What other devices can serve the same purpose? I only really need to be able to run Playlet, Netflix, and Plex.
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I’m running a thin client with Waydroid and Android TV images. It’s not perfect, but works pretty well with an existing BT remote control (PlayStation or some HDMI stick). Running the Jellyfin and some TV station’s Android apps and for everything else I’m using the browser with a bt keyboard.
Just so you know there are two Fox companies. The one that purchases Roku is not the new company. Research.
Plex
Plex has its own slew of issues and is known for enshittification. May I suggest Jellyfin instead?
Otherwise, listening in as well.
always can count on a jellyfin user to shame someone for using Plex.
Nah, no shame, it’s just that Jellyfin as a noncommercial solution is less mainstream, so if someone isn’t a permanent Lemmy resident, they may genuinely not know of its existence.
If Plex works for you, yay!
it will be FOX ads, mostly shoveling thier propaganda at smart tv owners. Fox newscorp, and not the DISNEY owned fox(the cinema side of FOX). murdoch was pretty smart in seperating the 2 companies.
Get a dumb TV, a nice HDMI cable, have it hook to your PC. Watch things from your ad-free browser.
Where do you find a modern dumb TV nowadays?
I bought a 32" Westinghouse dumb TV for $149 from walmart several months back. I use it in my workshop where I don’t have wi-fi. I use an over-the-air antennae and wanted to just have it come on and play without having to go through menus and shit…
Just get any TV but don’t connect it WiFi or ethernet.
I’ve heard the only way to get a modern one is to basically get one that’s meant for commercial signage. =\
Yeah, I bought a Samsung Hospitality 65" TV and a Samsung Q-Series Soundbar. I like it, but I wish I didn’t have to spend the money I did to get it.
Sceptre still makes them. I bought a 50" 4K from walmart under that brand a few years ago
you can’t at any reasonable price and quality
I have a pi 4 running lineageos TV and primarily using nuvio and smart tube. It’s great, consistent, and for the most part just works.
Although with the current price of them it probably only makes sense if you have an extra pi laying around
/me pays special attention to this post.
NVIDIA shield
Unfortunately they’re now $300.
I’ve moved completely to Chromecast. They also have some very interesting sideloaded apps (SmartTube).
SmartTube
tempting but… https://smarttubeapp.github.io/
“My development environment was infected by unknown malicious software, as a result of which a few builds may have been affected. Once the issue was detected, I secured everything with a full disk wipe, restored a clean setup, and now all builds are scanned with VirusTotal. The F-Droid version will also be verified before release.”
Looks like he acted quickly and the issue is resolved. But obviously only do what you’re comfortable with.
Recommend Jellyfin over Plex if you have the ability to switch.
Or if you want an instant streaming option similar to Netflix/Hulu/etc. try Nuvio instead (or Stremio). It takes some configuration but it’s not difficult to figure out. I’ll give you a hint: sign up for Premiumize then install these plug-ins to get yourself started: Comet + Watchly + Streaming Catalogs.
Edit: And BTW it’s definitely worth it because everything is on there. And I mean everything. I have yet to find a single show or movie that wasn’t immediately available to stream on Nuvio.
Good tip for those who don’t have the ability to sail. 🏴☠️
FYI it’s piracy but Premiumize will keep your ISP off your ass. No VPN needed.
I tried to switch to Jellyfin a long while back but didn’t get far because I couldn’t get it to keep the folder-based organization structure I already had in place for my library. Is it still the case that Jellyfin doesn’t allow folder-centric navigation?
I can do folders on my Jellyfin setup, seems to work. :)
Sweet! I’ll have to set it up and try it again!
I believe it’s possible? It’s not something I use but it could be worth looking into again if you prefer that.
Sweet, I’ll have to check it out again! Thanks!
My pleasure, good luck!
I ended up getting a mini computer with Linux and getting a Rii keyboard remote. Then I can browse to any streaming service with a browser or kodi.
How well will HDR formats work on Linux these days?
I haven’t had any issues. Then again I usually purchase equipment that is known to play nice with Linux.
What I liked so much about the Roku is that they were really cheap, mostly worked w/o too much bother and you could opt out of any “subscription” bullshit. I mostly just want the hardware, maybe if it offers firmware updates, fine, but other than that, I don’t really want to hear from the makers of the hardware.
I might opt for buying something really small like mini or sbc or the like when I need to replace the Rokus I have. Some of them are many, many, many years old and have kept on chugging, though.
Might hold off on buying new hardware since anything computer has gone up in price and/or is backordered…
First thing I noticed when I installed PiHole though was that “scribe.roku.com” and a bunch of other roku related telemetry was getting blocked like CRAZY.
…And the TV somehow got a bit faster.
Its all 720p though. No 4k or even 1080p Netflix,Disney+,paramount+,HBO,peacock, Amazon prime etc
You’re doing it wrong. Only service I pay for is a VPN.
To quote Gabe, its a service issue
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🦜🦜☠️
Use Kodi with a Debrid service to pirate everything for a fraction of the price and high res and audio
I’m thinking of doing this. Which distro is most suitable for this?
LibreELEC takes the win for me almost every time. Extremely efficient. Kodi has the bare minimum but there’s an add-on for your niche needs & Article Fuse 3 is insanely polished now & hands down THE best Kodi skin ever.
I run the official Jellyfin add-on for TV + series but still have Elementum for p2p streaming & I could also use Jellyfin’s music library but Kodi can just access the shared Navidrome root folder. I prefer multiple ways of accessing the same folders than leaving it all to Kodi or Jellyfin.
But I digress. LibreELEC can be the powerhouse you want or the barebones you need.
Depends on the specs of the minicomputer you get and what you want to do with it. It really doesn’t take much processing power to run just streams. As long as the distro runs smoothly on the machine it will work just fine.
I came here to suggest exactly this, down to the Rii mini keyboard touchpad remote.
The mini PC brand that I use is Beelink. I have two of them (living room and bedroom), and they are great for this purpose. I even used one as my main PC for a while.
Android TV boxes are the way to go IMO. Lots of replacement launchers and ways to remove all the baked-in ads and the like, even if you can’t root the device.
If you’re stateside, Walmart’s ONN brand devices are the absolute best bang for your buck you can find. They’re not locked down, so you’re able to get into the proper Android system menu and disable apps and so on (including telemetry). You can even activate ADB and tinker that way, though you don’t need to if you just want to install a more simple (read: ad-free) home screen and turn off all the tracking garbage.
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/dopinder/
It supports LineageOS too, if you find the right one.
This is what I was looking in the thread for.
A simple launcher replacement and debloat is not enough for me to feel like I actually own a device, I still wouldn’t trust it.
Yeah, fair. That’s how I feel about most of my devices. If I don’t have root access at a minimum I don’t feel comfortable.
Even for the units you can’t install a CFW on though you can still get in via ADB and exercise a lot of control. You can’t run apps as root but you can disable and purge any of the even remotely undesirable apps and block any of the paths used for forced updates and the like.
I am incredibly annoyed that I tried to get one of those and actually ended up with a patched YOC (2411A).
I don’t suppose anybody (or any clanker) has figured out a root exploit for those yet?
Seconded. Rocking an Onn 4K TV box that used to cost $20 when it was manufactured.
The bought more ownership but they still owned a chunk of it the whole time
I’m on an Onn 4k plus with projectivy launcher which itself is so much better but also with a few remote buttons remapped, some sideloaded apps like smarttube and it’s such a better experience from my old Roku.
This is what I did too! I’m pretty happy with it
I have one of these in my liv8ng room and one in my office. Irs so easy to use that I gav3 one to my 75-year-ole mom snd my nephe2 with cerebral palsy. Theyre the nest bang for your buck in streaming boxes.
Do you need a Google account do use this?
I couldn’t do this without signing into a Google account first. Does it depend on the device or am I doing something wrong?
Actually, I think you have to sign into a Google account for the initial setup, but then you can go about degoogling it after enabling Developer Options.
What launcher do you use? The regular one simply refuses to stay connected to my wifi
Plenty of other great launchers mentioned (Projectivy is damn good) but I thought I’d put in a vote for FLauncher. It’s blood simple: here’s a screen listing your apps. THE END.
You can change the background wallpaper, make different sections for different apps, hide/show specific apps and sort them as you will, but that is it. Perfect if you only plan to go back to the home menu when you’re switching between apps (like me).
Projectivy Launcher is quite good. I’d also recommend these ones:
https://apt.izzysoft.de/packages/com.leanbitlab.ltvL
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.luncher.launcher
Apple TV. Though I admit I’m unfamiliar with playlet
Playlet is like NewPipe but a Roku app
It’s an app for Youtube on the Roku. I think it uses Invidious backends.
