What are my home media options?

[miikeeyy92]

Morning All,

Years ago (9!) I built a Windows 7 HTPC to host my BR rips and bitstream nicely to my AV receiver, and quite frankly all worked spiffingly.

As per my use cases changed and I needed an actual PC for a bit as opposed to HTPC so it got reconfigured into a tower case that I had lying around so I could add some more HDDs, but still using the same hardware.

Obviously, things then changed again where I no longer needed a PC, but still needed to host my media on the network so that my new Apple TV + Infuse could pull from the Plex server on the windows machine, so I connected the PC to a network switch and leave it running 24/7.

The problem I face now is not really a use case change as its still ultimately going to just be a media store, but more wanting to tidy things up, reduce power consumption, noise reduction, and a bit more functionality.

Here's where I currently am:

• Windows 7 (HTPC hardware) PC
  • BR rips, big tower, noisy fans, mix of HDD's and no more capacity and no redundancy
  • Plex server
  • Internal BR drive
  • Photos synced to amazon photos (but that's only one way I think?)
• Apple TV with Infuse
• Netgear network switch
• R-Pi which was running Pi-Hole but its currently disconnected
• A Dell Optiplex 7040 Micro that I picked up super cheap that has windows 10 but is currently unused

Where I'd like to be:

• Hardware that can rip BR's
• Hardware that can run Steam so my partner can play some PC games (probably via remote desktop if on windows)
• Smaller scale
• Ability to turn on / off through the network
• Plex server
• Photos synced (both ways) with iCloud
• Raid config
• Apple TV + Infuse
• R-Pi with Pi-Hole and WireGuard VPN

In my head, the "cleanest" solution is to use the Dell to run Steam, Plex, iCloud etc and pick up a NAS to store everything on with a raid config, but then I'd need to pick up an external BR drive, and most NAS's come with the ability to run Plex etc and expansion in the future becomes a bit more difficult.

I could re-configure the "old" Win7 PC , with some new drives and a mobo to facilitate the storage and raid config, thus, do I actually need the Dell + NAS?

I could use the Win7 hardware with UnRaid for loads of flexibility, but then I'd still need a PC for running Steam/ripping BR's....

What would be the best way forward?

 

[Armageus]

I could use the Win7 hardware with UnRaid for loads of flexibility, but then I'd still need a PC for running Steam/ripping BR's....

You could run a Docker image on Unraid and pass through the BR Drive to do the ripping

External optical blu-ray drive with MakeMKV docker?

I have an external blu-ray drive (USB) that I'd like to use directly with the MakeMKV docker. Is there a way to do this via unassigned devices or...

old.reddit.com

Your current Haswell HTPC isn't that bad in terms of hardware/power draw - especially if you use something like Unraid as individual drives can be spun down.
As long as you aren't needing to transcode from Plex to your client then it's fine and there's not much point in replacing (although you can easily pick up an i5 or a Xeon i7 equivalent cheaply for that socket, if you need more CPU horsepower).
If you are needing to transcode then either a newer Intel CPU/platform is needed to support more codecs, or a cheap/low power NVIDIA card e.g. one of the various Quadro cards.

Unless you specifically need Pi-Hole to run on separate hardware, that could be run under Unraid as a docker image or VM, and get rid of the R-Pi.

 

[NutritioN]

Similar in part to where I'm headed soon, apart from the physical disc ripping. Starting mostly from scratch as replacing a NUC and want to move to an Unraid NAS. Tempted to move my Pihole to separate Raspberry Pi.

Front runner for me at the moment is a low power N100 Intel board and then Unraid > Docker containers for Plex, Pihole/Unbound, and Logitech Media Server.

 

[miikeeyy92]

You could run a Docker image on Unraid and pass through the BR Drive to do the ripping

External optical blu-ray drive with MakeMKV docker?

I have an external blu-ray drive (USB) that I'd like to use directly with the MakeMKV docker. Is there a way to do this via unassigned devices or...

old.reddit.com

Your current Haswell HTPC isn't that bad in terms of hardware/power draw - especially if you use something like Unraid as individual drives can be spun down.
As long as you aren't needing to transcode from Plex to your client then it's fine and there's not much point in replacing (although you can easily pick up an i5 or a Xeon i7 equivalent cheaply for that socket, if you need more CPU horsepower).
If you are needing to transcode then either a newer Intel CPU/platform is needed to support more codecs, or a cheap/low power NVIDIA card e.g. one of the various Quadro cards.

Unless you specifically need Pi-Hole to run on separate hardware, that could be run under Unraid as a docker image or VM, and get rid of the R-Pi.

So your suggestion is convert the HTPC hardware to an unraid NAS because its not too bad hardware and then still have the Dell running as a windows machine for steam etc? Thanks for the reddit link, i didnt realise there is a makemkv docker container, which might be handy if I don't have a windows machine in the future.

 

[BigT]

I could use the Win7 hardware with UnRaid for loads of flexibility, but then I'd still need a PC for running Steam/ripping BR's....

Not that I have personal experience fo doing this in UnRaid but I don't think this statement needs to be true. You can host a Windows VM on UnRaid and pass through a GFX card etc. And you can attach a blueray drive and use one of the docker containers built for ripping e.g. https://forums.unraid.net/topic/142330-support-automatic-ripping-machineautomatic-ripping-machine/