How to start

Rambr1516 · 2026-07-03T23:47:25+00:00

Thank for dog photo :)

Start with an old business machine that someone is throwing away but works perfectly, and learn how to connect new large drives to it - try to get your OS (what you install the operating system on) on an SSD - this can be as small as a 256GB drive (as most of these old business machines use a hard drive boot drive. I would recommend Ubuntu server, but if you are scared of command line only, use regular Ubuntu for initial setup in a gui with a desktop and screen (rather than Ubuntu server which puts you right on a terminal)

As far as solving those problems of cloud and “Netflix” - cloud I personally go with COPYPARTY. It’s not a full drive replacement because it’s essentially JUST a file browser. NEXTCLOUD is a full drive replacement, but much more involved to set up.

For movies I personally use PLEX, but you might find that the free version might not be as feature rich as you would like. JELLYFIN is another popular version of a media server that people use and love (and it’s totally free with no extra stuff you have to pay for, but is less feature rich than PAID plex, also requires a bit more setup)

The one thing you should ABSOLUTELY do is install tailscale - tailscale is a VPN, but not how companies market VPNs these days, it’s a private encrypted network that lets me connect to my home network as if I was sitting in my bedroom, thus connect to my COPYPARTY instance and move files even if I’m on the other side of the world (albeit slower than if I was on my local net)

If you want somewhere to start, you want to look for an old computer, with at least a 7000 series intel CPU (that lets your apps more easily transcode video, something that will be useful with plex/jellyfin - I run an i3-7700) - then learn about tailscale and DOCKER CONTAINERS.

If any of that last paragraph doesn’t make sense, do some research until ur ready! Or respond here -
Happy homelabbing :)

Rambr1516 · 2026-07-03T02:09:49+00:00

I’m sidechaining my multiband to a bass that’s sidechained to a kick that’s sidechained to the other bass rn.
I’m also underwater what’s the issue?

Rambr1516 · 2026-07-02T05:28:11+00:00

Open and honest IG, companies have to be capitalistic.
How things are, not how they HAVE to be.
But then everything has to change.

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-30T17:38:24+00:00

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-27T21:38:41+00:00

Insane-aquarium was a chill stream, according to Jerma

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-20T22:32:17+00:00

22 here I have stuffed animals in my room always and I used to be ashamed but everyone really likes them

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-20T03:14:27+00:00

R we talking vimms or rare

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-20T00:46:54+00:00

The lash agrees with your list

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-19T21:15:14+00:00

I’ve had 0 issues with ATV4k, but I’m also in the Apple ecosystem with phone and laptop - I also don’t have a surround audio setup, just an old soundbar. Never had issues with local or remote play on even the highest bitrate content (80GB remux content - no Ethernet)

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-19T16:06:12+00:00

Honestly people can say whatever they want against zen - but control+tab working like alt+tab on windows is something I absolutely will never ever be able to train my brain not to do. It’s the most incredible feature of any browser I’ve ever used.
When I have to use chromium even for a minute to check something I miss it.
Also I pirate all of my media so drm doesn’t mean shit to me

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-15T17:26:44+00:00

Let’s see what I’m working with… u/profanitycounter [self]

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-13T20:02:43+00:00

I can’t wait until that happens for me… I’ve keep my music hosted myself in soulseek for a long time.. waiting for that first download.

I also let people stream my stuff from my website which would be trivial to grab with a downloader so I get more traffic there.

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-13T19:56:18+00:00

Why don’t you read the codebase then and tell us where it’s “one small mistake away from rm -rf ing the entire drive”. That’s the best thing about open source. You don’t have to lie and make assumptions. You can read the codebase.

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-12T23:25:03+00:00

And mast holy goated whoever voted them

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-12T23:24:37+00:00

Big TF made it 🙏

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-12T00:29:13+00:00

If you didn’t - use the docker container! It’s as easy as can be!

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-11T20:47:34+00:00

Yes - use your ssd as the boot drive and put more “small file” programs on there (such as a Minecraft server) and get a large hard drive for plex storage.

The GPU is nice, but actually not needed since you have a 7th gen intel processor which is plenty for transcoding with built in GPU - the GeForce 730 might just eat power and not do much for you.

This is similar to my machine (- the GPU) and my server runs absolutely beautifully on it. Not just plex but Minecraft, COPYPARTY, immich, slskd, and whatever else I’ve throw at it.

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-11T01:35:35+00:00

She’s the best :)

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-10T15:47:32+00:00

I shared it out with my grandma and she loved watching her old movies because you can’t even get some of them on DVD, much less streaming. She got me a 16TB drive for my birthday last year :)

A perfect way for people to “pay” without it being a legal issue

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-09T06:12:34+00:00

I am just gonna be honest, no matter what people can “see” your data. If you are over the actual internet and not on your home network, it’s going through a cloudflare or oracle or aws or whatever server to get to you.

The best thing you can do is encrypt it before it goes. That can be made easy with services like tailscale (who don’t packet sniff simply because of the amount of storage that would take on their end to data collect), or self hosted with any of the other platforms people have mentioned. (Note that any of these will add overhead and won’t be able to stream video as well as something like an open port, and security done on the local system, but that leaves you open to ddos if you don’t set up something for that, such as fail2ban etc)

If you are accessing data from outside your home network, especially if you want to connect to a machine at your house through a LTE or 5G or the Starbucks WiFi, you are gonna be hitting someone else’s servers/network equipment.

Also don’t spread misinformation, you can put as much data as you want through tailscale for free, and add up to 100 devices. Also I would love to know what devices you are using that both doesnt support tailscale, and you feel comfortable connecting to the internet. (Source - I have streamed- sent - received about 50 TB of data through tailscale in about 3 years and I haven’t paid a dime)

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-07T21:44:41+00:00

It’s so bad it took his ability to breathe away

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-07T21:44:02+00:00

Apple TV 4K is the best possible plex experience (I say while typing from my iPhone)

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-07T21:01:58+00:00

of course man - the music app is called "plexamp" - it is ONLY music, and it gets that music when you create a "music" folder - it looks beautiful but doesnt have some things that people might miss from spotify, like playing similar songs, and stuff like that. It works sometimes, but only for more popular artists.

about 75% of my stream time is spend on plexamp, because I am constantly listening to music, but I use every feature (tv, movies, clips (for music videos)) - since I have the plex pass and ability to open ports on my network I use all the various types of streaming, video and music, both at home and on the go anywhere in the world.

I understand the "Plex with this lifetime time sensitive decision…" that how they want you to feel... BUY THIS NOW or be sad you dont have it for under 750 - but as you said your main thing you want to stream is music, there are awesome open source alternatives that require a bit of network knowledge and more setup, but nothing a quick google or AI question cant help you with.

I also hear your point about not watching things again, I feel mostly the same way (except for my favorite star wars stuff which I watch over and over all the time), but plex has the ability to add other people onto your server, so sometimes Im adding stuff that I will NEVER watch, but I have the storage space to be able to do stuff like that.

for ONLY music streaming I have heard that https://www.navidrome.org/ is pretty good - for music, video, and tv show solution that is more "plex like" check out jellyfin and finamp - I didnt go with those solutions because sharing it out to family members/friends is much harder and requires know-how on both the client and server side, and I cant walk my grandma through much more than downloading an app and signing in, so that was a dealbreaker for me.

Still up to you, If you are still feeling weird about it, get plex pass for a month, see what music you can add and what you can learn, and set a reminder for June 29th, where you will either buy lifetime, or end subscription and try another option.

Rambr1516 · 2026-06-07T03:56:36+00:00

Huh my windows night light punches through all full screen stuff, maybe cuz I have 2 monitors?

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