Jellyfin — Free Software Media System

What Jellyfin Does

Jellyfin provides a complete home media experience:

• Movies & TV Shows: Stream your movie and TV library with metadata, artwork, subtitles, and trailers
• Music: Music streaming with artist bios, album art, lyrics, and playlist management
• Live TV & DVR: IPTV and HDHomeRun integration with EPG guide and recording
• Books & Comics: eBook and comic reader with EPUB and CBZ/CBR support
• Photos: Photo gallery with timeline view
• Hardware Transcoding: Intel QSV, NVIDIA NVENC, AMD AMF, and VA-API for efficient video transcoding
• Multi-user: Separate profiles with parental controls and content restrictions
• Remote Access: Stream anywhere via reverse proxy or VPN

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│ Clients         │────▶│  Jellyfin    │────▶│  Media Files │
│ Web / Apps /    │     │  Server      │     │  (Movies,    │
│ Smart TV        │     │  (C#/.NET)   │     │  Music, etc) │
└─────────────────┘     └──────┬───────┘     └──────────────┘
                               │
                        ┌──────┴───────┐
                        │  SQLite DB   │
                        │  (Metadata)  │
                        └──────────────┘

Self-Hosting

Docker Compose

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
    ports:
      - "8096:8096"
    volumes:
      - jellyfin-config:/config
      - jellyfin-cache:/cache
      - /mnt/media/movies:/media/movies:ro
      - /mnt/media/tv:/media/tv:ro
      - /mnt/media/music:/media/music:ro
    environment:
      JELLYFIN_PublishedServerUrl: http://192.168.1.100:8096
    # GPU passthrough for hardware transcoding
    # devices:
    #   - /dev/dri:/dev/dri  # Intel QSV / VA-API
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  jellyfin-config:
  jellyfin-cache:

Media Organization

/media/
├── movies/
│   ├── Inception (2010)/
│   │   └── Inception (2010).mkv
│   └── The Matrix (1999)/
│       └── The Matrix (1999).mp4
├── tv/
│   ├── Breaking Bad/
│   │   ├── Season 01/
│   │   │   ├── Breaking Bad S01E01.mkv
│   │   │   └── Breaking Bad S01E02.mkv
│   │   └── Season 02/
│   └── The Office/
└── music/
    ├── Artist Name/
    │   └── Album Name/
    │       ├── 01 - Track.flac
    │       └── 02 - Track.flac

Client Apps

Key Features

Hardware Transcoding

Enable GPU-accelerated transcoding for smooth streaming:

# Intel QSV (most common for home servers)
devices:
  - /dev/dri:/dev/dri

# NVIDIA
runtime: nvidia
environment:
  - NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all

Supported codecs: H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP9, AV1 (depending on GPU)

Plugins

Jellyfin has a plugin system for extending functionality:

• OpenSubtitles: Auto-download subtitles
• Fanart: Enhanced artwork
• Trakt: Sync watch history
• LDAP: Enterprise authentication
• Webhook: Notifications on events

Jellyfin vs Alternatives

FAQ

Q: Jellyfin or Plex? A: Plex is easier to start with and has a more polished client experience, but paid features unlock hardware transcoding and advanced functionality. Jellyfin is fully free and open source with no central auth server, but initial setup is a bit more involved. Pick Jellyfin for privacy and autonomy; pick Plex for ease of use.

Q: What server specs do I need? A: Direct Play needs very little. For transcoding, aim for at least an Intel i5 or a machine with a dGPU. QSV transcoding on Intel 8th-gen+ is highly efficient and can handle 3–5 concurrent transcode streams.

Q: 4K HDR support? A: 4K Direct Play is supported. HDR transcoding (tone mapping) needs a capable GPU (NVIDIA or Intel 10th-gen+ recommended). If the client supports 4K HDR direct play, the server doesn't need to transcode.