Learn More
Resend Email
50
n88888888c
7y

I decided to setup a little server on my local network just to make use of a 2TB harddrive I use to store videos.

Told everyone in the house I planned to grow the library over time and that they could access it all in a browser using my system name. It's become quite a fun venture and my video library is shaping up nicely.

Using nginx on a Dell XPS 17 with Ubuntu 16.04 to host a server that just auto indexes a shared directory on my external 2TB harddrive. Kind of an embarrassing rig, but it's just a hobby activity and I do plan to upgrade shit later.

The real fun has been getting to understand a bit more about video files. They used to be magic to me, as complex as their file extension. Now I run a script on all of my torrents which checks the video and audio codecs, converting them if they aren't supported by Chrome's and Firefox's web players, and outputting mp4s using ffmpeg. I feel like I have this stuff down fairly well now. Becoming more and more automated.

Next step is to port forward so I can access it from anywhere, but we'll see about that later down the line.

undefined

ffmpeg

nginx

bash

video

server
Favorite
Ranter
Comments
  • 2
    7y
    👍 I did same on my hostal LAN network.
  • 8
    7y
    I use plex for movies, tv shows and music hosting. Gonna use it soon for picture hosting also
  • 2
    7y
    @ScribeOfGoD Oh hey this looks really cool! Thanks for the comment man.
  • 11
    7y
    Nice work, and also learned plenty of stuff *thumbsUp*
    Maybe you could have saved yourself some time, because most of it already exists.

    I have a setup of a BananaPi with HDD as a fileserver, which also uses MiniDLNA to provide multimedia stuff on the local network. So you only need a DLNA client which every shitty device already has today (Smartphone, DVD/BlueRay-Player, Smart-TV, Raspi as multimedia-box, etc, etc)

    And be careful with port forwarding, not to open up your network to everybody, especially if your working with a web-frontend without a secure login. Maybe better provide access to the outside world only via SSH and tunnel access to your video library via SSH.
  • 1
    7y
    @ddephor Thanks for the tips!
  • 4
    7y
    Or leave it open so I can watch as well
  • 1
    7y
    Agree with ddephor, if you only need one HDD, try hosting it with a BananaPI or OrangePI (Raspberry has no SATA and no gigabit ethernet).

    Plex is awesome if you want to stream media across the network, smbd for Windows clients.

    Welcome to the homeserver club! We meet every Friday 🍻
  • 3
    7y
    i am using plex too. the only problem is the renaming because plex has a naming convention "title - s01e01".. little bit annoying if you download your movies/shows from more than one source
  • 1
    7y
    @MsGeburt You can use some PVR software like Sonarr or Kodi to deal with that (aside from the actual scanning for and downloading of episodes they were designed for 😁), but I'm willing to bet there's plugins for Plex, or software that's Plex-friendly (e. g. makes use of its metadata) that would do the job.
  • 1
    7y
    I also use Plex, but there wanted to mention emby: https://emby.media
  • 1
    7y
    I can recommend emby for such stuff. Yes I know that's not really self-made then but emby is a rocksolid piece of software that works just fine.
  • 1
    7y
    @Jop- Nah, I torrent everything (shh)

    UPDATE

    Well, I've got to say thanks to everyone who mentioned plex. It took me about 10 minutes to set it up last night and it works like a charm! 😁

    With that being said, I'm still going to keep the nginx server running because I've got plans for more than just media and besides, quite frankly it's the more fun option from a dev perspective.

    @MsGeburt About the renaming, that's not such a problem for me because I go through and rename every single thing I download anyway. Bash is my best friend lol.

    @divil I thought that the chrome browser came with the function to cast out of the box - both mobile and desktop. I guess I may be wrong about mobile, but I don't have a chromecast.
  • 1
    7y
    What do you do when that HDD crash and burns?
  • 0
    7y
    @brettski Cry lol, no backups my friend
  • 2
    7y
    @ScribeOfGoD Plex is pretty great.
  • 0
    7y
    @divil Aw that kind of sucks
  • 3
    7y
    @divil why are we limited? usually i've connected a chromecast to my tv but my girlfried asked for it and i gave it to her. since then i've next to my tv an intel nuc with plex installed and the plex panel running. with the plex App you can even stream to the opened webinterface
  • 3
    7y
    @divil if you have a chromecast you can still use plex :)
  • 1
    7y
    Use the Plex app to cast.
  • 3
    7y
    @divil if you have set up a plex server wich can access your movies/shows you can simply download the plex app and stream to your chrome cast :)
  • 2
    7y
    @divil you're welcome mate :)
  • 0
    7y
    Works just the same with emby btw.
Related Rants
devRant © 2021 Hexical Labs LLC
Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Service
Add Comment