I'll buy the bluray/dvd, then download the torrent for the movie to put into Plex. Like a backup, but MUCH better and easier on the size than I would be able to do myself.
On that note, what kind of hardware/connection does that require? I run Plex on a rather old Synology NAS at home, and it's great for streaming at home at original quality even up to 4K but can get a bit sluggish when it tries to scale the video one way or another.
Then I go out of my home and it's unwatchable when streaming even original quality, which is odd because I have 20Mbit up with fiber to the premise at home and probably getting 60Mbit+ where I'm trying to watch from.
That's mostly 1080p I've been trying to watch, so 10Mbit should be sufficient. I don't know why the hardware would become a problem only when I leave home.
It'll be the transcoding that is the issue. Whether that is because you don't have a direct path, bandwidth issues, or because of codec issues.
Not all devices support all codecs. Any disagreement means that Plex is now going to try transcoding, even if the hardware capability isn't there (and most NASs don't have the grunt to do it).
You have options.
Spend more disk space: You can tell Plex to transcode copies into lower bitrate versions it makes them available via the UI (although this isn't always obvious how, and varies on platform). Note that on a NAS this might take a day to transcode a movie. During which your ability to use the NAS for anything else is greatly reduced.
Spend more effort: Re-rip or re-encode everything into a known supported format. You will need to maintain this. Tools like Tdarr may help here.
More compute power (and some effort):
If your content is in 1080p and you want to view it in 1080p or lower then reasonably-modern Intel CPUs with support for QuickSync are pretty good at handling transcoding for 1080p. Plex Media server has an option to enable hardware-accellerated transcoding if you pay for Plex.
An older Intel NUC or Small-form-factor PC can usually do this job fine. They can also be fairly power efficient.
If you want to start throwing in 4k content, then you are going to need a GPU and the cost and complexity goes up.
I have a vague memory that if your device can't get a direct route to your Plex server (e.g. because of NAT) then it gets relayed via Plex's own cloud servers with significant bandwidth throttling.
I had a friend who had DSL cause it was all they had available, and with 1.5Mbps up I could decently stream a lot of things at 720p which TBH was fine and I did not notice, plus a lot of the source material was older shows like Stargate SG-1 so resolution wasn't that high anyway.
I use my old GTX1060 for transcoding and it does a decent job. Upload speed could be another factor, as well as pointed out elsewhere making sure there is direct internet access to the Plex server so it doesn't use a middle server via Plex themselves.
The rise in the random texts (which end up pushing investment scams) also originates in off shore call centers in Southeast Asia.
Often times they get migrant workers with promises of jobs, but then take their passport and force them into years of repaying for their relocation fees.
> I'd imagine that creative engineers who can ensure clean water supply and working electricity (or other smaller services) would be more valuable
In the World War Z novel, there's a section where the head of rebuilding in the US is speaking and talking about the new power structure in post-Z society as they look to rebuild.
He talks about how it's the blue collar workers: carpenters, farmers, plumbers, electricians, and their skillset that end up becoming the new key individuals in society because of their ability to build up from a collapse. It's not just hoarding guns and ammo. Those can be dealt with and they are dealt with by the military. Even a smaller military still has enough resources to take care of the local militias (preppers with guns and food).
But if you REALLY want to survive and thrive post collapse, it'll take practical skills to re-build.
Case in point was going to Athens for a work event. I felt like the Parthenon was disappointing experience. The crowds were terrible. You can't get anywhere near the actual building. And it's often under some type of renovation/construction, so there's scaffolding everywhere. There are no trees, so it's basically it's a bit of a hike, waiting in lines, and then without shade you're out in the blazing sun (if in Summer time).
Afterwards I went to another site in Athens, the Ancient Agora of Athens. Wow, what a completely different experience. It was mostly empty. But there were several big buildings to actually walk up to and into. There were remnants of statues and other historical items that made it super interesting. There were also trees, for shade and the grounds were really well kept.
https://goo.gl/maps/pGRysme3D91Kt8Q7A if anyone is interested in seeing some of the photos of the location. I had never heard of it, but had a few hours to explore and this location saved my Athens experience.
If you streamed Stadia to your web browser, sure, you could use an Xbox controller. The real feature of the Stadia controller was that it connected directly to the Stadia servers to minimize latency (and load on your computer), instead of connecting to your computer using USB or Bluetooth and having your browser relay inputs. You’d initially set the controller up using your phone and Bluetooth to bootstrap a Wi-Fi connection, and from then on it would talk to the servers over Wi-Fi and TCP/IP.
As far as I understand it, Amazon Luna’s official controller does the same thing.
That doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. You reduce latency by removing Wi-Fi entirely. The latency between the controller and a machine sending to Google is comparatively minor. And that machine can have a wired network.
AFAIK that means that all of those Stadia controllers are ewaste now unless Google releases a firmware update that allows them to be paired as Bluetooth.
You can use them as a wired controller with the existing firmware (although I agree it would be ideal if Google released an update adding bluetooth functionality as well).
The interesting thing is that in MANY of these situations, you can guarantee that executives are getting free drinks, lunches, etc. as part of the perks.
I've seen it happen. No soda, no food. But the executive assistant will do a lunch run every day for executives. And will pick up drinks too. Or there's usually a stocked fridge for executives near their wings of the building.
