Media players, codecs, and home theatre that actually works.
I run Plex on a Synology NAS, mpv on an HTPC, and a BenQ projector throwing a 100-inch image at the wall. I write about the players, codecs and fixes that came out of my own setup. Tested on real hardware. If a recommendation here is wrong, I want to know.
Now testing: Dolby Vision Profile 7 passthrough on Apple TV 4K · Jellyfin 10.9 hardware transcode on DS920+ · mpv gpu-next vs madVR.
Anthony R. Smith
IT consultant · East Sacramento, CA
Featured guides
If you read three things on this site, read these.
Servers
Plex vs Jellyfin in 2026: an honest comparison
Publishes May 10, 2026.
Six months on both, family use vs lab use, hardware transcoding, and the one I left running on the living-room box.
Hardware
Best NAS for Plex in 2026 (after owning four)
Publishes May 24, 2026.
Honest picks after running a DS412+, DS918+, DS920+ and a DS923+ side by side. Where Synology still wins, where it does not.
Codecs
What is AV1, and why your media server should care
Publishes May 13, 2026.
Why AV1 matters in 2026, what actually decodes it on common hardware, and when to skip re-encoding your library.
Latest articles
Articles publish on a rolling May/June 2026 schedule. Browse Players, Servers or Codecs in the meantime, or subscribe via RSS.
Hi, I am Anthony.
I run a small IT consultancy in East Sacramento. Most days I am racking switches or running Microsoft 365 migrations. Most evenings I am either watching something on the projector with my family, or breaking the projector trying to make Dolby Vision Profile 7 passthrough work. This blog is the second thing.
My current setup
Everything on this site is tested against this rig unless I say otherwise. The exact list, with versions, lives on the About page.
- Plex Media Server on Synology DS920+ (4 × 8 TB IronWolf, RAID-5)
- HTPC: Intel i5-12400 + RTX 4060, Windows 11 Pro
- Display: BenQ HT4550i 4K projector on a 100″ Stewart StudioTek 100
- Audio: Denon AVR-X1700H, 5.1 with Atmos
- Clients: Apple TV 4K (2022), NVIDIA Shield Pro
- Library: ~6.2 TB movies, 1.8 TB TV, 800 GB classical music
- Subtitles: SRT, ASS and PGS depending on source
- Network: 2.5 GbE backbone, wired everywhere it reaches
- Test files: HEVC Main10, AV1 10-bit, DV P5/P7, HDR10+
- Last updated: April 26, 2026
Get new articles when I publish
A few times a month, when there is something worth saying. RSS, email, or check back. I do not sell or share emails. Ever.
Some links here are Amazon affiliate links. If a product fails my tests, I say so anyway. Affiliate disclosure · Editorial standards.