A couple of years ago I would have argued with you, but we recently added a WebOS TV to the household: 4K HDR+ Netflix and Amazon Prime, perfect playback of seemingly everything on the NAS box (which is just a hard drive hanging off the router), all effortlessly and with zero mental effort or maintenance.

To reiterate what I said elsewhere, this Mac Mini is meant to be a desktop, not a media device (or some sort of perverse NAS). It's being pushed into the home theater niche by people who probably have a big trashcan Mac Pro at their desk and try to justify this lesser device. But it's an extremely competent legitimate PC for most people.

I don’t trust my TV enough to be on the network.

Yes. I recall reading the user agreement for our smart TV. It recommended we not say sensitive things in front of it. We haven’t even upgraded the firmware.

I maintain that if LG or Sony offered a “Pro” version of their OLED that had no apps whatsoever and no internet connectivity I would pay a premium.

Yes, this precisely. Smart TVs of all flavors as well as Roku boxes voraciously mine your viewing habits, connected devices, network layout, mic input, and practically anything else they can get their dirty little hands on. They’re usually running out of date OSes and are full of holes to boot, making you a potential vector for smart device botnets.

Smart TVs and Roku boxes simply cannot be trusted. I have a brand new, relatively expensive Sony smart TV and while its Android TV support is more than adequate I don’t use it at all and keep it off the internet at all times. Instead, I use an Apple TV 4K.

> Instead, I use an Apple TV 4K

Which is what I'd do but unfortunately Google insists on using it's own video codec for 4k instead of H.265. Meaning your 4k AppleTV can't play YouTube videos at 4K. My smarttv can though... We use AppleTV for everything else.

Yeah, I thought Media PCs were a thing in the 00's. But it's 2018 now. Why would you have a Media PC?

I personally use Chromecasts, but HTPCs are still a thing, and for multiple reasons : - gaming (console "alternative", emulators, etc) - streaming a personal library of media files (e.g. through Plex) - it's way more versatile than the usually pretty terrible SmartTV onboard software in terms of what content you can access - like Amazon Video that only streams to their own crap stick

Media PCs never stopped working, and they're still better at some things. They're just less "convenient" in some ways, and requires more investment, both in time and money, which is why some people switched to streaming boxes or simply using their TV's software.

>it's way more versatile than the usually pretty terrible SmartTV onboard software in terms of what content you can access - like Amazon Video that only streams to their own crap stick.

The sad thing is: This has reversed. I gave up trying to Netflix and Amazon Video from my HTPC. The former at least has an app and now even supports all formats (Dolby Vision 4k, Atmos), but the controls are terrible for a remote. The latter doesn't even have an app, and all you get is HD+Stereo. And don't get me started on Blu-Ray.

Because it's 2018 and media format support in smart TVs is still garbage. I have relatively new Samsung and Sony TVs, and they are both really finicky about what they support - various combinations of container format, video codec, audio codec and bitrates work on only one or the other, and plenty works on neither (including 10-bit video).

Same thing with a media PC. You could get some transcoder on your NAS (Plex?). Newer TVs support newer formats. Last year's LG OLED supports everything I could throw at it.

> A TV can play movies directly from a NAS.

An iPad can’t though. And NAS’s don’t generally support transcoding.

A DLNA compatible media server can stream content to any device on the network.

Many NAS have that built in. My Synology can stream to an iPad with VLC just fine.