With Chromecasts being discontinued, increase in ads, telemetry, etc I’m wondering if anyone else is going back to old school HTPCs or if they have some other solution to do this in house.

I think the options here are likely:

  1. Rooted streamer (ie Chromecast, firestick)
  2. Android Box
  3. Mini PC

I’m actually most interested in experimenting with #3, a mini PC running KDE Plasma Bigscreen. Most of my self hosted apps can be run in browser windows, and a full desktop (while harder to navigate) is better than the browsers you can get on Android.

What is everyone esle, especially the privacy / de-googled self hosters doing for their media front end?

17 points

I was looking into something similar recently, and asked around on Lemmy. The general consensus I heard was that a Mini PC weren’t ideal, mostly I think due to the fact that they aren’t designed purely for streaming.

One think someone said piqued my interest, and I might try this. They recommended buying a cheap, Android TV compatible streaming box (like an Onn brand one), and side-loading an open source (and ad-free) launcher onto it.

I found this thread over on the Huffman Shitshow that had some good instructions.

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6 points

Huffman Shitshow

LoL

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4 points

This is basically what I do, except the quicker way without using ADB to remove anything. Might try removing the junk though to see if it makes a difference. Launcher Manager and Flauncher makes an Onn 4K very snappy. Hard to beat for $20 and a little setup effort. I used to use Firesticks for years, but they get so slow and constantly revert my launcher changes. Finally got rid of them all.

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1 point

Have you found a way to stream Netflix at 4K?

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1 point

Sorry, no idea. Dumped Netflix years ago.

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2 points

If you want to put in more work for more freedom, a lot of SBC’s can do something similar too.

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2 points

Not even that much work. Libre elec is pretty simple as long as you don’t do anything too creative

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14 points

N100 mini PC imo. $150 does everything.

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9 points

All my current self-hosting is running off an N100 mini-PC. OPNsense, NginX, Home Assistant, Unifi Controller, Docker host, etc. They are fantastic, it just seems a bit overkill for sitting behind the TV and playing Plex/Jellyfin and the occasional web stream in a browser. There’s really not much competition though as all the products below it offer a lot older processors that don’t have very up to date HW decode.

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4 points

Same. Seems like overkill when you can see what it can do. But also at that price you can velcro it to the back of your tv and it can literally do anything so have at. I don’t see a lot of better options. I use full computers personally.

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5 points

What optimized application do you run for the big screen and easy navigation? What about remote control?

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3 points

I haven’t done it other than for testing, but you can pair a fire Stick remote to a PC using Bluetooth and it works with Kodi.

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2 points

Stremio/Plex with a Microsoft keyboard that has a touchpad built in. It’s big but you can get small ones off Amazon for $20

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0 points

I’d recommend the Pepper Jobs windows 10 gyro remote. I’ve got two of them because they’re so great.

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1 point

Are those Windows only?

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1 point

Exactly. N100 mini PCs are like the Swiss Army Knife of computers. Almost as compact as a Raspberry Pi, and compatible with a lot more things.

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-1 points

And cost 10 times as much.

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1 point

2.4 times. But, who’s counting?

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1 point

Anyway to do this without a keyboard. I used to have a PC connected to my TV for this but eventually just bought an apple tv for simplicity.

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3 points

I have one of these: http://www.riitek.com/product/254.html

The back has a keyboard, the front has programmible buttons for the TV (mostly just used for on/off), and the rest is a bunch of buttons connected to the PC.

I use it with Kodi but it’s a pretty user friendly way to control it once it’s set up.

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1 point

Remote control over your phone or using a Xbox controller like if it were a console. Back in the day I had an htpc remote but ability to control apps is inconsistent.

For me nothing is more simple then a PC interface. I hate having to scroll using a TV remote it takes so long to do anything and it’s quite limiting in other ways.

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1 point

Phone wouldn’t work for me, I’ve got a strict no phone around the TV rule for myself because I’m way too tempted to just use it instead of enjoying the thing I’m watching. Also wouldn’t really want to put an Xbox controller onto my wife or step mother.

I wish there was some kind of application you could run that would abstract all the mouse and keyboard interactions into a remote control friendly interface.

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1 point

Htpc for YouTube and gaming and native tv app plex streaming content from my plex/nas media server (pi4). Works great. Power is crazy high in California right now at over 49c /kwh so I need to boot up the htpc as little as possible.

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12 points

I do not think what I would want as a replacement exists (yet). My main requirements are:

  • Only FOSS software and firmware
  • Similar level of “casting” compatibility/ubiquity as the discontinued Chromecast
  • Easy navigation and/or great UI/UX
  • Can be controlled with a stand alone remote control, phone/tablet/laptop, and remote services like Home Assistant
  • As portable and low powered as the discontinued Chromecast (or no less portable than a small mini-pc)
  • Ability to turn on/off the TV, switch inputs, and control the volume
  • Ability to install apps/plugins to directly on the device (maybe even things like Lutris, Moonlight, or something similar for gaming)
    • Ideally, the apps would be as well maintained and provide similar levels of quality as something like an Android TV or Apple TV
  • (bonus) Ability to store media locally for offline playback

I think the closest I have seen is LibreELEC + Kodi on a RaspberryPi or mini-pc. It’s still not quite there for my tastes though. Hopefully the recent Chromecast announcement will lead to more/better alternatives in the coming months!

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11 points

Your wishlist sounds almost identical to mine. As frustrating as the limitations of streamers are, they are easy to use. HDMI CEC makes single remote setups possible, easy volume changes, input switching, etc. Apps are vetted so they “just work”.

As for casting, most platforms support running Miracast or AirPlay receivers. Google is the stickler here that won’t let you run a Google Cast receiver (or at least I haven’t found one) and also doesn’t implement Miracast on Pixel devices. It’s such a shame because I vastly prefer casting the URL to the TV and letting it source the content than mirroring my phone all the time.

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1 point

Agreed! I am concerned though that even if a viable casting alternative started gaining momentum that Google would essentially prevent it from being widely adopted or incorporated into apps/websites the way that Chromecast is. I think it would have to be created by a large tech or media company and/or be compatible with Chromecast.

Apps are still really frustrating though. If an app exists (big if), I found the apps to either miss key features compared to the corresponding apps on other platforms or the UI/UX was terrible for a TV app.

I could get by if just one of casting or the apps were comparable to more popular alternatives. Having neither makes it very difficult to moved away from those alternatives.

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3 points

The casting bit is the missing piece for me.

I’ve built a RasPi with Kodi for our caravan, to use Plex and stream our free-to-air TV here in Australia (using Musk’s space innernets). I just miss being able to cast from my phone, for the occasional thing I can’t do with a Kodi add-on.

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4 points

The thing that makes casting so appealing for me is how ubiquitous it is. It eliminates situations with guests where they would recommend a show/movie only to find out that I can’t easily play the content because it’s only available on a streaming service that the guest pays for and I do not. As long as the guest brought a device and connected it to my WiFi, it more than likely could be casted without having to install another app and/or sign up for a new service (or have the guest login with their account).

I am becoming less optimistic about it though. I just do not think that the level of ubiquity that Chromecast reached even 10 years ago will be matched with a FOSS alternative. Developers would need to incorporate it into their apps, websites, etc. or it would need to be compatible with existing solutions. I doubt Google will open Chromecast up enough so other options can be fully compatible with it. Additionally, without the backing of a major corporation, I do not see developers taking the time to make their content compatible with another casting option.

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6 points

I’m still using an Nvidia shield which I guess counts as an android box. I thought they’d release a new version by now, but I’m considering building a htpc instead.

I used to use a raspberry pi 2 or 3 and it worked fine for 1080p content. Not sure if the newer pis support 4k, but it’s on my list to look into eventually.

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3 points

I love my shields, I have both the tube and the pro in different rooms. I like the Jellyfin AndroidTV app more than Kodi. I have side loaded a different launcher to avoid the ads.

I would love to try and replace it, but it needs to be able to handle 4K UHD rips with hdr and the original sound tracks in ATMOS or whatever.

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2 points

I really like mine too, I also have a tube and a pro. Both of them have a weird issue with the TV I use most often though. Both shields won’t display anything unless I boot them in safe mode.

They both work on a different tv that is 4k. This one is an older 1080p plasma. But it’s weird that it used to work just fine. It might be related to the TV, but no other devices have issues so it’s cheaper to replace one of the shields than buy a new tv lol.

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5 points
*

The mini pc is the most flexible. Batocera works really well and includes:

  • Kodi to stream local media and can act as an Airplay receiver
  • the ability to run Flatpaks
  • a nice 10 ft UI
  • emulation backends and moonlight game streaming
  • the ability to pair Xbox and PlayStation controllers

Get a usb IR receiver like FLIRC or something similar with HDMI CEC to control everything via standard remote.

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3 points

The learning curve for Kodi is pretty steep. Most folks aren’t going to bother.

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2 points

This is the first time I’ve heard anyone say Kodi has a learning curve. I’m curious what you found difficult?

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3 points

Not OP but I found Kodi incredibly intuitive up until the point that something didn’t behave as expected. Then it was very complicated and support was difficult to find and understand.

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