server on hard drive

[davy4475 0]

hi, is it possible to install the emby server on a hard drive that is connected to my router so i dont need to leave my laptop on all the time. If so, how? thanks

[yardameus 221]

It would have to be NAS (not just a usb hard drive).  It would have to have some sort of operating system to install and run the server software. (see main headings in forum)

[zigzagtshirt 55]

One solution would be to have the server running on a raspberry pi, which is very cheap (Pi, case, sd card = ~50 dollars), and have your media on an external hard drive attached to the pi.  Electricity costs would only be a few dollars a year at most.  This would solve your problem of not wanting your laptop on all of the time.  

 

However, you might run into an issue if the server ever needs to transcode your media for any clients that can't direct play as the pi's CPU might not be able to keep up.  You could get around this by having your media converted to formats that are playable on pretty much any device (e.g., h264 video, AAC audio, MP4 container) (someone correct me if these aren't the most widely compatible formats).

 

I used to run mine off a raspberry pi and it worked well.  I eventually started storing all of my movies as full blu ray rips, and since some of my clients need transcoding, I needed to move away from it.

 

If you decide to use a Pi, be sure to use a Samsung Evo Class 10 SD card ($12 dollars on amazon) as they are the fastest by far.  I ran into problems with my emby server freezing and restarting when I was using a cheaper one.

Edited January 30, 2017 by tsherran