Fuck em. Read a book.
Well fire tv always sucked anyhow
Get a Mini-PC and put some Linux distro and Kodi on it.
Or even better, get one of the many LibreELEC supported devices (including, as somebody mentioned, a Raspberry Pi 5) and put LibreELEC on it (which is a pared-down Linux with Kodi).
Personally after maybe a decade running successive generations of TV Media Players to play my growing video file collection on my TV, on my latest upgrade I ended up going down the Mini-PC with Linux and Kodi on autostart route (as I used it also as a home server) and am very satisfied with it, though if I wanted to just use it as a Media Player I would’ve gone with LibreELEC and on of the various ARM SBCs they support (maybe the Pi, maybe something cheaper).
There really is no reason to use closed commercial solutions for this.
Edit: If all you do is consume media on it via Kodi, you can use a remote like this one so it’s the same usage experience as with a commercial device, just without the enshittification.
The number one feature in my streaming device is that it has HDMI cec and a one handed simple remote interface. No keyboard. No mouse. Low power usage as a bonus.
How can I make both happen?
I’ve tried so so many couch keyboards and they are all miserable even with a track pad or track ball. I also have a unified remote on my phone and I still hate having to go find my phone and unlock it. Then it occasionally doesn’t connect for reasons beyond my understanding so I have to take half an hour to debug.
Duck even if I could use my xbox controller for everything, id be happy but no it only works in games reliably.
Don’t really know about the HDMI cec, but I use one of these remotes which works perfectly with Kodi (it seems to just work like a wireless keyboard that just sends keypresses for shortcut characters corresponding to the function of each button, and those shortcuts are some kind of standard that Kodi supports, so this kind of remote - that also works for Android stuff - works fine with Kodi).
The only quirk it has versus the remotes that come in commercial solutions is that whilst the Power button in the remote will switch the Mini-PC OFF, it won’t switch it back ON (for the obvious reason that it uses a USB dongle and the PC when switched OFF won’t recognize input from the dongle).
I first got one which had even more buttons (also working fine with Kodi), but the remote’s build quality was shit and it didn’t took long for some of the button on that one to stop working reliably.
This one has been working fine for about a year now.
I do have a keyboard and mouse attached to that Mini-PC because it doubles up as home server and once in a while I have to do something on it which is more easilly done directly there with a UI rather than remotelly on the command line via SSH (or I simply don’t want to boot my main PC to access the Mini-PC remotelly), but to just consume media via Kodi nothing else beyond that remote is needed.
I just set up LibreELEC on my Proxmox machine, on a VM with monitor passthrough and Bluetooth passthrough so I can use my Chromecast remote and stream audio, then installed the Emby Next Gen addon to access my library on it. Super happy rn.
Especially as I’ve been until now using the 2022 Chromecast with Google TV and, now they’ve brought out another device, it’s been breaking slowly. The wireless chip has been spazzing out to the point that every day it loses connection and the only solution left that works is to forget the WiFi and use my phone to quick-add it back via QR code. Even then it’s started constantly saying ‘connection lost’ and ‘connection restored’ during playback. Well, a few days ago it started breaking connection to its (Bluetooth) remote as well, meaning I kept having to use my backup remote on Home Assistant that uses wireless ADB. When both wireless breaks, my only option is to use the Chromecast’s button to trigger re-adding the remote. And when that fails, well…
I need to get rid of my Amazon prime account…
fire tv is awful but are they banning plex? jellyfin?
I doubt they could get away with banning plex due to its integrated ad-supported streaming service which there are likely a few users of. But for jellyfin that same argument wouldn’t work. At least initially I suspect no self-hosted content would be blocked, as there are plenty of apps/viruses out there openly created solely for the purpose of piracy. Jellyfin isn’t the same as these as it doesn’t include links to any servers nor methods to download pirated content, even on the server side. Also it’s nowhere near as widely used as other services so it may just slip under the radar.
You don’t own your TV.
Just get a GabeCube or a raspberry pi 5 if you really just need streaming
Just use a mini PC and pirate everything. The amazon fire interface sucks anyways. Every streaming service is in a different app and you have to remember which app to use for each show.
Or buy a second hand pc for not much more than 50 euros/dollars. Install linux and it’ll be more than fast enough for torrenting, playing media and a bit of surfing. Companies are off loading anything that can’t run windows 11 right now.
Also means you’re not torrenting stuff on your main system while gaming.
If you want a new console + a PC at your TV, I think the new Steam Machine could be nice for that.
Running SteamOS (Linux) this should be good, or am I missing something?
NVIDIA shield is still king.
+1 Coming up on my ten year anniversary with mine.
I suggest Bazzite if you want a better expirience, it’s more mantained than the public steamOS release and has a little more features
If you’re running a steam machine or a steam deck, SteamOS is the way to go. It’s significantly smoother, and running Bazzites Game Interface version is buggy and slow as hell in comparison to native steamos
Oh so you already own a Steam Machine and installed it? What’s the performance like? Did you install Kodi?
HDMI-CEC out of the box? Does it not lose focus when you turn off/on the TV so keyboard/remote navigation becomes impossible?
After a long time trying to wrap my head around, I finally have jellyfin, are Services, with transmission running behind a vpn, all running seamlessly with a single docker compose file. It’s beautiful. I’m only sad I didn’t do it sooner. Fuck these companies.
Yah we have one TV in our house and it has a RPI5 on it with a SSD and a keyboard with a trackpad in it… it’s the perfect machine to watch everything ever with an awesome interface.
Got any suggested tutorials?
I wonder where they would draw the line? Smarttube? It’s not piracy but circumvents ads. Mayby Jellyfin or Plex? They are not piracy specificly but it’s how I consume?
So they’re blocking Youtube? A few copyrighted things knocking around on there last I checked.
The Star Wars Holiday Special will remain there because no one wants to admit they own it
More like almost nobody wants to admit that they took part in it or lucas himself greenlighting it.
I remember buying a bootleg copy of that and the Corman Fantastic Four movie on VHS at some record show years back. Owning those was a matter of pride.
Bea Arthur’s finest role 😆
This one?
https://youtu.be/UL-hL6_XR30
aren’t I glad I just bought an Onn instead.
Yeah same with me getting a Xiaomi Box. Not being able to swap the default launcher on the Fire Stick was motive enough.
How are Onn or Xiaomi different? I think Onn is walmarts brand right?
ONN and Xiaomi are different in that they run a version of Android TV that’s closer to stock, and thus is less locked down. As I said, last time I checked the Fire Sticks don’t even let you swap their Ad ridden default launcher without workarounds (that they are hard at work in breaking), meanwhile on the Xiaomi/ONN box you just download one from wherever you want and it’s done, they also are not doing any “piracy app crackdown” (well, until Google’s stupid future Sideloading restrictions come into play)
And yes, ONN is a Walmart Brand.Is switching the launcher equivalent to switching operating system? I’m a bit concerned it would still be tracking and collecting data.
Not really no, all swapping the launcher does is free you from staring at the ad ridden “Google TV” launcher but they could still track you.
Well if they drop Jellyfin, I know at least one friend that would rather drop their Fire TV than go without. Here’s hoping this backfires and just drops Amazon’s TV user base with no positive tradeoff for them.
Back to Kodi
Most interesting part of this article is the mention of VegaOS, which I hadn’t heard of. Not because I approve of anything Amazon does, ever, but depending on how much of a Linux it actually is, the jailbreaking / homebrew potential is intriguing.
Tivotization? Doesn’t that shit runs Linux?
AH FUCK I FORGOT. Yeah Linus Torvalds decided he didnt want GPLv3 on Linux…
Fun indeed.
