I did return to my old flac and mp3 collection. Got Foobar working again, found a nice skin and I’m rediscovering music that I that skipped over. I buy second-hand CDs when I find them. I’ve managed to get a digital copy of all my favourite albums and tracks.

I will keep Spotify though. A long time ago, I got friends to share their Discovery and Release Radar playlists. With my own, I have a nice spread of recommendations.

I need regular new music. Call it a search for unexpected dopamine. Spotify still picks new tracks that I really like. I also like Spotify Connect and the easily shared collaborative playlists.

The UK has less alternatives for music discovery. I don’t like Radio, way too much talking and ads.

I’ve got rid of Netflix, Prime. I’m getting Disney+ for free at the moment. Back to physical for film and TV.

For now, Spotify recommendations is worth the cost of entry.

I think it will be a custom build next time. I’ll still use the old one just for backing up photos from my phone.

Do want something that’s quiet and sips power when idle, but can easily transcode any content when needed.

True. When I first started experimenting with the NAS to stream home media, Video Station worked fine. And I could also access content outside of the home network without messing about. Obviously Jellyfin, Emby, Plex are better.

I made the mistake of buying one where the ram couldn’t be upgraded. 2GB is a joke. Had to send it back.

Starting to think that companies are all competing on a secretive Achievements Global Leaderboard.

Synology finally unlocked: “Hubris - only 99% of other large corporations have achieved this”.

I have an old Synology NAS; which i was considering upgrading.

But…

1. They removed Video Station and HEVC support
2. Recently moved to remove all hardware transcoding
3. This stupid HD restriction
4. The decision to once again cheap out on hardware. My Synology is about as powerful as a first-gen Netbook. Newer models aren’t much of a step-up. I’m surprised they opted to upgrade networking to 2.5gbe, probably pressure from competitors.
5. Edit: from a comment, the e-waste builds with non-upgradeable RAM

Yes the software is easy and reliable to use, but the fact that I only need to interact with it a few times a year, means it’s no longer a selling point for me.