The Starbucks of TV.
You know how there seems to be a Starbucks on every corner these days? The same goes for streaming services. With, what seems like, every major television company creating their own streaming services and our favorite shows being locked behind that paywall it feels like we have to buy them all just to watch what we want. Now the services are buying each other out to create......cable tv? Well, maybe not cable as some of us remember it, but it sure seems to be going full circle.
How do I get out?
Check out your bank statement. How many streaming services are you paying for and how much does it add of up each month? I'm willing to bet it's a lot more than you thought. Those monthly subscriptions can really add up and a lot of people feel like they have no other choice, but to pay them. That's where self-hosting comes in. If you read my previous article Self-Hosting: Stop Renting, Start Owning you will have a very basic idea of what self-hosting is and how to get started. If you've made it that far then one of the best things you can do is start with your media.
Here's a list of my suggested applications to get your own streaming service going:
- Jellyfin - Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached. Your media, your server, your way.
- Bazarr - Bazarr is a companion application to Sonarr and Radarr. It manages and downloads subtitles based on your requirements. You define your preferences by TV show or movie and Bazarr takes care of everything for you.
- Prowlarr - Prowlarr is an indexer manager/proxy built on the popular *arr .net/reactjs base stack to integrate with your various PVR apps. Prowlarr supports management of both Torrent Trackers and Usenet Indexers. It integrates seamlessly with Lidarr, Mylar3, Radarr, Readarr, and Sonarr offering complete management of your indexers with no per app Indexer setup required (we do it all).
- Radarr - Radarr is a movie collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It can monitor multiple RSS feeds for new movies and will interface with clients and indexers to grab, sort, and rename them. It can also be configured to automatically upgrade the quality of existing files in the library when a better quality format becomes available. Note that only one type of a given movie is supported. If you want both an 4k version and 1080p version of a given movie you will need multiple instances.
- Sonarr - Sonarr is a PVR for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It can monitor multiple RSS feeds for new episodes of your favorite shows and will grab, sort and rename them. It can also be configured to automatically upgrade the quality of files already downloaded when a better quality format becomes available.
- qBittorrent -A cross-platform free and open-source BitTorrent client.
I can't figure this stuff out!
Have no fear, the internet is here! You aren't the first one to run into problems self-hosting and you won't be the last. I knew nothing about it when I began, but research is your best friend.
For media self-hosting I recommend these sites:
TRaSH
Will I get in trouble?
I am in no way promoting piracy of media, but rather providing you with the tools needed to organize your already owned media. Downloading media that you do not own via Torrents or UseNet is illegal and your Internet Service Provider (ISP) could shut off your internet service if you are caught doing so.