Mini PC for the TV Running Kodi and Jellyfin

mishmish · May 12

Hi all, I wanted to ask about maybe a unique set up that would fit my needs. Currently I have a raspberry pi with libreelec, running kodi of course. I have 2 thumb drives in the back of it that have all the media, and I prefer the media being local instead of streaming for the tv. I've had this for some time, and in the last 6 months learned how to use the media scraper. Before I just used osmc, and just used it like a file browser. I've wanted to have more of a 'all in one' solutions, but the problem with the pi is that I really cant expand the storage with a 3.5" hdd, not without that being connected to external power, it just seems so messy.

So I started to look more into mini pc's after seeing one that could accept 3.5" hdd's, this one here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKXMH97...IKL5UW4D4&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

I also found something these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B41XLZJP/?co...dp_it&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY4ZM18N/?co...dp_it&th=1

The size in important to me actually. I have some spare parts for a pc, but even a mini itx case is a little bigger then I want. I was thinking by getting a mini pc, installing a 2.5" hdd inside, I could replace the pi entirely and have a machine to stream jellyfin.

My idea is that I would just leave Kodi open at all times, just like on my pi currently, but in the backround, jelly fin could also run. Is this feasible? I feel like I'm more on the right track here, this seems like it would suit my needs more then a nas, which is what I was initially planning on getting.

Would there be any issue with the video directory being the same for both Kodi and Jellyfin?

Any recommendations for a mini pc with expandable storage? I feel like I'm on to something here, but want to be really sure before I purchase something.

I did install Jellyfin on a laptop I have, with a ryzen 5 4000 series cpu and gtx 1650, its actually really nice, and my wife seems to be enjoying it for streaming to her devices, so thats a plus. Any recommendations are very welcome.

mishmish · May 13

Just a bit of an update. After doing some searching around and generally looking into mini pc's, I decided to go for this one here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08XBVXNFP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was looking to have a small footprint, that could have a 2.5" added to it, and hopefully wont be power hungry. I've had the pi running for 4 1/2 years now, hopefully I can get similar time with this.

I think at this point, my concern is with windows 11 itself being a resource hog on the machine. Maybe down the line I could look into linux, though not sure which distro, but we'll see. Hoping I made the right choice of mini pc!