Thanks for the reply Aasoror,
Question re:
For alternative hardware check Kodi.tv forums, there is an official thread for "what hardware to get".
Is Pivos getting out of the hardware business?
re: Emby...
I gave Emby a shot, and generally it wasn't bad. It's not as responsive as MySQL, and there is less user input / customization available. If you like Emby to have control over posters and Fanart, and take a while to find added media, it is OK. Generally, if I HAD to use it, I could.
However, surprisingly, it wasn't Emby that held me back, or my now out-to-pasture DS... the real challenge is KODI 17.1 itself.
KODI 17 was released, and it had challenges with profiles. Even though this was brought to their attention in January, they rolled out 17.1 "stable" with the same issue. In short, a created profile does not allow for any add-ons to be added.
I discovered this when I wanted to change skins from their new skins to Xonfluence. Could not do it.
So, looks like I'll be staying on 16.1 until 18.x is out with the real fix.
Thanks for your support over the years.
v.