My jellyfin collection has finally become large enough that I have been able to cancel all my streaming services. My issue now is that I want to get rid of my Roku’s that are hooked up to each TV.

Is there a good alternative? It MUST be family approved, meaning:

  1. It is not visible (no desktop/laptop hooked up)
  2. It is low power
  3. It has a simple remote control
  4. It supports Jellyfin
  5. It is relatively cheap (< $150)

I am sure I could build something out of a raspberry pi, but:

  1. I don’t need another project I have to fiddle with
  2. It MUST support new codecs (h.265/AC1/aac/…) as I want direct play from my server
  3. If it stutters/buffers once, it goes into the trash!

I’ve generally been mostly happy with my Roku, and my pi.hole blocks most of their analytics, but last week, I pressed the home button on my Roku and it started play a video add with audio. Completely unacceptable (That has happened twice in the last week). And in general, the more of this crap I can get out of my life the better!

  • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    11 days ago

    For my parents, I got a $150 N100 mini PC (tiny little thing), installed Bazzite, installed Jellyfin, and got the Pepper Jobs W10 Gyro remote. You have to configure Jellyfin to know it’s running on a TV and to accept keyboard input (the remote acts like a keyboard), but then everything works great. It’s a little over your budget, with the added remote.

    • dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      But Bazzite is a gaming OS, isn’t that very user unfriendly? Or do you auto start Jellyfin on startup? Or are your parents just… not boomers?

      • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        Bazzite runs the SteamOS interface. It’s extremely user friendly. It’s designed to look like a console.

        • dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          10 days ago

          You have no idea what ‘user friendly’ can mean for boomers. A button that says “Next” is already something that need to be talked about explicitly

  • bigb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    I use the ONN 4K Pro and the ProjectIvy launcher. You can completely hide the standard Android TV OS launcher and its ads. Button Mapper is another good app to have on Android boxes. The remote is full of app-specific buttons that I’ve either disabled or remapped to alternative apps

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.projengmenu

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutton

    I have no idea which codecs are supported.

  • AtariDump@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    10 days ago

    AppleTV connected via Ethernet.

    You’re chasing a unicorn with your requirements.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    My plan is to use the $20 Onn (Walmart store-brand) Android TV box LTT recommended as being eminently jailbreakable about a year ago, but I haven’t actually gotten around to hooking it up yet so I can’t authoritatively endorse it.

  • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    I use Kodi with the jellyfin plugin, but I can’t recommend that for ‘normies’ because the interface is not simple, and I still have glitches with it.

    I’m also looking for a solution like yours, but wanted you to have that feedback.

  • MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    If you don’t want ads creeping in everywhere, the only prebuilt option is appletv. otherwise you have to build it yourself :/

    • a baby duck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      Not true, unless by “build yourself” you mean install Projectivy Launcher on any Android box that supports it.

        • a baby duck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 days ago

          I run it on an NVIDIA Shield. Can’t speak to any others with certainty, but from a quick search, there are guides for installing on Fire Stick and ONN devices too.

          I suspect it’ll run on just about any Android or Google TV device as long as the default launcher setting isn’t locked down, and even then you can probably enable it with a couple quick ADB commands.