this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026

-55 points (24.8% liked)

Selfhosted

60210 readers

942 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

Be civil.
No spam.
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
Submission headline should match the article title.
No trolling.
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details.

Resources:

selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
awesome-selfhosted software
awesome-sysadmin resources
Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

curbstickle@anarchist.nexus

curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world

-55

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

submitted 2 weeks ago by garbage_world@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

73 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?

(page 2) 23 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Auli@twit.social 2 points 1 week ago

@garbage_world To watch what I want.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I like having stuff. I particularly like having stuff and not having to go look for it when I want to watch it. 'scuse me, I'm gonna go start a random Doctor Who episode from over 60 years of material. That said, I live somewhere where torrenting is dicey, so free streaming sites are pretty convenient if you know how to use jDownloader.

[–] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Are you hosting arr stack/plex/jellyfin? Jellyfin/VLC

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

Have you considered not using it? Why?

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

[–] SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Are you asking a technical question or a moral question?

Pragmatically - IDGAF. If I have it on the ssd, I'll watch it there. If I need to download from torrent or usenet and then watch it, cool. If it's easier to use CloudStream (for some transient series), no problem.

I tend to keep a corpus of movies / shows on my ssd because it's always there, always reliable, always fast. I have stuff that's just not easy to find online any more and multi-tenancy / bandwidth are no issue. I can throw it in my bag and watch it wherever, even without net.

It's also agnostic. Not every pirate streaming app works on every device. OTOH, samba share / sftp pretty much does. Tonight I streamed stuff onto a OLPC X-O4...good luck getting fmhy to work with that - it can't even load YouTube directly but stream stuff off the router just fine.

I don't use JF much any more (prefer ssd plugged directly into router, accessed via NovaPlayer on android devices; files uploaded to via ftp transfer - yes, very 2010) but I think its pretty amazing. Cloudstream and fmhy are amazing too. Use what works.

[–] comrademiao@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

It seems everyone here misunderstood your post then spam downvoted you.

For pirating streams versus pirated selfhosted the biggest reason for the latter besides just being a fun hobby is reliability. Internets out? I can still watch whatever I want and know it’s ready to go :)

load more comments