Before you throw it away, you can sideload Kodi onto it, and stream local content, IPTV, and other (not super legal) entertainment sites.
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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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.
a fire stick is just an Android TV device with Amazon branding. anything else that you buy is also going to be an Android TV device
Stuff is legal as long as you aren't getting caught.
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.
real-debrid subscription
uh, what's that? honest query
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.
TYVM for the details!
it just downloads the torrents in real time for you and gives you a single link. It removes all the torrent quirks - except of course of the fact that you need seeders and the download speed depends on them.
FireTV stick, yo mama's so fat, she brought a spoon to the Super Bowl.
Look into Jellyfin and the *arr suite for automating downloads. If this seems too complicated for now, just get a cheap 1 TB external SSD, a VPN (check out mullvad), a torrent client (i suggest qBittorrent or Transmission), bind the torrent client to the VPN to prevent leaks and off you go!
The simpler method has some drawbacks, not all TV's support all codecs and formats, you have to move the external drive from your computer to your TV for example. Getting Jellyfin setup will give you a more streaming service type of experience and if someone else than you might want to watch something, start with Jellyfin.
If the Jellyfin experience is horrible and you just really wanna watch a movie to relax on a saturday, maybe take a look at Plex.
If you already have the MiniPC just lying around then great, just use that! If you don't have it, you can also host Jellyfin + the *arr suite on your PC (unsure about Windows compatibility) and start them when needed or have them run in the background when your computer starts.
I'm still looking for a justification of the arr suite. It's not hard to find files and I like being able to choose.
I also still need to figure out how to use docker to sandbox my qbit+ VPN.
keep the fire stick and install Plex on it. my Plex servers are about 20tb and it's 90% of what I use my fire stick for
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.
Has ads by default by you can side load an ad free interface easily.
Raspberry Pi 5 + Debian + KDE bigscreen
Is KDE bigscreen usable now? Last time I checked it was just a concept that was super difficult to install.
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.
Yep, exactly like that on AliExpress 👍 (guess they stole the design and idea 😂... great, at least we can get them for next to nothing 😂). I just called them keyboards cuz they recognize as a keyboard in the OS 😂.
Don't get rid of it, install Kodi and/or Plex on it
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.
Netgear router + 2tb thumb drive + makeMKV 👍🏼
Holy shit. A 2tb thumb drive? I didn't know those existed.
I have a 2,5' 1tb hdd connected to my router and Kodi on Xbox and Firetv. You only need some website to download content from to your hdd.
Lots of great info here, commenting so I remember this thread!