I spent some time building a .NET service that uses UPNP/DLNA to offer media to local devices. I got it working reasonably well, but the problem is that the client interfaces are absolutely garbage.

The better architecture is to push content over HDMI using an endpoint you control. This doesn't have to be the actual media server. We could invent a new system role and control multiple endpoints centrally. I don't want the TV to do anything more intelligent than display the video and audio frames it is receiving.

They don't all support it well, however. My Blu-ray player, for example, mangles filenames about 10% of my media. And my TV just simply doesn't list all the files in a directory, regardless of size.

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This is my take as well.

They're sticky because they stay focused on their specific domain, and they work well.

I also really don't understand the value pitch on "6 apps no one can use" in the post.

I publicly host Seerr and Jellyfin for my family, and they use that combo just fine. They explicitly don't get access to see any of the sausage making under the hood.

Given this doesn't support music yet (according to op) and you still need to host plex or jellyfin... what is the value statement here over seerr?

I'm working on one myself, but I probably won't ever release it to the world. I just want one that's simple enough for my wife to use, so we can cancel netflix etc. I need replicate the experience of browsing what's new or popular on her phone, watching trailers for them, and then a single button to download it and getting notified when it's on plex.

Over the years we didn't have AI. Maybe it will become abandonware; but maybe the development will keep up thanks to AI.

For example, I've been using a Spotify replacement called Spotifast for a month or so. It's way better than the official Spotify app, and it's all vibecoded by one developer, and it gets lots of updates (it's basically a 1-to-1 clone of Spotify, plus additional features). It wouldn't have been possible before AI, or at least not that easily.

That wasn't written by a human. It was written by an AI. AI does this weird thing where it will say things like this - "AI or MCP features. Not in 1.0" - when the user prompting it hasn't actually requested whatever it is the AI has hallucinated as not being included. I've been using Claude Code to update some internal tooling I use (basically a bunch of python scripts I've painfully hacked together for myself that automate stuff) and it often comes out with things like "Not in this version: XYZ" when I have never even asked it to build XYZ.

I would use it for a regularly scheduled validation job.

Sometimes a bad copy, mismatch, or low-rated media slips through all the filters. Could use an LLM to fix the media and harden the filters to prevent issues going forward. I’ve probably spent weeks of my life toiling and tweaking over the last 15 years.

Not the OP, but I see a lot of complaints on HN about dumb media player "voice control". I myself had cringe experiences with my car when I wanted to play a particular genre or song.

To generate/translate subtitles.

"What's that movie with the kid who messes with those guys who try to rob his house during Christmas? Do I have that one?"

Natural language searching seems like a good reason.

I want everything AI capable. Just allow me to plug in my own selection of model.

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Downloading subtitles with STT fallback via whisper then summary so that you don't even have to watch the show anymore, way more efficient. /s

There is no long term plan, as with anything vibe coded

> Do I keep qBittorrent or SABnzbd? Yes, for now.

What do you mean "for now" if there's one thing i don't want it to replace it's clearly qbittorrent. Trackers have client whitelist and I don't see a brand new vibecoded app being added to any of the serious ones

Your assumption that 97% of a binary isn’t usually bloat is not well-founded

It doesn't actually include Prowlarr for starters