I have a vps where I host a few things and I tried adding jellyfin. It worked and while scanning media railed the CPU/ram, once it was done everything was smooth. However, despite having all dependencies a bunch of videos didn’t play. I also don’t need the music and ebooks side of jellyfin as I’ll be using other things for those (funkwhale for music, still looking into the books and comics ) So, which self hosted alternatives do I have for videos and books/comic books? I need things that only do that but don’t well. The video one needs to have a client I can install on a android device I have plugged ony tv
There’s always Plex and emby, but if the videos didn’t play in jellyfin I doubt they will play in those two. You are probably lacking hardware support for the codec you’re trying to play.
It’s a vps so maybe I am indeed lacking hardware.
It’s determined by the client you’re trying to watch the file on. The server could be run on a Raspberry Pi if you always use compatible files with your client since transcoding wouldn’t be needed. The most compatible files will be x264 video and (don’t quote me here) AAC audio but modern clients can also play x265 video and stuff like EAC or AC3 audio without needing to be transcoded (converted from one format to another on the server). For ease of transcoding, a GPU works best but they can be converted strictly with CPU hardware though it’s more resource intensive.
You probably just need to transcode your videos to match whatever client you’re watching on. I run jellyfin from a raspberry pi without any problem once things are encoded properly.
For books and manga I use calibre-web, having used Calibre for a while before self hosting.
This is what I suspect too. Maybe OP has a weak server or they don’t have transcoding turned on and have a file that’s incompatible with the client they’re trying to play media on.
For movies and tv shows I use Plex
Books/manga/comic books I use Kavita
Kavita is the one I was looking at as well. I hear plex is closed source and I prefer using open.
I would recommend giving kivata a try.
Can’t really speak on open source alternative for Plex though (other than jellyfin, which I haven’t used myself even). Good luck on the search!