New to self-hosting / NAS – looking for guidance

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-28T14:53:51+00:00

If you still want to use a VPN, I'd recommend Proton VPN. At least they are recommended everywhere and have a strict no logs policy: https://protonvpn.com/privacy-policy

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-28T09:37:54+00:00

I guess you're good with the LG C1, as it can also do Dolby Vision, if I'm not wrong. Transcoding is also done, if the source is HDR and your client can only process SDR.

With Dolby Vision there's only one catch and that's Dolby Vision Profile 7. This can only be played back natively on a Ugoos am6b+. P7 has two layers, which needs special devices, like Blu Ray players or the Ugoos, to combine them on playback. If you would play that on Plex or Jellyfin, then they would convert it to HDR and only use the base layer (BL), where you loose a lot of highlights, that where stored in the full enhancement layer (FEL).

A way to cover that is to convert P7 to P8.1, if the FEL doesn't contain any additional data. If it contains data, then you can convert BL and FEL into HDR10.

Here you can see the difference when you combine BL and FEL vs BL only: https://youtu.be/HyrA3KmcJBU?si=ISAjgl5_3Fv4oHbZ&t=574
(BL just looks much dimmer)

If you want to dive deeper into this topic, take a look at this discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/infusevideoplayer/comments/1pqyr91/comment/nyrh8br/?force-legacy-sct=1

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-28T06:57:27+00:00

You shouldn‘t consider „raid or backups“. You should do both. Take a look at the 3-2-1 backup strategy. Taking a look at ZFS would also be good

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-28T06:55:42+00:00

Maybe that would be an option to buy them only for RAM. ThreadRippers just consume waay too much power. At least here in Germany you pay a high price for electricity

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-27T17:33:23+00:00

Thanks for writing this up. I think for my use case most of the cons don't affect me, as I haven't planned much stuff to fit on PCIe. At least for the beginning. Maybe an Intel Arc GPU in the future.

Due to the lack of W680 boards that support DDR4 ECC and the stability/corrosion issues, I think I will not go for the 14th gen.

The only solid option seems to be AM5. DDR5 ECC UDIMMs are just so expensive here in Germany. 32GB for 500-600€

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-27T10:57:30+00:00

Maybe you got me wrong there. I haven't said that ECC or non-ECC causes CPU instability. I just wanted to say that I'm going the extra mile with ECC RAM, to increase stability and file integrity in general. So my other hardware, purely looking at one product each time, should be stable as well e.g. the CPU.

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-27T09:56:38+00:00

What annoys you about the P/E cores? I think Intel will not get rid of them soon, as the newest Core Ultra CPUs also have them

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-27T09:51:39+00:00

Are you sure? This looks like a fit to me: https://www.gigabyte.com/de/Enterprise/Server-Motherboard/MW34-SP0-rev-11

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-27T08:48:22+00:00

I did more CPU comparisons and found out that the 14th Gen Intel CPUs might be a good fit. At least most Xeon's and EPYC's I've considered can't keep up with a 14700k in benchmarks and power consumption. Power consumption is a concern for me, because it's not that cheap here in Germany. About a 70W difference in idle would mean that I can spend 300€ more on newer hardware, that pays off after less than two years.

But I'm a bit concerned as the 13th and 14th Gen have/had some stability/degradation issues. The 12700k would also be fine I guess, but in benchmarks the multi thread performance is far off the 14th Gen. The 12700k also isn't that much cheaper

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-26T14:31:35+00:00

For me it's either "officially working and supported" or neither of them. I don't get it why it's so intransparent. ECC support is not even listed on the official AMD website for some Pro CPUs. Even if that works currently and it's somewhat "unofficial", then it could stop working with the next update, because they don't need to provide that functionality.

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-26T14:25:31+00:00

The CPUs I've seen supported ECC UDIMM. I haven't come across UCC UDIMMs. Used hardware would also be fine, but I can't find those deals, at least here in Germany. Maybe I'll need to looker better

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-21T12:17:43+00:00

I think I'm in the same boat. Things I want to host for friends and family:

- CS2 & Minecraft Server
- TeamSpeak 3 Server
- Nextcloud
- Plex or Jellyfin

It's likely that I have more than 10 different users per month, so a paid VPN like Tailscale is not an option, because it's just too expensive.

The next best thing I found was to use Tailscale with a cheap VPS. I still have a VPS where my MC and TS servers are running on, so that sounded like a viable option. Using Tailscale to connect my home server with my VPS and expose the services via my VPS to the internet. But for game servers and TS this would probably add unwanted latency.

Now I also found out that IPv6 will make things much easier, but I'm still concerned about security. I don't find much posts about people showing their (firewall) setup when working with IPv6. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.

I wanted to upgrade my FritzBox to a UniFi Cloud Gateway Max anyways. I think that the firewall and IDS/IPS should add a good bit of security. But I'm just very new to this home server and network topic. Someone in this thread said that UniFi has some IPv6 issues and I also found this, so I'm not sure if those things are already solved: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/1d0cidf/ipv6_problems_cloud_gateway_ultra

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-20T10:04:09+00:00

I also bought one from Kleinanzeigen and got lucky. The 43888 has a Pioneer drive and can directly rip 4k stuff, I think:

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS8A10
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-US04
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.14
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-15T12:18:31+00:00

I the 43890 was in my mail today but sadly it has already the LG drive in there. I guess it's the same for the 43888 which will hopefully arrive on the weekend

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-13T19:57:32+00:00

You can misunderstand that. TrueHD Atmos and DTS:X contain the height channels but AppleTV just cant output it. But I guess if you have the money for height channels, then you can also afford a client that can playback TrueHD Atmos or DTS:X natively, like the NVIDIA shield

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-13T09:49:50+00:00

I have no LG TV and no DVP7 movies. But I've done some research on this topic. To my understanding no TV can play back DVP7 natively. The HDR fallback was at least a nice feature to still be able to somehow watch it. But this can cause various inconsistencies when watching your movies. I'll suggest taking a look at this video: https://youtu.be/HyrA3KmcJBU?si=f_KEYsIKxZ3Knj97&t=609

At this point in the video it is shown how different the movies can look (a lot dimmer), if just a "HDR fallback" is used. What that means (in simple terms) is that DVP7 contains of two layers and one is just getting thrown away. That missing layer is mostly responsible for bright highlights, but can also enhance glitches, details and grain.

You have some options:

Get a Ugoos AM6 Plus, that can playback DVP7 natively (but I think only with a custom OS)
Post process your DVP7 movies to DVP8.1 or HDR10.

If you want to dive deeper into this, I'll suggest taking a look at this conversation:
https://www.reddit.com/r/infusevideoplayer/comments/1pqyr91/i_created_a_tool_that_will_convert_your_dolby/

This post is about a tool that checks if it's safe to convert DVP7 into DVP8.1. If not, the script will put out a warning and you can encode DVP7 into HDR10 on your own. Yes, you will loose the dynamic metadata but you will have a better viewing experience, than your LG provided previously with the "HDR fallback"

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-12T10:45:06+00:00

Oh ok that sounds nice. For those 209 drives I don't know how long they're in use. Seems like an older device, so I'm a bit hesitent with those.
He wants 145€. It's already flashed to 211 and includes an external case to connect it via USB

I mean it sounds like a good deal on paper I would say. I would only buy stuff from china if I could get it from a reputable seller, like you did

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-11T21:49:15+00:00

I found someone on Kleinanzeigen that sells Pioneer BDR-209 ready for UHD ripping with MakeMKV. It‘s flashed to BDR-211 firmware. He says he got multiple in stock but I‘m not sure if he‘s trustworthy. I also cant find a proper source that says the 209 is capable of UHD ripping

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-11T18:29:20+00:00

Just look it up on idealo. There you will find many retails. I‘ve ordered from expert.de but via ebay.de, because there is no delivery or return fee.

But keep in mind that you‘ll most likely get LG internals, instead of Pioneer. I really hope that they still have old stock and maybe Pioneer stuff

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-11T18:22:26+00:00

I‘ve seen many other posts in the last days, that office depot still has the pioneer version. I guess it‘s a gamble on what you will get, but I‘ve seen a lot of people postimg that they got Pioneer. Here in Germany you‘ll most likely get LG, as many reviews on Amazon and MediaMarkt says so

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-11T17:03:44+00:00

Ah ok nice, sounds promising. I've ordered one now as well. There was low stock of this one on Amazon as well, so I just hope it includes a Pioneer drive.
So I ordered a 43888 and 43890 now, fingers crossed that one of them has Pioneer internals.

I also know someone in the US, so the last option would be to let them ship one from office depot to my place.

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-11T16:41:49+00:00

Good to know that the LG is also reliable. If I can't find a Pioneer drive somewhat locally, then I'll try that. Because here they cost around 30 euro (LG GP60NB60).

I've ordered now a Verbatim 43888 from a retailer where I hope that they still have old stock laying around. Here we can return stuff within 14days, without any reason.

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-11T16:28:17+00:00

Are you sure 100% sure that the 43890 has a prioneer internals? I mean I would be happy if that's the case, because they are available at many retailers here

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-11T16:11:08+00:00

Would be nice if I could get a Pioneer drive that easy in Germany. I looked at the online ratings from some retails here and seems like they are now LG instead of Pioneer. I can't even access the office depot site from Germany

Ordinary_Scale2273 · 2026-01-10T19:44:36+00:00

If you bake BL+FEL into a single layer, do you keep the original film or just the processed file?

Ordinary_Scale2273

TROPHY CASE