I've made a some changes, tech-wise, at home in the last few weeks.

1. We're starting up a Plex server for the home. We have so many movies and tv series (~2000), it's taking forever to rip a disc and then run it through a converter to make it streaming-ready (trying to make the streaming as easy as possible). Plex is actually really nice as a streaming service. It's far easier to navigate than a lot of other streaming services (Disney+, I'm looking at you) and it actually has some features other service don't, such as having the show's theme music play in the background. We're actually thinking we might let friends buy access to our stream (like $5/month?) and cover the cost of upgrading out Internet speed.
2. That brings me to having a computer to run the server on. My wife's laptop was having all kinds of performance issues. It's not particularly new and Windows 10 was just being a headache anymore. We knew it wasn't going to be able to upgrade to 11 and also my wife didn't really use it. She had her computer for work and used her laptop; I had used her laptop in the last year more than she had (it was the computer I used for running OBS while I streamed on Twitch). So, I wiped it and installed Linux Mint on it and set it up as our dedicated plex server/video conversion unit. We picked up another cheap 8 TB drive from CostCo and away it goes. It's actually running very well.
3. So what about the streaming for Twitch? Well, the computer I had been using for the gaming was the Dreamcade Replay that I had backed on Kickstarter. It was an entirely under-powered little unit that could only barely do what I asked of it (classic arcade games). It was a bit of a let-down from Dreamcade because this was not the system they had sold the Kickstarted on. It absolutely could not handle streaming video while playing a game (I found that out when I was first setting up my Twitch) and, very disappointingly, I found out it couldn't handle the arcade games half the time. I tried to do the 6-player X-men arcade but it could only handle having 4 controllers. So, a friend pointed out the Minisforum HM80 mini-computer could handle everything I need. It cost a pretty penny but I bit the bullet and got it. Right now, it's working like a dream!

#plex #linux #mint #dreamcade #twitch #minisforum #hm80 #streaming