The Bluray video quality is average because it’s just upscaled SD copy. But it’s still the best anywhere available.

The issue is they fucked up the Bluray audio. The 5.1 surround sound track is really just stereo but coming from all speakers.

Thankfully, there is a fan copy that combines the Bluray video with DVD audio.

My high end PC from 3 years ago won’t run Windows 11 because of TPM bullshit.

What made me lose interest was bad writing. “Andor” is a great Star Wars TV series, and I’m looking forward to its second season, because it has…let’s see…good fucking writing!

The show wasn’t perfect, but it felt like something fresh and different. I really hope they can get more of it. I guess HBO would rather pump out something derivative.

At a certain point, a company’s primary product becomes its stock. Share buybacks, short term gains, etc become the strategy. The goal is no longer to create value for customers, but to create value for shareholders.

It’s the tech business model. Slowly building up a sustainable business has been replaced with coasting on investment money while attempting to capture an entire global market. Because these products can scale so easily. Now they’re entering the “oh shit we need to make money now” phase of the business model.

It’s not evil capitalists. It’s people acting rationally. The incentive structure leads to this behaviour. Eventually these services will consolidate into 2 or 3 major ones, like they do in every global tech market. Everyone will complain about it. But they’ll keep paying for it, because what other (legal) choice is there?

Better support for Dolby Vision. I also prefer the Infuse UI.

Sideloading and customisation is a downside. Like other Apple devices, the App Store is the way they want you to install things.

There are ways to sideload things like Kodi through pre signed certificates but I don’t know much about it.

Dont need another Apple device.

No need for other Apple devices. It can act as a standalone box. It may want an AppleID account during setup. I’m unsure about that part.

I posted this elsewhere in the thread, but…AppleTV with the Infuse app.

I tried a bunch of different media boxes and HTPC options over the year. But this is by far the best setup in my experience.

AppleTV with the Infuse app.

Blows everything else away. It will connect to Plex and Jellyfin servers. Or a standard SMB folder share if you prefer. No ads. It never lags. Has reliable frame rate matching. And you’re likely to get 5+ years of software update support.

The only thing it won’t do is Atmos from Bluray rips (it will do lossless 7.1 but not the atmos layer). If you need that, then get an Nvidia Shield Pro.

Nvidia Shield Pro and AppleTV 4K are the best.

I love my HA dashboard but it took seemingly far too much effort to get it sensible. I had to know how to ssh in and edit a locked YAML file and create new template sensors just so I could have some temperature sensors show as “50” instead of “50.0028472” or some shit.

I think they fixed that in an update though. But there’s always something that requires multiple extra layers of digging around.

The realpolitik answer is that they’re the only country in the region with highly functioning western-style market economy. That is valuable to other functioning western style market economies. Its a system trying to help itself propagate.

Last time I visit a wax museum while tripping on acid.

They’re addicted to attention. And will do anything to get it.

I run an LG OLED TV (disconnected from network), AppleTV, and my own media server. I haven’t seen an ad in my TV for years.

These threads always have comments like “I want a fast device that’s well built and has years of software update support and doesn’t have ads and respects my privacy…but I’m not an Apple customer”.

I mean, fine, fuck Apple. But stop buying the cheap alternatives and complaining about them.

This is one area where Apple have actually done a decent job.

Even the article reluctantly admits the AppleTV is the best media box now. Because it’s the only one that doesn’t throw ads on the home screen.

HomeKit also enforces local network control so you don’t need the manufacturer app or third party cloud services.

But the industry as a whole really needs better standards and accountability. And people need to stop buying products from an ad company (Google).

Who the fuck tips their landlord anyway?