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 :)
Before you throw it away, you can sideload Kodi onto it, and stream local content, IPTV, and other (not super legal) entertainment sites.
That seems like a good piece of advice, maybe I will use this temporarily while I figure if I want to get a dedicated device.
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.
I just installed SmartTubeNext on mine for ad free youtube and it turns out I can pair it with and cast from YouTube Revanced on my tablet, and it carries over all the skips for SponsorBlock as well. Don’t even have to be logged in to SmartTube, works fine with the default anon view. You don’t even have to keep them connected. Once SmartTube receives a playlist, you can disconnect the cast and SponsorBlock sections still work.
https://troypoint.com/smarttube/
At this point all I have on it is Kodi, Twitch, SmartTubeNext, the free Roku app for old tv series, and RetroArch for pre-N64 games.(edit: it may very well play n64 games etc as well, it’s more an issue of storage space for me. My Kodi library is pretty big.)
Pair it with a pihole and Twitch is also ad free.
I’m also interested in this. I’ve seen that used mini PCs can be found for under $100, which is still pretty pricey for this need imo, but I’m sure it’s a good choice for setting up a Jellyfin server and maybe some general home management type stuff like security cameras or smart lights or something. If you already have a PC, you might be better off using that to grab media and then throw it onto a drive that you can connect to the USB of your TV if it has one. Alternatively, maybe run a long HDMI from PC to TV? Or maybe something like a Steam Link could get that done? Combine that with a phone app to control your PC from another room and you’re in business. It really depends on the volume you’re looking to watch though because that would be a headache to do more than just a few times per week. I wish I could be more helpful to you, but I’m just some spitballing idiot who also doesn’t know until somebody with more experience chimes in lol.
I myself am flirting with the idea of building a gaming desktop that could fill this role as well as serve as a modern Steam Machine running Chimera OS. I bought a used Steam Deck a while back and fell in love with the UX, but while it’s amazing for a handheld it’s a little underpowered for gaming at home. I have built a few Windows PCs about ten years ago, but any nuggets of wisdom regarding differences today, Linux tips, etc would be greatly appreciated. I’ve done a bit of homework, but people on Lemmy seem to be super knowledgeable about this kind of thing.
Jellyfin on the firestick. Remove internet access from the stick (LAN only).
Alternatively, DNS block amazon communications (Pihole, adguardhome, etc).
Edit: you can also install adguard, or other ad blockers directly onto your firestick.
Edit 2: there are also a number of ad preferences burried deep in the settings. My fireTV has no adblocker, but only displays static banner ads on the homepage.
Jellyfin on the firestick.
Yeah, but you have to install Linux on it first 😂. Easier said than done 😂.
It’s in the app store. You don’t have to do that. If you’re talking about the server, that’s pretty easy.
Yeah, I was talking about the server and you probably can’t install it on that thing by just clicking away or doing a few terminal commands 😂.
