As a technologist who’s run a fully fledged media PC since the days of Xbox Media Centre (before XBMC or Kodi or even Plex I think) with both Windows and Linux

As a technologist who’s run a fully fledged media PC since the days of Xbox Media Centre (before XBMC or Kodi or even Plex I think) with both Windows and Linux flavours, along with a USB IR remote control and wireless keyboard options… I simply got fed up of things randomly not working every year or two when a major upgrade was required, and the amount of effort that typically became required at the exact point that I was exhausted and just wanted to relax. So I gave in, switched to Plex, paid for a Plexpass lifetime account, and bought embedded devices that could stream content off my server. I have way less flexibility now that I’m on an AppleTV 4K. I also continue to get occasional headaches (e.g. recently the remote control randomly stops being able to control the volume), but the size of the headache is limited to pulling out a different remote control / turning all the things off and on again. Mental effort not required. I have a laptop that goes into the 4x2 HDMI splitter, and I occasionally whip that out if there’s a real desperate need. But it’s the absolute last resort. It’s just easier to use the ATV. It’s not that I lack the ability to produce a better PC based solution today, it’s that I lack the interest, and the $200 ATV is good enough that I’d rather throw money at the problem than time.