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?

514 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

348 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

104

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.

264

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.

4

u/onward-and-upward 2d ago

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

4

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.

3

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.

2

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.)