They sold the business to Asus and they are releasing new NUCs

If you are on stock software on EOL device you are not getting os updates either.

Also a bunch of recent vulns were in SoC specific stuff - outside os.

No security fixes once the device reaches end of life. For pixel 4a end of security updates was 10 months ago. That mostly is a problem with malicious apps - there were some privilege escalation bugs in those 10 months - but sometimes you get a banger that can get exploited by simply loading a page or opening an image.

Something more like this https://a.co/d/0bgPCSvQ - it should use half the power, it’s way smaller, 2x SATA if you want 2 drives. I haven’t checked if this specific one is 12V, but there are dozens in the same form factor and with similar specs.

There are a lot of atom or mobile i3/i5 powered mini PCs that actually are powered with a 12v brick, in fact most of the industrial ones are. Small form factor, passive cooling, can play media for you and usually comes with 4x 1/2.5gbit Ethernet, so it can double as a router/switch. Usually 10-15w power draw.

Go to AliExpress and simply search for minipc and make sure it has a SATA connector for your hard drive.

Almost. a 10db change is a 10x difference in power and roughly 2x difference in perceived loudness

Decibel scale is logarithmic, which means 10db change is reducing perceived volume by half.

4k 120Hz HDR is what current gen consoles can output right now and what is becoming common even on mid-range TVs (quality of HDR aside). I’d expect you’d want most of that experience or future-proof solution that would allow that when you get a new TV.

• No SBC that I know of can handle 4k 120Hz HDR output, so getting the most of moonlight is not possible.
• Low latency decode requires some work to get running
• AV1 encode/decode has even more latency, do you will be running higher bitrate h264, which in turn means wired network connection is recommended.
• Streaming services limit 4k and/or HDR access on a lot of content to locked devices. E.g. Netflix only guarantees 720p sdr when watching in a browser - how much more you get depends on the deal with the copyright holder.

Tl;dr; a long, active fiber HDMI cable + USB over IP might be cheaper, better and easier. That’s what I ended up buying despite the cable length being 60m (200ft).