BananaTrifleViolin

@BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨U.S. residential solar on the brink of collapse⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  So to summarise the challenges the industry is facing:

  • Tariffs on Aluminium - Trump
  • Tariffs on Solar imports - Trump
  • Sudden loss of federal grants that covered 30% of the cost for installation (was due to run til 2030 now slashed) - Trump
  • Slashing of the fees owners get for selling money to the grid by 75% - Oil industry lobbying / Trump

  To call this “macro economic” issues is bizarre. All of this is due to government policy and actions. It’s also notable that the rest of the world’s solar industry is not collapsing. Trump.and the republicans are selling out US consumers to prop up the oil industry and tax cuts for the rich.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  PCs are generally based around the X86 chip architecture which is an open standard. PCs are basically modular and lots of manufacturers make components that are interchangeable, creating a huge variety of possible hardware. Hardware suppliers also sell.to big companies and individuals. It’s therefore in their interest to distribute their drivers freely even if closed source. If hardware breaks it can be replaced and the PC keeps going.

  Mobile devices are closed standards. They use a more limited range of off the shelf components which are deeply integrated into a device, and the hardware suppliers provide their drivers to the device manufacturer or the device manufacturer builds their own drivers and custom version of the os. Hardware can have very long retail lives selling for years and still being functional, so the manufacturers have an incentive to keep drivers available and even update them.

  It means mobile devices are more locked down, and the hardware drivers harder to come by. This makes it hard to build custom OS for them and therefore when the device comes to the end of its support from the maker there is limited options to keep it running securely.

  It’s effectively a type of planned obscelence that keeps the mobile industry going. Manufacturers stop supporting old devices (because it provides no income) and then consumers have to buy new ones as no one can provide the security patches to keep them secure.

  So for mobile there is nothing to force Android or IOS to be kept up to date for old devices. The money is in new devices, and for Android manufacturers are responsible for the mobile device anyway. While for PC it’s in Microsofts interests to keep updating and keeping devices secure via Windows becuase devices have long lifespans and old components can be in the PC ecosystem for decades. Similarly Linux is able to support hardware for a long time because drivers are more freely available and long lifespans to hardware incentivise people to put the effort in to write open drivers when they’re not there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ROG Xbox Ally Handhelds announced, the first real Steam Deck competition⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah its not a great headline. But in fairness Legion Go S extends SteamOS / valves reach so is part of Valves strategy. They make their money on the steam store - thats what matters to them most.

  The Xbox device is the first time Microsoft has actually got involved to help improve the windows experience on hand held. I suspect the Xbox brand will confuse people though, as theyre still just Windows devices with an Xbox branded interface. I dont see it as a winning strategy. People will still want to be using steam and a system that doesnt put that front and centre is not going to have mass appeal.

  An Xbox store would need time to catch on, and they havent managed it on windows. Steam dominates for good reason - convenient, aggressive pricing, and effective vendor lockin for many users who already have huge libraries of games.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Switch 2: Is it worth buying?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow what a load of rubbish. Talks about being against hype and then concludes with a bunch of hype. The games media have been generally dishonest about the Switch 2, and are not doing gamers any favours.

  I’m not hyped by the Switch 2: its expensive, its games are expensive and the launch titles are paltry. It also has competition in the form of the Steam Deck and a range of SteamOS and Windows handheld devices with a huge volume of games available including many at significantly lower prices.

  Switch 2 needs exclusives to justify its price and its existence. Switch 1 games with slightly improved graphics (which you have to pay for) and a small handful of launch titles make the Switch 2 a bad proposition for anyone except diehard fans at this point.

  At the moment there are no compelling 1st party games in the pipeline. 3D Mariocart and Donkey Kong Bananza seems to be it for now. No new Mario platformer, no Zelda, no pokemon at launch. Everything is old games with better graphics, and much of it available on other platforms like PC with better graphics already anyway.

  Nintendo has a lot of work to do - I think there is a real risk the Switch 2 will be a flop if they dont get 1st party exclusives out before the holiday season.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As someone else has said; important to check the model number for the offical guide but if its a LAPQC71 (A, B, C or D) then this covers it: manualmachine.com/intel/…/8104213-user-manual/

  The slots look to be hidden behind your hand in your photo.

  The guide says its made for an 80 mm NVME (i.e. 2280). You look to be holding a 42mm (2242) or 60mm (2260) which is too short. There could be screw holes there that aren’t documented but if not you’d have to get an adaptor to extend the length of the NVME to fit. Far better would be to get a drive the right length.

  NVME 2242, 2260 and 2280 are all the same in terms of the connection, the only difference is the board length. The longer ones can potentially fit more memory on them so are “better” (good in full desktops for example where there is plenty of space) while the 2242 are designed to fit into smaller spaces like laptops or miniPCs. This laptop seems to be supporting the longer slots which is actually good but unfortunately it may mean your card is not going to be big enough.

  It’s always worth reading the manual before upgrade components as it will tell you exactly what slots are available and what standards are supported. There are 2 NVME slots - 1 is NVME only, the other can support NVME and SATA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah that looks right assuming its the right model; compared to the diagram in the quick start guide, in the picture he’s covering the area where the slots are with his hand and the drive hes holding. This quide for the same model numbers is the same: manualmachine.com/intel/…/8104213-user-manual/

  OP needs to check his model number.

  Unfortunately the guide suggests it only supports 80mm length (2260) NVME drives. There could be a screw hole for the 42mm or 60mm sizes but they’re not mentioned. It may be too small for the design of the laptop. OP is holding what looks like a 2242?

  There are adaptors (e.g. on ebay) to add length to a shorter drive to fit into the slot, but the ideal is to buy the right size of the slot.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A postal worker in Harlem attacked a trans woman. She fought back and fatally stabbed him in self-defense. This is how the NY Post framed it.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The framing uses quotes from the vicrim impact statements from the family of the victim.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is their any evolutionary benefit to the sneezing reflex when looking at a bright light source, or is it just an evolutionary glitch with no purpose?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Its a glitch.

  Its important to understand that evolution does not “design” anything with intent or purpose. Its all chance and survival of the fittest does select for traits that confer greater survival.

  But plenty of traits are neutral or minimally negative in their survival benefits so also suriviveor develop. And it only affects traits that impact reproducing and passing on traits to the next generation. So many traits may be totally unaffected by evolutionary pressures as they have no relevance to survival of the fittest.

  Plus the other species being competed woth over time and the environment generally shape what traits are desirable versus detrimental.

  Basically not everything has an evolutionary purpose or function.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So no this is not safe. Once ypu have a system it is easier to crack because if someone has 2 or more of your passwords they can work out there is a system and it’d make it much easier to crack others if they’re determined.

  It is unlikely that someone random would specifically target a person and systematically try and crack their passwords. If that were to happen it’d most likely he someone they know. So while the passwords are definitely flawed it may not be something that anyone takes the time to exploit. But you can never say never.

  The best way to manage passwords probably remains a secure password manager and randomly generated series of characters for each site. If its truly random then there are no shortcuts and every single password stands independently. The password manager gets round the issue of memorising them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Self-Driving Tesla Fails School Bus Test, Hitting Child-Size Dummies… Meanwhile, Robo-Taxis Hit the Road in 2 Weeks.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Except the big danger with fully self droving cars is that drivers are not paying attention at all as they have nothing to do most of the time. They’ll be on their phones regardless of what theyre supposed to do and that will cause deaths.

  Teslas self drive technology is not fit for the roads regardless of this. Musk had sensors stripped out pf the cars design to save money because apparently he knows better than all the worlds self drive engineers. The guy is a just an investment bro woth a huge ego - he can’t let the people hes investing in get onwith it, because he sees himself as a “genius”. The guys a moron.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I probably interact with people who are at the pinnacle of their chosen skill but I'd never know because that skill isn't something that generates fame.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I work in healthcare in a specialist field, and the best are not the ones who get recognised. The ones who get recognised chase respect and fame - on healthcare that is going to conferences and speaking, and writing as many papera as possible.

  But the best people ib my field are the ones who do the actual job each day at an extremely high level. They go unrecognised except by those of us who understand what it takes to be good. Theyre humble and focused. Some of them for sure go and speak at conferences band publish papers etc but its not those things that make them the best, although its only those things that make them “visible” outside their place of work.

  The same goes for music and actors. The most famous are not necessarily the best. They are the ones who people like or are the most commercial etc. The best singers are not necessairly world famous - they may be working professionally in less popular sectors such as opera or classical music or choirs, or they may be totally amateur. Similarly the best actors may be strutting a stage somewhere and never seen in a movie or tv show by the majority of the world. And even then they may be the “star”.

  Fame and notoriety has get little to do with talent - some famous people are undoubtedly near the top of their field but it is far from required.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stack Overflow seeks rebrand as traffic continues to plummet – which is bad news for developers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Stack Overflow, like Reddit, derives its value entirely from its users—it’s just a host. Now that users (and their knowledge) are moving elsewhere, the platform’s importance is fading.

  It’s odd when people worry about Stack Overflow’s decline. Online communities have always shifted: from BBSs and newsgroups to forums, chat, Yahoo Groups, Reddit, and Stack Overflow. Each had its time.

  The next gathering spot for tech-savvy users might be the fediverse, but who knows at this point. AI isn’t solely to blame for the shift—people moved to Stack Overflow because it was better than what came before. Now, as it declines in quality thanks to general enshittification of services as companies try to monetise uaers, they’re moving on again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Collapse of GPT: Will future artificial intelligence systems perform increasingly poorly due to AI-generated material in their training data?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure why this is being downvoted—you’re absolutely right.

  The current AI hype focuses almost entirely on LLMs, which are just one type of model and not well-suited for many of the tasks big tech is pushing them into. This rush has tarnished the broader concept of AI, driven more by financial hype than real capability. However, LLM limitations don’t apply to all AI.

  Neural network models, for instance, don’t share the same flaws, and we’re still far from their full potential. LLMs have their place, but misusing them in a race for dominance is causing real harm.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It is an absolute crock of shit.

  There is plenty of research on magnetism and humans and it doesnt need a new title and niche “research” from a frankly failed state like Russia.

  We use high Tesla fields routinely every day worldwide in hospitals in Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Safety of this technology has been and is continuously investigated. There has also been extensive investigation of magnetic fields related to power lines and other use cases.

  There does remain some uncertainty and controversy around potential effects of long term exposure to low T electromagnetic fields but its long established that short term exposure is safe.

  This “research” is more on the realm of autism vaccine science. A lot of money can be made in niche fake sciences both in the industry of research itself and then the crap they can sell to ignorant people as a result.

  Russia as a state has been systematically destroyed over the past few decades and most of its institutions have a terrible reputation now. While there are undoubtedly still good scientists in the country, they are working in a gangster state and many of the best minds have long fled for better opportunities abroad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Even Starfield's community patch modders are growing 'disenchanted' with the sci-fi RPG, as volunteers depart in droves: 'If nobody comes forward, we may have to retire the project'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think if Starfield had come out 10 years ago it would have wowed people and been a classic. But now it just seems dated when you have other games doing RPG better (Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3, Baldurs Gate 3) and open world space better (No Mans Sky).

  Starfield doesnt do RPG as good as those games, nor does it do open world space as well as No Mans Sky. I’ve heard it described as being as wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle, and that doesnt seem far off to me.

  I really hope Bethesda have paid attention and dont make the same kind of mistakes with Elder Scrolls VI. Big and empty is not the way to go.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LibreOffice: We still see people on the fediverse recommending OpenOffice, despite it having year-old unfixed security issues⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I wonder why Apache continues to support OpenOffice. Its barely moved since 2014 and hasn’t even had a security update since 2023. They could archive it as an active project (keep the code available for those who want it) and redirect most users who land on the OpenOffice site to LibreOffice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Liquid Trees⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  They were talking about CO2 which is what the algae tank is about.

  Trees have other benefits around filtering pollutants that affect air quality such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Also the shading effect reduces ozone accumulation as well as generally helping reduce the urban heat island effect (which in turn reduces the amount of air conditioning needed, even a small amount saves a lit of energy and reduces pollution from power stations).

  City parks have clean air partly because of tree but also because youre away from roads and buildings so further from car exhausts and chimney stacks. The concentration of pollutants in wide open spaces is lower because the wind can move it around more easily, and there isn’t a pollution source directly near by. Tree and grass do help too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨List of Alternatives to Adobe Programs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure this true - PDF is an open standard. The issue isn’t with layout and reproducibility - a good PDF maker and a good reader will give you an accurate representation of how it looks on all devices.

  There isn’t a dedicated FOSS tool for make PDFs; Libre Office and Inkscape do a decent job. But they’re not dedicated PDF makers and the real problem is building fillable forms and signatures.

  But there is a proprietary alternative called Master PDF that is a dedicated and supports all the PDF standard features I believe; one perpetual license is $80 compared to Adobe subscription based charging. I’m not aware of other options myself but they may exist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨List of Alternatives to Adobe Programs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Firefox can do basic annotating, adding text and adding pictures but it can’t make a new PDF from scratch.

  You may be confusing Adobe Acrobat Reader with Adobe Acrobat? Full Acrobat is the proprietary tool to make a PDF file from scratch including some of the more complex functions.

  PDF is an open standard and has been for a while, so there are now plenty of alternatives for most of the functions. LibreOffice Draw and Inkscape can do a lot of PDF creation functions but not all. Lots of “print to PDF” options to create basic PDF documents too.

  However some of the more niche functions are not widely supported or well supported; and there isn’t really any opensource dedicated PDF maker that I’m aware of. Layout tools are abundant but I think it’s things like building forms and document signing that is less easily replicated. There is Master PDF - a fully functional PDF maker which is proprietary and available for Linux; it $80 for a perpetual license. I’m not aware of any other alternatives myself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trine Was a Masterpiece. Why Doesn’t Anyone Remember?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “Anyone” is a bit of a stretch. I think this is an example of how fragmented media and experience has become.

  Selling millions of copies in impressive but there are billions of people in the world. And there is also new stuff being released all the time in the worlds of music, tv, film, books and gaming. All of this is jockeying for media attention and peoples attention.

  These things were important to you as they were part of your formative years or had some emotional resonance., so it makes sense you are aware of them, but your lived experiences aren’t the same as others.

  For example, I’m a gamer, I’ve heard to Trine but never played it.12,000 reviews on Steam is pretty impressive. But its a 16 year old game and when it comes to older games there are huge titles like Skyrim or GTAV that dominate attention still from that eraor earlier.

  The Road to Perdition is a decent film but have a look at a list of Oscar winners - how many have you actually seen? The Oscars isn’t representative of films that were widely popular but rather films that were popular or important to people on Hollywood itself, or to the movie makers. It won one Oscar for cinematography.

  And it grossed $180m - not bad but if you look a box office mojo the top 3 films in 2002 were Lord of the Rings 2 towers, Harry Potter and Spiderman. Road to Perdition was the 25th biggest film of the year, and bigger films includes Gangs of New York, Catch me if you can and Minority report. It was a decent film in a year of bigger films.

  As for Everclear, sorry to say I’ve never heard of them. Looking them up on wikipedia, they didn’t seem to trouble the charts outside the US and Canada, and for some reason New Zealand. And they did well in the Alt Music charts but they never broke the top 10 in the popular charts. So they are a bit niche even of they were popular in their own right and did well.

  All of us have different things we love or were formative for us, and the “mainstream” that gets the attention is still really only a fraction of what’s going on.

  And I’d add the nature of taste and preference is so different that the stuff that gets big and crosses over into a mega hit is either generic/inoffensive commerical slop backed up with massive marketing or rarely so extraordinarily good that it spreads through word of mouth. There are so many gems out their like Trine or Everclear but most people will never come across them. Keep spreading the word about the things you love so others can enjoy them too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump tells Canadians to Elect the guy who'll make them the 51st State of US [Canadian elections today]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The guy is ranting about a criminal investigation into why his polling numbers are so low. He’s quite literally a demented old man. I think he really isn’t rational enough to see that that he is harming the man he wants to win.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube says goodbye to decade-old video player UI, but users hate the new design⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The removal of the black gradient at the bottom is a plus.

  Putting the controls in their own grey capsules so they still standout is a plus.

  The moving of the volume button to the right is a negative.

  I dont like change just for changes sake, but in fairness some of this is a good idea and a welcome design shift. I just hopebthey move the volume button back as having on the left with the main controls is pretty widespread and common design.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla (TSLA) has to replace computer in ~4 million cars or compensate their owners⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And the company remains massively overvalued despite the recent falls in value. It has a long way to fall yet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨As a US citizen who was born in the UK, how risky is it to leave and reenter the US right now?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It honestly seems very unpredictable. Anecdotally the worst behaviour seems to have been at the most republican states but not exclusively.

  For example the Australian who had a work visa and lived in the US for years flew in to Texas where it was arbitrarily nullified. There are plenty of stories of people crossing southern and northern borders and being detained by ICE. Thats included British, German, Australian and French cirizens that ive seen in the UK press coverage anyway.

  As a US citizen you shouldnt have an issue but I’d probably travel through a major hub like JFK in New York to be safer. I wouldn’t re-enter through Republican states like Florida, Texas, nor probably Washington DCs airports. Obviously travel on your US passport.

  You should he OK as a US citizen but it does look like there is a breakdown in the rule of law in the US. People imagine that means riots and the police not able to keep control, but in this case its the government and government agencies doing whatever they want and the legal system unable to stop them.

  I’m a UK citizen and am not intending to travel to the US - I often cone for a major conference but having seen what happened to the French scientist who had his phone searched and then was denied entry for criticising Trump I won’t be risking it. I’m sure a lot of other UK and Europeans feel the same way.

  Sasly the only 100% safe option for you is to not leave the country. Its madness as youre a US citizen but at this point things are still going through the courts and its not clear where this will stop.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that a new internet/account bypass during Windows 11 installs already exists. Here is a 7 step guide.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Windows intuitively making you jump through 7 steps to not have an online account. The reality sadly is most Windows users will just be pushed by Microsoft to use a Microsoft account to access their own PC.

  Only 1% of Windows users who are IT people and enthusiasts will find out how to avoid being forced into internet based accounts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨how is it to work everyday but Wednesdays and Thursdays?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I work in a hospital and the worst days to work are weekends. The hospital is still full but most staff are off so its busy. Also all your friends and family are off on the weekend so you can’t see them.

  Meanwhile if you have days off in the week, it’s great because everything is open (unlike a sunday) and all the kids are in school. So you can go out an enjoy the parks or shop freely etc. But most of your friends anf family are also at work.

  I would definitely take 2 days off together, not split them. If I were to have 2 days off and work every weekend I’d either take Mon/Tue off or Thu/Fri. I think its just preference and howbbusy your job is. It could suck being in work on a Friday while everyone else is gearing up for weekend off and discussing their plans, plus also people head off early where they can - I’d probably take The/Fri off so I didn’t have to put up with all that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I’m not sure the BBC have. I think users have been uploading all that stuff. The BBC makes much of its archive available in the UK via iPlayer but not internationally as it has to use then commercially to help fund the organisation.

  Copyright infringement is the biggest threat to the internet archive. Its already been through a case with book publishers and now its facing an existential threat woth a $400m lawsuit from the music industry.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You should know there's a font designed to make reading easier, especially for people with low vision. It's called Atkinson Hyperlegible Next. It's free for personal and commercial use.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s also aesthetically pleasant which is a big plus.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  How is it misleading? Plex Pass is a subscription? It would be confusing to many people if it said “Plex pass” instead of “Subscription” as not everyone would necessarily even know what that is. Subscription is very clear.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Self-hosted media server to share with 5+ people?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I use Jellyfin as a home media server - in my set up I have it running on my desktop PC, and I use it to stream a media library to my tv.

  A home media server basically just means its meant to be deployed at a small scale rather than as a platform for 1000s of people to use.

  Your scenario is exactly what Jellyfin and Plex can do. If you have 5 users then you just need a host device running the server that is powerful enough to run 5 video streams at the same time. The server can transcode (where the server takes on the heavy lifting needing a more powerful CPU) or direct play (where all the server does is send the bits of the file and the end user’s device such as a phone or smart tv does the hard work of making a quality play, so a lower power server device can work).

  If this is contained within your home, your home wifi or network should be fine to do this, even up to 4k if your network is good enough quality. If the 5 people are outside your home then your internet bandwidth - particularly your upload bandwidth - and your and their internet quality will be important determinant of quality of experience. It will also need more configuring but it is doable.

  This doesn’t need to be expensive. A raspberry pi with storage attached would be able to run Jellyfin or Plex, and would offer a decent experience over a home network if you direct play (I.e. just serve up the files for the end users device to play).

  If you want to use transcoding and hardware acceleration you’d need better hardware for 5 people to stream simultaneously. However most end user devices such as TVs, PCs, Phones and tablets are perfectly capable of direct playing 1080p video themselves without the server transcoding. Transcoding has lots of uses - you can change the audio or video format on the fly, or enable streaming of 4k video from a powerful device to a less powerful device - but its not essential. Transcoding would be where you need to put more money in so the server is powerful enough in terms of CPU or graphics card to serve up 5 high quality streams at a time.

  Direct play is fine for most uses. The only limitation is the files on the server need to be in a format that can be played on the users device. So you may need to stick to mainstream codecs and containers; things like mp4 files and h.264/avc. You could get issues with users not being able to playback files if you have say mkv files and h. 265/hevc or vp9. Then you’d either need to install the codecs in the users device (which may not be possible in a smart tv for example) or use transcoding (so the server converts the format on the fly to something the users device can use but then needing a more powerful server)

  I prefer Jellyfin as its free and open source. It has free apps for the end user for many devices including smart tvs, streaming sticks, phones, tablets and PCs. Its slightly less user friendly than plex to set up but not much. And the big benefit is your users are only exposed to what you have in your library.

  Plex is slightly more user friendly but commerical. You have to pay for a licence to get the best features and even then it pushes advertising and tries to get your users to buy commercial content. Jellyfin does not do that at all.

  Finally if your plan is to self host in the cloud, again this is doable but then you stray into needing to pay for a powerful enough remote computer/server, the bandwidth for all content to be served up (in addition to your existing home internet) and the potential risk of issues with privacy and even copyright infringement issues around the content you are serving. A self hosted device in your home is much more secure and private. A cloud hosted solution can be secure but youre always at risk of the host company snooping your data or having to enforce copyright laws.