PaulB_
Senior Member
I wanted to share a backend project I recently finished. Like a lot of people, I finally hit my breaking point with standard media servers. Between Plex’s constant price increases, endless remote buffering issues, and them removing Live TV functionality for South Africa—forcing me to jump through a million hoops just to access my Threadfin setup—I decided to scrap it and bring everything entirely in-house.
I’ve always had a solid attention to detail, but I wasn't great at coding until I actually sat down, looked at the mechanics in detail, and engineered a solution from the ground up. This entire platform, from the backend infrastructure to the frontend UI, was built entirely by one person. I had some AI assistance, but the ideas, and placements are all mine.
Instead of relying on third-party tools, I built my own dedicated Live TV engine directly into the platform. Since my IPTV setup feeds DirecTV channels, I engineered the backend engine specifically around that structure first, with architecture ready to add other providers down the line.
The entire backend connects directly to my cloud storage pool via an Rclone HTTP mount.
This is all hosted on my VPS fleet in Germany.
Here is what the custom setup handles:
I’ve attached some screenshots of the interface—including the library posters—so you can see the professional finish and how it visually handles the metadata. To be clear, though, I won't be releasing this build publicly. Aside from the sensitive nature of the media, I engineered this from the bare metal up, and I’d rather not have my ideas and custom architecture simply lifted by others.
While this is my own personal setup, the architecture itself is built to a commercial standard. I’m always keen to talk shop or see how these kinds of bespoke pipelines and distributed systems could be adapted for larger, commercial-level environments.
Happy to answer any high-level architectural questions if anyone else is looking at building out custom distributed storage or live stream routing instead of relying on Plex.
I’ve always had a solid attention to detail, but I wasn't great at coding until I actually sat down, looked at the mechanics in detail, and engineered a solution from the ground up. This entire platform, from the backend infrastructure to the frontend UI, was built entirely by one person. I had some AI assistance, but the ideas, and placements are all mine.
Instead of relying on third-party tools, I built my own dedicated Live TV engine directly into the platform. Since my IPTV setup feeds DirecTV channels, I engineered the backend engine specifically around that structure first, with architecture ready to add other providers down the line.
The entire backend connects directly to my cloud storage pool via an Rclone HTTP mount.
This is all hosted on my VPS fleet in Germany.
Here is what the custom setup handles:
- Dedicated Live TV Engine: Eliminates the Threadfin/Plex region workarounds, delivering direct channel streams with zero third-party app restrictions.
- Near-Instant Playout: Low-overhead transport streams and dynamic proxy caching directly off the pool, meaning playback starts near instantly for most things.
- Multiple Distinct Libraries: Full metadata separation across different categories without the database grinding to a halt.
- Complete Routing Control: Full command over transcode parameters, stream fan-out, and playback state without relying on bloated commercial software.
I’ve attached some screenshots of the interface—including the library posters—so you can see the professional finish and how it visually handles the metadata. To be clear, though, I won't be releasing this build publicly. Aside from the sensitive nature of the media, I engineered this from the bare metal up, and I’d rather not have my ideas and custom architecture simply lifted by others.
While this is my own personal setup, the architecture itself is built to a commercial standard. I’m always keen to talk shop or see how these kinds of bespoke pipelines and distributed systems could be adapted for larger, commercial-level environments.
Happy to answer any high-level architectural questions if anyone else is looking at building out custom distributed storage or live stream routing instead of relying on Plex.
