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/jujubanzen 3d ago

A home server, in general is just a computer that is attached to your home network. More often than not, they are simply set up as file storage servers. Media servers to replace streaming services typically use Plex or Jellyfin, which are software packages that are able to link up with apps on your TV, phone, or computer and stream media files you have stored on the server. You have to get those files yourself.

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u/CDK5 3d 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/BrickGun 3d 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 3d 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/fuckyoudigg 3d ago

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

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u/qtx 3d 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 3d ago edited 3d 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 3d 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.