I'd personally recommend Jellyfin because Plex is run by a private company and it has turned around and bit its users lately.

I think you might want to look up installation instructions for Jellyfin here to understand it a little better: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/installation

As for what distro? Lots of choices! One thing to remember is there's so many ways to set things up and everyone has different preferences, so it's really difficult to just say "Do A, B, and C." But maybe I can help a bit without assuming anything about your experience level.

Jellyfin is just a ~~"front-end"~~ server app that runs on top of an OS, that you can access through a browser on your network. All it does is give you a very convenient way to serve up media files you give it access to, across your network! :)

My setup as an example: I personally run a server OS called "Proxmox", wherein I made a virtual machine for OpenMediaVault (a custom Linux OS for making a file server), which helps me run a Docker container for Jellyfin.

(Docker containers are really cool but can be a bit advanced)

But if you think of each component as a building block that you understand and set up, you will get a better idea of what you can learn or leave out for your particular setup.

But let's make it simpler! I didn't know anything about this either when I first started. Say you have an old PC with some drives laying around. You could just as well install OpenMediaVault bare metal as the OS, and install Jellyfin within it maybe. That might be enough to get you watching your backed up DVDs on your home network!

Open Media Vault is a modified version of Debian Linux, if I recall correctly. It's made specifically to get a solid file server up and running. It has a great community too.

https://www.openmediavault.org/

Here's a really good site with some server tidbits I found useful as well https://perfectmediaserver.com/

I'd also suggest checking out "selfhosted" communities here on Lemmy or maybe that "/r/" site lol.

YouTube can also be handy here, for understanding how to get things going. Things like "ProxMox home server guide" or "Jellyfin server setup", "OpenMediaVault jellyfin docker", that kinda thing. You might find one video explains a topic better for you than another.

Sorry it's super late after a long hike for me but I hope some of this helps you a little on your journey! It's definitely something to take your time in, more than a "weekend and it's finished forever" kind of project. :)