I watch my entire Jellyfin collection on a movie theater screen for under $30

Published Aug 4, 2026, 12:15 PM EDT Adam has a degree in Engineering and has a life-long interest in technology. He has been writing for over a decade for various print and online publications, with a focus on consumer tech. He joined How-To Geek in 2024 while working at Pocket-lint. As well as being a long-term fan of Apple products, he also has a strong interest in smart home tech, running a Home Assistant server at home to automate all his smart home devices. He believes that the ideal smart home should work with minimal interaction from the user, with automations running as if by magic rather than requiring you to push buttons on a control panel. You can find more of his work on Muck Rack. I love Jellyfin. Being able to watch my movie collection on any device in my home is great, but I usually end up watching on the main TV for the best experience. I was happy watching Jellyfin this way until a chance purchase made my setup so much better. It was being sold for $20 with no controllers Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek I love a good bargain, so I'm always looking for great deals on second-hand sites, including Facebook Marketplace. I've bought everything on these sites, from sports equipment to furniture, but I'm always on the lookout for used tech. When I spotted that someone nearby was selling some now-retired Meta Quest 2 VR headsets, I was very tempted. The seller seemed genuine and was honest about the fact that there were no controllers available, only the headsets themselves. A bit of research indicated that while you usually need controllers to set up a Meta Quest 2, it was possible to do so using hand tracking only by using a workaround. I wasn't too fussed about the lack of controllers. I didn't buy the Meta Quest 2 to play games; I was far more interested in seeing what it was like for watching shows and movies. I really liked the idea of being able to watch movies on a giant virtual screen that was way bigger than any screen in my home. The headsets were going for $30, so I took a chance and asked if they'd take $20. They agreed almost immediately, so I went to pick up the headset and made sure it powered on and seemed to work correctly before handing over my cash. Meta Quest 3 Resolution (per eye) 2064 x 2208 (pixels per eye) Storage 128GB or 512GB Discover Meta Quest 3: the ultimate VR headset with cutting-edge performance, stunning visuals, and an all-in-one design. Explore immersive games, apps, and experiences like never before. Connectivity Wi-Fi 6E Battery Life Up to 2.2 hours on average Audio Integrated stereo speakers with 3D spatial audio Weight 515g Refresh rate 72Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz (experimental only) Processor Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 RAM 8GB Field of view 110 degrees horizontal and 96 degrees vertical. Passthrough 2 RGB Color cameras and depth projector Getting it working with hand tracking took some effort The Meta Quest wants you to use a controller to get started Credit: Meta When I got it home, I charged it up and put it on, and I was immediately confronted with a request to connect the controllers in order to continue the setup process. At this point, I turned to a very helpful Reddit post in which people had explained how they'd managed to set up their Meta Quest headsets using hand tracking. The process is a little complicated. It involves using a small Windows program to extract the device secret for your headset and then using this secret in the Private Quest Android app. Using the app, you can then skip the standard setup process and get straight to the home screen. Once there, you can turn on hand tracking and navigate your way around the Quest 2's menus just by waving your hands. It took a little while to complete the process, and once I'd used the Private Quest app to skip the setup process, I had to restart the headset, which wasn't in the original instructions. Once I'd done so, however, I could navigate the Meta Quest 2 using hand tracking without the need for controllers. I can watch Jellyfin in the browser A giant floating screen is pretty good The first thing I tried as soon as I got the hand tracking working was YouTube. I wanted to see what VR video looked like on the Meta Quest 2, and I knew that YouTube has plenty of 180-degree and 360-degree immersive VR videos I could watch. Before I tried one, however, I saw that the video for Phoebe Bridgers’ latest single was available. I'm a big fan, so I fired it up, and I was immediately blown away. The content played on a giant virtual screen that made it feel like I was watching it in a movie theater. This is exactly what I was hoping I could do with my own media served through Jellyfin. After trying out a couple of the VR videos on YouTube, which were suitably impressive, I used the browser to sign in to my Jellyfin account and started watching a movie. With the browser window in focus mode, I got a large screen, but it didn't have the same immersive movie theater feel as the YouTube app gave me. I wanted to make watching a movie feel as much like a real movie theater as possible, so I started looking for some apps that could help. I eventually landed on SKYBOX VR. The SKYBOX VR app gives me a more cinematic experience The v2 preview release has Jellyfin support I chose the SKYBOX VR app for two reasons. First, it offers virtual environments for viewing, including a movie theater environment. The second reason was that the v2 preview release has direct support for Jellyfin, which allowed me to sign in with my Jellyfin credentials and access my full Jellyfin library directly in the app. SKYBOX VR isn't free, but the one-off payment of $9.99 seemed worth it if I could watch my shows and movies on a giant screen. Having used it for a week or so, I've already got my money's worth, because the experience is awesome. I can sit back and watch videos streamed from my home server on a gigantic screen in what really feels like a real movie theater, with seats all around me. The picture quality isn't the highest, but the experience of watching on a giant screen more than makes up for it. The best part is that I don't need to hog the TV for four hours to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King extended edition; I can lie on my bed or sit in my home office and be transported to a movie theater. Buying a VR headset was worth the risk Buying the Meta Quest 2 was a bit of a whim, but I'm so glad I did it. It's finally given my Jellyfin content the viewing platform it deserves. The Meta Quest 2 has been around for a while, and there are newer models available with better passthrough, higher resolutions, and pancake lenses. For $20, however, it's honestly the best AV upgrade I think I've ever bought.