I was ill last week and discovered something uncomfortable: a huge Jellyfin library isn't entertainment, it's homework. Every time I opened it, it asked "what do you want?" and I just scrolled.

So I built a TV station instead.

ErsatzTV turns a media library into real linear channels with schedules and logos. It ships for Linux, Windows and macOS. My server runs FreeBSD.

Turns out the entire porting effort was one conditional. The code asked "is this Linux?" when it meant "is VAAPI available?" VAAPI is userspace, FreeBSD has it, and .NET has had OSPlatform.FreeBSD for years.

One || later: Intel hardware transcoding in a Bastille jail that can see exactly one GPU and one read-only dataset.

I now have a sci-fi channel. I don't know what's on tonight. That's the point.

blog.hofstede.it/building-my-o…

#FreeBSD #ErsatzTV #Jellyfin #SelfHosting #Jails #dotnet