Gaming has been Samarveer’s greatest passion, and the Literature graduate in him takes immense joy in dissecting games for their themes, messages, and impact. Samarveer holds a deep appreciation of gaming, and considers the platform to be the most immersive and impactful across all media. He can be found engaging with gaming communities online, always ready to debate the finer points of ray tracing or itching to write an 8-page collegiate thesis on any game that impacts him emotionally.
Over the past two years, it's been fun setting up and tinkering with my Plex and Jellyfin server. Running my own media server has genuinely become a hobby in itself, and it's been a lot of fun. Between managing libraries, sorting out remote access, and making sure everything works as it should every weekend, I've spent about as much time maintaining my server as I have actually enjoying it.
However, it's no secret that I've gone back and forth between Plex and Jellyfin — the two biggest players in the self-hosted media server space. I've compared the two frequently, and like it's my job (which, somehow, it is). And yet, when I came across another open-source app that gave me more than Plex and Jellyfin combined, sideloading it on my Google TV was the obvious next step.
I did get a little tired of maintaining my own Netflix
More often than not, my hobby became a chore
There's nothing quite like a properly configured media server, as anyone with their own server will agree. My Jellyfin server houses a 2TB media library with automated media management and remote access for my friends through Tailscale. It also has backups configured properly (which I learned the hard way). All in all, it's a pretty solid setup, and yet I can't deny that maintaining it all takes time I'd rather spend relaxing and actually watching something.
That, I've realized, is a bit of a problem with self-hosting. What starts as the initial satisfaction of building something yourself eventually turns into a much less glamorous business that requires you to keep it running. No matter what, your self-hosted libraries will always need organizing, metadata will always require fixing, and if you have it set up, remote playback will definitely need troubleshooting. On the other hand, users who simply pay for Netflix every single month are already half a season deep into a new show.
Now, I had no intention of abandoning my carefully curated library, but I did want a simpler way to access my media. That's when I started exploring Stremio, an open-source media platform that I had to sideload onto my Google TV. If nothing else, I was curious whether a less conventional app could make my decidedly overengineered entertainment setup feel effortless again.
Stremio makes finding something to watch ridiculously easy
It's made my Google TV less of a filing cabinet
Initially, I faced more friction setting up Stremio on my Google TV than Jellyfin or Plex, since I had to sideload the app with a USB drive. Since Stremio supports third-party plugins that often draw streams from external sources, Google Play Store often delists the app on some devices. Once I had the app ready to go, though, it was impressive from the get-go. Without making me manage the machinery behind the curtain, Stremio prioritized giving me something to watch.
The app's entire interface revolves around discovering movies and TV shows, and it was a welcome change of pace to browse and watch something without navigating the labyrinthine menus of my personal media library. It's a straightforward approach, and a welcome one, especially since I was short on time and not in the mood to tinker with any settings or menus.
This, of course, is made possible through the add-on system. Stremio can integrate different content sources through its add-ons, which has let me expand what I can discover and play without adding to my media server's storage. Now, what I can access clearly depends on the sources I have configured, of course, but everything that Stremio plays on my TV comes with its metadata managed, thumbnails intact, and subtitles synced — a breath of fresh air after obsessively ensuring that everything on my Jellyfin server runs well, all the time.
Naturally, the entire experience here depends completely on the add-ons you install, but there's a catch. Stremio doesn't provide every movie and show you'd want to watch. Once you download the app, the source availability, playback reliability, and the very legality of the content you watch can vary, which is where you have to ensure you only stream from sources you have authorization for. Still, for anyone who values convenience over curating a pristine library, Stremio does get the fundamentals refreshingly right.
I also brought my Jellyfin library into Stremio
I didn't have to rebuild my entire media setup
Thankfully, moving to Stremio didn't mean I had to forsake my Jellyfin library entirely. I didn't have to choose between Stremio's streamlined interface and the media library I'd spent months building. Thanks to Jellio+, a community project, I bridged my Jellyfin library to Stremio. With that set up, I could begin browsing my existing collection through a different client. The alternative would've been to make my media server hard drive a permanent fixture behind my TV, but thankfully, the Stremio-Jellyfin integration add-on helped me avoid that busywork.
Full disclosure — these integrations aren't native Stremio features, so getting them working required a bit of extra configuration. I added Jellio+ as a plugin on my Jellyfin server and installed it. That added an option in my plugins to select which libraries I wanted included in Stremio—a nifty addition if I don't want to hand over my entire media server.
I also had to enter my local Jellyseerr URL and my Jellyseerr API key into the plugin, along with the public URL for my Jellyfin server. Thankfully, both my Jellyfin and Jellyseerr instances are accessible over HTTPS using a free Cloudflare tunnel. That way, my media stayed on my server, while Stremio became another way to discover and access it. All I have to do is type in a movie or TV show into the standard Stremio search bar, and if it's available on my Jellyfin server, Stremio pulls it up and streams it.
In't run into problems with direct playback and transcoding, which I suspected would behave differently from Jellyfin's own client. Regardless, the chance to keep my existing library while changing how I access it is what makes Stremio worth exploring.
Stremio
Plex and Jellyfin still have a job to do, though
Stremio might have made watching content less cumbersome for me, but it hasn't "replaced" everything that Plex and Jellyfin bring to the table. After all, I still need to manage my server and my storage, and Jellyfin still manages my personal library. If it is organized, it's because its integrations and automation still handle the unglamorous work.
As such, if I wanted just a polished library and straightforward media sharing that didn't make me want to bash my head in, Plex would have been the most compelling option. Jellyfin, of course, holds more undeniable appeal, since I value open-source software and control over my own infrastructure.
Stremio's strengths, though, lie elsewhere. It helps with discovery and convenience, and it surely reduces the friction between finding something to watch and actually watching it.