Hardware-facing software as well. Usually involving some proprietary super sketchy driver and it might even only work on specific versions of Windows.

Some on here seem to be way overcomplicating things. Just stick the movie files on any old box with a large drive (even a Raspberry Pi could work with external USB drives) and then access them via some form of file share: ssh (sftp, sshfs), nfs, cifs, etc. And then play the file with a standard media player, VLC, mpv… most media players are smart enough not to try to load the entire file at once and so streaming is automatic.

Out of curiosity, why are VMs, streaming or transcoding needed? I’ve always just accessed and played the movie files directly from the media center PC via some form of ssh or nfs. Even works from my phone on the go with a Wireguard VPN. Have I been missing out on something?

Really old people seem to be the heaviest AI users, or at least they are in my bubble. So maybe pa is getting it on with an AI granny in that retirement home.

YTMND