Summary
- I built my own personal streaming service using a media server like Plex or Jellyfin, avoiding subscription fees and content limitations.
- There's an initial investment required for hard drives, a NAS device, and possibly more for optimal streaming experience.
- By creating your own streaming server, you retain control and avoid issues like price hikes or content removal.
If you're like me, you're tired of seeing the phrase “price hike” in headlines about the streaming services you're paying for. I got so tired I decided to use my movie collection to build what you might call a personal streaming service. Here's what it involved.
How do you create your own streaming service?
If you have copies of your movies or shows saved to a computer or external drive, you can use a media server to organize and stream that content remotely to a TV, phone, or computer. If anyone has given you a login for their Plex account, you've seen one of these servers in action. Plex is one of your options, but there are several Plex alternatives out there. I went with Jellyfin for myself. If you want to avoid having to solve technical issues yourself, though, and don't mind spending a little money for premium features, Plex might be your best bet.
We have resources if you want to learn more about running Jellyfin yourself. Instead of retreading that ground, I'm just going to cover some key information about home streaming that I wish I'd known before going in.
One thing I didn't initially think about was that you can avoid paying a subscription by running something like Jellyfin, you're still…