95% of my media comes via Usenet for I don’t bother with a VPN there, but my torrent client and *arrs are behind a VPN.

I automated this with FileFlows.

New media automatically has Audio tracks sorted with the best track (English, most channels, highest bitrate) set to index0 and set as default and a basic stereo AAC track added for compatibility if there isn’t already one in the file. superfluous tracks are removed. Subtitles are also cleared out if there are extras too.

I also have Fileflows handle a light compression pass on files that are more than 6 months old for archival, in certain video libraries where I don’t need perfect copies stored.

Most of the files you get from private and public trackers will be same ones you can get via Usenet so it’s pretty much the same everywhere, filtering your *Arrs to prioritise certain release groups helps when you know specific shows or genres are better supplied by a certain group.

The best HACS addon by far in my opinion has been the Node-Red companion add on that makes combining HA with NR significantly easier and more powerful.

I do almost all of my automation in NR flows and HA is mainly API connector and dashboard frontend.

I have a customised dashboard running on a Sonoff NS panel Pro (using the normal methods to get back to stock android on those panels) I just use it as a button pad for a media room, so the dashboard is mostly just a few pages of buttons in a 3x3 grid for source selection, modes, AC and Lighting controls etc, mostly hitting triggers in Node-Red (via the HACS node-red addon) rather than directly in Homeassistant so that it’s easier to have the dashboard trigger perform a larger chain of tasks easier (in my opinion) than doing it purely in HA.

It’s not perfect… because there’s no easy way to lock a dashboard to a certain pixel height and width without a lot of tinkering with third party plug-ins and SSL.

I’ve got it working pretty well, the one gripe I have is tap and hold functions are impossible as the touchscreen seems too sensitive and there is no dead-zone control for tap and hold.

But recently i’ve programmed a new smart remote for the media room that does most of it on the remote directly, so I only use it for configuring the A/C occasionally now, when my remotes simpler on/off integration isn’t enough.

you can pirate on a kindle it’s just more annoying to do

Kobo is the go-to for bang for buck readers that don’t care where your files are from and have good format support. got my dad a libra 2 and it’s great, especially with the physical page turn buttons. the default reader opens most files just fine, but you can also put KoReader on them for more functionality without too much hassle.

Personally I use an older Boox Note 3 which is easier since it runs android, but is massive overkill to be used as just a reader, i use it as my main tablet and a notepad/sketchpad.

Jellyfin has come a hell of a long way since it first forked from Emby. sure its not as feature complete and polished as plex but it’s far from shit, and it’s free and open.

I run both side by side with several clients on each and have been a plexpass holder since 2013.

time for a re-watch. it gets better with time.

and by better I mean the existential dread is worse.

I have .solutions and .info domain emails that still gets denied by some services, especially anything government or public utility, pain in the arse.

You’d think that at least .info would be pretty well accepted by now.

Sure, but something tells me the kinds of people who use software like Wondershare and Aiseesoft video converters arent going to be writing their own FFMPEG automations in batch files or bash scripts.

Basically everything worth using is just a wrapper for FFMPEG these days, so they all perform the same, just with different interfaces. So Handbrake will always be the go-to for the basics, but if you are looking for automation and custom processing based on rules you set out, then FileFlows is worth playing with

you have been able to right click (or i guess two finger click for apple people) and open a second window forever.

You can have multiple finder windows in OSX, thats perfectly normal, but you cant have the network settings open next to the printer settings.

I’m pretty positive on mac OS, as an OS it’s technically quite good, but their preferences app has always been atrocious almost entirely for this reason, I want to have two preferences windows open to different pages please…

Thus why im moving to 11. Lots of the PCs I work with are still 10 though.

Mostly 11 now. I honestly prefer it to 10 now, but that’s with quite about of decrapification done to remove all of Microsoft’s bullshit.

At home I’m mostly using Ubuntu, but it’s basically covering firefox as all of my self-hosted stuff runs in thevbrowser and I don’t game much.

I hope your firewall is up to scratch.

honestly I still cant figure out how to configure a network interface properly without using the old control panel.

its been on the experimental branch for a while now

These are the people that complain to their ISP when their game ‘lags’ on their wireless connected computer several rooms away from the router.

can you run something like iperf3 or openspeedtest between the server and client to prove its a network throughput issue?

do you have a network switch you can add to avoid switching through your router (if it is indeed bad?)

Have you ensured you arent unknowingly using wifi at either end?