Here's my conundrum, I'm using an old PC to watch movies and shows. It works well enough using the regular file browser and video player but it is not powerful enough to run jellyfin as server and client.

I guess that what I'm looking for is a pretty browser.

I tried searching for media library managers, most results were for configuring jellyfin so when I excluded the word server all the results where music managers and dvd collection catalogues.

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[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

Jellyfin has been fairly clunky for me too.

But I don't think you're going to gain much just by ditching the media player in jellyfin. I feel like the overhead is scanning, scraping, and displaying the media (ie. the browser). Then playing the media is just loading a player that you would need anyway. You might be able to hook up an external player but I doubt that would help much.

Personally I use Kodi instead but I think you'll run into the same issues there.

The problem probably isn't the software but more the 15+ year old hardware. It's more suited for like a PiHole than a media center.

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago

Yes, the more I look into it the more convinced I am that it is time to retire that old thing and buy a new one. I guess it will be a good excuse to get a new PC for gaming and relegate the current one to media player duties.

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yesterday I tried Kodi. I don't like its interface at all and I couldn't figure out how to manually correct the stuff that it misidentified but it works surprisingly well in that old machine, so I can live with it until I get a better one.

Thanks.

[–] grapemix@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Kodi

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I tried yesterday and I was surprised how well it works performance wise in that old machine.

The interface is awful and doesn't seem to allow me to correct all the stuff that it misidentified but I guess I can live with it once I manage to rename or delete all that stuff.

Thanks.

[–] grapemix@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

Np. There's special app for movie and TV renaming for jellyfin and kodi

[–] paf@jlai.lu 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I guess you meant something to act as a remote desktop? Something lightweight better than a remote desktop for your use case is to setup a FTP server or a samba share. You will then use some media player client to read from there

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

No, the other way around, something to work locally. I can't reach that PC with wifi or ethernet, so I have a big HDD attached to it.
Right now I using it like a regular desktop PC, ile browser and vlc, it is fine but it would be nicer if I could a user interface more similar to what you get with jellyfin since I'm using from a sofa.

I tried jellyfin but it is an old PC it can't run all the services at once.

[–] paf@jlai.lu 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Oh ok, the first thing that comes to my mind is Kodi. Depending your pc it might be a bit slow but that should work.

Edit: are you on linux or windows? If windows, you should really consider linux. Old pc comes back to life with linux as it needs way less ressources than windows

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm on linux. That old PC is a refurbished HP Compaq 8000 I bought for 40 euros I don't know how many years ago when it was already old.

I'm aware that at this point I'm asking too much out of that poor thing but it kept me thinking if there was a way to get just the interface of one of those media servers as a way to browse then open the file with the default player.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You should really try Kodi. There are a ton of alternative theme options for it and the video player built into it can play anything

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I just tried, I don't like it but it works so well that I can learn to like it. I'll look more into those theme options.

Thanks.