Off-site media server

[nerdrage3185]

I am trying to figure out how to set up an off site media server. I would like to be able to set it up to where I can either remotely access the server from my house or on the go. Maybe something from Linux or Microsoft. Please no suggestions like Plex I would like to be able to access my files from the off site server and encode the files with my home computer and watch my files like that, kind of like the way drop box lets you play video files without needing to download the file.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

15 minutes ago, nerdrage3185 said:

I am trying to figure out how to set up an off site media server. I would like to be able to set it up to where I can either remotely access the server from my house or on the go. Maybe something from Linux or Microsoft. Please no suggestions like Plex I would like to be able to access my files from the off site server and encode the files with my home computer and watch my files like that, kind of like the way drop box lets you play video files without needing to download the file.

Why do you need off site storage? It'll cost you more in the long run than a core 2 duo machine + a 2TB HDD. Also Plex can encode the files to make them easier to stream and shit. I use it and it's super light on my data usage when I'm on the road.

[brwainer]

if you want to have "direct file access" to the server, then your best bet is going to be to have a VPN server software on the media server and connect to it from your computer, and then have a traditional file share software (SMB, CIFS, etc) running on the media server as well. You could go linux or windows with this, both could support it.

[nerdrage3185]

2 hours ago, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

Why do you need off site storage? It'll cost you more in the long run than a core 2 duo machine + a 2TB HDD. Also Plex can encode the files to make them easier to stream and shit. I use it and it's super light on my data usage when I'm on the road.

Cost isn't an issue I have the space, hardware, and I don't pay electric due to solar and wind energy. I want off site for security and other "legal" reasons, and I don't want to pay plex $5 a month to access my files

[brwainer]

1 hour ago, nerdrage3185 said:

Cost isn't an issue I have the space, hardware, and I don't pay electric due to solar and wind energy. I want off site for security and other "legal" reasons, and I don't want to pay plex $5 a month to access my files

You don't have to subscribe to Plex Pass. Most of the features only require you to make a free account.

[d3sl91]

2 hours ago, nerdrage3185 said:

Cost isn't an issue I have the space, hardware, and I don't pay electric due to solar and wind energy. I want off site for security and other "legal" reasons, and I don't want to pay plex $5 a month to access my files

Unfortunately this is one of those features. Unless one can mount an offsite server as a local drive, you will need plex pass to use the cloud sync features. 

 

Apparently KODI has a gdrive plugin? Maybe try that. 

[TriBeard]

I recently set up a system similar to this myself. I wound up using a piece of software called Proxmox, which works similarly to unRaid, but is free. I set up one virtual machine with a small hard drive partition as a download machine, and then set up another on the remaining HDD space as a media server. If you don't need the downloading function, you could just set up the one machine locally, but using proxmox makes it really easy to manage remotely, as it's just all managed through a web interface you can access from any computer on your network. I just used ubuntu as the OS, and created a samba share on the hard drive and I just have plex monitor that folder. I can drop anything in to that folder from any computer on the network and plex will pick it up and stream it to me. It works really well. 

[Scheer]

Personally I would run Plex on a Windows install, do all of your media over Plex and any other other stuff over a VPN. No Plex pass needed. With the proper forwarding you can mount a network drive as a local one.

 

Unless you have a really good internet connection, you may as well transcode where all the media is located as the files will be smaller and easier to send over the internet.

 

Honestly I don't need a Plex pass for anything I do, but I pay for it anyways because how good the software is...

 

 

Out of curiosity, are you doing this because you are worried law enforcement is going to raid your house because you have pirated movies...?

 

[nerdrage3185]

11 hours ago, Scheer said:

Out of curiosity, are you doing this because you are worried law enforcement is going to raid your house because you have pirated movies...?

 

No its not pirated stuff, I have backed up all my movies and tv series I have amassed over the years. Even though they are not pirated it is still technically illegal.

[brwainer]

20 minutes ago, nerdrage3185 said:

No its not pirated stuff, I have backed up all my movies and tv series I have amassed over the years. Even though they are not pirated it is still technically illegal.

Actually from that perspective I'd say you are much safer storing everything at home versus in some form of VPS or other cloud storage. Storing it at home is easier to defend for the "just a backup of my phyical media, except I use the files as my primary source and the physical media is my backup" argument than a server on the internet that people can very easily imagine you are running in order to be able to share files.

 

The DMCA, or at least the Library of Congress' interpretation of it, grants you the right to make a backup copy. The LoC has said it's legal for you to break encryption in order to make this backup. It's still illegal for anyone to make tools that break encryption. The basic moral argument is that if I'm allowed to have a primary copy and a secondary copy of my media, then I should be able to use the files as the primary copy and the discs as my backup. Noone who wasn't sharing their files publicly has been brought to trial, so this argument has never been tested. But I think studios and their lawyers are avoiding that gray area because they aren't sure they can win, and they want to stop all the people actually sharing files first.