Flashy movie posters you can idly browse through while you are curling up against your significant other.
There's a real emotional difference in clicking on a movie poster rather than squinting at text in a list of folder contents.
Additionally the media server will generally pull lists of actors, directors, and other related works, as well as holding your place in the episode or series if you are working your way through a TV series on the weekend. "What episode where we on?" becomes a rhetorical question rather than a debate.
Also, other quality of life features such as searching your library, ordering your list by different criteria such as directors, critic reviews, release date, combining movies/tv shows into organized collections etc.
I use Archos video player on a firetv and connect to my miniDLNA instance. Archos gives you all of the movie posters, imdb descriptions, actor info etc etc. my dvr recordings are also served from minidlna which allows archos to pop up “new episodes!” on recently added series episodes
What is the benefit of this being a server side function?
Remote access and a single library of truth across multiple clients - keeping track of what’s been watched and when. There’s other bits, but that’s the most important.
Am I the only one in this thread doesn't regularly fall asleep or get distracted watching a show/movie? Multiple times a week in having to fight to find which episode or where in the movie I was. This is painful with the atrociously slow uis of every app I use.
There's a real emotional difference in clicking on a movie poster rather than squinting at text in a list of folder contents.
Additionally the media server will generally pull lists of actors, directors, and other related works, as well as holding your place in the episode or series if you are working your way through a TV series on the weekend. "What episode where we on?" becomes a rhetorical question rather than a debate.