I've used the megathread to make a super basic proof-of-concept for my own streaming setup, and I'm not sure where to prioritize upgrading first and in what way. Any help is appreciated!
Current setup: I got a subscription to a VPN, so I figure I'll use that until it runs out. I have that with my main PC (a laptop, I haven't been able to save for a proper gaming PC yet), a torrent client, and Plex. I tested it out with one TV show and one movie with the Plex app on my TCL Series 4 Roku TV and it seems to work! The video and audio quality work even better when I turn my VPN off and it can tell my server is "nearby", but whatever.
Possible Improvements I've Seen People Talk About: I figure I should split off some of these services from my main laptop. I don't really want to keep it on 24/7, and I should save the room on it for games and other projects. I'll put things I've seen people talk about below, but not sure what order to do stuff to make the best Netflix replacement.
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I can buy another smaller machine or two I can use as a server. Not sure whether to put the torrent parts on it, so it can torrent while I'm at work and stuff, make it host the Plex server, or both. And even then, I'm not sure whether to use an NAS, raspberry pi, NUC, Nvidia Shield TV Pro, buy or find an old cheap laptop, a ThinkClient I saw another post suggest, etc. I need something super small and quiet because I am splitting a small place right now. Should I get 2? One to torrent things while I'm gone and one to host Plex, or can I put them on the same machine?
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Or should I start improving other parts of the torrenting and streaming experience? I've seen people mention Sonarr, Radarr, and other applications that I haven't experimented with yet.
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Or should I just port all of this into a seedbox hosted by someone else even though I have the VPN subscription for awhile longer? It would clear up some room but I'd hate to be tied to a subscription.
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I know I'll also need to buy more storage soon to make it a viable library, too.
What do you all think should prioritize next?
Was it cheaper than $200? That's one draw of the Nvidia Shield and Raspberry Pi other people in this thread have mentioned. Although I'm sure they're less powerful.
When do you need transcoding?
It was around $160-$180. Transcoding is generally needed when a device doesn't support the specific file. It'll be converted to a playable format on the fly. Like if the device doesn't support HDR. Or going from 4k to 1080p.
Ooh that is nice and cheap. I'll have to look into that. Also, thanks for the explanation of transcoding! I've been seeing that term everywhere.
On a separate note, it's nice to see Lemmy building up it's own knowledge base on these issues so I, and future people in my position, won't have to rely on googled Reddit answers lol.
You can get an old Optiplex micro PC (Optiplex 3060 Micro for example) for around $100 or so online for the time being. The drawback with these, a NUC, and the Shield is that there's nowhere to store HDDs and you're forced to use USB rather than SATA. As your collection grows you'll almost certainly want a larger case to house multiple HDDs rather than having 10 external drives cluttering your space.
I went with a Fractal Design Define R6 for mine which can hold 12ish 3.5" drives in a relatively small footprint.
Also if you want to try Jellyfin you can run it alongside Plex. You don't have to choose one or the other. I've been running Plex and Emby (what Jellyfin was forked off of) for years and both work fine but Plex is more feature rich (with the Plex pass)