How to Self-Host Jellyfin Media Server

What Is Jellyfin?

Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server. It organizes your personal media (movies, TV shows, music, photos) and streams them to any device — similar to Plex but without any premium tier or tracking.

Requirements

• A Breeze with at least 2 GB RAM (4 GB for transcoding)
• Storage for your media library

Docker Installation

docker run -d --name jellyfin \
  -p 8096:8096 \
  -v /opt/jellyfin/config:/config \
  -v /opt/jellyfin/cache:/cache \
  -v /media:/media:ro \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  jellyfin/jellyfin:latest

Initial Setup

1. Visit http://your-server:8096
2. Create your admin account
3. Add your media libraries (point to /media/movies, /media/tv, etc.)
4. Jellyfin automatically fetches metadata, artwork, and subtitles

Client Apps

Jellyfin has clients for:

• Web browser (built-in)
• Android and iOS
• Android TV, Fire TV, Roku
• Kodi plugin
• Desktop apps (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Transcoding

Jellyfin can transcode media on-the-fly for devices that do not support the original format. Hardware transcoding (Intel QSV, NVIDIA NVENC) significantly reduces CPU usage.

Organizing Media

/media/
  movies/
    Movie Name (2024)/
      Movie Name (2024).mkv
  tv/
    Show Name/
      Season 01/
        Show Name S01E01.mkv