Your private movie library, in maximum quality, organized and beautifully presented on every screen.
If you have a TV and movie collection on DVD and Blu-ray discs, you need the disc and a player wherever you want to watch them. Chances are you have more TVs than players, plus devices like laptops, phones and tablets that cannot use discs or connect to players anyway.
This means your discs may be sadly gathering dust, or best case, you’re limited in where you can watch them. That hurdle – moving to another room, or even getting up to browse and fetch the disc – is enough that it’s easier to just find something on streaming, even if it’s not as good.
And of course, streaming services are always hiking prices, increasing advertising even when you’re already paying for the service, and movies and series are moving or disappearing all the time due to licenses expiring or even studios removing films from existence in order to reduce their tax bill.
Take control of your media collection and enjoy it again.
A private media server lets you enjoy your collection again: organized, beautifully presented and instantly accessible on every screen in your home.
Crafted Home Tech builds and configures dedicated, high-performance media servers that store, organize, and stream your entire collection of movies, television shows, and music in pristine, original quality. These servers run the Plex or Jellyfin media servers that control your library and serve them to your devices.
We then show you how to digitize your physical movie collection to build a personalized media library. Unlike streaming apps that heavily compress the video and audio, this plays your movies in stunning, original-quality picture and sound - completely under your control, with zero monthly fees.
It’s a Netflix‑style library of everything you own, accessible from any device, inside your home and optionally on-the-go too. But it’s even better because there is no subscription, it has superior audio and video, and it is fully under your control - you decide what’s in and what’s out.
Pristine Video & Audio Delivery: No streaming platform compression artifacts and buffering wheels. Where your content has it, enjoy up to 4K HDR video with Dolby Vision and lossless cinema audio such as Dolby Atmos on every device that supports it. No streaming service offers lossless audio.
Intuitive Apps: We deploy easy-to-use client apps across all your smart TVs, tablets, and media players such as Apple TV or Nvidia Shield, complete with rich automatic cover art, cast lists, collections, ratings, reviews, and watch history tracking.
The Blueprint for Archiving: We provide custom documentation and personalized tutorials on how to safely backup your owned DVD and Blu-ray discs, keeping your physical collection in use, yet protected.
Better than streaming
No advertising: no interruptions, no pre‑rolls, no “limited ad breaks”.
No rising fees: you’re not tied to monthly subscriptions that increase every year.
The best audio and video quality: your ripped discs keep their original picture and sound, better than streaming versions.
Original versions preserved: no edits, removals, or changes as streaming services update or censor content.
Always available: titles never disappear because a licensing deal expired.
Special features included: commentaries, documentaries, interviews, deleted scenes - all the extras streaming services ignore.
Plays inside your home: your movies stream over your home network, not the Internet, so playback stays smooth and consistent even if your Internet is slow or temporarily offline.
No account limits: no “too many devices”, no “someone else is watching”, no login restrictions.
Works in your home: Plex runs on TVs, tablets, game consoles, streaming sticks, phones, and laptops, so your library is available on the devices your family uses.
A Plex library gives you better quality, no ads, no fees, no disappearing titles, and all your films exactly as you bought them.
Better than discs
Instant access: no discs, no cases, no loading screens or FBI warnings. Your entire library is ready the moment you turn on the TV.
Every screen: you can watch your films on any TV, tablet, phone, or laptop in the house, even all of them, not just the one with the Blu‑ray player.
Automatic organization: Plex adds artwork, cast lists, trailers, and episode guides automatically, making your library feel like a premium streaming service.
Resume anywhere: stop watching in the living room and continue in bed, exactly where you left off, even weeks later.
No disc wear: discs don’t get scratched through handling, lost, or stuck in a player.
Fast navigation: instant skipping, chapter selection, and search across your entire library.
Better for families: kids can browse their shows without handling discs, and access to grown-up titles can be restricted based on age profiles.
Central storage: everything lives on your server or NAS, not scattered across shelves.
Remote access: you can watch your own films when travelling, visiting family, or on holiday.
Plex makes your movies and shows easier to find, easier to watch, and available on every screen, without the hassle of discs or players.
What this service includes
Server design & hardware selection: Synology or QNAP NAS or dedicated server.
Plex or Jellyfin installation: tuned for performance and reliability.
Client app setup: Apple TV, Shield, smart TVs, tablets, phones.
Family account creation: everyone has their own age-appropriate view of the library and their own settings, watch lists and collections.
Library organization: folder structure and file naming.
Disc‑ripping guidance: how to digitize your legally-owned media.
One Master Library: every movie, TV show, and home video organized with beautiful cover art, cast lists, and watch histories on your screen.
Your documentation
You will receive all product manuals, plus a custom binder with your specific configuration details, for easy reference.
Start with a free design session to plan your ideal setup
Get in touch
Legal and ethical. Not piracy.
Crafted Home Tech does not support piracy. Every title in your library must come from a disc you legally own, and you must keep those discs. This process - often called format-shifting - simply lets you enjoy your purchased movies and shows in a more convenient, modern way. Your media stays private, inside your home, and is streamed only to your own devices.
Plex itself is completely legal software. It is free with optional paid upgrades.
This is not a piracy service. Crafted Home Tech does not approve of piracy and does not provide any content aside from public domain titles for demonstration purposes.
Crafted Home Tech builds private media servers designed exclusively for your own, legally‑owned movies and television shows. This service is not for downloading movies from the Internet, sharing, or accessing unlicensed content. It is simply a modern way to enjoy the discs you already own - with more convenience, versatile access across devices and better organization.
You must own the discs: To keep everything fully above board, you must retain the original Blu‑ray or DVD for every title you choose to digitize. Keeping the disc demonstrates ownership and ensures your digital copy remains tied to a legitimate physical source. It is also the ultimate hard copy backup for the digital file - if anything happens to the file, you can rerun the process.
Your content stays inside your home: Your media server is a private system that lives in your house. It streams your movies only to your own devices. Nothing is shared publicly, nothing is broadcast, and nothing is distributed outside your household.
Quality is preserved, not altered: All the quality of the original disc is extracted and retained with no conversion by default. The digital version is simply a faithful copy of what you already own, not a modified or redistributed product.
Notes
Video and audio quality are of course limited to that on the original disc. No one can turn your old DVDs into true 4K masterpieces. But with this system, all the quality of the original disc is extracted and retained with no conversion, for both audio and video. You will have a perfect copy on your media server.
Specifications and quality vary by title but typical specs are:
DVD
Video: 480 lines
Audio: Lossy (Dolby Digital 5.1 - 6 channels)
Blu-ray
Video: 1080 lines
Audio: Lossless (DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1/7.1 - 6/8 channels)
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Video: 2160 lines with HDR (High Dynamic Range) (HDR10 / HDR10+ / Dolby Vision)
Audio: Lossless (Dolby Atmos, utilizing all available speakers, including ceiling speakers)
For streaming within the home, the original quality is delivered to modern TVs and players, and even tablets and phones. For older devices, if they cannot handle the original file, the Plex client automatically asks the server for a converted version that it can play. This requires the server to convert the file in real time, which needs a strong processor. So, depending on the media and devices to be used, we can advise on the server’s processor specification.
Video transcoding is available as a separate service to enhance playback compatibility for your devices. It can also greatly reduce storage requirements and therefore costs. Animation and modern digitally-captured movies (not shot on film) compress incredibly well with no noticeable loss of quality. Inquire for more information.
Pricing
A private, high-performance media server that stores, organizes, and streams your legally-owned movies and shows in pristine quality across your home.
Plex Server Setup
A one-time fee to design, build, and configure your media server.
This includes:
Server design and hardware selection (NAS or dedicated server)
Plex installation tuned for performance and reliability
Client app setup on Apple TV, Nvidia Shield, smart TVs, tablets, phones
Library organization: folder structures, file naming
Remote access configuration for secure out-of-home streaming
Optical drive for reading your movie discs: DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray as needed
Dedicated Server Build: $900 - $1,950 labour
A fully assembled, tested, and optimised Plex server built from premium components and capable of converting 4K video to other formats in real time when required.
Includes multi‑drive installation, OS configuration, storage setup, Plex tuning, and complete documentation. Hardware and licences billed at cost.
Server type
Standard NAS (Synology)
A standard NAS can store your media and deliver it to your devices (TVs, phones etc), provided those devices can playback the video in its native format, as stored on the NAS. This is the most limited, but also the easiest and most cost-effective setup.
Synology DiskStation models start around $300 + tax
Custom server
Effectively a bespoke PC build, tailored for media storage and delivery. It can exceed the storage capacity and performance of the specialist NAS while costing significantly less, as well as adding more general capabilities you may wish to take advantage of. This requires more design and build effort as it is not a pre-made product that can be simply purchased.
Also requires Plex Lifetime Pass, which adds many bonus features to Plex and is required for hardware transcoding to work. Currently $1080 one-off cost.
Specialist NAS (QNAP)
For clients wanting more flexibility in media playback, or if not all devices can play all media in the original formats, this option adds a far more powerful CPU that allows the real-time conversion of the video and audio in your movies to the preferred format of your given device. This is done efficiently in hardware, as you stream the file. This is the most expensive option as the hardware is pre-built and covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. It can also function as a NAS similar to Synology.
QNAP NAS units with the required power start at $3800 + tax.
Also requires Plex Lifetime Pass, which adds many bonus features to Plex and is required for hardware transcoding to work. Currently $1080 one-off cost.
Storage Options
Different households need different amounts of storage.
Pricing depends on the size of your collection and the expected growth in the future.
For all builds, at least one-disk redundancy is recommended, to allow a disk failure to not cause any data loss.
Optional Enhancements
For clients who want a premium experience, we offer:
Advanced organization (collections, custom artwork, extras)
Home cinema integration
Aspect ratio correction and file naming
CEC - power on/off - behaviour tuning across all devices
Cable routing
Network optimization for flawless 4K playback
Device-specific tuning (Apple TV, Shield, smart TVs)
No Ongoing Fees
Once your system is built, it’s yours.
No subscriptions. No rising monthly costs. No disappearing titles.
Pricing is based on your library size and the level of setup you prefer.
Legality & Content Policy
Crafted Home Tech does not support piracy and does not provide any copyrighted content. Your Plex library is created only from discs you legally own, and you must keep those discs. We provide documentation so you can perform your own disc-ripping at home.
Get in touch to discuss your ideal system.