Dang, Cyst O’Donavan was really onto something here

I’m a fat American, I can confirm all my strength is in my legs

An obligatory “Fuck Blockbuster:” They sucked compared to the local rental shops.

Apple in 2001:

All *arr apps should use root folders to organize media. If I understand the question, here’s the hypothetical situation:

1. Create a root folder for *Arr App.
2. Download media until drive is full.
3. Create a new root folder that points to different drive.
4. Configure *Arr App to move new downloads to new root folder created in step 3.

You should be able to have multiple root folders, but I’ve only checked in So are. One problem you’ll run into is that you can’t break up music artists or TV show series across root folders.

You might want to consider something like OpenMediaVault or Unraid to manage your storage. Either platform (or others) allow you to add drives as needed. I don’t use either so I’m just passing that along as a consideration.

Not sure if my setup is unique or wrong but here’s what I use:

1. I registered a domain with Name cheap and created subdomains for the tools I wanted to access (i.e. jellyfin.domain.tld, sonarr.domain.tld)
2. A DDNS client on my OpenWRT router updates the IP address for those subdomains. Traffic for each subdomain is pointed at my server.
3. Nginx Reverse Proxy runs on my server. This provides HTTPS certificates and is pretty straightforward.

I also use Tailscale for remote access and I’m not sure that my friends and family are ready for that. (Admittedly, I’m still on Plex.) Registering your own domain and using a DDNS service and reverse proxy will give your users an easier experience than Tailscale. I can give an easy-to-remember URL to folks rather than a new VPN platform to learn.

If security is more important, Tailscale is the best option for remote connections.

Why don’t we need this for Plex? Because Plex has all of the above steps baked into its service.

Flauncher is a great pick too

I use the ONN 4K Pro and the ProjectIvy launcher. You can completely hide the standard Android TV OS launcher and its ads. Button Mapper is another good app to have on Android boxes. The remote is full of app-specific buttons that I’ve either disabled or remapped to alternative apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.projengmenu

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutton

I have no idea which codecs are supported.

Thanks everyone, I feel much better about moving forward. I’m leaning towards Proxmox at this point because I could still run Windows as a VM while playing around and setting up a new drive pool. I’d like a setup that I can gradually upgrade because I don’t often have a full day to dedicate to these matters.

MergerFS still seems like a good fit for my media pool, simply only to solve an issue where one media type is filling a whole drive as another sits at 50% capacity. I’ve lost this data before and it was easy to recover by way of my preferred backup method (private torrent tracker with paid freeleech). A parity drive with SnapRaid might be a nice stop gap. I don’t think I feel confident enough with ZFS to potentially sacrifice uptime.

My dockers and server databases, however, are on a separate SSD that could benefit from ZFS. These files are backed up regularly so I can recover easily and I’d like as many failsafes as possible to protect myself. Having my Radarr database was indispensable when I lost a media drive a few weeks ago.

Good catch, yes my drives are 12TB. My brain is still stuck in 2005. :)

I still use Plex because they offer the product I bought, an easy way to stream content on my devices. Others have technical or philosophical issues, which I totally understand. Plex is the easiest option for my situation as of now. It is working great for me and my family.

Nothing lasts forever so it’s good to realistic about the future. If I start having technical issues, it’s Jellyfin. If Plex doubles down on subscriptions, it’s Jellyfin.

If you’re like me, a lifetime Plex Pass holder, I would experiment with Nginx Reverse Proxy now so you understand how it works. I have Overseerr running through a reverse proxy now.

I think it’s a matter of when, not if, Plex will make a business decision that pushes me off their platform. It’s a company focused on profit and that’s fine. And it would be good to be prepared for the future.

Do a barrel roll!

That’s Apple engineering for you: 60 percent of the time it works every time. I grew up with Apple products and the company’s history is lined with head-scratching design choices. It’s been like that since the Lisa.

I like repairable, self-built desktop PCs myself. But for work, the MacBook has been a tank.

My MacBook survived after I left it on top of my car as I drove off. It was flung off into a pedestrian area at the first intersection and has a nice dent on the corner.

Daylight savings time moves the clock to match sunrise and the time we wake up.

I live in the northern hemisphere and the days are shorter in the winter. The sunrise is 8 a.m. on the shortest day (December 21), while sunrise on the longest day (June 21) is 5:45 a.m.

If I’m a farmer and I get up for my chores at 5 a.m. everyday, it’s nice and sunny in the warmer months. By the time it’s October, I wake up well before the sun so I might as well wait another hour. Lots of people had the same idea. Eventually everyone agreed on a day, called it daylight savings time and figured moving the clocks by one hour was simple enough.

But now it’s the 21st century, we have atomic clocks and most people live in the city but it’s hard to break tradition.

Yup! Or more specifically, “noon dinner.”

It might be a Midwest farming thing where there are multiple snack times between chores outside. Two generations ago, my family had a quick 5 a.m. breakfast and lunch (or second breakfast) in the morning These weren’t full meals in the traditional sense. Dinner meant coming in and sitting at the table for a prepared meal. Otherwise it was just stopping in the house for a small bite and a drink.

In the afternoon, they had tea time at 3 p.m. (black tea with snack cakes or open-face sandwiches). By evening, there’d be a last big meal (supper) before going to bed.

It was super confusing for me being the first generation that didn’t grow up on the farm.

Wait until you have family that say that daily meals are chronologically “breakfast, dinner, and supper.”

My i5 6600k will turn 10 years old this year. I’m fortunate because upgrading to 32 GB should keep it running for a while still.

Hell yeah, keep chugging little guy 🤘

If Android is okay, I’d recommend the ONN 4K Pro player from Walmart (if located in the U.S.) with some privacy caveats:

• Do as little with Google: Make a throwaway login if Google requires one to get the device started up. Try to avoid Google Play Store as much as possible. If privacy from Google isn’t a concern, feel free to use your Google account to download apps from the Google Play Store.
• Learn how to sideload apps: There are multiple ways to do this, like a USB drive or FTP server.
• Pick an alternate launcher: This will replace the default Android TV OS UI with one that has much more flexability and no ads. FLauncher and Projectivity are ones that I recommend to friends.

The final product is a modern streaming device with much more flexability than any other store-bought device. Building a HTPC with Linux is probably the true self hosted option. Personally, I’m able to afford some privacy sacrifices with Google for something that “just works.”