Hello sailors,
as a long time FireTV stick un-enjoyer, I finally decided that the time has come to get rid of this piece of crap I was baited into buying because of the low price. The number of streaming services keeps increasing (splitting content among different servives) and each and every one of them is demanding for an increasing amount of money for a monthly subscription; “buy this movie only” services dont actually give you shi except for the right to stream it for as long as it stays in their library, even though af course you pay 13,99 as if it was a physical copy of a movie. In addition to that, the FireTV is now completely filled with ads. I am tired of this shitty customer treatment, im sailing.
I am not experienced into local media-sharing and management, so I am looking for advice… What’s my best move to replace it?
I thought a good idea would be to buy an unexpensive MiniPC that i can put behind the TV? Is that overkill? But what OS would i put into it? A linux distro I am guessing or Android TV? Is there a way I can interact with it using a remote? Are there instead “better” FireTV sticks (no ads and let users install and watch what they want)?
Gimme advice or share your secret setups please :)
Why is nobody talking about stremio? The user interface and experience is very close to netflix (better at times) but it plays torrents instead.
If you pair it with a real-debrid subscription after you first try it solo it takes it to the next level.
It’s just amazing
And you don’t have to buy anything. Stremio can be installed on your firetv stick
EDIT: forgot to mention that you need the torrentio or torrrentio lite add on for stremio.
Stremio + Torrentio + Real Debrid is the smoothest piracy experience I’ve ever had. I even coached my dad on how to set it up through chat, it’s that easy.
Could not recommend this more - so much easier than managing multiple other streaming services (and cheaper than a VPN for torrenting)! Also recommend launcher manager (1.1.9) to make the home button go to Stremio (so you don’t ever have to see the adverts anymore, though it did take some playing with settings) and Trakt (+ Stremio add-on) for a watchlist.
Real-debrid is like a “cache” for torrents. Instead the torrent been streaming direct to your device, it will be downloaded to the real debrid server, and then streaming it from real-debrid to you. The good thing is that if you start a torrent that is already in the real-debrid it will start streaming instantly. It is payed but I think it is totally worth.
FireTV stick, yo mama’s so fat, she brought a spoon to the Super Bowl.
Netgear router + 2tb thumb drive + makeMKV 👍🏼
Is there a way I can interact with it using a remote?
I was surprised at the number of remotes that sell on AliExpress that have an actual keyboard on the back of it, covered with a plastic seal, that sell for dirt cheap like $5, and are meant to be used (and recognized as by the OS) as an actual keyboard.
So, yes, regarding this option, is an actual minipc a solution and can I interact with it properly, yes, you sure can ☺️.
Oh, and some even had a little touchpad on the front 😂. So cute 😂.
I suggest Air mouses. Just like a wii controller.
Edit: This for example. Rudimentary IR TV remote + air mouse on the front, keyboard on the back. Also nice for servers or other Raspberry applications.
If you’re looking for a decent setup but maybe not the cheapest- Nvidia shield with an external hard drive would work very well.
You could always build or buy a nas and just run Plex as an app through either your current fire stick or get a cheap Roku stick (although now you’re back in the same ad garden for a player but Roku is minimally invasive imo- especially with a pi-hole for dns)
Mhhhh the Nvidia shield does not really seems like a bad idea… Its price is actually not that bad (even though you need the Pro to have USB ports so i can plug an hard drive into it).
You say that plex on my current FireTv can see and play media from a NAS/other server in the local network?
Once you get Plex setup you can have all your videos, photos, and music with you wherever you are. You can stream via the Plex app on the firestick, Chromecast to any supported device with the help of your phone, or download media for offline viewing from your phone via a USB to HDMI adapter. The firestick Plex app is basically just a client, but the Plex app on an nvidia shield can additionally act as a server whose library resides on a USB drive connected directly to the shield or any samba/windows share the shield can see on your network.
