@at Haven’t used an Xbox in a long time but both Xbox and PlayStation worked well for playing DVDs a long time ago. And I know that at least with PS4, you could also run things like Plex and so be able to use it as a local media server.

I haven’t tried with a PS5 to see if Plex would work on that too since we basically use a Roku stick for our media stuff these days. With regards to the Roku, I know it does a lot of calling home but I think what I did (I forget the details now since it’s been some time) was set up PiHole on the network and shunt Roku through it so that PiHole blocks a lot of the ads and tracking … But that might be a bit too much work honestly 🙂

@at As a "religious" PC gamer, I have to ask (you/spouse may ban me at will): why gaming on console and not PC?

@at
Why not just a used NUC-type PC with an external drive and some stable linux distro? Might give you the most flexibility in terms of accessible services. Also probably more future proof, given that the usefulness of the gaming console will depend on continuous support and updates by the manufacturer. Just a thought, apologies if I missed the point 🤐
@ducha_aiki