I got pretty bored the other day.So I said to myself, “Self, you should build an ambitious project today and share it with the world.” My Raspberry Pi was on the fritz, so I came up with something even better: a budget, self-hosted media streaming project.And I did it using second-hand hardware and open source software.
Taking a DIY approach to self-hosted streaming Sometimes, you have to take streaming into your own hands Now, my history and opinions about streaming are a bit all over the place.Spotify was great until it wasn’t.YouTube costs too much, and creators use too many sponsorships, despite paying for Premium.
This previously didn’t bother me, and I fully understand why some of them do it, but it’s gotten to the point where I would use the built-in “skip ahead” button.I think I’ve just entered my grumpy old man phase, so YouTube Premium isn’t for me anymore.And that’s okay.
If I don’t like what a service has to offer, I can always go back to my own physical media and ripped CDs/digital music collection.And that’s why I cobbled this project together.If you’re as sick of ad-riddled everything as I am, it might be a fun thing for you to try, too! I bought a cheap, second-hand computer to act as the home base Hardware is the first part of making this work So, the first thing you need to build a streaming project like this is a computer that can not only store your files (effectively acting like a NAS) but also one that can handle the software required.
I’m using open-source software and a few Docker containers for this, so I needed a PC that could handle that.The operating system didn’t matter much, since I usually throw a Linux distro on any PC I get.I had to get a little creative with my shoestring budget.
The computer I chose was a small HP laptop with an 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 240 GB of storage space.It originally ran Windows, but I decided to replace the OS with Linux Mint.I paid $120 for it, which isn’t awful, but still a bit more than I would have liked.
In addition to the available hard drive space (240GB), I have a Western Digital external drive (1TB) that I bought for $45 a few years back that can act as a makeshift NAS for extra files.My collection isn't that big, though, so it'll be available for when I expand and add more media.With my hardware ready to go, it was time to do the actual streaming setup.
Plex is the obvious choice for video After some back and forth, I finally committed to Plex Close The hardware I chose will work great for my self-hosted streaming setup, and acquiring it was actually the hardest part of the process.Software implementation wasn't an issue at all, because I use both Plex and Jellyfin extensively with other devices.For the video streaming, I went with Plex.
Out of all the software I've tried for this sort of thing, it just wins based on interface, usability, and how easy it is to get video going.I had my son (who’s a bit of an expert at Plex; I know more about Jellyfin myself) set it up on the new laptop, and he added some shows.So the video was good.
We had to limit things a bit due to space concerns, but that’s fine, as I’m very picky about my shows.In less than 2 minutes, I was watching and, later, with my wife on the big TV in the living room.She was very happy.
Jellyfin takes care of the audio A simple Jellyfin setup handles music, live shows, and podcasts Since I don’t like PlexAmp much and Symfonium is more of a phone-only thing, I decided to take a different approach to music hosting.But you know what work and is great for hosting your own music? Jellyfin.I wasn't too keen on its video capabilities in the past, but Jellyfin works wonders for this type of music.
I’ve used it both locally and for streaming to devices before.All I needed to do was add my music folders to the laptop, set up a new Jellyfin server, and then configure the network to allow it to connect to the phone I want to use for music.Those are all very simple things to do, as long as you follow instructions for setting up network rules properly (it depends on your system).
I will say that my experience with the mobile app isn’t always spot-on, but if I play it from Firefox on my phone, it works great.Jellyfin clearly wins for music here.So, instead of relying on someone else's cloud or a subscription, I can just put my weird music in Jellyfin and play it on any device on my home network that has a browser.
Related I found a box of mystery CDs in my father's garage—here's what 22 years of forgotten data revealed This box of old CDs taught me why you should never throw away your backups Posts By David J.Buck With this setup, I can listen to my ripped CDs, podcasts I've downloaded, and all my favorite episodes of without downloading a thing to my device.Make your own budget streaming server today Half the fun of this hobby is putting together something cool and interesting using limited resources.
I assembled it in one afternoon and spent a bit over $120 on everything, hardware included.The best part is that if I ever get tired of streaming, I can always repurpose the laptop and external hard drive.It’s a win-win situation and, in my opinion, well worth the investment.
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