I've always just had a Linux computer hooked up to the T.V. Add a little bit of ktorrent, VLC, and SMB. Never really had any problems with this and its much much simpler.
Multiple users, multiple locations, one setup. That's the value.
20 years ago, we'd connect any PC or Mac to the TV with HDMI and watch a movie or whatever we wanted.
All these media clients support downloading too for offline usage.
> how is the tether going to have any signal?
I have a phone plan? Your decisions would be different if you have different requirements and restrictions.
It's not like any of this requires expensive hardware, Intel Quicksync is on my £75 Wyse thin client acting as the server and can transcode perfectly for an iPhone/Android TV/etc.
Secondly, it isn't only doing those duties. It's also hooked up to stream TV so if I remember something I want to watch later it will record, and if I'm having to wait and there is nothing to read I can watch a show.
Can't do that with "putting files on a device".
But I'm probably not the intended user for these self hosted media servers. I don't watch a ton of stuff, and what I watch is generally on YouTube.
I'm glad that use case works for you. However, an inability to imagine a usecase where that could be of value than shitting on people who say they have that use case isn't a great look.
I meets the needs of my usecase and my family. We were using plex before but since it required central login for of network use it has been on the deprecation list for me. But the exact solution is not relevant to the need and use case that makes the quite a bit less work than other options for us.
I spend quite a bit of time with my family moving between locations so, yes we have internet for that. The timing isn't always pre-planned so offline media consumption can be tough. Additionally, we may leave with a couple hours notice and spend a week or more before we come home. In which case, we'll stream media from a different location than our primary residence.
Additionally, we record/watch things off our digital tv antenna to stream when we are out of range. Which gets a little tougher for a generic fileserver.
So for us, it's quite a bit less trouble than it's worth. It's all the same things that setting up a local media setup involves with the addition of an authenticated streaming frontend that can be setup to work with multiple clients in multiple locations and multiple times.
Both my non-tech wife and my four year old have figured out how to watch things. Which, is, my point. VLC, a directory browser, and ktorrent suite our needs so perfectly. Admittedly, the four year old hasn't figured out how to download torrents yet; but for my wife it was super simple to explain: "goto this website, search for desired show, only download from purple or green pirates."
My setup is slightly more complicated than I let on in the first post. We have multiple TVs, each hooked to a linux laptop (lenovo T430s, because I had one and the rest were cheap on ebay.). Then there's a NAS with SMB. All media is downloaded to the NAS, any T.V. can watch any downloaded media.
In an interface that is basically "Netflix" - so they can actually figure out how to use it.
You just listed like 4 applications, a linux box, and physical cables as your requirements. That is not a workable starting point for that discussion.
My requirements are "Go to jellyfin.[mydomain]" and log in. It works basically everywhere (I am currently watching content from my jellyfin server while on vacation in a different state as I type this).
Basically - you are optimizing for "low setup cost" as an admin. Jellyfin is optimizing for the entire group of people who will watch your content as users.
As an aside... Sonarr/Radarr/Jellyfin are just a different league than the old school "I'll download every episode myself" time sink. It takes some genuine effort to setup, and then everything is way better.
I understand favoring simplicity for a simple use case, but it obviously doesn't scratch every itch.
If you have more than one TV it's nice to use a cheap android TV device set up to connect to jellyfin on each rather than move your laptop around.
It's also good for a road warrior. I can VPN to my house and steam elsewhere, and it does transcoding on the fly so it works over bad connections too.
And if you want to use VLC or whatever you can still use the web UI to find the media you want and download it.
There are tons of benefits to Jellyfin if other people use your set-up.
My whole family uses Plex, they can operate it incredibly simply with a remote and don’t have to unplug and replug a thing. The simplicity is key, if you’re only catering for yourself/an exclusively techie audience then it’s not necessary.
Ignoring physical appearances, it presents large libraries nicely and allows you to use your phone or remote instead of needing to fiddle with a laptop.
A few other nice features: can stream different content to multiple devices, users can be given access to specific libraries, and content can be age gated.
You're thinking something like XMBC...
Jellyfin is more equivalent to a streaming app - but the backend is running in your private server.
Clients are available for the vast majority of consumer TV oses (Roku/Apple/AndroidTV/Web/Etc)