What new device should I buy that direct play's AV1 content?

[abpjf]

Conversely, the server also correctly indicates the same AV1 file(s) being transcoded when it's being played back on something like the LG WebOS JF app that some of my external users use.

The LG C1 will direct play AV1 through the webOS app. AV1 is a large and growing portion of my library and I'm shocked at the amount of devices will direct play AV1...frustratingly the Roku I purchased to do so does not.

That's good to know! I guess my users are on other models that don't have the horsepower.

Yeah, I got past the "AV1 via HW decode only!" hump really quickly once I realized plenty of devices do SW decode of it just fine without any apparent hit to quality or performance.