Music is easily solved.

• Qobuz store
• Bandcamp
• 7Digital
• Tidal media downloader
• Deemix

Screw streaming. Local is always better. Purchase and/or download FLAC. I’ve got nearly 1 TB of music on my NAS and my collection is regularly growing. From Qobuz and Bandcamp, anything you purchase is owned, and DRM free.

Edit - though for me as a Linux user, Qobuz has actually turned this from something perfect into a service issue. Used to be able to just download a tar of your album from them after purchase. Now you have to use their (Windows only) application downloader, or individually download each track as a single download. It’s fucking irritating. I don’t buy from them now because of it. That said, they can’t edit or alter anything I’ve previously bought and stored locally.

This is freaking awesome. Only a few years ago it was exciting to see a fusion reaction last a fraction of a second.

I bought my deck predominantly to play PS2 games and it’s great at it. Unfortunately, my Steam backlog showed up and reminded me it has other uses so I haven’t spent that much time emulating on it.

The Nova 3 released in late 2020, it hasn’t existed for 8 years.

You and I read a very different comment, apparently. There was nothing there saying new is bad. Maybe read it again.

No book turn animations in Neo Reader, but other apps might, like Moon+ Reader. I prefer the Boox interface and warm light, and it’s much more customizable. Also, being android based means access to alternative reading apps, and even manga.

Not sure if you can still buy the Nova line, I’ve had it since 2020. I bought the Paperwhite Signature as an “upgrade” but the Boox screen is larger, the warm light is nicer (warm orange/tan, the Kindle warm light is pee yellow).

And mine are digital, DRM stripped, stored locally, backed up to my NAS, and cloud.

Don’t be a Luddite.

I rarely use my Paperwhite Signature since I like my Boox Nova 2 more. The Kindle is mostly just for the serial now to strip DRM via Calibre.

My wife recently joked that it’s my “Kindle Paperweight.” With this announcement it’s no longer a joke. I doubt I’ll buy anymore books from Amazon.

Consoles are just a consistent standard… Everything is standardized, everything works.

Well, with Steam Deck and supposedly upcoming new Steam Machine, that’s a perfectly decent target without restrictive software limitations and closed ecosystems. Plus, PCs are pretty standardized these days in general. Nobody needs to target the high end, and Valve does a hardware survey that’s publicly available to know exactly what hardware range is in use (and it’s generally the lower end, despite enthusiasts).

That’s ignoring the console support for exclusives

And I’ll keep ignoring them because there’s no reason for them to exist now, there aren’t architectural differences and unique capabilities that make sense for games to be exclusive anymore. That’s more of the artificial software restrictions I mentioned. Console exclusives can die in a fire. Even Sony has realized they’re leaving money on the table with that crap and releasing to PC.

I absolutely dig the Steam Deck, but it’s not a console in that regard, it’s not software restricted in any way, it’s just a portable computer with a convenient frontend. But… man, I’m more likely to pick it up than to play on my gaming rig these days, even though both can hook up on the TV. Handhelds are just great.

They’re just undercooked PCs with artificial software restrictions now. Except for the Switch, which is an undercooked TV streamer chip from 2015, also with artificial software limitations.

Hasn’t been anything exciting about consoles in over a decade.

I’m actually a fan of 100% and no-glitch speedruns. Exploiting the game certainly takes skill, but I enjoy watching people excel within the game’s expected framework.

I love this game so much, can beat it on a single life. Really looking forward to the new Rita’s Rewind game.

Iku Mizutani was a master for sure. Dude did incredible things with NES and SNES music.

IMO Mario Kart 7 is a better game than MK8.

Actually, I’m gonna add another really simple option: Lyrion (Formerly Logitech Media Server). My wife swears by this one, supports local library, integrates with LastFM, and if you use Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, or Spotify, you can integrate your streaming service with your local library for radio mixes.

Can install it right on a laptop or PC and connect to wherever your music is (local on the machine, on a NAS, etc.). After you install it, you can access it directly via a web browser or webapp, which will make it accessible from desktop or phone.

Not necessarily overkill, you can run Plex on almost anything. I used to run it on an old NUC6 I had laying around, then upgraded to a NUC8, and more recently I setup it up as a VM on Proxmox on a Ryzen 5700u mini-PC and just reimported the DB.

Virtualizing it has been good for my purposes since now it’s running alongside AssetUPnP, AudioBookshelf, and a dockerized squeezelite setup, and I’ve another VM on the host running Home Assistant with still plenty of resources to spare. Crazy we can do that now with a “server” that literally fits in my palm.

But virtualizing it makes hardware acceleration for video transcode be I more complicated, just a heads up. I play everything native so don’t use it, but YMMV.

———

Edit - Plexamp is an awesome radio/DJ player, though I generally send to a Wiim Mini, as AirPlay quality with Plexamp can be kind of ass compared to direct DLNA.

There are lots of solutions, but as others have noted, Plex with Plexamp is great.

I’d recommend getting a NAS for storage and running mirrored disks. This way you’ve got some redundancy in the event of a disk failure.

No prob. Extra tip, the router has support for guest networks. If you want to be hardcore about it, put it on a guest network where it literally can’t see any of your other devices (bear in mind, this will make the automation stuff I mentioned not viable, but I’m sure most people don’t care about that).

Can confirm, I no longer get network or ad pop ups on my LG C1.