Setting a BIOS password is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve read on Lemmy. Once you set that password, Windows shouldn’t be able to overwrite grub. That doesn’t help with devices and storage locks but that removed the biggest frustration for me.

IPTV is a video streaming protocol that delivers live TV. Here’s a basic overview:

1. An IPTV provider is streaming TV Channel 3 from its server.
2. Subscribers pay for access to a playlist file.
3. An IPTV player takes the playlist file and connects to the server.
4. The playlist file tells the player where TV Channel 3 is available for streaming.
5. The IPTV player streams the broadcast.

Most common IPTV providers are illegal restreams of commercial broadcasts. IPTV players don’t typically come with access to these servers, the user need to find a service and gain access to a playlist file.

Edit: There are free and ad-supported IPTV streams out there as well.

Pop! OS might be a good option. It’s Ubuntu-based and is pretty easy to get running. I switched from Windows 10 earlier this year and it’s been mostly fine. A couple points to ask yourself before experimenting with Linux:

1. Is your data backed up? Will it be okay if you lose all of your computer’s data? I backed up all the important documents just in case I made a mistake.

2. Do you need Windows specifically for anything important? For example, do you use your computer for work? Stuff like Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud either doesn’t or can’t run on Linux. However, there are tons of FOSS alternatives to replace Office and Adobe software.

I really like Pop! OS because it’s a nice bridge distro from Windows to Linux. It’s possible that I’ll switch to a more “advanced” distro like Arch in the future, but it’s nice just not having to worry about Windows 10 or having to upgrade to 11.

Keep in mind though, I still keep an install of Windows 10 on my machine in case I need to switch back for work software.

If you do dual boot, turn on the BIOS password to prevent Windows from messing with your bootloader.

All *arr apps should use root folders to organize media. If I understand the question, here’s the hypothetical situation:

1. Create a root folder for *Arr App.
2. Download media until drive is full.
3. Create a new root folder that points to different drive.
4. Configure *Arr App to move new downloads to new root folder created in step 3.

You should be able to have multiple root folders, but I’ve only checked in So are. One problem you’ll run into is that you can’t break up music artists or TV show series across root folders.

You might want to consider something like OpenMediaVault or Unraid to manage your storage. Either platform (or others) allow you to add drives as needed. I don’t use either so I’m just passing that along as a consideration.

Not sure if my setup is unique or wrong but here’s what I use:

1. I registered a domain with Name cheap and created subdomains for the tools I wanted to access (i.e. jellyfin.domain.tld, sonarr.domain.tld)
2. A DDNS client on my OpenWRT router updates the IP address for those subdomains. Traffic for each subdomain is pointed at my server.
3. Nginx Reverse Proxy runs on my server. This provides HTTPS certificates and is pretty straightforward.

I also use Tailscale for remote access and I’m not sure that my friends and family are ready for that. (Admittedly, I’m still on Plex.) Registering your own domain and using a DDNS service and reverse proxy will give your users an easier experience than Tailscale. I can give an easy-to-remember URL to folks rather than a new VPN platform to learn.

If security is more important, Tailscale is the best option for remote connections.

Why don’t we need this for Plex? Because Plex has all of the above steps baked into its service.

Flauncher is a great pick too

I use the ONN 4K Pro and the ProjectIvy launcher. You can completely hide the standard Android TV OS launcher and its ads. Button Mapper is another good app to have on Android boxes. The remote is full of app-specific buttons that I’ve either disabled or remapped to alternative apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.projengmenu

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutton

I have no idea which codecs are supported.

Thanks everyone, I feel much better about moving forward. I’m leaning towards Proxmox at this point because I could still run Windows as a VM while playing around and setting up a new drive pool. I’d like a setup that I can gradually upgrade because I don’t often have a full day to dedicate to these matters.

MergerFS still seems like a good fit for my media pool, simply only to solve an issue where one media type is filling a whole drive as another sits at 50% capacity. I’ve lost this data before and it was easy to recover by way of my preferred backup method (private torrent tracker with paid freeleech). A parity drive with SnapRaid might be a nice stop gap. I don’t think I feel confident enough with ZFS to potentially sacrifice uptime.

My dockers and server databases, however, are on a separate SSD that could benefit from ZFS. These files are backed up regularly so I can recover easily and I’d like as many failsafes as possible to protect myself. Having my Radarr database was indispensable when I lost a media drive a few weeks ago.

Good catch, yes my drives are 12TB. My brain is still stuck in 2005. :)

I still use Plex because they offer the product I bought, an easy way to stream content on my devices. Others have technical or philosophical issues, which I totally understand. Plex is the easiest option for my situation as of now. It is working great for me and my family.

Nothing lasts forever so it’s good to realistic about the future. If I start having technical issues, it’s Jellyfin. If Plex doubles down on subscriptions, it’s Jellyfin.

If you’re like me, a lifetime Plex Pass holder, I would experiment with Nginx Reverse Proxy now so you understand how it works. I have Overseerr running through a reverse proxy now.

I think it’s a matter of when, not if, Plex will make a business decision that pushes me off their platform. It’s a company focused on profit and that’s fine. And it would be good to be prepared for the future.

It’s my new go-to mobile time killer. I think it works well on a touchscreen.

So far so good for me. I switched last week after dual booting Pop OS and Windows 10 for a few months. I used to use Mac OS X back in college and missed the interface, so Pop OS’s implementation of GNOME felt good.

As for OP’s question, someone else with more knowledge can answer if a specific distro has the best drivers/compatibility with games. Pop OS comes with NVIDIA drivers which works for me.

I also wanted a full desktop OS. Some of the distros will focus on being a controller-friendly frontend for gaming rather than a desktop OS.

It might be helpful to try something like Ventoy for any distros that support a live CD. You won’t be able to fully test gaming performance, but Ventoy lets you try multiple distros on one disk.

Other questions for OP: What type of GPU are you using? What is your current OS?

My i5 6600k will turn 10 years old this year. I’m fortunate because upgrading to 32 GB should keep it running for a while still.

Hell yeah, keep chugging little guy 🤘

If Android is okay, I’d recommend the ONN 4K Pro player from Walmart (if located in the U.S.) with some privacy caveats:

• Do as little with Google: Make a throwaway login if Google requires one to get the device started up. Try to avoid Google Play Store as much as possible. If privacy from Google isn’t a concern, feel free to use your Google account to download apps from the Google Play Store.
• Learn how to sideload apps: There are multiple ways to do this, like a USB drive or FTP server.
• Pick an alternate launcher: This will replace the default Android TV OS UI with one that has much more flexability and no ads. FLauncher and Projectivity are ones that I recommend to friends.

The final product is a modern streaming device with much more flexability than any other store-bought device. Building a HTPC with Linux is probably the true self hosted option. Personally, I’m able to afford some privacy sacrifices with Google for something that “just works.”

I always wanted one so bad but never picked one up

I haven’t used an ARM system, but docker might be the best bet? Get docker installed and find instructions for install Jellyfin and each arr program.

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/11654-is-it-possible-to-install-docker-fresh-latest-build/

If you’re in the U.S.:

1. Create a fake credit card with Privacy
2. Set the purchase limit to $0.
3. Create a temporary email
4. Start a 7-day trial on Medici.tv
5. Use a video downloading tool to grab what you want.

Truthfully, I don’t know if step 4 5 will be easy. I’ve used OBS to do screen records of encrypted content. But that takes a long time to do, so maybe there is more information out there about ripping web video?