Using JellyFin source code for a OTT platform like Netflix?

[RageshAntony]

We are a freelance group. We are developing an OTT/VOD platform like Netflix.

The business model is...

We design the platform and resell them to other companies who want to start a Netflix-like company. We develop an OTT platform and resell it to businesses. For example, if you want to start a Netflix-like company and need a web platform, you can get it from us.

Since I have been using JellyFin for a couple of months, I thought about whether I could use the source code and make some changes to create an OTT platform from it (abiding by the license).

Since JellyFin contains many features such as live transcoding, movie metadata fetching, categorization, etc., we are thinking about using it and building our OTT platform on top of it. We would make changes such as fetching metadata from our source, redesigning the UI, etc.

But some people told us, "It is a personal media server for a group of people, not for a huge audience, so scaling is a doubt," "You need a lot of rework, instead of that design your own," etc.

So I need your inputs on it.

[TheDreadPirate]

The biggest problem is scaling, as you stated.

To meet the demand of a large user base you will need to have multiple servers and each server will need multiple GPUs for transcoding. But Jellyfin has no mechanism to gracefully load balance anything. Not network traffic, not GPU usage when transcoding. Nothing.

Additionally, the big streaming services don't transcode because transcoding doesn't scale cheaply (just ask Twitch or Youtube Gaming). They have many many versions of each show and movie and their client determines what the device can play and sends the appropriate version. Jellyfin does not have that capability to automatically serve the best pre-transcode.

Jellyfin would require a significant rework, not just cosmetically, to be a viable commercial streaming platform.

[RageshAntony]

The biggest problem is scaling, as you stated.

To meet the demand of a large user base you will need to have multiple servers and each server will need multiple GPUs for transcoding.  But Jellyfin has no mechanism to gracefully load balance anything.  Not network traffic, not GPU usage when transcoding.  Nothing.

Additionally, the big streaming services don't transcode because transcoding doesn't scale cheaply (just ask Twitch or Youtube Gaming).  They have many many versions of each show and movie and their client determines what the device can play and sends the appropriate version.  Jellyfin does not have that capability to automatically serve the best pre-transcode.

Jellyfin would require a significant rework, not just cosmetically, to be a viable commercial streaming platform.

Thanks. Why JellyFin doesn't have "using pre-transcoded" content feature like Plex Optimize ? I tried providing 720p and 1080p version but it shows as "different version" of movie.

[TheDreadPirate]

Jellyfin's intended use case, as a personal media server, doesn't really need pre-transcoding if you are setup for real-time transcoding. "Versions" is an option for movies. Version 10.9 should have "versions" for shows as well. But the need to dynamically make that determination isn't necessary. You can use apps like Tdarr to pre-transcode media, though.