Cover image: https://twitter.com/Kana_Taka11/status/1639530170355965954
Preface#
To begin with#
It's been a long time since I updated my column. I just graduated from school recently and found a job, so I have some time to continue filling this gap. I still have a few other articles waiting in the draft box, but I’ll fill this gap first.
Recently, I switched from full pinyin to double pinyin, but after a month, I haven't seen the recovery or significant improvement in typing speed that others mentioned. I guess my previous typing habits haven't changed yet. It's just right to practice typing with more characters, and if I recover well in the future, I’ll write an article to share my experience.
This article provides some references for managing local media libraries from my personal usage perspective and needs. Due to configuration or device investment considerations, it may (likely) not meet the usage needs of most people, and is for reference only. I also hope that friends with similar needs can share their insights or provide better suggestions.
Background#
The following content is adapted from Kyodo News:
On April 26 this year, the "Cultural Products Overseas Distribution Promotion Agency" (CODA), which includes Japanese animation companies and publishers, signed a memorandum to strengthen cooperation with the "China Copyright Association" in Beijing. In light of the crackdown on online piracy sites for Japanese works, the aim is to promote exchanges between Japan and China and protect the interests of rights holders.
The memorandum states that it will promote the dissemination and protection of cultural products between Japan and China, and includes provisions for each side to take measures against copyright infringement based on information provided by the other. After signing the memorandum, CODA representative director Kenro Kato expressed, "I hope we can speak sincerely to each other and further deepen cultural exchanges."
According to news released in March this year, the Chinese police cracked down on large-scale piracy sites targeting Japan based on criminal complaints filed by Japanese copyright holders through CODA.
Following the signing of the document, several animation BT sites were shut down. I won't elaborate on this here; interested parties can search for relevant discussions on various forums.
First, I want to clarify that I absolutely agree with and support creators receiving their deserved earnings. I mentioned similar content in my previous columns; only when creators can receive positive feedback from their creations can creativity be sustained.
However, at least in the domestic context, the experience of the legitimate environment is too poor.
I remember when I first started watching Bilibili ten years ago, I could basically open the site and watch various anime.
Later, they began to buy copyrights. Although some new shows were no longer available on Bilibili, I could still watch them on other platforms.
Now, even if you go to Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan, what you see is also content that has been harmonized and censored.
I bought a premium membership when it first came out, and later, when the viewing experience worsened, I considered it worth it for the ability to watch at 60fps and 4K for a year at 100.
However, the bitrate suppression on Bilibili is really hard to complain about. This year is probably my last year subscribing to the premium membership.
As for AGE, Anime1, Sakura, and other online piracy sites, aside from various Macau ads, the quality is only 720p and the bitrate is shockingly low, which is enough to deter me (I just checked again, and the bitrate seems to have improved a lot, but that’s just an exception). Additionally, the resources for various old and niche shows are often poorly maintained, which is quite annoying.
As the old saying goes, having data in your own hands is the most reassuring. Although I used to collect anime, I simply stored them on a hard drive for seeding or watched them when I had time. This method is not only inconvenient for indexing but also has poor performance for multi-device access, making it quite troublesome. This year, hard drive prices have plummeted, so I started planning to organize a solution to permanently address this need.
Resources and Downloads#
Resources#
BT Sites#
The BT sites I commonly use are as follows:
- Anime Garden: http://share.dmhy.org/ Forever a godsend; 99% of needs can be met here.
- Apocalypse Anime Resource Library: https://share.acgnx.se/ Probably a mirror of the garden? More stable than the garden.
- Mikan Project: https://mikanani.me/ Seems to be influenced by the garden in terms of updates? Very convenient for new shows, which I will discuss later.
- Nyaa: https://nyaa.si/ The largest and oldest second-dimensional BT site, very useful for finding RAW and English subtitles.
- VCB-Studio: https://vcb-s.com VCB group's site; although VCB also releases on other sites, if you don't have high-quality requirements (for example, if you think 10Bit is optional), you can find torrents with other quality options here.
- ACG.RIP https://acg.rip/
- Comic Cat Anime BT Download: http://www.comicat.org/
- KissSub Anime BT Download: http://www.kisssub.org/
The last three are alternatives when I can't find anything elsewhere.
About PT#
I played around with PT for a few months before, but my school’s network environment was too poor, so I didn’t continue. If your network is good and you have plenty of hard drives at home, you might consider it. Oh, by the way, PT = Private Tracker, which you can understand as a membership-based BT. You can find PT sites with a quick search.
Cloud Storage#
- Dimension Dog: https://www.acgndog.com/ The resources are not very rich, and often you have no choice of subtitle groups or encoding groups.
- TSDM: https://www.tsdm39.com/ I generally don’t use it because some unpleasant things happened on this site a long time ago, but a kind-hearted user from Guizhou provided me with his unused Angel Coins account, which I have never used.
- Cloud Storage Search: Just search on Baidu; sometimes it works wonders.
Online Sites#
There are definitely many sites you might not want to download from, whether due to insufficient hard drive space or just the hassle. Here are some of the piracy online sites I’ve collected:
- Anime1: https://anime1.cc
- Omofan: https://omofun.tv/
- AGE: https://www.agemys.com (It seems to have changed its website recently, so it’s best to visit and bookmark the new one.)
- Go Watch: https://www.qkan8.com
- Otherworld: https://www.ysjdm.net
- M Site: https://www.bimiacg5.net
- Sakura: https://www.yhdmp.cc
**Updated on 2023.11.06
- Windmill Anime: https://www.93wuc.com/
- Anime Island: http://www.dmand5.com/.
The following are not dedicated Anime sites, but they update quite quickly:
- 555dy: https://555dy.shop/
- Vidhub: https://vidhub.tv/
- You Video: www.uvod.tv/
- MoMoVOD: https://momovod.app/
- Low-End Film: https://ddys.pro/
- Chinatown: https://www.tangrenjie.tv/**
These sites will have the issues I mentioned above, and the link speeds are unstable, but they are definitely sufficient for casual browsing.
Downloads#
New Shows#
Currently, I use AutoBangumi to download new shows, and here’s a brief introduction:
"AutoBangumi" is a fully automated anime download and organization tool based on "Mikan Project" and "qBittorrent."
Its working principle is very simple:
"AutoBangumi" compiles the RSS provided by "Mikan Project" into suitable download rules and imports them into the RSS reader of "qBittorrent";
"qBittorrent" tracks the RSS information and downloads anime based on the download rules;
After downloading, the built-in renaming tool of "AutoBangumi" automatically renames the anime to a format like "Anime Name EXXSXX," such as "SPYxFAMILY E01S01.mp4" (the renaming method is based on the API of "qBittorrent," and it won't affect seeding);
The renamed video files conform to the naming standards for TV series in media programs like Jellyfin/Emby/Plex, allowing them to be directly recognized for obtaining episode information.
https://www.himiku.com/archives/auto-bangumi.html
For how to configure this service, you can refer to the official documentation. It may be a bit challenging for those who haven't dealt with Docker, but it's actually quite simple. Recently, it has been updated to version 3.0 with a graphical interface, so if you haven't tried it yet, I recommend it.
So beautiful, 3.0
But recently, I haven't been using AutoBangumi because there’s a weekly new show appreciation meeting in the group, and although AutoBangumi supports TMDB format, the file naming is still a bit different. To satisfy my perfectionism, I always re-scrape after the new shows finish airing.
BT / Offline Downloads#
I mainly download some old shows that have already been organized and compressed from BT sites. Currently, I’m using Pikpak, which is roughly a replacement for 115 from back in the day. The servers are in Singapore, and the offline downloads are connected to Thunder; if Thunder can't handle it, I use my own. Previously, the functionality was quite limited, not supporting batch downloads, but now those features are gone. Thirty bucks a month is subjective. If you don’t buy it, the methods above are sufficient.
I recommend seeding the downloaded files, and also, due to domestic mobile network restrictions on export bandwidth, you can find some reverse proxy solutions on Baidu to bypass this limitation. Generally, you can run at full bandwidth.
PT#
I still have a few resources downloaded from PT sites that I need to continue seeding. For this, you can set up hard links in qBittorrent; if you're interested, you can search for related tutorials.
Local Media Library#
At this point, you have the following options: Plex, Emby, Jellyfin. Plex and Emby both operate on a subscription basis. Although there is a one-time purchase option, it is very expensive, and adding new devices requires additional payments, as does downloading files for offline playback and hardware decoding. Jellyfin, on the other hand, is not only free but also serves as an open-source fork of Emby, with similar functionality. The original Emby development team became dissatisfied with Emby after it went closed-source starting from version 3.6, and they developed Jellyfin separately based on Emby. Both the server and client support multiple platforms, making it very simple to use. You can use Docker or download and run it directly, with minimal requirements for the operating environment.
The official file directory requirements are as follows:
https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/shows/
Shows
├── Series (2010)
│ ├── Season 00
│ │ ├── Some Special.mkv
│ │ ├── Episode S00E01.mkv
│ │ └── Episode S00E02.mkv
│ ├── Season 01
│ │ ├── Episode S01E01-E02.mkv
│ │ ├── Episode S01E03.mkv
│ │ └── Episode S01E04.mkv
│ └── Season 02
│ ├── Episode S02E01.mkv
│ ├── Episode S02E02.mkv
│ ├── Episode S02E03 Part 1.mkv
│ └── Episode S02E03 Part 2.mkv
└── Series (2018)
├── Episode S01E01.mkv
├── Episode S01E02.mkv
├── Episode S02E01-E02.mkv
└── Episode S02E03.mkv
So after obtaining the resources, you may need to reorganize them. AutoBangumi has built-in organization and renaming features, but if you obtain them from other channels, I recommend using Episode-ReName in conjunction with Renamer. If it's a series with only one season, it can be completed in just a few seconds.
Anime Scraping#
After renaming as mentioned above, the next step is to pull the original data. Jellyfin has already integrated many data sources and can link to more databases through plugins even Bangumi.
The ones I use most often are TMDB and aniDB.
TMDB (themoviedb) basically meets most needs, but occasionally there are database errors.
For example, a while ago, I watched Mini Idol, and the first season was mistakenly labeled as a special episode (S0), while the first season was labeled as the second season, and many contents were mixed up.
After checking the update log, I found that it was originally correct and was changed by a Chinese ID.
I’ve seen similar issues in other wikis or databases, and I hope everyone reads the guidelines carefully when maintaining this content. If you make mistakes, don’t be lazy about correcting them. It’s really quite rude. (Of course, I plan to maintain it again when I have time.)
Off-topic, this also shows that TMDB lacks maintenance for some less popular series. When encountering such situations, it’s best to use some anime-specific databases, like anidb.
Although Jellyfin's automatic scraping is already usable, I still use other scrapers to scrape the metadata.
TinyMediaManager#
Generally, using themoviedb can scrape Chinese data; if not found, you can manually input the name.
Note to use version 3.1; the new version seems to have started charging for the API. You can also check TMDB for series information to avoid missing any OVAs.
After scraping, click the rename button above for a clean finish.
Then, just let Jellyfin scan it.
Watch!#
Basically, if you have a browser, you can directly enter the address to access Jellyfin.
Of course, downloading the client will provide a better experience, and the client I choose varies by platform.
PC#
You can directly use Jellyfin Media Player, but the main usage method now is the web version + MPV + Anime4K. I recommend jellyfin-mpv-shim, which can automatically call MPV for playback. This allows you to use Anime4K.
What? You ask me what Anime4K is?
No_480P_BIGO
A4KAA_480P_BIGO
No_720P_Tianma
A4KCA_720P_Tianma.jpg
No_1080P_Street Corner Demon Clan
A4KAA_Street Corner Demon Clan
I took a bunch of screenshots. If you want to see the effects of various algorithms, just let me know, and I’ll send a separate article later.
Of course, you can also use SVP4 for frame interpolation; this project is already integrated, but I don’t really like it, so I haven’t used it.
Android#
The web version is fine, or you can use Jellyfin Media Player.
For TVs, use the Android TV Client for Jellyfin.
iOS#
I recommend Swiftfin; of course, Infuse is also a great choice. Just add Jellyfin as a new file source.
External Access#
You can penetrate the local intranet, but my local network services are too many and often conflict with my local network services. So outside, I either use the previously free Alibaba Cloud server for relay, but I can’t use it recently, and I plan to find another method (servers are still quite expensive).
Backup#
Although there is a backup guideline like 3-2-1, the cost of backing up large video files is quite high. However, it’s still painful if the media library you’ve painstakingly organized goes down.
For local backups, I bought a hard drive cabinet to set up a RAID 10, but I still can’t bear to throw away the old small-capacity HDDs. So currently, I’m backing up the data from the old hard drives to the new ones, and I’ll replace them with new ones when the old ones fail or fill up.
For off-site backups, I use cloud storage. Never use Baidu Cloud! I thought that videos that are not shared now are not harmonized, but I was too naive.
I’m currently using the free E5 OneDrive (search Baidu for how to get it for free; I recommend not buying it from TB), setting the anime folder for backup, and setting a time limit for uploads. In practice, moving 1TB of data takes about five or six days to complete, which is quite convenient.
Let it out!#
After watching anime, you definitely want to record your thoughts. I used to use Notion, and then I wrote a script to automatically fetch tags from Bangumi. As for why I don’t use Bangumi directly, it’s because searching personal data on Bangumi is still not very convenient. For example, if I want to search for light yuri anime after 2010 and sort by my ratings in descending order, it can’t do that. Of course, no database can achieve this functionality.
After switching to this solution, I deleted all the ratings on Bangumi and managed the database this way for about three or four years.
However, maintaining this is still very troublesome. Recently, I found that the Bangumi plugin is sufficient for my needs, so I slowly started uploading the ratings again. Of course, I still write most of the brief reviews in my Notion; some evaluations are still not suitable for sharing.
As for other anime rating sites, they are mainly not aimed at the Chinese community, or their main audience has little to do with me, such as anidb or mal.
But this doesn’t mean Bangumi is perfect. Recently, I found that many people intentionally give high or low scores after realizing that Bangumi’s ratings do not meet their expectations, which is quite off-putting.
Regarding which plugins or Tampermonkey scripts are useful, you can search on Baidu; this varies from person to person, as everyone’s needs are different.
My Bangumi account is https://bangumi.tv/user/freshp; feel free to follow me if you're interested.
Finally#
Recently, I tried writing video scripts, but I feel that column writing suits me better.
I’ve been consciously following new shows for about ten years now. This article was written about half a year after I started using Jellyfin, so some comments and perspectives may not match those of long-time users. I also hope that experienced friends can share their experiences.
There are still many specific tutorials and usage methods available; you can directly search for keywords to find them. I may put this series on hold for now and gradually fill in the content in my draft box.
Thank you all for reading!