Home Lab Series Part 5: Building Your Own Netflix with Jellyfin

We have blocked ads and built dashboards. Now it is time to entertain. Streaming services keep raising prices while removing content. The solution? Own your media.

In Part 5, we are installing Jellyfin. It organizes your video files, downloads the posters and cast info automatically, and lets you stream them to your TV, phone, or tablet—just like Netflix, but you control the server.

Step 1: The Storage Problem

Containers are ephemeral. If you delete a container, the data inside it vanishes. For a media server, your media files (Movies/MP3s) must live on the Host (your Pi or PC), not inside the container.

If you are using a USB Hard Drive:

1. Plug the drive into your Server/Pi.
2. Mount it to a folder path you can remember (e.g., /mnt/media).
3. Create two folders inside it: movies and shows.

Step 2: The Jellyfin Stack

Let's go back to Portainer.

1. Click Stacks -> + Add stack.
2. Name the stack: jellyfin.
3. Paste the YAML below. Note: You must change the volume path to match your actual hard drive location!

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/jellyfin:latest
    container_name: jellyfin
    environment:
      - PUID=1000  # User ID (usually 1000 for the main user)
      - PGID=1000  # Group ID
      - TZ=America/New_York
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config  # Stores database/settings
      - /path/to/your/harddrive:/data/media  # CHANGE THIS!
    ports:
      - 8096:8096
    restart: unless-stopped

Click Deploy the stack.

Step 3: The Setup Wizard

Once deployed, open a browser and go to:

http://[YOUR-IP]:8096

1. Language: Select your language.
2. User: Create an admin username and password.
3. Libraries: Click "Add Media Library."
   • Select Movies.
   • Click the + (Plus) next to Folders.
   • Navigate to /data/media/movies (This is where we mapped the drive in the Docker Compose).
4. Metadata: Leave the defaults. Jellyfin will automatically scrape TheMovieDB for posters.
5. Remote Access: Allow remote connections (Check the box).

Once finished, you will be dropped into an empty dashboard. Give it 5-10 minutes. Jellyfin is currently scanning your hard drive and downloading images. Hit refresh, and watch your files turn into a beautiful catalog.

Step 4: Watching Your Content

You don't have to watch in the browser. Jellyfin has apps for almost everything.

Step 5: Add it to Homepage

Remember the dashboard we built in Part 4? Let's add a widget that shows what is currently playing.

Open your Homepage configuration file (services.yaml) and add this block:

- Media:
    - Jellyfin:
        icon: jellyfin.png
        href: http://[YOUR-IP]:8096
        widget:
            type: jellyfin
            url: http://[YOUR-IP]:8096
            key: [YOUR-API-KEY] # Generate this in Jellyfin Dashboard -> Advanced -> API Keys

Conclusion

You have successfully replaced Netflix. You now have a media server that you own, running on hardware you control.

Coming Up in Part 6: We will discuss Remote Access. How to safely access your Jellyfin server and Pi-hole from outside your house (without opening dangerous ports).