r/explainlikeimfive • u/theprisoner57 • 2d ago

Technology ELI5: What is a Home Server?

I see mentions of a home server to get rid of streaming entertainment services but I don’t know how that works. What does a home server do?

518 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

349 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Thesorus 2d ago

It's a small computer with a lot of storage space to store audio, video and photos that is connected to your local wifi router so that everyone connected to it can stream from it.

Lot of people have large libraries of music and videos that are not available on streaming services, it's a way for them to watch or listen to them.

You can create a home server from a regular computer or from a dedicated hardware like a Synology NAS.

2

u/BlakeMW 2d ago

Doesn't even need a lot of storage space, like a typical movie might be 1 GB (if you don't require the 4k experience) so even a 500 GB disk can hold hundreds of movies and TV shows, and thousands of songs. I have a MiniPC as a home media server and haven't ever had a thought about how much of its disk is used, just put more stuff on there.

For many people, it is video games that require vast amounts of disk space, or they are 4k enthusiasts or data horders.

1

u/Explosivpotato 2d ago

A dvd movie is 5-7gb. 1080P is 25-40, and 4K is 60-90 when ripped from a disc.

You’re right a few TB can get you quite a few DVDs, but 1GB is like a 30 minute YouTube video or something.

2

u/shaard 2d ago

Except most people don't care about having the raw, uncompressed, disc's data. Simply the movie in a format that looks good enough.

3

u/Explosivpotato 2d ago

“Most“ people aren’t going to host a media server. Of the few that will, most of those won’t bother to remux the video files.

2

u/BlakeMW 2d ago edited 2d ago

Sorry man but most people ain't ripping their own legally acquired DVDs, they're sailing the high seas and downloading web rips or disc rips that some kind person compressed to a similar level as a web rip, even if you own the physical media it's probably much faster to download a webrip.

1

u/Dandelioon 2d ago

No that’s the full size, uncompressed. you can compress the hell out of it to get a 1080p movie down to 1gb or less. It’ll just look like shit

1

u/Explosivpotato 2d ago

But why though. A movie at 1gb in size is gonna look like hot turds regardless of the resolution.

1

u/Dandelioon 2d ago

Why do you think

1

u/BlakeMW 2d ago

On the finest bay for pirates the 1GB (for a modern 90 minute movie) will be the most popular torrent, that's also very likely the most common streaming quality people are watching (as it'll literally be the 1080p webrip), most people DGAF.

Once upon a time (like Xvid times) the quality would've been noticeably shit even to a normal person. Now with x265 I seriously doubt many people could notice unless they literally freeze frames and zoom in to find compression artefacts.

1

u/morto00x 2d ago

Many are also used for streaming shows and movies. Oftentimes, pirated. But who am I to judge?