I was paying for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Max — and still couldn't find anything to watch. Meanwhile, I had 6TB of perfectly good media on my NAS gathering digital dust. The solution: Jellyfin.
Why Jellyfin (Not Plex or Emby)
All three do the same core job: stream your media collection to any device. But Jellyfin is 100% free and open source — no paid tier for hardware transcoding, no 'please subscribe' nagware, no phone-home analytics. It's everything Plex should be but stopped being around version 1.0.
Setup on Synology (the Simple Way)
I run Jellyfin via Docker on my Synology DS220+. Here's the streamlined version:
- Install Container Manager (Synology's Docker UI) from Package Center
- Create a jellyfin folder on your NAS volume for config data
- Pull the image:
docker pull jellyfin/jellyfin:latest - Run with port mapping: Map 8096 → 8096 for the web UI. Map your media folder as a volume mount
That's it. Open http://synology-ip:8096 and you're in. The first-run wizard walks you through adding your media libraries.
Hardware Transcoding: Make It Actually Work
This is the trickiest part. The Synology DS220+ has a Celeron J4025 with Quick Sync Video, which can handle a single 1080p transcode stream. For hardware acceleration:
- SSH into your NAS and install the
intel-media-va-driverpackage - In Docker, add
--device /dev/dri:/dev/drito the run command - In Jellyfin dashboard → Playback → enable VAAPI hardware decoding
If you need 4K transcoding or multiple simultaneous streams, you'll want a more powerful server. But for one family watching on phones and TVs simultaneously, this works great.
Remote Access via Tailscale
I don't expose Jellyfin to the open internet. Instead, I use Tailscale (or my self-hosted Headscale server). Every family member installs Tailscale on their phone/laptop, and they access Jellyfin at http://100.x.x.x:8096 over a WireGuard tunnel. Zero configuration, zero attack surface, works flawlessly.
Read my guide on setting up Headscale on Synology if you want to self-host the control server.
Client Apps Worth Using
- Android TV / Fire TV: The official Jellyfin app. Perfect on a Shield TV.
- iOS/Android: Swiftfin (official). Beautiful, fast, free.
- Apple TV: Infuse (paid, $10/year) — best Apple TV experience for Jellyfin. Worth every penny.
- Kodi: The Jellyfin for Kodi plugin. Overkill for most people but super customizable.
Bottom Line
Jellyfin replaced $60/month in streaming subscriptions for me. Setup took an evening. The only ongoing cost is the electricity the NAS uses. If you already have a Synology with media on it, you're leaving free streaming on the table by not setting this up.