--- title: Turn Your Media Server Into a TV Station With Tunarr description: Tunarr turns your existing media library into your own live TV channels with schedules and a TV guide. It connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, or local media... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/turn-your-media-server-into-a-tv-station-with-tunarr-gtwceq4gu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Turn Your Media Server Into a TV Station With Tunarr | daily.dev og:description: Tunarr turns your existing media library into your own live TV channels with schedules and a TV guide. It connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, or local media... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/turn-your-media-server-into-a-tv-station-with-tunarr-gtwceq4gu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/gtwCEQ4Gu.png og:image:alt: Turn Your Media Server Into a TV Station With Tunarr og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Turn Your Media Server Into a TV Station With Tunarr **[Noted](https://daily.dev/sources/noted)** · [@noted](https://daily.dev/noted) · 5 min read · 22 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Tunarr turns your existing media library into your own live TV channels with schedules and a TV guide. It connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, or local media files, and lets you mix shows, schedule programs, and even insert old commercials between episodes. It runs via Docker Compose with FFmpeg built into the official image, and presents channels through an emulated HDHomeRun tuner so Plex and Jellyfin see them as live TV. M3U playlists are also supported for other IPTV players, though the Jellyfin docs recommend HDHomeRun since M3U can stumble during program transitions. Tunarr is free and open-source under the Zlib License. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### what is Tunarr and how does it work with Plex or Jellyfin Tunarr is a free, open-source self-hosted app that turns your existing movie and TV library into custom live TV channels with schedules and a TV guide. It connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, or local media files, then presents the channels through an emulated HDHomeRun tuner so Plex and Jellyfin recognize them as live TV. It also supports M3U playlists for other IPTV players and is released under the Zlib License. _Homelab tinkerers comparing self-hosted media tools can keep tabs on projects like Tunarr via daily.dev._ ### should I use HDHomeRun or M3U to connect Tunarr to Jellyfin Use the HDHomeRun connection method rather than M3U. Tunarr's Jellyfin documentation recommends HDHomeRun because M3U playback can occasionally run into problems when one program transitions to another, making the viewing experience less reliable. _Anyone wiring up IPTV-style tools to Jellyfin tracks setup gotchas like this through daily.dev._ ### does Tunarr need FFmpeg installed separately for transcoding No, the official Tunarr Docker image already includes FFmpeg, so there is no need to install it separately. Transcoding can still require additional resources depending on your media and playback settings, though hardware acceleration is supported to help with that load. _Developers planning Docker-based media stacks weigh resource trade-offs like this via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [This Plex add-on turned my self-hosted library into my own personal live TV service](https://daily.dev/posts/this-plex-add-on-turned-my-self-hosted-library-into-my-own-personal-live-tv-service-blhhexhyc) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [I added live TV to Jellyfin with a cheap network tuner, and dropped my streaming TV subscription](https://daily.dev/posts/i-added-live-tv-to-jellyfin-with-a-cheap-network-tuner-and-dropped-my-streaming-tv-subscription-2jckkomqg) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 1 comments - [I replaced my cable box with Jellyfin, and now I'm paying nothing for live TV](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-my-cable-box-with-jellyfin-and-now-i-m-paying-nothing-for-live-tv-nstl5zhxa) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Yarrtube Downloads YouTube Channels to Your Home Server](https://daily.dev/posts/yarrtube-downloads-youtube-channels-to-your-home-server-i72wwewbc) · Noted · 54 upvotes · 0 comments - [My Jellyfin server now streams live TV without a tuner, and I finally stopped channel surfing](https://daily.dev/posts/my-jellyfin-server-now-streams-live-tv-without-a-tuner-and-i-finally-stopped-channel-surfing-64o2qlpar) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting), [#jellyfin](https://daily.dev/tags/jellyfin) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/turn-your-media-server-into-a-tv-station-with-tunarr-gtwceq4gu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Turn Your Media Server Into a TV Station With Tunarr","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/turn-your-media-server-into-a-tv-station-with-tunarr-gtwceq4gu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/turn-your-media-server-into-a-tv-station-with-tunarr-gtwceq4gu"},"datePublished":"2026-10-25T13:16:19.141Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T10:00:23.073Z","description":"Tunarr turns your existing media library into your own live TV channels with schedules and a TV guide. 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