Being a big supporter of open source software, I was looking for a way to share my video files over the home network. Samba was the easy way, and it served as a good temporary solution. What I did was install Ubuntu Server on my Raspberry Pi 4, then set up Samba on it. But I wanted something more than that, and hopefully even access it through my TV.
MiniDLNA seemed like an easy solution, and I almost went with it. Plex Media Server was obviously a choice for the media server but unfortunately, it is closed source. Still, I made it my choice of last resort. I was also looking at Kodi because it does allow file sharing in addition to being a media center by itself. But then, I came upon Jellyfin. Which is open source, has a better web UI compared to MiniDLNA, and is really easy to set up.
The installation instructions were quite easy to follow. As I am using Ubuntu Server, all I did was follow the instructions for install on Ubuntu here. Then, the rest of the setup is done via the web UI, which can be accessed by
http://IP_of_RPi:8096/
All that is really needed is to set up an admin account (and additional user accounts if necessary), then select the folders with media files to be shared.
On the RPi4, hardware acceleration is also possible by following the instructions here. There are some limitations, though.
So now, I have a RPi4 running Ubuntu Server which uses Jellyfin to serve media files over my home network. In addition to being able to access it via the web UI, I can use VLC's UPnP feature to access the media files too. And my Sony TV can be used to view those files too. As Samba is also set up, I can easily transfer files to the RPi4. Not bad for a small little single board computer (with a 2TB external USB HDD).
3 comments:
What are you using for storage of media to play?
Nothing fancy, just a 2TB external HDD connected via USB. This is a headless setup so I did not need separate power for the HDD. However, it is not a new HDD, does not have UASP, so it is not the fastest. I can still playback without lags, though. Ideally, I would want to get two external HDD (with UASP) that can be powered separately, then set them up in a RAID configuration. I will probably do this in the future if I ever decide to make a new server.
OK, thanks! I feel like that's a fine solution on a Pi, though! I have an old desktop as my server, and want it to be much smaller (once I get through ripping), and want to move to a Pi, but wasn't sure how all these Pi ones worked, and if a USB external HDD would work, but sounds like it should. Cheers.
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