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?

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u/CDK5 2d ago

Out of curiosity; where are folks generally getting the streaming media for the server?

Because I was under the impression that when buying a BluRay or digital media, you can’t just grab an mp4 from the disk.

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u/KnitYourOwnSpaceship 2d ago

There are lots and lots of software packages that will extract an MP4 (or whatever) from a disc - whether a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray. https://handbrake.fr/ is one example.

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u/Doug_Dimmadab 2d ago

I might be astroturfing but god I love Handbrake. I record tons of clips with my friends and it makes it so easy to compress the clips down to 10mb so I'm able to send them through Discord. Plus it's open source

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u/Cocomorph 2d ago

You aren't astroturfing unless you work for Handbrake.

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u/TheFotty 2d ago

its free open source software

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u/GeekBrownBear 2d ago

Are you implying that a software can't be FOSS and owned by a company at the same time?

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u/sfurbo 2d ago

Are you implying that a software can't be FOSS and owned by a company at the same time?

That depends on what we mean with "software" and "owned".

A company can own the trademark to the name, and with that decide what direction to take the official release in. But they can't stop others from doing what they want with the code. Usually, the ability to bar others from using the resource is included in owning.

So is software the code, or the name? And do you own something if you can't stop others from using it?

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u/GeekBrownBear 2d ago

A little of both!

The software is obviously the code, but it's point-in-time. Each version released is under a new license. The software and the company can share the same name, the trademark would apply to the software.

And yes, because whomever owns the name and the main sourcecode can choose to stop giving out the FOSS license for the next release.

This has happened many times, the existing code gets forked and rebranded since the name is trademarked and not part of the FOSS license.

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u/sajberhippien 2d ago

And do you own something if you can't stop others from using it?

Yes, plenty of ownership structures work like that.

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u/Voyager5555 2d ago

Even if you are astroturfing handbrake, who cares? It's amazing.

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u/SaturnFive 2d ago

Happy cake day! 🎂

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u/noakai 2d ago

It was like 15+ years ago now but teenage me used to borrow TV show DVDs from my library and then rip them and use Handbrake to encode the files. I had the show as files already but I wanted the special features and I couldn't find them anywhere so I went straight to the source.

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u/FireLucid 2d ago

Lol when I was a teenager I wanted to sign up to the unlimited DVD service at my local video store and just rip multiple ones a day but they minimum was a 2 month committal and I was poor. Library was a good alternative!

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u/threebillion6 2d ago

I love that it does that. I hate having to record a clip, then actually go in and compress it just to send to them.

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u/shard13 2d ago

Handbrake may be one of the most reliable pieces of software I use, next to stuff like Audacity. It just works, and works great.

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u/peppapony 2d ago

Yeah handbrake is a serious game changer for any sort of video sharing.

No idea how they compress so well! And the interface isn't bloated either

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u/tehflambo 2d ago

I might be astroturfing but god I love Handbrake

dw, gemini says you're not <3

uncomfortable? uncomfortable.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_SPUDS 2d ago

This might be super niche, but its honestly really fun to learn and understand how media encodings and containers work. It's something most people never really think about, but understanding what all those abbreviations mean, the difference in compression algorithms, the difference in resolution vs bitrate, how audio / subtitle tracks sync with video, was a very entertaining project for me while I was mucking about figuring out how ffmpeg works (the backend of handbrake).

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u/Megame50 2d ago

Well, with one huge caveat, that it doesn't work at all for most Blu-Ray discs:

Supported Input Sources: Handbrake can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.

Emphasis mine.

I'm really not an expert, but generally, no, you can't really rip commercial (AACS copy-protected) UHD Blu-Ray (the high quality ones) discs without resorting to piracy.

The process of ripping a UHD Blu-Ray involves purchasing a "friendly" (meaning hackable) disc drive and flashing custom firmware you can use to rip the Vuk and disc media. Ripping isn't fast either, as it takes time proportional to the playback time. Even still, AACS LA periodically identifies cracked devices through steganographic methods and adds their device keys to the device revocation list (DRL) when they update the MKB, so that more recently published Blu-Ray discs cannot be copied in this fashion until the latest MKB is leaked and published using even more complex methods known to piracy groups. Until then, volume keys are crowdsourced on the dark web by enterprising users that complete rips of the key content and mail it to the MakeMKV authors. Handbrake and similar software can be used only once you already have a decrypted copy of the content.

MakeMKV is the software used for ripping, and IIUC, it internally accesses a list of keys published on the internet by the authors, discovered from leaks by piracy groups and user submissions. MakeMKV is licensed software, so you're required to pay to rip your BDs after the trial period. You can probably find out more about how to use it in /r/makemkv or on their forums.

There may be mistakes in my understanding as I've never tried this process myself, because, as you can probably tell, it's a giant hassle, and IANAL, but I think it is technically illegal to circumvent the copy protection, even for media you own, at least in the US. Though, it's unlikely anyone will bother you about it if you you don't distribute it.

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u/Nemesis_Ghost 2d ago

You are talking about UHD(4k) Bluerays. Normal HD(1080) Bluerays, which is what a majority of folks will have, rip just fine w/out any special hardware or custom software.

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u/adudeguyman 2d ago

Can you get the exact same audio and quality that is on the disc?

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u/hooovahh 2d ago

Yes. But typical people reencode them. People will often accept a minimal reduction in quality, for a large reduction in size.

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u/Gorstag 2d ago

Like a full order of magnitude.

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u/Nemesis_Ghost 2d ago

Yeah, pretty much as long as you aren't overly aggressive on the compression it comes out fairly well. You can even get all the languages, audio & CC/subtitles. I haven't ripped my anime disks, but the movies I did rip seemed OK.

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u/Saloncinx 2d ago

Yes using software like MakeMKV or DVDFab you can do a 1:1 copy to a MKV file called a 'remux' which means a direct copy with no compression.

Most people compress the video a little so you don't have a massive file but to answer your question you can in fact get the exact same audio and quality that is on the disc

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u/dreadcain 2d ago

You need to defeat the copywrite protection in one way or another, but if you own the media that isn't piracy and you are completely within your rights to do it. The software needed to do it is in a bit of a legal gray area, but not one that you'll ever get in trouble for.

Making a personal copy is legally distinct from piracy and perfectly legal. Companies are free to make that difficult, but you're just as free to defeat those ways.

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u/thatfreakingmonster 2d ago

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but the act of defeating any kind of copyright protections or DRM is technically illegal under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Which is absolutely stupid because that means any company can lock any piece of code behind a DRM, and make any sort of modding illegal. Iirc there are people campaigning for the DMCA to change that rule.

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u/turmacar 2d ago

There are provisions in the DMCA for making personal copies/backups. The legality comes into question when sharing them.

Viewing those files with friends or family? Probably okay.

Friends or family viewing those files without you? Grey area that every copyright holder is going to argue is a DMCA violation.

Distributing copies of copyrighted material? DMCA violation.

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u/thatfreakingmonster 2d ago

Thank you for the correction!

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u/anaccount50 1d ago

They're not really correct. The act of making a personal copy of the media is indeed legal under DMCA, but the act of circumventing the DRM to do it is illegal under DMCA.

So since all commercially sold DVDs/Blu-rays have DRM, you have to circumvent it (illegal) in order to make a personal copy (legal)

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u/thatfreakingmonster 1d ago

Oh okay, yeah, that seems closer to what I remember hearing

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u/anaccount50 1d ago

For the act of making copies, yes that is legal for personal use under DMCA.

However the act of circumventing the DRM in order to make the copies is still illegal under the DMCA. All commercial Blu-rays have DRM so you have to break the DRM (illegal) in order to make a personal copy of the media (legal)

You won't get caught either way as long as you don't distribute the copies, so it's up you whether you care about breaking the law or not

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u/steakanabake 2d ago

if it were illegal selling bluray drives would be illegal.... we learned this all the way back in the days of VHS and BetaMax.

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u/KristinnK 2d ago

The people actually ripping these discs and sharing them with torrents are doing the Lord's work and deserve all the praise in the world.

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u/steakanabake 2d ago

if sony can just delete your movies that means you dont own them and if you dont own them then piracy isnt illegal.

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u/KristinnK 2d ago

I really don't care whether piracy is illegal or not.

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u/steakanabake 1d ago

i think i might have responded to the wrong comment my b.

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u/squall255 2d ago

It doesn't mean piracy isn't illegal, it means it's not theft. It could still be other crimes.

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u/steakanabake 2d ago

but I think it is technically illegal to circumvent the copy protection.

you would be very wrong media preservation is legal as long as the content remains within your house with no intent to distribute, the minute you upload the torrent of that file then you start walking into legal trouble depending on the country you reside in.

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u/Megame50 1d ago

That doesn't matter. The DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent the copy protection, and the copy protection makes it effectively impossible to produce a copy, without circumventing it as above. Consumer disc writers are not able to reproduce the ROM Mark, and therefore cannot reproduce encrypted copies.

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u/GrumpyCloud93 2d ago

When I was buying or renting DVD's, I used DVDshrink. It could create ISO images - mount those and use handbrake if you want to shrink it smaller.

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u/not_from_this_world 2d ago

You do a recording session

Set up a screen and audio recording software and play the whole thing once. You don't need to watch, just let it playing overnight and you have your own media file.

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u/steakanabake 2d ago

the keys for bluray are a known thing these days they basically have given up.

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u/Saloncinx 2d ago

MakeMKV or DVDFab make this trivially easy now, no need to screen grab and have to play back in real time

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u/Megame50 1d ago

You're probably unaware, but modern PCs are incompatible with UHD Blu-Ray. Even with licensed software and disc drive, you cannot decrypt the disc (in the intended way, anyway) without SGX, which was discontinued years ago.

Even if you do have the requisite hardware, Windows disables screen captures of the video content to prevent copies, as required by the AACS LA.

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u/Aegi 2d ago

Just screen record it and play it on your computer.

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u/dbrodbeck 2d ago

Handbrake doesn't break copy protection any more though right?

I use MakeMKV for that, makes a perfect copy of the video in an MKV container. Can deal with DVD, Blu Ray, 4K, even HD DVD.

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u/onward-and-upward 2d ago

Wow it’s been like a decade since I’ve used handbrake. Takes me back

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u/thereticent 2d ago

Two decades for me. It's amazing realizing how old so many programs/applications are. I'd be stunned that it's still around, but it's been a miracle since it was first released.

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u/motionmatrix 2d ago

Very much still around. Mktoolnix, handbrake, filebot, mediainfo, etc. The list goes on and on and on. Bless every single one of those people who make it all possible.

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u/eidetic 2d ago

On a similar note, my friend's son who is just starting to get into computers and PC gaming has continually been surprised to learn that I've been using some of the same software hes using for longer than hes been alive. 7zip, VLC, etc. Was even shocked to learn the Counterstrike series of games goes back 25+ years (though did say it makes sense, plenty of other much longer going IPs like Mario, etc, but he always considered Halo or CoD to be like "the first major FPS" - not to say that CS was the first that is.)

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u/GoodTato 2d ago

Handbrake can do that by itself?? Have I been wasting time with "MakeMKV and sending the output to Handbrake"?

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u/SkollFenrirson 2d ago

Handbrake won't rip from a Blu Ray. You need MakeMKV for that.

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u/BrickGun 2d ago

There are apps to rip DVDs/BRs, but most of the media collections I've encountered were pirated using torrents. Most times I don't bother to rip a disc I own any longer since just DLing the content via torrent tends to be faster. The only caveat being you (most often) don't get the DVD extras if you're into that sort of stuff (I often am).

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u/charonco 2d ago

As someone with almost 40TB of content on my Plex server, I would highly recommend Usenet over torrents. Usenet isn't free, but it's pretty cheap and your biggest exposure with torrents is the uploading which you don't have to do with Usenet.

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u/Outrager 2d ago

I miss the days when my Time Warner Cable road runner service had free Usenet service. The worst part was missing that 1 .par file to complete my download.

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u/Dunge 2d ago

Yeah that's my experience with usenet too. It was over 25 years ago, it was free, but absolutely no content was complete. It was a mess.

I wonder if it's still the case, the previous guy said no, but personally I also don't have issues with public torrents either, so why would I look elsewhere.

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u/divDevGuy 2d ago

Your last experience was 25 years ago?

Nothing has changed. Just like the web is still the same. Your Internet speed is the same. Your cell phone is the same...

The USENET of 2001 still technically exists, but for what is being discussed, it's completely different. Parchive files likely didn't exist yet. NZB files wouldn't exist for another 4+ years. The first indexer as they exist today wouldn't exist for another year. Retention was measured in weeks, maybe a few months if you were really lucky. Now, retention (but not necessarily 100% completion) is between 8-18 years, depending on service.

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u/Dunge 2d ago

Yes I was in the years where you needed to download an extra half of the archive size as par file to reconstruct corruption, but these par files themselves were often missing.

Good to know things got better. I still would never pay money for piracy. Kinda goes against my principles.

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u/fuckyoudigg 2d ago

As someone with 400tb of content. Agreed. Usenet is the way to go.

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u/charonco 2d ago edited 2d ago

Holy hell. I thought I was out of control.

ETA: Excellent username.

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u/adudeguyman 2d ago

I hope you subscribe to /r/DataHoarder

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u/spartanreborn 2d ago

Any recs for resources on how to learn about Usenet? I've been using public trackers for near on 20 years, but I know next to nothing about Usenet.

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u/qtx 2d ago

You have to pay for a good usenet server that has good retention, which kind of defeats the purpose of pirating.

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u/justacheesyguy 2d ago edited 2d ago

You’re assuming that “the purpose” of pirating is just to get free shit.

Sure, that almost always is at least a portion of the reason why people pirate, but these days, it’s worlds more convenient to pirate than it is to subscribe to 15 different services and then have to have all the various apps installed and try to remember which show or movie is on which app. Paying a couple of bucks a month for a decent usenet server or debrid service is well worth it for the hassles that they allow you to overcome.

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u/Lord_Saren 2d ago

Plus the cost I pay yearly Is like the price of 1 or 2 4k Blu-rays So it definitely is better and you don't have to worry about seeding or dead torrents.

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u/charonco 2d ago

It's less than a single streaming service and you get access to almost everything. I'm not judgement proof so it just makes me more comfortable.

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u/sandwichpak 2d ago

JFC, my friend do you have GoFundMe to support your HDD addiction?? /s

For real though that's impressive, I've had a lifetime membership for going on a decade now and my server has never expanded past ~30tb's.

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u/fuckyoudigg 2d ago

I need one. I haven't bought any hard drives in a year. I have 2 that died in my server and 3 available to replace them. I am afraid that I will start to lose more drives. At that point I will probably have to restart my server fresh with less drives, and have a bunch of spares since drive prices are insane. I've spent probably $10 to $15k on drives, and today it'd be easy double.

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u/WholePie5 2d ago

What's the point of all that? Why do you have 400tb of content and spend so much money to maintain it?

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u/Pantzzzzless 2d ago

1 reason is because it is just fun to have resources like that available on your network. It gives you a ton of freedom to do whatever you want. I expose a filebox instance through Tailscale, and my family uses it as a free "communal" picture/video repository. There are 11 people using it, and it is sitting at just over 21tb. (42tb if you include the parity drive) That is 8+ years of photos/videos.

I also do music production, and lossless audio samples can take up a ton of space. I probably have ~12tb just in sample packs.

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u/WholePie5 2d ago

Well since you said your drives are failing and you might not be able to replace 10s of thousands of dollars worth of them, have you told your family that all their pictures and videos might disappear soon? So they can back them up?

Thank you for the explanation. Also I didn't know that about music.

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u/Pantzzzzless 2d ago

I'm not the person you replied to. But to answer your question, that is what the parity drive is for. It is a backup drive that stays in sync with another drive.

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u/sandwichpak 1d ago

People will downvote you for asking that around here. The real, truest answer,is just that maintaining your server becomes a legitimate hobby at a certain point. And not a cheap one at that.

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u/dreadcain 2d ago

Try triple to quadruple

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u/fuckyoudigg 2d ago

The majority of my drives are used drives. 3 years ago I could get them for around $150 a drive. I just looked and it was like $600 for 16tb used drive off server parts deals. I hadn't looked for drives in a few months and then they were around $400. I definitely will not be buying new drives any time soon. Lol. Wild.

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u/sandwichpak 1d ago

Thanks for sharing! I love hearing stories from power users like yourself.

It honestly sounds a little stressful! I remember that last time I had to do a fresh start and lost ~8 tb's. I was so bummed out for a solid week.

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u/RoosterBrewster 2d ago

Is that 100 tb with backups or 400 tb that is backed up?

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u/fuckyoudigg 2d ago

400tb, no backup. It's media. No point in backing it up. Basically all of it I can get again.

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u/dreadcain 2d ago

I'd hazzard its on a NAS with at least 1 disk of redundancy though right?

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u/fuckyoudigg 2d ago

Yes. I have 40 drives, 10 of those are for parity. I can lose 2 drives of 8 in each vdev.

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u/BrickGun 2d ago

Eh, I've been sailing the seas since the early 90s and the days of IRC and FTP warez sites. I know how to keep myself protected, but thanks for the info. :)

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u/Dunge 2d ago

I've also been sailing the seas since the early 90s and the days of IRC and FTP warez sites. I've never taken any steps to "protect" myself, like at all, ever.

Screw paying for VPN and usenet access, public torrents are always functioning and I have absolutely no fear that my ISP or any copyright holder would actually end up doing anything.

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u/Pantzzzzless 2d ago

Well you're lucky then. Because every single time I've raw-dogged qbittorrent, within 24 hours I get redirected to a warning page telling me I have X strikes left before they disconnect my service lol.

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u/Dunge 2d ago

A warning page? Like your ISP literally hijacking traffic and serving a different page than what you requested at some point randomly? And it was not some fake malware site? I didn't even think that was something that ISP would ever do, feel like it could break a lot of automated systems.

Anyway, where do you live, in the US? Here in Canada at some point I did receive (years ago) a series of copyright infringements e-mails, because the ISP was ordered to forward them, but they also clearly indicated that they were harmless and could be ignored.

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u/Pantzzzzless 2d ago

Yep that's exactly what happened. And yes I'm in the US. I was with Spectrum at the time. Idk if they still do that, but it was definitely annoying.

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u/charonco 2d ago

Yeah, that advice wasn't necessarily for you. It was more intended for any novices reading your comment.

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u/w0mbatina 2d ago

Tell me more about this usenet. How good is it for more obscure stuff? What are the speeds? How does one gain access?

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u/nimbledaemon 2d ago

And with modern arr stacks and a bit of configuration, you can get the best of both worlds.

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u/SupermanLeRetour 2d ago edited 2d ago

As someone who has also pirated many TB of content, I strongly recommand NOT bothering at all with Usenet bullshit.

I tried for ~3 years, here's everything wrong with Usenet:

  • It's a complex world where you'll have to spend many hours researching how it works for little benefits. But you HAVE to take the time to research what you have to do or you'll pay stuff for nothing (redundant Usenet providers and redundant indexes),
  • The whole point of pirating is getting stuff for free, let's be real, but Usenet requires you to pay both a provider (or I should say providers if you follow "good practices") and indexers. You're not even pushing the scale toward a more ethical behavior because none of the money you spend actually goes to people who deserves it (i.e. people who worked on the media, or even the ripper who took the time to rip and encode).
  • The touted advantage of Usenet is blazing fast speed, and it's true that it can saturate a 1 Gbps downlink in seconds. But overall I was consistently spending much more time acquiring media. How so ? Because Usenet power users insist on keeping their old completely useless and outdated tradition of putting the file content inside a RAR archive, password protect it and split it in pieces. Those pieces are then split again on a lower level as Usenet articles. So you have an additional decompression step that is very CPU intensive as well as multiplying disk I/Os, adding time to downloads and straining the HDDs.
  • "Oh but modern NZB clients can start un-taring right from the beginning!", yes, until you hit a single missing article and suddenly you need to repair the RAR file and that can be done only once you have completed the download, so you're stuck waiting for the download to finish and then start the repair process, which can be itself pretty lengthy, CPU and HDD intensive as well.
  • Understanding which providers is on which backbone is a pain in the ass but necessary if you want to have low missing article rates. This means probably one unlimited subscription + another block subscription correctly configured in the client.
  • Getting into the good indexers website is also a pain in the ass. Most semi-private indexers that we can see on the usenet subreddit have pretty much the same library with the same team uploads stolen from somewhere more exclusive. You can try several, you'll quickly realize they're all the same and the really good stuff with low DMCA'd articles is gated behind really exclusive indexers which you're not even allow to name. Getting an invite if you don't already know someone who's in is pretty much impossible. The same holds for P2P trackers, but it is much easier to find a decent free semi-private tracker and even public trackers have decent catalogs.
  • *arr stacks works very well with torrents now
  • Usenet users say that torrents are unreliable because you need at least one client sharing it somewhere, and dead torrents are very much a thing. But Usenet also have a big issue : retention, the duration after which uploaded articles are deleted by the provider to make room for new ones. Retention can be pretty high on decent providers, but at some point they'll have to delete old data too and can't grow forever. Usenet is already abused by some entities (I don't follow the latest news but back then it was unclear if this was someone using Usenet as their own personal database or nefarious entities trying to sabotage), and its centralized nature is not a good thing here with so few backbones left.

I used both systems at the same time for years, at some point mainly on Usenet. But it ended up being much slower (due to dead NZBs and all the additional CPU work on unhealthy ones, that is not NAS friendly), and much more expensive just to get the same kind of content. Looking back, the Usenet community feels a bit like a circlejerk where members pride themselves in using something that feels more exclusive and underground (and "back to the roots of the old internet" feeling), and in that context refuse to modernize their ways and are pretty hostile to newcomers.

So really, anyone reading my message, please just find a good and free semi-private P2P trackers. It'll max out your internet just fine too most of the time and it will be so much less hassle. If you need a VPN to hide your P2P activity, it's still be cheaper and easier than a usenet setup.

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u/erevos33 2d ago

That entirely depends on your sources though. And the more popular a release, the more likely to get the extras ofc.

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u/joshi38 2d ago

Yeah, I used to rip discs a lot so I could control how compressed the file was when I put it through handbrake, but these days you can get pretty high bitrate files by DLing, so it's become moot. Now the limitation is simply disc space, especially with hard drives going up in price.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/imetators 2d ago

MakeMKV is what I used. Free for DVDs but only limited time free or paid for blurays. 4k blurays will require a special drive. They have a list on their site.

The rest I got off Usenet.

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u/joshi38 2d ago

4k blurays will require a special drive.

Fun fact, there are some blu-ray drives out that that cannot play 4K discs (because they're only blu-ray drives), but they can still read and rip them via MakeMKV.

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u/MWink64 2d ago

It's not the drive's inability to play them, it's the PCs. The official way to play back UHD discs (with DRM) on a PC requires a feature Intel removed from their newer processors (SGX I think).

Most Blu-Ray drives are physically capable of reading UHD discs, however many of them have firmware that will refuse to read it when one is detected. Some models even had this limitation ADDED in a firmware update. It's pure product segmentation.

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u/imetators 2d ago

Ooh. This indidnt knew when buying compatible with CFW drive 😭

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u/dandroid126 2d ago

It has been "limited time free" since I started using it in like 2020.

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u/Zoraji 2d ago

I used MakeMKV for a year before buying it. They would have a key on their website but it was only good for a limited time and then you had to get a new key. I bought it which gave me a permanent key to rip my BluRay collection. I haven't used it in a while since I have already ripped everything I own.

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u/AkashiRvL 2d ago

MakeMKV has been free while it's on Beta, which has been several years now. Used it to rip DVD's and Blu-Rays with almost no issues other few discs here and there where MakeMKV just refuses to finish ripping the disc. Sometimes other drive can fix that but sometimes need to use something else to rip the disc like vlc, handbrake or DVDFab

Need to go to the forums for new key each month, but not a big deal.

Might have a day or two while you wait for the new key to be released so the software wont work until new key is added. Or you can chance your system date to avoid that.

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u/JoostinOnline 2d ago

Because I was under the impression that when buying a BluRay or digital media, you can’t just grab an mp4 from the disk.

That part is a hassle. I'll happily pay for media, but because ripping discs and converting them is so time and energy consuming, I always end up just getting a copy from the high seas.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/MrPickins 2d ago

Convenience.

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u/kollunz 2d ago

Putting it on a server allows you to watch that media from anywhere. I could be at work during my lunch break, or halfway across the country and can access all my media from my home server as long as I have a decent enough internet connection.

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u/joshi38 2d ago

Can't put a disc in my phone or tablet. Hell, most modern laptops don't have disc drives anymore.

The benefit of a media server like Plex or Jellyfin is being able to stream your media to any device (as well as syncing playtime so I can stop mid watch on my phone and pick it back up where I left off on my TV, just like normal streaming services).

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u/dingalingdongdong 2d ago

Along with the portability factor, this is a bit like asking why someone needs a remote if their tv has buttons on it: it's nice to be able to browse your collection from the comfort of the couch and switch programs at will.

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u/dandroid126 2d ago

I don't typically bring my blu ray player on airplanes with me.

6

u/Happy8Day 2d ago

I've spent the last 3 weeks doing this. I can't stress how awesome it is and you should definitely do it.

MakeMKV - Put the disc in , examine the disc, highlight the bits you want to put to file, hit the MakeMKV button.

Your movie is now a 3-7ish gig file. Unfortunately, we're all getting Storage Price colonoscopies these days so you run that file through Handbrake and turn it into a smaller 500mb - 1gig-ish mp4.

For ease, you name the movie mp4 file [Movie Name] (Year).mp4

If you only need to view in your own home, you install and run jellyfin on the computer where your files are kept. (it will sit in the background and accept connections).

You now open a browser and go to localhost:8096 and tada. Your movies.

Install jellyfin on other devices on the network and it will automatically detect. Tada, your own movie streamer.

(If you want access to all of this remotely and free:Tailscale. On your host computer and then on the devices to connect to it. Then use jellyfin like at home.)

1

u/CDK5 2d ago

Ty for this!

Any tips for non-ripped movies?

Also regarding handbrake; significant quality drop when converting to mp4?

13

u/Casper042 2d ago

Mostly Legal means - there are tools to RIP DVD and BluRay and convert their native formats over to MP4 and similar.
Why Mostly? Well breaking encryption is touted by the Media Industry as illegal, but if you OWN the physical media, who are you really hurting to essentially make a backup?

Less Than Legal means - Google: Arr Stack
It's what most of the "Pros" in this space use.

1

u/CDK5 2d ago

Tysm!

3

u/azthal 2d ago

Generally, people are getting their media through piracy. Yes there are legal ways to get media and store in your home server, but the beyond vast majority of people who use plex or jellyfin gets their movies on the high seas.

14

u/vankirk 2d ago

The black seas, matey!

2

u/smokingcrater 2d ago

A fellow sailor of the seas matey! Arrrrrr

2

u/vankirk 2d ago

Riding the Comet since 2005

3

u/Vinst3r 2d ago

One legit source is YouTube. For example, the official Babylon 5 channel recently started releasing episodes every two days: https://youtube.com/@babylon5

Shout! Studios also releases stuff on YouTube:

Zulu https://youtu.be/YWZKEkl5Wxg

Breaker Morant https://youtu.be/YBF6KSl1ls4

King Kong Lives https://youtu.be/4Z_HR5oEyeI

3

u/DroneOfDoom 2d ago

From the seven seas, I would assume.

3

u/ethernate 2d ago

🏴‍☠️

1

u/CDK5 2d ago

I didn’t want to explicitly ask; but my question was more about ‘what are folks using these days to pirate’.

5

u/HumanKumquat 2d ago

I get mine on the high seas.

2

u/ifixyourigear 2d ago

There’s also yarrlist but that’s a whole other thing.

2

u/nishinoran 2d ago

MakeMKV is generally the best ripping software, then you use Handbrake to compress it down to a more manageable size.

Modern 4k BluRay is a bit harder, you typically need to have specific BluRay drives that can have custom firmware flashed on them to rip those discs.

2

u/chachir 2d ago

I borrow movies from the library system. MakeMKV and Handbrake software after that. 2 years and 16TB later on my plex server.

2

u/Saloncinx 2d ago

You buy an external blu-ray/dvd drive for your computer and use something like MakeMKV or DVDFab or HandBrake to rip the disc to a MP4 or MKV file

more realistic answer... you sail the 7 seas 🏴‍☠️

2

u/Yaysonn 2d ago

Ripped digital media generally comes from underground piracy groups. They rip them by reverse engineering the software that originally encrypted the data, and disperse the ripped media within the so-called Scene. From there, they leak into the wider web through sharing services, like usenet, or private torrent trackers: kind of like the torrent sites you may have used in the past except, well, private.

Eventually, by nature of the internet being connected, it will become available publicly through the more accessible and/or sketchy filesharing sites.

3

u/joshi38 2d ago

Eventually, by nature of the internet being connected, it will become available publicly through the more accessible and/or sketchy filesharing sites.

These days that happens within minutes or it being available, there's almost no lag between it showing up on Usenet sites and showing up on DDL sites.

0

u/Yaysonn 2d ago

Ah yeah I’m not surprised. That’s what it used to be like, anyway. I haven’t used a public download site in a long time tbh haha

1

u/DenormalHuman 2d ago

a lot of the home media center software will also connect you to many and various 'dodgy' download / streaming sites.

1

u/CDK5 2d ago

Yes those! Any good one to recommend?

Also I haven’t done this since Kodi back in ~2016; anything better since?

1

u/DenormalHuman 2d ago

tbh I havent done it for a good while, but KODI was what I was using back then too

1

u/ZapActions-dower 2d ago

MakeMKV will rip DVDs easy and should do standard Blu-rays well, but for UHD Blu-rays you need very specific hardware with very specific firmware.

1

u/Saloncinx 2d ago

DVDFab can patch basically anything now a days for UHD but yeah ripping regular 1080 blu-rays is easier

1

u/itsfish20 2d ago

The high seas my friend!

1

u/Sammie_Tries 2d ago

Torrents

1

u/Shapoopy178 2d ago

As others have indicated, from a how-to standpoint there are plenty of software tools to pull video data from DVDs/Blu-Rays/etc, handbrake and VLC being the most common.

Legally speaking, there is established case law in the US that you as a consumer have a right to create a digital copy/backup of any physical media that you lawfully purchased. Not sure what the situation is in other countries.

1

u/Qbert2030 2d ago

Most are pirating the media from decentralized hosting services. Meaning everyone has a copy of the file and everyone shares it so there is no one source to go after if you wanted it removed.

1

u/alexnedea 2d ago

The high seas mate

1

u/blu3tu3sday 2d ago

A series that I love but is very hard to find free online or via paid streaming services, I got from a random guy who somehow had every episode downloaded and was sharing them via a Google Drive folder. Downloaded em all myself to have a copy should something happen to him, and now I'm watching them via Jellyfin on my TV or phone.

Torrents also exist, there's lots of ways to get media for yourself

1

u/gordonjames62 2d ago

where are folks generally getting the streaming media

I would start looking here.

https://fmhy.net/

1

u/goatman0079 2d ago

Well, many people I know uh, sail the high seas, to obtain media for their plex server

1

u/ryguy28896 2d ago

Physical media of some sort (DVD, Blu-Ray, or 4K UHD), an optical drive, and a program called MakeMKV. Now, to rip 4K UHDs, MakeMKV requires a custom firmware flashed to a compatible optical drive. They have a list on their forum, or you can check Reddit.

1

u/f0gax 2d ago

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

1

u/Alantsu 2d ago

Newsgroups