this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
22 points (92.3% liked)

Selfhosted

39919 readers
302 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I've started working with Media Servers recently and am starting to get acustom to Jellyfin. I'm using Book Lib Connect and AAX Audio Converter to download and convert my purchased Audiobooks.

I would like my Audiobooks to retain chapters, but I'm not sure the export I'm getting from the above is fully compatible with Jellyfin. Here's what I've tried so far:

Audiobooks

  • Author
    • Book
      • (01) Opening Credits.m4b
      • (02) Chapter 1.m4b
      • etc.
      • Book.txt
      • metadata.json
      • chapters.json

I also have the full m4b file and the aax file in an ignored folder at the top of the book.

Book.txt contains the author, title, narrator, publish year, description, duration. Separated by new lines.

metadata.json contains specific information like purchase date, product #, author #, SKU.

chapters.json contains the actual chapter titles. chapter length, start offset.

Any ideas on how I can get Jellyfin to read the json files? Do I need to write a conversion script into some other file type? Maybe Jellyfin isn't the right software for Audiobooks?

I'm open to ideas, suggestions, or any other advice.

all 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 50 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Audiobooks

Do yourself a favor and have a look at Audiobookshelf.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

+1 for audiobookshelf. It’s amazing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

That's it. That's the thread. Everyone else go home.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I agree. This is the best choice for audio books.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Big agree. I tried to make jellyfin acceptable for a while and life with audiobookshelf is just so good. https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

I started using it for podcasts!

Really easy to set up on a synology NAS.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Their ebook support has become quite good as well, it's like a gift that keeps on giving!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Yep, haven't tried Jellyfin for audiobooks in a while, but when I did it didn't work well. Audiobookshelf on the other hand is really really good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Oh no.

I decided to go with an Asustor prebuilt NAS for my first self-host. It's got a Jellyfin app, but not an Audiobookshelf app.

Jellyfin runs on Docker, so I have the Docker app installed and running.

Audiobookshelf runs on Docker. Could I just like, spin up a container and run it? How would I access it through my Asustor? I access Jellyfin either direct or through my portal dashboard.

So many questions! Like, I lowkey love having all my media accessible in 1 place: Series, Movies, Music, Audiobooks all in one place through Jellyfin. If I split my Audiobooks into Audiobookshelf somehow, how do I keep the ease of access? Maybe spin up another Docker container and create a landing page linking both Jellyfin and Audiobookshelf? Could (should I? Can I?) do it all through the same Docker container that Jellyfin is currently run on? Are there tutorials about this?

Thank you again for the suggestion

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Yes you can just spin up a container just like jellyfin.

Yes it's nice for a one stop shop buuuut trust us, just audiobookshelf. You'll thank us later

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I use an app called Smart Audiobook Player for Android. I download my books from JellyFin and just use that app to play them. JellyFin's audiobook experience is lacking right now.