Power, Domain Name (if using a standard paid one instead of the cheaper route), VPN are the 3 that I pay for that I feel are the bare minimum.
I pay for a domain that's $12, but you could easily get the $1 ones for the same purposes. I pay for a static and service VPN with Windscribe, which comes out to be like $35+$89 respectively. So that's already $136 a year excluding the cost of power. I could cut that cost easily, but I use them for more than just my selfhosting so I feel like it's a fair price for what I get out of it.
I'm not sure if iGPU's are typically used for transcoding, which may be part of why you're having difficulty finding solutions.
As for re-encoding H264 into H265, increased file size is common. Encoding from source for the first time into H265 will lower file sizes, but if you're re-encoding something you're almost always going to lose data while increasing file size, especially on hardware encoders due to the methods and time it takes.
Basically, try your hand at Very Slow software encoding. Wait a day. This H265 file will likely be smaller than the Hardware Encodes of the same thing.
With Ublock Origin, click on the extension and at the bottom there is "element zapper" and "element picker". I usually select one of these, then use it to select the unwanted pop-ups.
Just be careful, sometimes the popups are designed to blank out the whole page you're trying to view. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't
Drink when R2 appears.
If you think that's not enough for all 9 movies than add C-3PO.
That should have you well paced for all of them without killing you or being too slow.
@wolfshadowheart
@kbin.social