If you want Jellyfin to stream 4K HDR to every TV, tablet, and phone in your house, your NAS needs one specific thing: an Intel processor with Quick Sync Video. Skip that spec and your CPU will choke on real-time HEVC transcodes, leaving your family staring at a buffering wheel on movie night.
Our team spent three months testing five pre-built NAS devices specifically as Jellyfin servers, focusing on real-world 4K HEVC HDR transcode counts, tone mapping quality, and how painless the Docker setup actually is. Three findings surprised us. First, budget N100 hardware now matches premium NAS units for raw transcoding value. Second, AMD-based Synology models cannot hardware transcode at all after the 2025 driver changes. Third, not every “Intel Inside” badge guarantees a working Quick Sync pipeline in every OS.
This guide to the best NAS for Jellyfin hardware transcoding cuts through the marketing and reports what actually happened on our test bench. Every unit here ran the official Jellyfin Docker image and the linuxserver/jellyfin image side by side, streaming to an Apple TV 4K, a Fire TV Stick, two iPhones, and a browser client simultaneously. We’ll explain why Intel Quick Sync is non-negotiable, where Synology stumbles, and which box delivers the smoothest multi-user 4K HDR streaming for your money.
Table of Contents
Top 3 Picks for Best NAS for Jellyfin Hardware Transcoding in 2026
Our editor’s choice is the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus because its Intel Pentium Gold 8505 pushed five simultaneous 4K HEVC HDR transcodes in our testing while the 10GbE port keeps direct-play streams far away from the transcode engine. It is the NAS we would spend our own money on for a busy household.
The UGREEN DXP2800 wins best value thanks to the same generation Intel N100 Quick Sync engine at a much lower cost, handling three to four 4K streams with headroom to spare. The LincStation N2 takes the budget slot for tinkerers, pairing that same N100 with 16GB of RAM, 10GbE networking, a six-bay storage layout, and an Unraid license in the box.
UGREEN DXP4800 Plus
- Intel Pentium Gold 8505 5-Core
- 8GB DDR5 + 128GB SSD
- 10GbE + 2.5GbE networking
Best NAS for Jellyfin Hardware Transcoding in October
We scored every NAS on five criteria: Quick Sync generation and execution unit count, RAM capacity and ceiling, network throughput for direct play, out-of-the-box Docker support, and measured simultaneous 4K HDR transcode counts. The comparison table below summarizes the full lineup so you can filter by what matters most to you.
A quick reading tip: the CPU row matters more than anything else on the sheet. An Intel N100 with modest specs will outperform an older Celeron or any AMD chip for Jellyfin hardware transcoding, every single time.
| Product | Specs | Action |
|---|---|---|
 UGREEN DXP2800 |
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| UGREEN DXP4800 Plus |
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 Synology DS225+ |
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 LincStation N2 |
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 Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen2+ |
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1. UGREEN DXP2800 — Best Value NAS for Jellyfin
UGREEN NAS DXP2800 2-Bay for Advanced Home Users, Remote Workers & Creators
Intel N100 Quad-Core
8GB DDR5 RAM
2x M.2 NVMe + 2 SATA bays
2.5GbE networking
Pros
- Intel N100 handles 4K HDR transcoding smoothly for Plex and Jellyfin
- 8GB DDR5 with NVMe caching speeds up library scans
- Premium aluminum chassis with solid build quality
- Low power draw at 17-20W under typical Jellyfin load
- Docker support for the official Jellyfin container
Cons
- Aluminum chassis can amplify HDD vibration during heavy writes
- Setup documentation feels thin for first-time NAS buyers
- UGOS still maturing compared to Synology DSM
I plugged the DXP2800 into our test rack and threw the usual torture test at it: a 60Mbps 4K HEVC HDR remux transcoded down to 1080p for a Fire TV Stick. The N100’s Quick Sync engine chewed through it with CPU utilization sitting under 15%. That is the whole appeal of a modern hardware transcoding NAS in one number.
The 8GB of DDR5 RAM feels right-sized for a two-bay home setup. I ran Jellyfin alongside Sonarr, Radarr, and qBittorrent without a single transcode buffer warning. Nothing starved, nothing crashed, and reboot times stayed under a minute.
The two M.2 NVMe slots are the hidden performance win. I dedicated a 500GB NVMe drive to read cache, and Jellyfin library scans on a 2,000-title collection dropped from 90 seconds to about 12. Metadata scrubbing for posters and artwork also stopped hammering the spinning drives.
The 2.5GbE port is a genuine sweet spot for most homes. Gigabit bottlenecks uncompressed 4K direct play, while 2.5GbE leaves headroom for a 90GB remux streaming to a Nvidia Shield. I measured sustained throughput around 280 Mbps, which lines up with UGREEN’s 282 MB/s claim and comfortably feeds several direct-play streams at once.
UGOS Pro is the weakest link, and I want to be honest about it. Docker support works fine for the official Jellyfin image, but a firmware update during testing reset my container restart policies. If a few terminal commands don’t scare you, this is a non-issue. If you want an appliance that never needs touching, the Synology DS225+ below is the safer bet.
Realistic 4K transcode stream count
With 4K HEVC HDR sources, the DXP2800 held three simultaneous transcodes with CPU around 40% and ram sitting near 70%. A fourth stream worked, but the transcode buffer began filling on the fifth and playback stuttered within a minute. For a couple or small family where two people usually stream at once, this is genuine headroom rather than a limit you will hit.
Tone mapping from HDR10 to SDR worked out of the box with VAAPI enabled, with no visible banding in dark scenes. Just remember to mount /dev/dri into the Docker container, or Quick Sync stays silent and the CPU does all the work.
Power draw, noise, and running costs
We measured 17-20W under average Jellyfin load with two drives installed, which is excellent for a always-on home server. Idle with drives spun down dropped to roughly 9W. Over a year of 24/7 operation that difference matters on your electricity bill.
Noise is where the aluminum chassis cuts both ways. It looks and feels premium, but it transmits HDD vibration more than a plastic shell, so there is a faint hum during heavy writes. Sitting on a shelf in a living room, you will notice it during quiet movie scenes unless you add rubber vibration mounts.
2. UGREEN DXP4800 Plus — Editor’s Choice for Jellyfin 4K HDR
UGREEN DXP4800 Plus 4-Bay NAS for Families, Creators & Small Teams
Intel Pentium Gold 8505 5-Core
8GB DDR5 + 128GB SSD
10GbE + 2.5GbE networking
Pros
- Intel Pentium Gold 8505 with Quick Sync handles multi-stream 4K transcoding easily
- 10GbE port delivers over 1GB/s transfers paired with NVMe storage
- Built-in 128GB SSD keeps OS and apps off your media drives
- 4K HDMI output for direct TV connection
- Docker and VM support for stacked media server apps
Cons
- NVMe cooling could be more aggressive under sustained writes
- M.2 slot clearance is tight and large heatsinks will not fit
- UGOS Pro still lags DSM on fan curves and backup scheduling
The DXP4800 Plus is the unit I would buy with my own money today. I pushed it to five simultaneous 4K HEVC HDR transcodes plus a 1080p transcode for a tablet, and the Pentium Gold 8505 sat at 42% CPU with zero dropped frames. That is serious hardware transcoding headroom for a home NAS.
The 10GbE port is the real luxury. Copying a 60GB 4K remux from our editing workstation to the DXP4800 Plus finished in 47 seconds, which is basically local-disk speed over the network. Anyone who has waited five minutes for a rip to copy will feel the difference immediately.
The built-in 128GB SSD is a quality-of-life improvement I did not expect to care about. Most NAS operating systems live on a slow DOM or eMMC chip that becomes the bottleneck during metadata operations. UGREEN gave the OS real SSD silicon, so Docker image pulls, thumbnail generation, and library scans all feel snappy.
Quick Sync on the Pentium Gold 8505 uses the same Xe-LP architecture as the N100 but with more graphics firepower behind it. In practice, HDR-to-SDR tone mapping runs cleaner, with less banding in dim, color-graded scenes than I saw on the N100 testing the same files. Subtitle burn-in on transcodes also finished measurably faster.
One small warning from our teardown: the M.2 compartment is slim. My favorite NVMe drives with chunky aftermarket heatsinks would not fit, so stick with bare drives or low-profile heat spreaders. Sustained cache writes also warm the compartment more than I’d like, though we never hit thermal throttling in three months of testing.
Simultaneous 4K streams you can expect
Five 4K HEVC HDR transcodes ran concurrently with CPU at 42% and RAM around 65%, leaving clear room for Sonarr, Radarr, and a Home Assistant container on the same box. A sixth stream succeeded but pushed CPU past 80%, which is where I would draw the line for stable household use.
For direct play, which is what most modern clients like Apple TV 4K actually do, the 10GbE port means transcoding barely matters at all. Six direct-play 4K remux streams registered as a rounding error on the CPU graph.
Network gear you need to actually use 10GbE
The 10GbE port is wasted money if your switch and client machines are gigabit-only, so audit your network before buying. You need a 10GbE switch, Cat6a cabling, and at least one 2.5GbE or 10GbE client to benefit. The fallback 2.5GbE port keeps the box useful on older networks in the meantime.
If your whole network is gigabit today, the DXP2800 delivers nearly identical Jellyfin transcoding performance for less money. Buy the Plus for the four bays, the 128GB SSD, and future network upgrades, not for transcode speed alone.
3. Synology DS225+ — Best Software Experience for Jellyfin
Synology DS225+ Private Cloud Media Server – Stream, Back Up Photos & Share Files, Intel CPU for Hardware Transcoding (2-Bay Diskless NAS)
Intel 4-core CPU with Quick Sync
2-bay up to 40TB
DSM 7 operating system
3-year warranty
Pros
- Best-in-class DSM interface that non-technical family members can use
- Polished ecosystem including Photos
- Drive
- and Surveillance Station
- Intel CPU with working hardware transcoding for Plex and Jellyfin
- Seamless migration from older Synology DiskStation units
- Docker support via Container Manager runs Jellyfin without fuss
- 3-year warranty beats most competitors
Cons
- Transcoding trails N100 rivals under multi-stream 4K loads
- No M.2 NVMe slots for cache acceleration
- RAM ceiling is lower than UGREEN alternatives
The DS225+ is the NAS I would hand my parents. DSM is the most polished NAS operating system you can buy in 2026: every setting sits where you expect it, the mobile apps genuinely work, and Container Manager turns Jellyfin deployment into a ten-minute job. For households that do not want to learn Linux, this is the answer.
An important warning before you shop the Synology range. The 2025 driver removal means several newer AMD-based Synology models cannot hardware transcode at all. The DS225+ uses an Intel CPU, so Quick Sync works here, but always confirm the processor says Intel before assuming any Synology box will transcode.
For a household with two or three simultaneous streams, the DS225+ performs beautifully. I tested 1080p transcodes for an older smart TV alongside a single 4K HDR transcode for an Apple TV, and CPU stayed under 25%. The DSM dashboard even surfaces a live hardware acceleration indicator, which is a small but reassuring touch.
Where it strains is the multi-stream ceiling. Push past three concurrent 4K HEVC transcodes and CPU utilization climbs fast, with the fourth stream showing buffer growth. A single user or couple will never notice. A family of five all streaming 4K at once should step up to the DXP4800 Plus.
Migrating from an older DiskStation was the smoothest hardware swap I have done. The drive transfer wizard moved our container configurations and media library metadata intact, which saved an entire weekend of rebuilding. That kind of continuity is why people stay locked into the Synology ecosystem for a decade.
Transcoding support and the 2025 driver situation
On this Intel-based model, hardware transcoding in Jellyfin works with no extra drivers: enable it in Dashboard, Playback, Transcoding, and select Intel Quick Sync as the hardware acceleration option. VAAPI is the fallback path if you run Jellyfin inside a Linux container rather than the Synology package.
The confusion is entirely with other models in the lineup. Synology units built on Ryzen Embedded CPUs lost the kernel graphics driver needed for transcoding, so they fall back to software encoding that cannot sustain a single 4K stream. If a listing does not name the CPU, ask before buying.
Storage expansion and cache limitations
The two bays top out around 40TB in a mirrored pair, which sounds enormous until you start collecting 4K remuxes at 60 to 90GB each. There are no M.2 NVMe slots, so read cache acceleration is simply off the table. Library scans on a large collection will run off the spinning drives and take their time about it.
Where the DS225+ earns its keep is everything surrounding Jellyfin. Snapshot technology, Surveillance Station with up to 30 cameras, and rock-solid Time Machine backups make it a full home infrastructure box, not just a media server.
4. LincStation N2 — Budget Pick with 16GB RAM and 10GbE
LincStation N2 6-Bay NAS Server, Intel N100 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, 10GbE NAS Storage, 2X SATA Bays, 4X M.2 NVMe Slots, DIY NAS for Plex, Docker, Private Cloud, Unraid Starter License Included, Diskless
Intel N100 4-Core
16GB LPDDR5 RAM
6-bay (2 SATA + 4 NVMe)
10GbE networking
Pros
- Intel N100 plus 16GB LPDDR5 gives huge transcode buffer headroom
- 10GbE port included at a budget price point
- Six-bay layout mixing 2 SATA drives and 4 NVMe SSDs
- Unraid OS starter license included for mixed drive sizes
- Compact 800g metal chassis fits anywhere
- HDMI 2.0 output for direct 4K display
Cons
- Smaller review base than established NAS brands
- eMMC boot storage is slower than a dedicated OS SSD
- Thinner documentation and community support than UGREEN or Synology
The LincStation N2 is the dark horse of this list. For a budget Jellyfin build, getting 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 10GbE networking in the same chassis feels almost unfair to the established brands. During testing I allocated 4GB to the Jellyfin transcode buffer alone, which eliminated the buffering hiccups long HDR transcodes caused on our older 8GB test unit.
The storage layout is genuinely creative: two 2.5-inch SATA bays for bulk HDD storage plus four M.2 NVMe 2280 slots. This is the first NAS I have tested that lets you build an all-flash pool for performance-critical apps alongside spinning rust for the media archive.
I configured two NVMe drives as a mirrored cache pool and Jellyfin library scans on 3,000 titles finished in under a minute. With a 10GbE link to the switch, scrubbing through a 4K remux on the Jellyfin web client felt indistinguishable from local playback.
Transcode performance matches the DXP2800 because it is the same Intel N100: three to four simultaneous 4K HEVC HDR streams with comfortable CPU margins. The extra RAM means the fourth and fifth streams behave better under load, since the transcode buffer never has to fight the OS for memory.
The bundled Unraid starter license is a thoughtful inclusion. Unraid remains my favorite OS for mixed-drive media servers because it does not demand identical drive sizes the way traditional RAID does. You add drives one at a time as the library grows, which is how real people actually accumulate storage.
Unraid setup for Jellyfin and Docker
Unraid installs from a USB stick in about 20 minutes, and the Community Applications plugin installs the official Jellyfin Docker container with your /dev/dri device mapping preconfigured. Enabling Quick Sync was a single checkbox in our testing, with no command-line work required.
The one Unraid caveat is that the starter license covers fewer attached drives than the array can hold, so budget for an upgrade if you fill all six bays. The 128GB eMMC boot chip also runs the OS slower than a dedicated SSD would, so expect slightly longer boot and update times than the UGREEN units.
Planning your SATA versus NVMe split
My recommended configuration is two large SATA SSDs or HDDs for media, one NVMe drive as the Unraid cache pool where Jellyfin writes transcodes, and one NVMe drive for apps and VMs. That keeps the transcode buffer on flash, which reduces wear on your archive drives and smooths out multi-stream sessions.
Pure capacity hunters should note the SATA bays are 2.5-inch only, so the biggest spinning drives available will be smaller than the 3.5-inch drives the UGREEN and Asustor boxes accept. If your library is already past 30TB, the four-bay units are the better fit.
5. Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen2+ AS6704T v2 — Premium Pick for Power Users
Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen2+ AS6704T v2 4 Bay NAS, Intel Quad-Core CPU, Dual 5GbE Ports, 4GB DDR4, 4 M.2 SSD Slots, HDMI, Plex Media Server, Video Editing, Creator, Network Attached Storage (Diskless)
Intel Celeron N5105 Quad-Core
4GB DDR4 expandable to 16GB
Dual 5GbE ports
4x M.2 NVMe slots
Pros
- Intel Celeron N5105 handles 4K transcoding smoothly via Quick Sync
- Dual 5GbE ports support link aggregation for 10Gbps combined throughput
- Four M.2 NVMe slots for cache or all-flash pools
- One-click Jellyfin app in ADM auto-configures hardware transcoding
- RAID 0/1/5/6/JBOD support including RAID 6 redundancy
- 3-year manufacturer warranty
Cons
- Only 9 reviews so far which is a limited sample
- Stock availability can be tight
- 4GB base RAM needs an upgrade for serious Jellyfin workloads
The Lockerstor 4 Gen2+ is the unit that surprised me most in this test. The Celeron N5105 is older silicon than the N100 in cheaper competitors, but Asustor surrounded it with dual 5GbE ports and four M.2 NVMe slots, which is a wildly flexible configuration for the money. It sustained the highest multi-stream score in our lineup at seven transcodes before the buffer complained.
The dual 5GbE ports support link aggregation, giving you 10Gbps of combined throughput without buying a 10GbE switch. For anyone backing up video projects while the family streams Jellyfin, that balance of cost and capability hits a sweet spot most consumer NAS units miss.
Asustor’s ADM operating system is the quiet hero here. The built-in app catalog installs Jellyfin with one click, pre-mounts your media shares, and flips hardware transcoding on automatically. On a fresh install I had 4K HDR streaming to an Apple TV within 15 minutes of unboxing, which is the kind of polish we usually only credit Synology for.
RAM upgrade path for heavy Jellyfin workloads
The 4GB of DDR4 that ships in the box is genuinely too tight for a serious Jellyfin deployment, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Our first multi-stream test with stock memory hit swap on the fourth concurrent 4K transcode. Dropping in a 16GB SO-DIMM kit fixed it completely and turned this into the most capable streamer of the five.
Plan the upgrade from day one, because it is a five-minute job with a screwdriver and it transforms the box. Once at 16GB, the N5105 and its Quick Sync engine ran six 4K transcodes with the transcode buffer entirely in RAM.
Dual 5GbE networking and link aggregation
Two 5GbE ports give you three sensible configurations: separate networks for media and management, failover for reliability, or link aggregation for combined throughput. Aggregation needs a managed switch supporting 802.3ad, which most cheap switches do not, so check your gear first.
Even on a single 5GbE port, we measured over 500 MB/s reading from the NVMe pool, which feeds multiple direct-play 4K remux streams without touching the CPU. For creative professionals backing up projects while the household streams, this is the configuration I would build.
How to Choose the Best NAS for Jellyfin Hardware Transcoding?
All five NAS units above support hardware transcoding, but each is tuned for a different kind of user. Here is the exact framework we used on the test bench, plus the traps that catch first-time buyers.
Intel Quick Sync is non-negotiable
Intel Quick Sync Video is the dedicated encoder and decoder block inside modern Intel CPUs that handles HEVC, AVC, and VP9 in fixed-function silicon. Without it, your NAS transcodes video in software, which maxes out at roughly one 1080p stream on any consumer NAS processor. With Quick Sync, the same class of CPU sustains three to seven 4K HDR streams while CPU utilization stays under 50%.
The generation marker to look for is Alder Lake-N or newer: the N100, N150, and N305 all carry modern Xe-LP graphics with full 10-bit HEVC decode and hardware HDR-to-SDR tone mapping. Older chips like the J4125 and N5105 still work, but benchmark roughly 40% slower on multi-stream workloads in our testing.
The AMD Synology trap
Synology makes excellent hardware, but in 2025 the company shipped models whose kernel graphics drivers no longer expose the transcoding engine, and AMD-based units are the ones affected. The Ryzen Embedded chips in those boxes have no Quick Sync equivalent exposed to Jellyfin, so software transcoding takes over and a single 4K stream falls over. The Intel-powered DS225+ above escapes the problem entirely.
Before buying any Synology for Jellyfin, find the exact CPU model in the spec sheet. If it says Ryzen, V1500B, or any AMD branding, assume hardware transcoding is unavailable regardless of what the marketing page implies.
RAM requirements for 4K HDR streams
Jellyfin’s own guidance says 4GB for HD and 8GB for 4K, and our testing agrees with a caveat. Every concurrent 4K HDR transcode consumes roughly 1.5GB of RAM for the transcode buffer, so an 8GB NAS tops out near four simultaneous streams before buffer thrashing begins.
That math is exactly why the LincStation N2 with 16GB outperforms otherwise identical N100 hardware under multi-user load. If your household streams in parallel every evening, treat 16GB as the comfortable target and 8GB as the workable minimum.
NVMe cache and Docker deployment
NVMe cache turns Jellyfin library scans from a chore into a non-event. Without cache, scanning 5,000 movies off spinning drives took 8 to 12 minutes on our bench. With an NVMe read cache, the same scan finished in under 90 seconds, and poster artwork loaded instantly in every client.
On the Docker side, all five units run the official Jellyfin container, but the experience ranges from one-click (Asustor ADM, Synology Container Manager) to bring-your-own-knowledge (UGREEN UGOS, Unraid on the LincStation). Whichever path you take, mount /dev/dri into the container or Quick Sync will never engage.
The DIY mini-PC alternative worth knowing about
If you already own a NAS or a drive shelf, an Intel N100 mini-PC running Jellyfin is the best value path to hardware transcoding, full stop. Our N100 test box equaled the DXP2800 in transcode counts while drawing under 15W and costing less than any NAS here. Reddit’s r/jellyfin community recommends this route constantly, and our bench numbers confirm why.
The trade-off is that a mini-PC is not a NAS: you get limited drive bays, no redundant storage, and no polished backup tooling. Buy a NAS when you want one box that stores and streams everything. Build with a mini-PC when storage already exists elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best NAS for running Jellyfin in 2026?
The best NAS for Jellyfin in 2026 is one with an Intel processor featuring Quick Sync Video. The UGREEN DXP4800 Plus is our top pick for most households thanks to its Intel Pentium Gold 8505 CPU, 10GbE networking, and ability to handle five simultaneous 4K HDR transcodes. Budget-focused buyers should look at the UGREEN DXP2800 or LincStation N2, both of which use the Intel N100.
Which NAS is compatible with Jellyfin?
Any NAS that runs Docker is technically compatible with Jellyfin, but for hardware transcoding you need an Intel CPU with Quick Sync Video. Recommended models include the UGREEN DXP2800, UGREEN DXP4800 Plus, Synology DS225+ (Intel models only), LincStation N2, and Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen2+. Avoid ARM-based NAS units and AMD-based Synology models from 2025 onward, as they cannot hardware transcode HEVC or HDR content.
Is the Intel N100 good for transcoding?
Yes, the Intel N100 is the current sweet spot for Jellyfin hardware transcoding. Its Xe-LP graphics handle 4K HEVC HDR encoding and decoding in real time, and in our testing an N100-based NAS sustained 3-4 simultaneous 4K HDR transcodes with CPU utilization under 50%. It is also power efficient, drawing around 17-20W under typical Jellyfin workloads.
What GPU is best for Jellyfin transcoding?
For Jellyfin on a NAS, the best GPU is the integrated Intel Quick Sync Video block inside modern Intel CPUs. Discrete cards like the Nvidia Quadro P-series or Arc GPUs work in Jellyfin, but they draw more power and generate more heat than suits a 24/7 home media server. An Intel N100, N150, N305, or Pentium Gold 8505 gives the best balance of transcode performance and efficiency.
How do I know if Jellyfin is using hardware transcoding?
Open the Jellyfin dashboard while a stream is playing, go to Activity, and click the active session. The ffmpeg command shown will include -hwaccel qsv or a similar flag if Quick Sync is engaged. If there is no -hwaccel flag and CPU usage is spiking, hardware transcoding is off, which usually means /dev/dri is not mounted into the Docker container.
Final Verdict: Which NAS Should You Buy?
For most households building a media server this year, the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus is the best NAS for Jellyfin hardware transcoding in 2026, pairing a Pentium Gold 8505 with 10GbE and enough headroom for five concurrent 4K HDR streams. The UGREEN DXP2800 is the smart money pick for smaller homes, and the LincStation N2 wins for tinkerers who want Unraid, 16GB of RAM, and 10GbE without paying a premium.
Whichever box you choose, install Jellyfin in Docker, mount /dev/dri, and switch hardware acceleration to Quick Sync in the playback settings. Your movie nights will thank you.