Heya, does anyone have experiences with using a pi4 as a Jellyfin media server? I’d like to set it up like that. Do you think a regular external HDD would work as storage space? Will it be possible to have like 3 to 4 devices streaming at the same time?Recommendations for tutorials are highly appreciated!
I used to have a RPi 4 as a Jellyfin Media Server. I never tried 3-4 simultaneous streaming, but I remember that, if no server transcoding was involved, it could deal with 2 simulteaneous streamings without problems. I used an external HDD also.
On tutorials, Jellyfin’s webpage has a nice tutorial on the Debian installer page (https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/installation/linux). Also, the container version could be a good option.
Watch out for folder permissions so Jellyfin can access your external HDD.
I don’t have any experience with the rp4, but I have used a similar SBC (the Odroid N2) for this. An external HDD works perfectly fine, no need to worry about that. Performance is also absolutely decent. If the 4 devices can direct stream the content you won’t have any issues. The only thing to worry about is transcoding. Ffmpeg on RP4 does support hardware acceleration (without it, you couldn’t even do a single transcode at reasonable speeds), but even with it I doubt you can do more than a single 1080p transcode at the same time.
What do you use as client? I have some trouble direct streaming 4k HDR10 content because the MPV player of Jellyfin cannot handle it without stuttering. I always have to copy the stream URL into VLC which can play it without problem.
On my PC/laptop I use Jellyfin Media Player but most of my streaming is on my android tv using Kodi with the Jellyfin addon. That handles everything perfectly. I believe the alpha version of Kodi v21 is the only way to play back DV content in Jellyfin. I also use Findroid for direct streaming and the official Jellyfin app for transcoding on my phone.
If you are on android, you can go into settings and set VLC as the standard media player. You miss out on resume and watched functionality of course. But it does help in many cases!
For me, it sometimes works best to just not worry about the app and just open it in the browser (pin it to home for ease of access). Somehow the media player is a little more compatible that way.
I had a very simiar setup with an external 1TB HDD and migrated to an old pc recently.
Apart from what others have said you might have trouble with RAM, if like like me you have a 1GB variant.
Also iirc I had bottleneck with i/o, since both usb and ethernet shared the same i/o bus.
And power, rpis are power hungry, I had to use the official power supply, my mobile bricks didnt cut it.
My pi4 can handle 4 devices pretty easy. I maxed out the clock speed and have a heatsink/fan, but honestly don’t know if that is necessary.
