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’m fed up with streaming platforms and want to turn an old PC into a pirate movie streaming server. It’d be nice to have a detailed guide on what services to use, how to get it to stream to devices, and how to set up a VPN. I assume a Linux distro makes the most sense but I have no platform alleigence. I’m generally pretty competent with computers but I’d like the guide to assume I know nothing about Linux, because I my only experience is with my steam deck
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.