I know it’s an investment, but for the sake of stability and out of box simplicity I recently switched to an Apple TV with Infuse player. I run a Jellyfin server on my desktop PC and browse it through the Infuse app on the Apple TV. It plays everything natively and smooth as butter (including Dolby Vision), and the interface is polished. I wish the app was little more customizable, but it just works.

Any time I’ve brought it up everybody glazes over the first time I say the words “instance” or “federated.” I’ve tried the email analogy, but they lose interest immediately.

“Come study with us! As a pillar of academia, we’ll hide knowledge from you whenever it suits our political and financial interests. Higher education is all about close-mindedness and conservatism after all. We promise none of our students will be taught anything that makes them feel uncomfortable about reality. Welcome to college!”

This is the advice I usually give. I hate the concept of smart TVs, but I’m not willing to spend more when I can just ensure my Hisense U8K never connects to the internet. It’s a gorgeous and completely affordable display for the quality it provides, and there are no relevant features that are unavailable because it’s offline.