If we can avoid massive collective issues that would be appreciated as there is very little agency the individual has to address those and that helpless ess can often extend to the more solvable individual matters we all grapple with but also occasionally rise to conquer.
I can help start you off if you want.
(To ward off the mods all of these suggestions are for personal photos and personal video files, created by, or for the user, and in no way am I recommending that piracy is ok or legal)
There are a few frontend/backend solutions that you can pick from that are popular and well supported.
Plex and jellyfin are my picks as those are what I’ve used. They will work on any laptop or desktop running windows/mac/Linux (with some caveats).
The front end that you pick can be a steaming device like a Amazon fire stick, Roku, or AppleTV, this also includes smart TVs, (not all TVs support all or any) for widest support an Android tv would work).
As for where to get your media files there are a lot of options out there, but be careful (I don’t know the this instance’s stance on site recommendations so I can’t list them). As for how, torrenting is still the most popular, but not the only option. You’ll need a torrent program to get the files to download to your “server”. It is also very encouraged and recommended to use a vpn while you download and seed to protect yourself.
While not expansive or detailed I hope this helps.
My Lemmy profile has my matrix ID so if you wanted to talk in a space with more privacy you can send me a message there.
With zero sarcasm: thank you for taking the time to write that explanation out.
However, this is kind of exactly what I’m talking about. You’re saying I can use plex, or jellyfin, or kodi, with all the opperating systems (but not?) and you say I can stream to smart TVs, are Chromecasts smart? I can follow instructions, I just don’t understand how this technology stack works together. Nobody even tells me what Linux distro to use!
The issue with Linux is that the best way to run jellyfin is to use docker (setup and running docker is its own thing that takes more time than I care to work on over lemmy). That way it’s Linux distro agnostic. With windows and Mac there is no issues as they have native apps from the server side that gets timely updates.
If you want to use windows, Mac or Linux, plex downloads for the server to house and stream media from can be found here: linux
choose your distro and install as per your distros standard instructions: windows
you can also install the server software via Microsoft’s windows store if you are so inclined.
mac/apple I have no clue if plex lists their server app via the App Store so your on your own there.
Plex will walk you through setup and ask where to find the files you want to add. Jellyfin as well.
Jellyfin files for the server and client(player/viewer) can be found here jellyfin
some options have instructions. Some options require you to be able to understand how to install software specific to a Linux distro and the windows/Mac options should be easy to install and understand.
The Linux distro you want to use will depend on you, but each service has their own preferences.
The end goal of installing all of this is to stream from your server client to the player client software. The server client software will have options on how you want the server seen on your internal network (intranet) and if you want to be able to access the server outside your network, say on your phone on the go (internet). The server clients will also ask you about where they need to look to find the media files you wish to stream locally or outside your network. plex and jellyfin have all of this and more to mess around with, but if you are just doing this at home no need to explore too much if you don’t need to.
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” 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. :)
Linux distro shouldn’t really matter here. Given what you’ve said, I would recommend using Debian just because it’s the most popular server distro and a lot of server guides will either assume you’re on Debian, or have instructions for Debian. For instance, if you see suggestions to install software using
sudo apt install software-name-here, that’s for Debian.You would probably want to use Docker for this. There are instructions on how to install Jellyfin with Docker here.