Just load up your 100-percent legally sourced media files and go!
If you’ve got an old laptop or desktop PC lying around and collecting dust, especially if it’s fewer than ten years old, you can easily breathe new life into it by turning it into a media server. The process is far easier than you may assume. In the span of an afternoon, you can have your own, private Netflix or Spotify alternative that lets you stream your media files to nearly any device in your home.
Nearly any PC can run media server software like Plex or Jellyfin, and even low-end hardware will only miss out on a slim number of features. Moreover, media servers are approachable to both beginners and advanced users. If you’re not very technically inclined, you can put Plex on your Windows laptop and call it a day, whereas tech enthusiasts can tinker with specialized Linux distros and Jellyfin servers, or tweak network architecture to optimize every last inch of a media server setup.
While the specifics of media server setup can be somewhat involved, they’re certainly not beyond the capabilities of anyone who can click through setup menus and do some light web searching. If you’re still not sure, here are the basic things you’ll need to worry about when turning a PC into a media server.
Windows can run a server, but Linux is more lightweight
The first choice you’ll need to make when setting your old PC up as a media server is whether to run Windows — which is most likely the operating system it came with — or to convert it over to Linux. The good news is, there’s not really a wrong choice, regardless of what people online may insist. Linux is far easier to use than is commonly assumed, but there’s nothing wrong with sticking to the familiar territory of Windows. The most popular media server software runs on either OS, with the main difference being that Linux is more lightweight and can help breathe new life into older hardware.
Speaking of older hardware, the primary argument for using Linux is that Windows 10 is past its end-of-service date, meaning any computer which cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 is now a major security risk when connected to the internet. If your computer does not support Windows 11, consider running a Linux distro instead. Some versions of Linux are built to host servers, and will help turn your computer into a personal Netflix or Spotify. If you’d like to play around with different media server solutions, a general-purpose server distro like Fedora Server or Ubuntu Server will let you play around with a broad range of options. There are more versions of Linux than you can shake a TV remote at and even more opinions about which is the best, so the best advice is to explore them with your personal needs in mind.
If you choose to keep Windows 11, it’s best to reset it before going any further. Back up any data you don’t want to lose onto an external SSD or hard drive, then press Win + I to open Settings and head to System > Recovery > Reset PC, following subsequent prompts until the OS resets. This will take a while, up to several hours on low-powered hardware.
Plex or Jellyfin will get you streaming media in no time
Once you’ve got your clean and shiny operating system ready to go, it’s time to load the computer up with media and start streaming it to your household. Depending on the size of your media collection, you’ll need quite a bit of storage. While you can serve media from the PC’s boot drive, you risk losing all of your files if anything goes wrong. Many home server enthusiasts prefer to use multiple storage drives and redundant solutions like RAID. This takes a bit of setup and gives you less usable storage space overall, but gives you peace of mind in the event of a drive failure or other emergency.
All that’s left to do is choose your media server software, with the two most popular choices being Plex and Jellyfin. Plex is the easiest to set up, and you’ll rarely have to touch it again after an initial configuration. However, its advanced features are locked behind a steep subscription. Jellyfin is a free and open-source alternative, meaning you’ll never pay to use it and you’ll have more control over how everything works. On the other hand, you’ll need to be a bit more comfortable tinkering with your server and network. Both options offer clients (the app you’ll need to stream media from your server) for most major TV platforms, as well as iOS and Android mobile apps.
Media transcoding is the best example of the differences between the two. When a media file is incompatible with one of your devices, both Plex and Jellyfin can use a GPU to transcode it for universal playback. (Although pretty much any PC can run a media server, you will need a dedicated GPU for the best results with transcoding, as CPU-bound transcoding can be slow or glitchy.) Plex makes this process automatic but keeps transcoding CPU-bound, with no hardware acceleration able to take place on your GPU unless you pay for the Plex Pass subscription. Jellyfin gives you both types of transcoding for free, but you’ll need to spend a couple of minutes setting it up. But don’t worry, Jellyfin doesn’t get particularly complex unless you plan to stream media remotely, in which case you’ll need to use other software to create a secure tunnel so that you can point it to the internet without getting blasted by malware.
Emby is another popular Plex alternative worth looking into. It sits somewhere between Plex and Jellyfin in terms of ease of use (Jellyfin is actually based on an older open-, but has a similar pricing structure to Plex that puts features like hardware transcoding behind a paywall. There’s no “right” choice to make, and all of the options will offer you a taste of what they can do for free
