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Why bother with jellyfin, arr stack and everything else if free streaming services exist? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 hours ago by garbage_world@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This post contains content related to media piracy. I couldn't find any rules for this community and I don't know if it's allowed. I accept the risk of getting this post taken down or being banned without knowing the rules.

With that small disclaimer out of the way, let's tackle my question.

I'm a simple self hoster: I have single server made out of an Optiplex 3060 Micro (i5 8500T, 32GB, 14TB of storage in one drive), I use duckdns instead of a real domain and I have no supporting infrastructure. I don't really like watching things, I set up arr stack mainly because everyone says it's the best thing to use a homelab for.

My family have strong opinions on piracy and I know for a fact they wouldn't use my jellyfin, even if I tried to manipulate them, which btw is a really bad practice (if it's as common as responses under posts about getting people to use your homelab suggest).

I also have hard time getting them to even allow me to run my homelab (I'm a teenager, I live with my parents), because it takes space and uses power (for context idle is around 8W).

As I said, I don't watch things that often and even if I watch, I'm extremely monothematic, I watch basically only AOT and sometimes some random popular movie.

I understand that my situation is quite unique, but I find it hard to argue for Jellyfin+arrs when fmhy and countless reliable streaming sites exists.

I already made my mind, I'll stop using those services today. I'm interested how others look at this "problem" tho.

Are you hosting arr stack/plex/jellyfin?

How much is it utilized (in watch hours/week for example, mine was less than 2/week)?

Have you considered not using it?

If you stopped using it and went back, what happened, why did you change your mind?

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[–] nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

Streaming services exist, and i used to use them faithfully, here are some issues with streaming services:

not all content is high definition. Some older sttuff is bad quality and better quality can be found elsewhere like bluerays
if the subtitles suck then you are stuck with them. When selfhosting you can download better ones for those shows.
licensing changes and a show you're watching will be moved to another provider... or not at all. It's just gone.
for a family wanting to watch different shows at the same time, 1 service may not be enough. You may need 2 or 3 or even 5. That adds up $$.
ad-free experience, quality of streams, number of simultaneous streams, etc are monetized under streaming services. This does not happen when you selfhost
You are giving money to large companies that will use their wealth and power to screw you over.

Those are just some that come to mind.

[–] turdburglar@piefed.social 8 points 9 hours ago

shitty uis deserve a spot on this list too. i love britbox but the ui is just the worst.

netflix and its auto play previews is pretty awful too.

[–] garbage_world@lemmy.world -4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I'm talking about piracy streaming sites. I never even considered paying a subscribtion, thar's why I don't have a real domain

[–] HairyHarry@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

So piracy streaming sites are ok for you and your family, but pirated copies are not. Did I understand this right?

[–] garbage_world@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

No, for my family no piracy is okay and for me all piracy is okay. They use their streaming services and I use my free streaming sites

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Well, this is a question about your family's and your stance on piracy, the self-hosting part is immaterial to your decision.

[–] nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 7 hours ago

Quality and subtitles would still be an issue.
You potentially have slower speed compared to official streaming services and definitely slower than your self hosted content.
You potentially run risk of losing access to the content if the site gets shut down.
good luck explaining how a pirate streaming service url is totally legit whereas your plex/jellyfin app is not.
some of those streaming services you still need to pay for, or seed content for other people so they're not "free free" for good quality ones.
if you're buying a usb device loaded with access to one of those sites then that usb device may have malware and no im not just making that up, it has legit happened. There was another more recent story I'm failing to find.

Anyway, i think it's a bad idea. It's not for me. Good luck if that's what you want to do. But for the love of your parents don't use a modded streaming stick unless you want them to get targeted by fraud/ identity theft. No amount of free content is worth that risk.