- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Context
Having started out in the world of Napster & Limewire, I’ve always relied on public sources. It wasn’t until in the early '10s that I lucked into a Gazelle-based tracker that was started by some fellow community members. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying enough attention when they closed shop and didn’t know how to move elsewhere. Combined with some life circumstances I gave up the pursuit for the time being.
It wasn’t until recently that a friend was kind enough to help me get back and introduced me to current state of automation. Over the course of a few months, I’ve since built up the attached systems. I’ve been having an absolute blast learning and am very impressed with all of the contributions!
After all of the updates due to BF deals, I put together the attached diagram as it was starting to get too complex to keep all of the interactions in my head. 😅
Setup
- All of the services run in Docker containers.
- Each container is a separate Compose file managed by Systemd.
- The system itself is in a VM running on my home server (both Arch, btw).
- Tailscale is used for remote access to the local network.
- ProtonVPN is managed by Gluetun and uses a separate network for isolating services.
Questions
- What am I missing or can be improved?
- Is there a better way to document?
- What do you do differently that might be beneficial?
Thoughts
- I had Calibre set up at one point, but I really don’t like how it tracks files by renaming them. I have been considering trying to automate with the CLI instead, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
- I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a file-arr for analyzing disk usage, performing common operations, and exposing a web-based upload/download client so I don’t have to mount the volume everywhere.
- Similarly, I’m interested in a way to aggregate logs/notifications/metrics. I’m aware of Notifiarr, but would prefer a self-hosted version.
- I just set up Last FM scrobbling so I don’t have any data yet. I’m hoping to use that for discovery and if possible, playlist syncing or auto-generation.
Notes
- Diagram was made using D2lang.
- Some of the connections have been simplified to improve readability / routing.
- Some services have been redacted out of an abundance of caution.
- I know VPN with Usenet isn’t necessary, but it’s easier to keep it consistent.
Also, thanks for the recommendations to check out deemix/Deezer. That worked really well! 😀
Edit: HQ version of diagram
At this point, it’s easier to just pay for all of the streaming services.
For a long time, that was the case. Until the greed nation attacked. Now they’ve reproduced the cable model on the web and more than half of which have terrible clients / infrastructure.
If I could pay for a single service that operated similar to this setup:
I probably would sign up for it as that’s what was so successful for Netflix until all of the studios thought they could do better.
Maybe if you’re new to all this and/or have no interest. But if you’ve been tinkering for more than a few years, it’s just a PC version of project car. It’s something you tinker with on the weekends, adding and refining as you go. I would never be able to negotiate multiple streaming services in a unified way to my satisfaction. So it’s not as if I really even have the option of paying for what I actually want from a service.
I honestly took a shot at that. I didn’t have everything but I had most of it. I also had every channel available on cable.
The streaming wars have honestly ruined it. If you’re just looking for something to watch you of course will be able to find something. But if you specifically want specific content you might as well flip a coin. Oh it’s on Netflix, no Netflix lost lost that license, Oh Max has that, Wait no Max went under, no wait they’re back but they don’t have it anymore. Oh that’s a Disney property Disney+ should have it, nope Disney pulled that offline for the time being.
Screw it I’ll make my own streaming service with hookers and blackjack.
This is taking it above and beyond I’ll agree. I’m still in the old times where I’m manually finding my movie/show/etc and doing all the leg work by hand, only because I haven’t had time to learn all the modern stuff. But things like this are a great resource to get up to speed.
If you have the time and resources, I highly recommend it. Once it’s all running it becomes mostly a ‘set it and forget it’ situation. You don’t have to remember to scroll through pages of search results to find content. It’ll automatically grab them for you based on your configured quality profile (or upgrade it to better quality). Additionally, you can easily stream it to any devices in our home network (or remote with a VPN).
You don’t have to do it all at once. Start with a single service you’re interested in and slowly add more over time.
Nah I feel ya, I’ve been seeing all the various configurations since I came to Lemmy. I’ve just had a hell of a summer work-wise (6-7 days a week, yay being a small business owner) plus a good amount of travel for weddings and the like, so I just haven’t had the time to sit down with it all. One of my clients has a whole bunch of 2 year old metal and SAS drives they’re giving me in a few weeks once they get underway with operations due to a corporate upgrade, and once I slow down for the winter season I fully intend on diving into this.
I’ve had a Plex server running on FreeBSD for years, I just haven’t set it up since moving back in June. But I’m getting really tired of all the bullshit from these streaming services, and I’m looking forward to taking back control of my entertainment. I just have to make it palatable to my wife lol.
To me the *arrs are great enough for the wishlist/todo factor alone.
The download/management feature is just the cherry on top.
You can simplify it way down to Kodi + RD and have your own streaming service. This looks more like a hobby though to get every little thing just right.