This post contains content related to media piracy. I couldn’t find any rules for this community and I don’t know if it’s allowed. I accept the risk of getting this post taken down or being banned without knowing the rules.
With that small disclaimer out of the way, let’s tackle my question.
I’m a simple self hoster: I have single server made out of an Optiplex 3060 Micro (i5 8500T, 32GB, 14TB of storage in one drive), I use duckdns instead of a real domain and I have no supporting infrastructure. I don’t really like watching things, I set up arr stack mainly because everyone says it’s the best thing to use a homelab for.
My family have strong opinions on piracy and I know for a fact they wouldn’t use my jellyfin, even if I tried to manipulate them, which btw is a really bad practice (if it’s as common as responses under posts about getting people to use your homelab suggest).
I also have hard time getting them to even allow me to run my homelab (I’m a teenager, I live with my parents), because it takes space and uses power (for context idle is around 8W).
As I said, I don’t watch things that often and even if I watch, I’m extremely monothematic, I watch basically only AOT and sometimes some random popular movie.
I understand that my situation is quite unique, but I find it hard to argue for Jellyfin+arrs when fmhy and countless reliable streaming sites exists.
I already made my mind, I’ll stop using those services today. I’m interested how others look at this “problem” tho.
Are you hosting arr stack/plex/jellyfin?
How much is it utilized (in watch hours/week for example, mine was less than 2/week)?
Have you considered not using it?
If you stopped using it and went back, what happened, why did you change your mind?
Mostly because all of those streaming apps are an absolutely horrendous experience, and many of them aren’t supported on Linux.
They just show you the same shit over and over. They’re filled with ads, even if you pay, and cram a bunch of other subscriptions down your throat every time you open them.
Are you asking a technical question or a moral question?
Pragmatically - IDGAF. If I have it on the ssd, I’ll watch it there. If I need to download from torrent or usenet and then watch it, cool. If it’s easier to use CloudStream (for some transient series), no problem.
I tend to keep a corpus of movies / shows on my ssd because it’s always there, always reliable, always fast. I have stuff that’s just not easy to find online any more and multi-tenancy / bandwidth are no issue. I can throw it in my bag and watch it wherever, even without net.
It’s also agnostic. Not every pirate streaming app works on every device. OTOH, samba share / sftp pretty much does. Tonight I streamed stuff onto a OLPC X-O4…good luck getting fmhy to work with that - it can’t even load YouTube directly but stream stuff off the router just fine.
I don’t use JF much any more (prefer ssd plugged directly into router, accessed via NovaPlayer on android devices; files uploaded to via ftp transfer - yes, very 2010) but I think its pretty amazing. Cloudstream and fmhy are amazing too. Use what works.
Is your next post going to be in a baking comm asking people if they have considered just buying a loaf at the grocery? Its an important life lesson to get early that its OK that other people have different tastes and priorities than you do.
its OK that other people have different tastes and priorities than you do
There is a great book on this called the ‘The Let Them Theory’ by Mel Robbins. Stop wasting energy on things you can’t control and stop comparing yourself to other people.
She stole that whole bit from someone else’s poem. Check it out.
That’s a shame. I was unaware of that. Still…a good read with some good advice.
Welcome to Lemmy!
Thanks!
This is just silly, but I’ll chime in I guess.
I’m guessing you only ever deal with public trackers om the torrent sode of things.
Since I’m on private trackers (someone with usenet subs probably feel the same) the quality and moderation is far better than the streaming sites.
Also, I’m off the legit streaming sites like Netflix because I’m tired of them shoving things I do not care.
Setting it up the first time is a hassle but nowadays, I’ll just open up my Seer instance and that’s it. This inclide movies, shows, and anime. I don’t hoard.
I know it’s available cuz there will be a notification for it, most just a few hours after the broadcast at most.
I just open JF and watch it, idk what’s more convenient than that.
I don’t count since I do not care about stats. But my whole family use it. Shows/movie for my parents, k-drama/anime for me and sibling.
I prefer to have a collection that’s mine that I will be able to use even if they lock down the internet someday.
im a simple user
I don’t really like watching things
then this shit aint for you. just because you can do something doesnt mean you have to want to do it.
im old and have been doing this for almost 30 years. long before jellyfin; my kids never suffered commercials, never had to worry about some streaming service going up or down. they never had to care whether some source had the show they wanted. even when away from home, they were streaming my shit.
my very large curated collection may be less random than some iptv streams, but sure as fuck is more reliable, dependable, quality controlled and well, i dont even need to have fucking internet access for my shit (my library) to work for me.
Streaming services exist, and i used to use them faithfully, here are some issues with streaming services:
- not all content is high definition. Some older sttuff is bad quality and better quality can be found elsewhere like bluerays
- if the subtitles suck then you are stuck with them. When selfhosting you can download better ones for those shows.
- licensing changes and a show you’re watching will be moved to another provider… or not at all. It’s just gone.
- for a family wanting to watch different shows at the same time, 1 service may not be enough. You may need 2 or 3 or even 5. That adds up $$.
- ad-free experience, quality of streams, number of simultaneous streams, etc are monetized under streaming services. This does not happen when you selfhost
- You are giving money to large companies that will use their wealth and power to screw you over.
Those are just some that come to mind.
shitty uis deserve a spot on this list too. i love britbox but the ui is just the worst.
netflix and its auto play previews is pretty awful too.
I’m talking about piracy streaming sites. I never even considered paying a subscribtion, thar’s why I don’t have a real domain
So piracy streaming sites are ok for you and your family, but pirated copies are not. Did I understand this right?
No, for my family no piracy is okay and for me all piracy is okay. They use their streaming services and I use my free streaming sites
Well, this is a question about your family’s and your stance on piracy, the self-hosting part is immaterial to your decision.
- Quality and subtitles would still be an issue.
- You potentially have slower speed compared to official streaming services and definitely slower than your self hosted content.
- You potentially run risk of losing access to the content if the site gets shut down.
- good luck explaining how a pirate streaming service url is totally legit whereas your plex/jellyfin app is not.
- some of those streaming services you still need to pay for, or seed content for other people so they’re not “free free” for good quality ones.
- if you’re buying a usb device loaded with access to one of those sites then that usb device may have malware and no im not just making that up, it has legit happened. There was another more recent story I’m failing to find.
Anyway, i think it’s a bad idea. It’s not for me. Good luck if that’s what you want to do. But for the love of your parents don’t use a modded streaming stick unless you want them to get targeted by fraud/ identity theft. No amount of free content is worth that risk.
nice try fbi
I just like actually owning all my stuff and don’t want to deal with sites randomly shutting down, moving, having an incomplete or miss-organized library, bad quality, etc. My own collection certainly isn’t prefect but if there is issues I can fix them, it’s all in one place (no different sites for movies, tv shows, anime, music, etc) and it tracks all my watch-history which most free sites don’t. I can one-click download stuff to my laptop or phone for offline-watching (guess you can do that with yt-dlp for most sites, but again more effort)
Are you hosting arr stack/plex/jellyfin?
Yup.
How much is it utilized (in watch hours/week for example, mine was less than 2/week)?
I get about 3 days of watch-time between my 10ish active users per week.
Have you considered not using it?
Nope, I’m so done with the free streaming site whack-a-mole, not going back.
So done with the paid services whack-a-mole and price hikes too.
I never had any issues with the entire site whack-a-mole thing. I just go to fmhy, select some of the starred services and watch.
Because you’re a child who can’t have been at this for more than a couple years. Most of the sites you use now probably won’t be there in 5 years.
And? The indexes are constantly updating, based on working sites. It might have benn different back in 2000s or 2010s, but now it’s pretty easy to find a new site when the old one closes
…which is the whack a mole you claim wasn’t an issue for you.
No one said it was hard. It’s annoying. And unnecessary with an arr setup.
Unless you are on a private tracker, the trackers go up and down and require changes every few years too.
We’re all fine with piracy because of enshittification and the spread of shows/films across too many services. Happily paid for Netflix when it was good but it slowly got worse and worse. If there was one fairly priced single (maybe max across 3) source(s), I’d switch back.
In terms of stream vs arr’s. Quality of video and sound matters to us but not for everything we watch. I actually use Stremio with Debrid for most items, especially my family choosing what to watch. When I want top quality I will use my arr stack. When stremio fails I’ll use my arr stack. For TV shows we watch regularly we use the arr stack, partly to remind us when they’re released. For TV shows we regularly re-watch I use the arr stack.
Here is a few off the top of my mind:
Streaming services take away content all the time, license expired and goes to another service.
Streaming services do not have everything, they are actually quite limited on content.
Streaming services often remove episodes from seasons, so you don’t even get all the episodes.
Pirate streaming sites go down all the time as governments crack down.
Streaming services cost more and more and more, with less and less content.
Some media is only available on older mediums such as VHS (and never came out on dvd, streaming, etc) but pirates have archived these rare movies.
You might feel like the world is available to you online, but I have been around since the start of the internet and have seen many, many things go the way of the dodo 🦤. Things go away. Websites gone, files gone, laws change, etc. if you’re not archiving it, you may never see it again.
I suppose some people like to collect stuff. You’re right that it’s easy to access mainstream stuff, but once you decide to watch some less known movie - especially an old one - you may struggle to find it. Even with somewhat popular movies there are things like extended/director’s cuts, remasters, re-releases, etc. So I get it.
With that said, I watch on average one movie per week, so android tv with a video player that can browse a samba share is more than enough for me.
This ^. I was able to find media that is not available to view on any streaming service that I saw as a kid and unedited. While I understand the need to tweak certain programs for modern audiences… ok no I don’t.
I couldn’t find any rules for this community and I don’t know if it’s allowed.
Its allowed up to the limits of the lemmy.world TOS, so no direct links, discussion is fine.
mainly because everyone says it’s the best thing to use a homelab for.
Great for self-hosting if its something you use. Not really a homelab thing, these two things are not necessarily the same either. My hosted services for the family are entirely segregated from my lab, which does a very different job.
How much is it utilized (in watch hours/week for example, mine was less than 2/week)?
Over the past 30 days… Up to 6 streams at a time, 15 days worth of streaming hours.
Great for self-hosting if its something you use. Not really a homelab thing, these two things are not necessarily the same either. My hosted services for the family are entirely segregated from my lab, which does a very different job.
My thoughts exactly. OP should look for something else to host on the homelab, there’s plenty out there.
Over the past 30 days… Up to 6
Nice, how many users?
Just family, but everyone has their own home. So my moms house, brothers house, sisters apt, BILs, F/MIL, etc.
Videos of dance recitals and such just went up too, so thats probably about 8 hours of watching this week alone.
My still-learning-to-read children are able to use it. They’d be unable to navigate a streaming site even if I trusted them to do so.
Now that it’s set up, the maintenance is negotiable. I can just browse my TV shows to see what new episode has aired.
I have single server made out of an Optiplex 3060 Micro
I’ve got a couple of Optiplex including a 3020 micro. Snappy little machines.
I also have hard time getting them to even allow me to run my homelab (I’m a teenager, I live with my parents), because it takes space and uses power (for context idle is around 8W).
Do a cost analysis. Present your parents with the results. Offer to do odd jobs around the house to offset the incurred cost of power consumption. For instance, generally speaking, that OptiPlex 3060 Micro running 24/7 in my locale would cost me about $3 per month to run 24/7. Which is pretty negligible, but understandable that your parents are concerned with costs and resources. Sometimes parents default to that boomer mentality that ‘I didn’t have a server when I was a kid and I walked to school uphill, both ways, in the snow, barefooted’. LOL However, when presented with some facts, charts n graphs, and a goal to learn a life skill, you might see some leniency.
Are you hosting arr stack/plex/jellyfin?
I do not run the 'arr stack, but I do run about 38 other containers on my Ubuntu Jammy server. I prefer reading to watching.
Not sure why you are getting down voted, but don’t let it get under your skin.
