780 HomeLab

Friths Streaming Service

What happened, what we fixed, and what's next

April 2026 · Managed by 780 Logic


🟢 Live service status → stream.780lab.uk/status/stream

What You Have Access To

Your streaming service runs 24/7 on a dedicated home server — a private Netflix with your content, no ads, and no monthly subscription.

Library What's in it How much
🎬 Movies Feature films 1,688 titles
📺 TV Shows Full series 304 shows · 19,456 episodes
🎵 Music Artists & albums 939 artists · 33,019 tracks
🎞 Music Videos Video clips 935 videos

Your library has been watched 3,401 times and keeps growing every day.

You watch on Plex and request new content at overseerr.780.be.

How Big Is That, Really?

The media library uses about ~58 Terabytes (TB) of storage:

Comparison Size
A standard DVD ~4.7 GB
One HD film ~2–8 GB
One 4K film ~50–80 GB
One TV season (HD) ~15–40 GB
Your entire library ~58 TB

1 TB = 1,000 GB ≈ 500 films in HD

58 TB = roughly 29,000 films worth of space

That's the equivalent of stacking 12,300 DVDs in a pile about 15 metres tall.

What Went Wrong — The Storage Jam

The server uses two storage areas working as a team:

① Holding Area (now 1.65 TB)   ② Main Library (~58 TB)
   "The Inbox"                    "The Shelves"
   ┌──────────────┐               ┌──────────────────┐
   │ New downloads│  ──copy──►    │ Everything filed  │
   │ arrive here  │               │ and ready to watch│
   └──────────────┘               └──────────────────┘

What happened: The Main Library got completely full. New content couldn't be filed — it piled up in the Inbox until that filled too. The result: a 3.4 TB backlog of ~700 films and thousands of TV episodes stuck in a queue.

Watching was unaffected throughout — only new additions were blocked.

What We Did to Fix It

1. Expanded the shelves
Main library storage increased — now 4.2 TB of breathing room for months of new content.

2. Cleared the backlog manually
Over 150 queued items imported in one go, freeing the Inbox and restarting the pipeline.

3. Fixed a software bug
A "pause when processing" setting was turned off. It was freezing the whole system every time a single download finished — like a conveyor belt stopping after every box.

4. Enlarged the Inbox
The staging area expanded from 1 TB to 1.65 TB for extra headroom.

✅ Result: Downloading at full speed again — 150 MB/s. New content appears in Plex within minutes.

Under the Hood — How It All Connects

UniFi Network Proxmox Servers QNAP Storage Plex 
  Your home (Friths)          780 HomeLab (Dave's house)
  ┌──────────────┐            ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ Apple TV     │ ─────────► │  Proxmox Cluster (3 servers + backup) │
  │ SHIELD TV    │   Plex     │  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  │
  │ Phone/browser│            │  │ Plex · SABnzbd · Sonarr · Radarr│  │
  └──────────────┘            │  └──────────────┬──────────────────┘  │
                              │                 │ reads/writes         │
                              │  ┌──────────────▼─────────────────┐   │
                              │  │  QNAS (Primary NAS)            │   │
                              │  │  Videos Library: ~58 TB        │   │
                              │  │  Photos        : 70 TB         │   │
                              │  └────────────────────────────────┘   │
                              │  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  │
                              │  │  QBACK (Backup NAS)   ~90 TB    │  │
                              │  └─────────────────────────────────┘  │
                              │  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  │
                              │  │  Synology (Top Garage)  backup  │  │
                              │  └─────────────────────────────────┘  │
                              └───────────────────────────────────────┘

Storage Today — and What's Coming

Current storage across the lab:

Unit Purpose Status
QNAS + 4-bay enclosure ~58 TB media (Videos) · 70 TB photos ✅ Running
QBACK (Backup NAS) ~90 TB backup copy ✅ Running
Synology (top garage) Archive + offsite resilience ✅ Running

Two upgrades happening now:

Upgrading to an 8-bay storage unit (TL-D800C)
The 3 existing media disks slide straight across — same data, no rebuild, no risk. Leaves 5 empty bays.

New 26 TB enterprise drive going in
One of those empty bays gets a brand-new 26 TB drive added to the media library pool.

The end result: the library goes from "nearly out of room" to having decades of growth headroom.

📺 David — Your Watching Stats
Total plays (all time) 1,064
Total time watching ~1,092 hours ≈ 45 days of viewing
Last 30 days 54 plays · ~46.5 hrs
Last 7 days 12 plays · ~9.2 hrs
Device Apple TV
Currently bingeing The Handmaid's Tale (Season 5)

Your most-watched:

Show Episodes Hours
The Handmaid's Tale 62 episodes ~52 hrs
Outlander 22 episodes ~21 hrs
Dune: Part Two watched twice ~5 hrs
Reacher 4 episodes ~3 hrs
Band of Brothers 3 episodes ~3 hrs

💜 Leila — Your Watching Stats
Total plays (all time) 448
Total time watching ~332 hours ≈ 14 days of viewing
Last 30 days 25 plays · ~28.7 hrs
Last 7 days 5 plays · ~2.75 hrs
Device SHIELD Android TV
Currently watching American Horror Story + Euphoria

Your most-watched:

Show Episodes Hours
The Handmaid's Tale 60 episodes ~33 hrs
The Walking Dead 58 episodes ~40 hrs
Criminal Minds 40 episodes ~25 hrs
American Horror Story 11 episodes ~8 hrs

Requesting Content & Checking Status

Overseerr Service Status

To request something new:

  1. Go to overseerr.780.be and log in
  2. Search for any film or TV show and click Request
  3. Normal turnaround: 24–48 hours

💡 Check the "Recently Added" row on your Plex home screen to spot new content without searching.

To check if everything is working:

● stream.780lab.uk/status/stream

Live dashboard showing Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Overseerr, Prowlarr, Tautulli, and the download pipeline. Green = all good.

In Summary

Before After
New content arriving? ❌ Stalled for weeks ✅ 150 MB/s
Library accessible? ✅ Yes — watching unaffected ✅ Yes
Storage headroom ❌ ~75 GB (nearly empty) ✅ 4.2 TB free
Backlog 3.4 TB / ~700+ titles Mostly cleared · remainder processing
Storage upgrades — 26 TB drive + 8-bay unit incoming

The service is healthy and your library keeps growing.


780 Logic · Bridging the gap. Building the future. · 780.be