I have a weird appreciation for “upgrading” old (see: obsolete) technology. I don’t know what, exactly, but there’s just something completely satisfying about surfing the wave between the past and the present. In one sense, finding ways to extend the life-span of aging tech is exciting; but, in a completely different sense, the sheer novelty of actually accomplishing it is a reward in its own right.

Now, I won’t pretend I’m actually good at this sort of thing, but it’s fun nonetheless; so I try (or at least dream), which is why my home office is littered with aging and obsolete electronics. Floppy drives, VHS players, CRT televisions, vintage video game systems… you name it, I’ve probably got something like it laying around.

One piece that I’m particularly fond of is a black and white 1977 Sony CVM-131 television that, surprisingly, still works. Thanks to a ridiculous daisy chain of transformers and modulators, I have been able to connect an early-generation Roku 1 SE to it and (with varying levels of success) watch my favorite online content in sweet, sweet desaturated standard definition.

The one thing that I haven’t been able to get working, until recently at least, was my own local content. Thanks to the magic of TV tuners, I have digitized every VHS I own, but there’s no better experience than watching them on the CRT televisions they were made for.

Plex, a service my family is a big fan of for its ease of use, does not run well on the SE. In fact, it is downright unusable. While you can browse the content, it spends nearly all of its time buffering. So, I thought I’d give something simpler a try. For the uninitiated, Jellyfin is an open source alternative to Plex with just as many bells and whistles, but a smaller footprint.

And, wouldn’t you know it? It works beautifully! For the better part of the last few days I have been able to stream everything I want from my personal library with nary a loading screen to be seen. I know that it isn’t practical, but at least I’ve been able to save a few less-than-useful gadgets from the landfill