Plex gets a lot of attention for its built-in ability to let you create a free, personal media server. However, the service has been the subject of some controversy as of late, partially owing to price hikes, and partially because of the need to have a paid Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass to stream your media remotely when outside your home network.
With this in mind, a free and open-source (FOSS) alternative has emerged onto the scene, and it’s called Jellyfin. At the moment, Jellyfin isn’t quite as feature-packed or refined as Plex is, but it appears to have upward momentum on its side. Considering how relatively new Jellyfin is to the media server scene, it’s remarkable to see it gain as much traction as it has thus far.
As with Plex, it’s a simple and straightforward process to transfer your physical media collection onto a personally-hosted and private Jellyfin server. In my case, I’ve transferred home DVDs from back in the day onto Jellyfin, giving my content a new lease on life with the added convenience of being able to stream for free and from anywhere in the world.
Keep in mind that ripping copyright-protected discs for personal use is a gray area under the law. It’s illegal to bypass digital rights management (DRM) software included on most commercially-available DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and it’s also against the law to share and distribute copyrighted materials with other people. On the other hand, it’s entirely legal to transfer personal home videos from optical discs over to a Jellyfin server, with the act of ripping said discs being perfectly permissible.
Here are the three steps I took to effortlessly transfer all my old DVDs onto a personal Jellyfin server, completely free of charge.
Step 1
Rip your DVDs
To start with, I needed to rip the contents of my old DVD collection onto a PC. To do this, I used HandBrake, a FOSS video transcoder and converter application available across all major computing platforms. HandBrake makes ripping a breeze, but it’s not the only available option on the market. MakeMKV is perhaps the most prominent free alternative on PC — both HandBrake and MakeMKV offer high-quality rips that can then be compressed as needed to save on space.
To facilitate the ripping process, I also made use of a USB-powered external disc drive, as I don’t own any computers that feature an internal drive. External DVD drives are fairly inexpensive and can be readily purchased from online storefronts like Amazon. If you have home videos stored on Blu-ray discs, make sure to purchase a Blu-ray compatible disc drive rather than a DVD-only one. Blu-ray drives cost slightly more, but they provide more optical disc flexibility on the whole.
Step 2
Organize your files
Once I ripped the contents of my various DVDs, I was left with various files spread across my computer’s hard drive. I then spent some time organizing these files into various folders, all within a root folder that I named “JellyFin” for brevity’s sake. How you personally choose to organize your ripped files is a matter of preference, but I recommend using short, concise, and consistent naming conventions throughout.
Step 3
Set up Jellyfin
Now, for the fun part. Downloading the Jellyfin program itself is as simple as visiting the official https://jellyfin.org website, and its source code can also be found right on GitHub. Once downloaded and installed, you simply have to “point” the program to your files and/or folders, which allows it to recognize and index the content accordingly, and to place said content onto a server.
If you’re having trouble getting your Jellyfin remote streaming setup up and running, the third-party Tailscale application can help. Tailscale is a zero-configuration mesh VPN service, and you can learn more about how to set it up by checking out XDA’s article on the subject.
To access your personal Jellyfin server remotely, you can use the same Jellyfin PC program as before, or you can rely on the Jellyfin Mobile application for iOS/iPadOS and Android. If you’re streaming from your local home network (LAN), you’re entirely good to go, but I’d recommend activating a virtual private network (VPN) to access your media from outside your home network in the most secure manner possible.
