Is the nvidia shield TV still the go-to box for streaming content to your TV?
I don’t really need much, just something that can pick up jellyfin. hulu/HBO/etc. is a bonus
I just can’t recommend anything with Android anymore. The enshittification is real. They’re already rolling out full-screen video ads in the OS. Even Plex lived long enough to become the villain.
I’ve just been plugging in my laptop. Super inconvenient but that’s where we are now.
I’m back to a full computer again too, and if you don’t have a laptop handy, the new little mini PCs are surprisingly affordable too. If you don’t want to build a raspberry pi.
Which mini-pc would you recommend? RPis are not sold here officially and thus very expensive.
RPi’s probably not a great option anyway. Too low-powered for streaming video.
I’d probably recommend one of the used USFF office PCs w/ X86 processors commonly for sale on eBay for cheap. Bonus: These are the same ones people will recommend for low power homeservers so you could have it running those as well.
What about a chromebox flashed with some linux os? Nice and cheap mini x86 pc. Just picked one up for 35 bucks with an i7 6th gen, just hoping it uses sodimm and isnt integrated on the mobo.
Not sure what you mean by a “Chromebox”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebox
Basically a small form factor pc running ChromeOS by default, but still a pc usually with multiple USB slots, ethernet, and display port(s)
Oh, I would look into that first. Big problem with Linux is driver support and while you would think ChromeOS = Linux = same support, it unfortunately doesn’t work that way.
That doesn’t look like it would have SODIMM either…
I’m thinking about running WayDroid on mine…
The Dell Optiplex micro form factor might be a good option. You can get them cheap on the second hand market (at least here in the US).
I will have an OG Xiaomi Mi Box and it’s absurd how over the years it went from a purely functional media device to a complete shit show covered ads. Genuinely disgusted me every time I turned the TV on. I couldn’t stand it anymore, I had to tear out the launcher with ADB and replace it with FLauncher.
I wish Kodi wasn’t such a pain in the ass to deal with, especially for YouTube. We really need a new FOSS media center application. Until then, at least FLauncher works for now as a simple app switcher for a handful of Android apps.
What exactly is your problem with Plex? I’ve used it for years and there’s not even a hint of ads. They bow offer their own content as well, but you can simply remove that (or just not add it in the first place) from your start page. Other than that?
All kinds of problems. Most recently they’re sharing your friends recent activity to you via email and vise versa, without your consent. Also I have removed their own content from my dashboard several times but they keep rearranging it and re-adding it.
Is this via social / account stuff within the plex ecosphere ? Ive never used any of that (wittingly) including seperate user accounts in my household. Is it between such accounts you’re referring to, or more insidious than that ? Ive been plexing for some years but always have one eye on jellyfin. If theyre doing anything dodgy with data I will jump. Need to have another look at their policies and settings - its been a while. Good to have a headsup.
Jellyfin is not a for-profit project so there’s no motivation to push non-sense like that.
There’s also no motivation for them to dedicate a ton of resources to build a slick or easy to use system, but those are your choices.
Wow. Thanks for the link. Makes me wonder if the whole thing could be seen as a honeypot opportunity for lawyers of evil corps and others. Also makes me wonder what their business end game is - get acquired by Amazon or another streaming giant ? In which case, yikes again. I was suspicious enough with the mere fact it was a hybrid streaming, live tv, and self host media solution. Conflicts of interest. A Shame. Theres alot of good aspects to using it. Hello Jellyfin.
Used to be purely for streaming your personal library, but you know how these things go.
Shame on me for trying to support a company I believed in and buying a lifetime license.
Jellyfin still has a ton of issues. Can’t easily fixed mismatched episodes (at least I couldn’t find it), crashes on some media well plex doesn’t. Apps crash enough to be noticeable.
Interface is riddled with stuff that isn’t on my local network.
I just want something to manage the stuff on my local network!
Anyways… I now use Jellyfin a lot for the above reasons … until it doesn’t work lol.
Jellyfin has no shareholders to push the enshittification
Emby gang
I’ve been very happy with roku tvs at home and a roku stick “to-go”. Very simple interface with minimal ads that you can block.
I second the roku, they are economically priced, they perform very well, minimal ads. My friends and family use them to stream from my jellyfin server over the internet to their homes.
If you go the android route turn on Apps Only Mode in the settings. It gets rid of the home screen ads for the most part and disabled a lot of the “features” that Google tries to push.
Might as well load a 3rd party launcher gets rid of the rest of the ads. Not using the extra features at that point anyway.
A RaspberryPi with a Flirc case is silent
What os/frontend would you recommend?
I use LibreELEC, it’s great.
FYI everyone here is going to recommend running stuff to stream your own self-hosted pirated content.
If you’re looking for something to stream Netflix, HBO, Disney, etc., forget it. Just run that shit in the browser. And even that will only be half-assed unless you go out of your way to install an invasive browser like Edge that supports their shitty DRM.
They could add the popular streaming services to Kodi and log in.
Edit: Well they say the steaming services are a bonus but the focus is Jellyfin. Does Kodi have an integration with Jellyfin?
Firefox supports the DRM and has for awhile.
Given the recent issues with ads, I wouldn’t recommend anything Android/GoogleTV based. A USFF PC will give you better performance for less money, especially if you buy used. You can find 1L X86 boxes for $30-60 on eBay that are perfect for the job.
A Shield TV is probably overkill for you and the recommendations of a pi would do just fine, but if it’s in budget I say go for the Shield TV. Mine is nearly 8 years old and I haven’t had a single issue, streams 4k HDR, and runs so much better than any of the crap that comes with even the newest of TVs.
I’ve been using an Nvidia Shield TV Pro for a while, and hardware-wise it’s still amazing. But with the way the OS is going, I can’t recommend it to anyone anymore, not for that price. I basically had to stop updating any of the system stuff so it doesn’t plaster my TV screen with ads.
I use the shield with an alternative front end/launcher.
Yes, there are (so far) ways to get around it for more technically skilled people, but you also have to sacrifice some features like the home screen channels (or updates). But you shouldn’t have to do that on a device in that price-segment, and I don’t want to support a product that employs such anti-consumer tactics with my recommendation.
IIUC you can flash LineageOS on the shield (if you try, let us know how it goes)
Why not use a pi or some other sbc?
I’ve done this in the past. I was mostly interested to see what others have done
If you have Apple users in your household, the current generation of Apple TV 4K 128GB is a solid device that’s going to offer the best integrated experience, along with capability of Thread. If not, it’s probably a bit overpriced compared to the other solutions.
Maybe something running Kodi? I don’t use streaming services but I do use Kodi on a single board computer.
Stay away from cheap Chinese TV boxes. They are full of malware
Just get a firestick
Are firsticks bad? (Genuinely asking)
No, but Amazon decides what you see on the top half of the main screen unless you install a custom launcher. You can use your own photos for the screen saver. You can side load android apps. I use one called “smart YouTube tv” which blocks YouTube ads and has sponsor block built in.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters Plex Brand of media server package RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC SBC Single-Board Computer
2 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 5 acronyms.
[Thread #305 for this sub, first seen 27th Nov 2023, 07:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
I have Xiaomi TV stick 1080p (android) and I’m happy with it. I know its not popular solution, but its cheaper and I had 0 issues so far
I’d vlan anything cheap and Chinese. It’s pretty much guaranteed to phone home and send as much info about your environment as possible.
Yeah it’s not like Roku/Chromecast/fire stick do that too, only the Chinese ones, right?
The cheap Chinese ones have malware installed.
I’m kinda new to the scene so take what I say with a grain of salt. I have jellyfin running on a laptop and I use a roku stick to stream through. Not perfect by any means however it does what I need to do. I’ve been told using a raspberry PI would be a great budget option with more feature.
OSMC makes some good Kodi boxes under the Vero name if you don’t need proprietary streaming services. I use the jellyfin plugin to read from my JF server, works great. Supports 4k, HDR, audio passthrough, many codecs, all the good stuff.
Between that and my PS5 it covers all the bases
Gotta be careful with osmc. It has so much choice that breaking is entirely possible to do accidentally. I absolutely love my little 4k box.
