So I was wondering, what is exactly the use case of owning a server rack with huge CPUs and 256GB of DDR4 RAM with 1PB of storage?
Obviously, I'm kind of exaggerating here, but it does seem that most homelabs are big server racks with at least two CPUs and like 20 cores in total.
Why would I want to buy a server rack with all the bells and whistles when a low-power, small NAS can do the trick? What's the main advantage of having a huge server, compared to an average Synology NAS for example?
Honestly, I only see disadvantages tbh. It consumes way more power, costs way more money and the processing power it provides is probably only relevant for (small) businesses and not for an individual like me.
So, convince me. Why should I get a homelab instead of a regular NAS?
So my first thought is: Download the entire file BEFORE watching it. This ensures that you won't have to buffer while watching and it'll run 100% smoothly.
Downloading files isn't very difficult generally; just go to some (torrenting) website, copy the magnet or download the torrent and import it into your torrent client.
When you have your .mp4, .mkv, .whatever file, you can simply click on it and play it on your preferred media player (such as VLC). However, you may want to watch it on some other device... Easy solution (for TVs) is just connect your laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable, duplicate your screen and start watching.
But if you actually want to stream, you'll have to tread into the self-hosting zone. Meaning that you run a media server that hosts all your content and your devices (whether it's a TV, android phone, iPhone, whatever) can access and play the content from your server.
This is a very, very big topic that I won't cover in a single comment. I will point you in the right direction and mention Jellyfin; Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server that you can set up to manage and stream your files with