Plex

Look into building a Linux or Windows (or Android TV box) 'Kodi' media server. Add a cheap external HDD to it and you're good to go. Insofar as content ...

My knowledge here may be out of date, but at one time Canada's copyright laws were very different from the USA. We as Canadians did (and may still) pay taxes earmarked for compensating all copyright holders; it was at one point totally legal to download anything, it just wasn't technically legal to upload that same content for others to download. A weird situation, but maybe the DMCA's been extended since via treaties to make that illegal even in Canada now.

At least for the 1990s through the early-to-mid 20x0s, Canadians have always paid a copyright levy on any blank media (CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, hard drives and USB keys) that could conceivably be used to store copyrighted content. The media companies did their best to hide this from Canadians, but in effect, every Canadian was already paying SOCAN, ASCAP/BMI, Hollywood etc. for copyrighted content even if they never stored such content on their purchased storage media such as blank discs, hard drives or USB keys!

As for 'torrent' and 'magnet' files, broadband providers in Canada must forward DMCA notices to downloaders if the copyright holders send them, but last time I checked these notices were basically toothless in Canada, and nothing more than scare tactics.

Disclaimer: IANALNDIPOOTV (I Am Not A Lawyer, Nor Do I Play One On TV). Not legal advice. Sales Taxes Apply Where Required. Some Assembly Required. Contents May Settle During Shipping.

Pirate everything laws are a spook

(Use a VPN)

Run Jellyfin locally and put all of your digitized files in there. Jellyfin is open source, unlike Plex, so you won't have to worry about getting locked into a walled garden.

If you're scared of downloading online, you could borrow from your library and burn dvds like it's 2003

Depending on your jurisdiction, downloading copied content isn't illegal, only sharing it to others is.

It goes against the general mantra of the piracy community to not share at least as you receive, but if you are in a region where you have to worry about that, in addition to a reputable VPN there is that info.

You could check out DVDs from your local library and rip them in, most libraries that have DVD collections will let you check out at least a couple at a time. But that's still technically illegal, just without any risk of a DMCA.

Move to Canada and use usenet

I get you.

By the letter of the law, you can make backups of your own media for yourself, so anything you legally own a copyright for, you may take a backup of the original media for yourself.

To stay 100% legal, you may never share this content with anyone.

Practically, however, after the whole RIAA lawsuits, which got a lot of press, it's actually cheaper and more profitable for companies to make the media available to civilians through legal means, than it is to sue them. The RIAA found that out the hard way, so actually getting caught and sued for having/sharing pirated media is pretty much not going to happen. You'll get scary sounding letters from your ISP (who is legally required to forward them to you from the MPAA), but that's about it. It's unlikely to ever go further than that.

Still, you should use a VPN if you're going to go that route.....

That's your options, do whatever you want with that information.

This might help with your hardware/software stack: https://perfectmediaserver.com/

As for content, there are plenty of good suggestions here already, but my solution is to run a VPN client when I'm torrenting just to be on the safe side.

The quickest way to start is to familiarize yourself with Plex by installing it on your primary computer. It can run in the background in Windows and will be accessible on your home network from there. You'll want to install "Plex Media Server" on that computer and configure it to your liking. Once that's installed, you will need media. You mention ripping DVDs. That is the best route to take with regards to legal ramifications. There are many ways to rip DVDs, so I won't go into that. Once you have your DVDs ripped and in a folder on your primary computer, configure Plex to search that folder for media. You can then use any Plex client to stream those movies wherever you please.

I will warn you, though, it can be a bit of a rabbit hole. My Plex setup has grown to a rack-mounted server with dual Intel CPUs, 384GB or RAM, and many, many terrabytes of content being shared to dozens of friends and family members.

Have fun and come back with any questions you come up with!

If you are good with computers install Plex/jellyfin in a vm or docker. You can copy your own DVDs to it

https://www.makemkv.com/

Is great for getting the video files from the disc, read the documentation for drive compatibility though, especially for 4k bluray. Here is the doc page for emby, and Jellyfin. I think Jellyfin is a fork from Emby that stays 100% free/open

• https://emby.media/support/articles/Home.html
• https://jellyfin.org/docs/

Note youll need a computer to be there server, and a client that is plugged in to the tv/smart tv app/apple tv box running the client. Accessing your server outside of your local network is another layer of complications. The server needs to transcode the video stream if you need to downscale it so that the network can handle it, or if the client can't handle the format of the original video file, and that will dictact how fast a server you'll need.

Navidrome is very good for a music server

Truth be told, doing it legally will only make it harder and harder to get media. Mullvad VPN (https://mullvad.net ) is only 5€ (~5.4$) monthly and you can quite literally mail them the physical dollars to pay for the VPN if you don't have card.