New server and client help

[TheDreadPirate]

Running Jellyfin in docker makes managing its data easier. Makes backups and migration easier as well. Definitely recommend learning Docker (it's not that hard) and starting with Jellyfin in Docker.

I've never used Tdarr so I can't help with specifics. I just use ffmpeg, directly, to re-encode.

As for compatibility and file size, that is personal preference and depends on what clients you have and how many clients you have. My reason for re-encoding, to AV1 video + OPUS audio specifically, is to maximize quality per bit since I don't have a lot of upload bandwidth (40Mbps). This also results in direct play on near all my clients, soon to be ALL my clients once I finish swapping one more. My phones, Pixel 6a's and my wife and I's primary remote client, can direct play both codecs and is the primary beneficiary of using more efficient codecs. The reduced cellular usage and storage efficiency are huge benefits as well.

What codecs YOU choose depends on your client capabilities, whether your clients are all local or some are remote, what your available upload bandwidth is. If you and/or your users have old clients that don't support AV1, or even HEVC, and you don't want to be transcoding constantly then you should target H264 + AAC. Especially if you have 5+ users. If you only have a couple users with capable devices, HEVC (your iGPU can encode to that) and AAC or OPUS audio since HEVC is much more efficient.