I used Plex for my home media for almost a year, then it stopped playing nice for reasons I gave up on diagnosing. While looking at alternatives, I found Jellyfin which is much more responsive, IMO, and the UI is much nicer as well.
It gets relegated to playing Fraggle Rock and Bluey on repeat for my kiddo these days, but I am absolutely in love with the software.
What are some other FOSS gems that are a better experience UX/UI-wise than their proprietary counterparts?
EDIT: Autocorrect turned something into “smaller” instead of what I meant it to be when I wrote this post, and I can’t remember what I meant for it to say so it got axed instead.
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-install-jellyfin-nas/
Why wouldn’t you want your home media server software running on the server that’s in charge of storing your media?
EDIT: I apologize, I’m not trying to patronize you or be argumentative, I’m just trying to understand your setup. So you have a PC (NAS) where all your files are stored, a second PC running your home media server software that needs to talk to the first PC and see what’s stored on it so it can then serve that content to clients on your local network, like a TV? Instead of just running the server software on the first PC to begin with?
There are many reasons to do so, such as wanting to use GPU acceleration or a better CPU than what your NAS or SAN has to offer.
I’m afraid I’m not familiar with CPJ. For GPU acceleration, why wouldn’t you add a dGPU to your server? Or are you talking exclusively pre-built NAS solutions that don’t have a dGPU option?
I mean, it’s a NAS. Yes, it’s technically a “computer” but so is your TI86 (I wouldn’t call it a PC, it’s not exactly running minesweeper lol). My NAS is not optimized to run media center streaming services. My media center server, however, is. My media server is great at that, but you what it really sucks at? Also handling multiple TBs of file storage. Yes, an all in one network service machine would be great, alas, I don’t have optiplexes abound. I have a metaphorical web of multiple devices that all do different things. You know, like a network.
I have this setup just because I didn’t want to bother changing the OS the NAS came with, but their software center doesn’t offer jellyfin. I found it easy enough to mount the media drive to the server, though.