Portable Jellyfin

[Jonyskids]

I live on the road and often without internet. I built a Jellyfin server on a Raspberry Pi 5. (I know Jellyfin states this is not optimal.) What would be the best Linux based small form factor cost effective option to improve my experience. Just looking for opinions or if someone else is in a similar situation.

[Fate]

Probably a MiniPC with an Intel n100 cpu. Should cost below 220$ from amazon or aliexpress. Or lower if you find a used one...

[TheDreadPirate]

A RPi is fine as long as you have simple media and robust clients. We recommend a more capable a server so you are able to either have more complex media and have more client flexibility.

There are a lot of mini PCs based on the Intel N100 chip. They are affordable, very low power, and extremely capable for transcoding.

[Jonyskids]

A RPi is fine as long as you have simple media and robust clients.  We recommend a more capable a server so you are able to either have more complex media and have more client flexibility.

There are a lot of mini PCs based on the Intel N100 chip.  They are affordable, very low power, and extremely capable for transcoding.

My desire for improvement in my system comes from some videos lagging. I am using a Pi5 and an amazon fire stick. Is the fire stick the limiting factor, do you think?

[TheDreadPirate]

As long as your media is simple, pretty much any client is fine. 1080P H264 video (not high 10), AAC stereo audio, SRT or burned in subs, MP4 container.

So it depends on what your media is like. If you have more complex media that is requiring the Pi5 to do some work, like transcoding the audio, that may be an issue.

IMO, you should look into getting an Intel N100 equipped mini PC. Mainly because streaming devices, like the Firestick, are not capable enough to unless you have simple media (as described above). Full video/audio/subtitle transcoding needs to be available for those kinds of devices. My definition of a "capable device" is like a laptop or desktop PC running Jellyfin Media Player or Kodi.