I switched from that container to one that uses qbittorrent and a VPN.

qBittorrent web UI works better on a phone for my use case, and I kept having to manually restart the transmission container whenever the VPN connection dropped.

I always felt like murderous clones are a bit different from evil twins.

From a sci-fi perspective, I’ve noticed that murderous clone stories tend to explore the following themes:

• Whose life is more valid? Does an original have any more right to life than the clone? What aspects of life can never be split between two people with equal claim?
• Would the murder ever matter, in the grand scheme of things? As far as society can tell, the world is exactly the same before you are cloned and after one of you kills the other.
• Could the survivor ever be brought to justice? If the clone tried to kill you because they knew you would try to kill them, does that make it self defence or premeditated murder? Would any punishment would be a net loss for society, when compared before the clone appeared?
• Could this “self destructive” impulse hide deeply inside even the nicest person? How much does a person love themselves? Can self-love even apply when the “self” is also external?

There are definitely UI inconsistencies across devices, especially smart TVs. Jellyfin on Firestick looks different from Jellyfin on Roku which looks different from Jellyfin on WebOS. Some devices deliver Jellyfin through a thin browser client, and in those cases you get access to a unified design. Outside of that it’s a crapshoot as what the app will let you do. Of course, it’s a volunteer project (and all my thanks to any maniac willing to develop TV apps), so I don’t expect that everything can be easily and neatly unified.

I can’t deny that it’s sometimes hard to support my users because of this. Someone complains that they’re getting movies dubbed in an unwanted language: I can’t guarantee that the button to select audio track will look the same on their end when I talk them through it.

I have an A380, but I bet an A310 would also do the job fine.

I’ve never actually tested the performance of simultaneous transcodes. However, my server generally sees 2-5 active users on a busy night, and nobody has complained about buffering so far.

Before you run off and get Nvidia, take serious consideration of the Intel ARC line. They’re relatively cheap and have great transcoding performance. They’re supported by Linux out of the box, and I had no problem getting docker passthrough enabled. Unlike Nvidia the drivers don’t have built-in limits for how many simultaneous streams you can transcode.

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Does that even have an APU? I don’t think it would have any transcoding hardware without one.

Ah, I see what you mean. Yeah, no way around that without a GPU or a processor with integrated graphics.

You should be able to get a used workstation GPU for $20-40 on eBay. Something from Dell, or a basic nvidia quadro would do the trick. If you could sell the 1660 super for more than that, could be worth the effort.

Alternatively, the 1660 Super would do the trick nicely if you ever needed to transcode video streams, like from running Jellyfin or Plex.

However, I was never able to have the server completely headless.

Depending on what you mean by “completely headless” it may or may not be possible.

Simplest solution: When you’re installing OS and setting up the system, you have a GPU and monitor for local access. Once you’ve configured ssh access, you no longer need the GPU or monitor. You could get by with a cheap “Just display something” graphics card and keep it permanently installed, only plugging in the monitor when something is not working right. This is what I used to do.

Downside: If you ever need to perform an OS reinstall, debug boot issues, or change BIOS settings, you will need to reconnect the monitor.

Medium tech solution: Install a cheap graphics card, and then connect your server with something like PiKVM or BliKVM. They can plug into your GPU and motherboard and provide a web interface to control your server physically. Everything from controlling physical power buttons to emulating a USB storage device is possible. You’ll be able to boot from cold start, install OS, and change BIOS settings without ever needing a physical monitor. This is what I do now.

Downsides: Additional cost to buy the KVM hardware, plus now you have to remember to keep your KVM software updated. Anyone who controls the KVM has equivalent physical access to the server, so keep it secure and off the public internet.