this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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I used to do all that too. I'm old too, and forget renaming files, I gave up on the whole media-hording business, because I ain't got the time/patience to manage all that any more. Gone are the days of using seedboxes, private servers, SABnzbd and the like. Gone are the days of using Kodi/OpenElec/Plex/Jellyfin etc. Gone are the days of running my own NAS with an ever increasing RAID array and maintaining them and benchmarking the latest ZFS and thinking of ways to speed up the cache and upgrading all the bits and bobs regularly. I got rid of it all.
These days, I just subscribe to a streaming site on an adhoc basis (if there's something I want to watch on that site) and if the site doesn't have it in my region, I won't jump thru VPN hoops and will just pirate it, watch it, and immediately delete it. I ain't hording shit no more, and will follow the path of least resistance.
Honestly, this has simplified my life quite a bit, I don't need to worry about backups or losing data - because I have no data to lose now (besides some documents/personal projects/dot files, which is already synced to the cloud).
The only media I actually still bother to carry around is rewatchable and rare stuff that isn't easy to get. Like the AI upscaled version of DS9, Harmy's Despecialized Star Wars, or my own AI upscaled copies of Allo Allo, which isn't found anywhere else. But all of these fit on a single USB stick, so I'm happy retaining them. It's so freeing to not be a data hoarder any more and simplify my digital life.
This is a really important point! Needing two copies of a media server so one has a backup really complicates the whole point of simplification that a media server theoretically presents. Also, what sounded great in 2007 is always worth a bit of scrutiny now with a wildly different streaming landscape.
Still, with what Paramount is doing with their IP, Trek overall is something I feel a need to have a local copy of (see: Prodigy). Case-by-case assessment is, as you note, a good use of time.
What turbocharged my server ambitions was having stepkids of that age where everything they want to watch is replete with ads tailored to their lack of understanding of the world, and it quickly became apparent that hearing a half-dozen times a day about what they "need" wasn't going to fly. When you need half the Disney Channel in real time, you have a new full-time job.