M4 Mac Mini - Jellyfin Server

[HWLad]

Hi all,

I understand that it may not be the most popular set of hardware for most Homelab enthuiasts but has anyone had experience or has an opinions on the following setup for Jellyfin and otherwise:

I am thinking about buying an M4 Mac Mini - partly as a low power server for Jellyfin - but I have some other uses for it including Handbrake, Logic Pro for music and basically to create a more manageable office, workstation and server than my current PC is. I can then relagate that to purely gaming purposes. I would have a DAS attached to Mac Mini to store my media. I understand that a DAS is sub-optimal but I do eventually intend on building a NAS when I can do it properly with ECC-RAM, high level of redundancy etc.

My questions are the following:

1. Is a Mac Mini even going to work properly? I note that in the documentation it reckons Apple Silicon's transcoding ability is up there with Intel and Nvidia so partly one of the reasons I am going with this but will it be a relatively stable experience?

2. Any advice on specs for M4 Mac Mini? Will I need 10Gbps network upgrade or will 1Gbps suffice? Should I get more RAM than the 16GB base spec? Storage I am not too fussed about given my DAS.

3. What low-power small PCs would potentially be an alternative (given I am UK based)? Or any advice on a custom build - I am very familiar with putting computers together?

As a side note - my current PC is specs are a AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Radeon RX 6800 hence not suitable to run a Jellyfin Server economically.

[felix920506]

1. The mac mini will work properly without problems, as long as you aren't using virtualization to run Jellyfin.

2. Since you plan to get a NAS in the future, the 10Gbps upgrade is recommended. For logic pro you might need more than 16GB if you are working with large projects, but 16GB is enough for most users.

3. Any Intel N100 based system would be a good, low power, cheap Jellyfin server.

[gnattu]

A friendly note that current stable version has not enabled AV1 hardware decoding support on M3/M4 yet. The PR is still pending: https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/pull/13194

Currently AV1 decoding during transcode will be performed on CPU.

[jimmyjammy]

I have been using an old 2014 mac mini (with an SSD upgrade for the OS) running Sonoma via opencore patcher & 4 X 18 TB external drives (DAS) for storage. I have used this machine with Jellyfin for 5 years &, despite only having 4GB of ram, it has worked perfectly for JFin. A base model M4 mini (16 Gb of ram) will be more than enough to host Jellyfin & use Handbrake & Logic. Most files tend to be played directly on my clients but have never had any transcoding problems when they were necessary. I wouldn't bother with a NAS, The DAS drives work fine. I can cannect to Jellyfin both locally & outside my Network. I would suggest running Tailscale https://tailscale.com/ ( a free & easy VPN) for security. There doesn't seem to be a lot of Mac users/info on this forum so please feel free to message me if you need assistance in setting things up!
Cheers, JJ

PP: I have no problems with AV1 files decoding, even on my pitiful hardware.

[Slyboogy]

Hi, good to see M4s getting some more love around as they are an awesome product.

1) Yes, it will work fantastically. Can even do heavy lifting of 10-12~ 4K Remux > 720 Streams. 15 Watts~

2) For pure Jellyfin/Handbrake server 16GB is fine, more is always better but it's expensive. 10Gbit if you can use it is a nice to have, it's pretty cheap as well.

3) Honestly for the price point, not a lot. There seems to be less Intel NUCs getting round and as you've pointed out AMD Chips aren't as good as Intel Quick Sync.

For context, my home lab has consisted of 1 Massive Server with Dual Xeons, 768GB Ram, 2x nVidia Quadro Cards, 600TB Raw attached SAS Shelves etc.

I often have 25-30 streams going between JF/Plex and have made the choice to move to a dedicated box for that purpose connected via 10Gbit to the network/NAS. I've been so impressed I'm thinking about getting another one for various tasks. There are some good Rackmount adaptors for them as well

First post for me here, officially a Plex refugee and loving Jellyfin!

[HWLad]

Hi all,

Thank you for all your help and advice. I received my Mac mini a few days ago and I am very much enjoying the hassle-free set up of Jellyfin and a computer doing Handbrake with significantly less power and noise. A good little device for this task. In the end I did keep it at base spec except the 10gbit Network upgrade for potential future network infrastructure changes (my ethernet is already 2.5Gbps capable)

Fortunately all of my video media is a mix of AVC and HEVC 10-bit but will start messing about with AV1 once compatibility is there. I think I am also in a position where most of my clients are capable of direct play also with these files.

[georgeApolymath]

Hi, also using a M4 Mac Mini as a home server! It’s a base 16gb / 256GB (will try a 2TB self upgrade later) but with the 10Gbps upgrade. BTW… if you can use the veteran discount it turns out better than the educational discount for Apple products! I currently have a Drobo 5N (with 30TB and one drive redundancy) with for my media storage and two 20TB Seagate Expansion Desktop Hard Drives that I use as a backup to the Drobo should the Drobo itself die. I will be replacing the Drobo at some point as is no longer supported being out of business but to be honest it’s worked just fine (recovered perfectly after 2 drive failures and did have to replace the power brick for $50 once) for years as a Plex media server so till it dies I will keep using it.

So why an M4… easy as they are not really that expensive and I am deep in the Apple ecosystem so it makes sense for me. I use universal control from my MacBook to control it but do have a spare monitor attached to it. I also that same monitor a second monitor on my MacBook when needed. Throw in my iPad via sidecar and it makes for a great and very flexible setup! Sometimes living in a walled garden is nice as yes it does just work!

I use the Mac Mini as more then just Jellyfin server however. I keep it running with a VPN, use Transmission for torrents, keep a Wyze window up to monitor my cameras (love how IOS apps run on it seamlessly). Playing with both a Calibre and Kavita book server to see what works best. Might try more with the Jellyfin book aspect if I can still use one of the book readers on my iPad that I like… will see! Basically I like the face that besides the home server aspect, I can still use it as a normal Mac and do many other things with it at the same time!

So will read and share more as time goes on so us Mac Mini nuts can learn from each other and not feel quite so nuts for using it! 🙃

Edited to add this link… Complete Guide for Hosting Jellyfin on macOS by user DigitalShane
https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-complete-gu...n-on-macos