Moving Server to RPi 4

[Hsunami]

I am thinking about moving my server from my MacBook Pro to a Raspberry Pi 4. 

I only use an Apple TV (with Swiftfin) to play movies/shows. Can someone recommend a setup for media storage? Is USB thumb drive a bad idea? I would like to be able to easily transfer media from my MBP to this media storage device from time to time. And any sort of wireless transfer from my experience is just too slow (mostly 4k movies). I don't think I'll need any transcoding since RPi most likely' won't be able to handle it and Apple TV can direct play mostly?

Any other advice or recommendation will be appreciated!

[TheDreadPirate]

We recommend against using RPis for Jellyfin due to, as you said, their inability to transcode video. Ensuring direct play compatibility for all clients is not an insignificant task and requires sacrifices in quality or increased storage usage.

If you don't already have the RPi, I'd recommend that you instead buy a surplus office PC. Since you're in the US, if the flag below your name is accurate, you can find surplus Dell Optiplexes all over ebay for dirt cheap. Find one with at least a 7th gen Intel CPU, preferably 8th gen and newer. Since that CPU generation added support for 10-bit HEVC.

[Hsunami]

Ensuring direct play compatibility for all clients is not an insignificant task and requires sacrifices in quality or increased storage usage.

Is that really so? If my only "clients" are Apple TVs? Is there a table to look up common clients and what they can direct play?

I already have an RPi 4, I just need to figure out how to store and transfer the media.

[TheDreadPirate]

I mean, as long as the USB stick can transfer fast enough, it isn't really a problem to store your media on it.

But when you're talking about 4K media, you are also likely going to have 4K HDR media, which is a mess in terms of compatibility. Even on newer hardware.

[withinremuda]

Agree with the admin, USB is really a great way to store information. You can store larger amounts of data.