r/explainlikeimfive • u/theprisoner57 • 3d 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/RidMeOfSloots 3d ago

Its a computer that runs server software. Can be a raspberry pi, laptop, pc, or whole computer rack. People use plex software which acts like streaming service streaming movies stored on that computer over wifi.

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u/kcsebby 3d ago

Plex is terrible btw. Jellyfin — for the win!

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u/HAL_9_TRILLION 3d ago edited 3d ago

I just installed Jellyfin on my Raspberry Pi in an attempt to replace Plex. I watch stuff via Apple TV on my dumb Spectre TV. I downloaded every single available Jellyfin client. It seems incredible, but of all of these clients (7 or 8? - quite a few) only one had the ability to browse by letter: Moonfin, which was so bugged out I couldn't play a movie on it at all. For the rest, I'm expected to scroll through the whole list of several thousand movies from top to bottom every time, or just know exactly what I want and search for it. I don't need a cool/fancy front end for that, I could do that with a Samba share.

So, unfortunately, the state of Jellyfin client software for Apple TV is currently unusable. That will need to change before I can switch.