Media on isoul.uk

From Veoh and Justin.tv to Self-Hosting My Own Media

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:34:04 +0000

Previously on isoul.uk: Why I Self-Host — a technical curiosity became a practical choice about ownership, privacy, learning and keeping data in systems I control.

It is slightly ridiculous that one line can connect watching anime on Veoh around 2007 with running Docker containers on a mini PC in my house today.

But there is a line.

Back then, I was interested in one thing: finding something I wanted to watch.

The Quiet Work Behind Owning Your Media

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Installing a media server is the easy part.

It may not feel easy the first time. There are unfamiliar settings, folders that refuse to appear and devices that behave differently for no obvious reason. Eventually, though, the application starts. A film plays on the television. An album appears on a phone. The small thrill of having built something useful is real.

For a while, that can feel like the finished project.

Projects worth testing in a practical homelab

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A useful project is not automatically worth adding just because it is new, popular or active on GitHub. I look for a clear problem, sensible deployment, useful documentation, a workable backup path and enough maintenance history to justify the time spent learning it.

This list deliberately excludes tools already used here, including Beszel, Dockhand and youtube-dl workflows. Karakeep is also excluded as a recommendation because it is already in use and has proved to be good in practice.