Hello! I never used *arr stack, and was interested into it, but one thing is stopping me. I see a lot of articles like how it is Netflix (or any other ONLINE theater) replacement, but as I see it is not online. I see two big factors that stops me from trying seerr + jellyfin (and other stuff in between):

  1. You have two switch between those apps to search and then watch.
  2. You can’t watch media before it’s completely downloaded.

I imagine sitting on coach, searching for show. Then you want to watch some, and then you have to wait half an hour for full episode (or even season?) to download. And then you can realize that you not into it and have to repeat all the steps above. Is my expectation correct? Please don’t consider this as negative opinion. Just want to know what to expect. I remember an app called “popcorn time” that does not have that flaws.

  • DaGeek247@fedia.io
    1·
    4 hours ago

    I imagine sitting on coach, searching for show. Then you want to watch some, and then you have to wait half an hour for full episode (or even season?) to download.

    This is a fair take on how a locally hosted video server would go. It’s the same as someone who has a collection of disk media instead as well. Finding new media to watch is not instant, even with the best setups.

    I actually consider this to be a feature, instead of a bug. The algorithms that Netflix (and YouTube and everybody else that serves content) have a lot of issues. The ability to find content, the act of discovery, is something I think is actually very valuable, and has been lost since we switched to online streaming.

    I run a jellyfin server for my immediate family, and one of the benefits of not running an auto-download tool is that we all have a groupchat specifically for requesting new series/movies. I didn’t expect it at first, but it has been a great way to connect with my family over varied media we watch, as well as a way of sharing what’s new and interesting to them.

    Of course, I switched from Spotify to a physical mp3 player with my own personal library, so maybe my perspective is a bit skewed. For sure there is a place for a lack of barriers (including skipping out on analytical thought) for consuming content. I just don’t think it should be the default.