I just figured if big-brand attachable dongles and bricks like Roku, Chromecast, etc, have Netflix apps and so on, it would be possible to add them into other systems too, even if opensource. But maybe those guys just have contracts/licensing that exclude small projects.
To be clear, I am not looking to “cheat” the Netflix system, I am fine using an official interface. Chromecast just sucks in that support for streaming local content to it is really shitty and limited, and actually navigating it is so terrible. I love how their official solution for using your phone as a control doesn’t actually seem to add a keyboard - it just literally lets you press the directional buttons to navigate the onscreen keyboard to tap each key individually, same as if you were using the hardware remote. What???
is there some clever way/guide to setting up Android on a Raspberry pi, so that I can install the official streaming apps I want, plus some app for pulling files off my NAS? And some host app that lets me connect to it from my actual Android phone?
Netflix themselves writes the clients for those big brand ones, and they are willing to do that because those brands are an entity that netflix can sue to hell and back if their platform becomes a vector for defeating their DRM. There isn’t some like open netflix API you can just call and people write clients for. It’s all very intentionally closed.
Google has given up on Chromecast because they want you to use an Android TV (which conveniently they can put ads on the homescreen of)
This shit all sucks because the companies involved don’t have any incentive to make it actually good for the user. You want their content? You have to get it on their terms, and those terms are going to be as extractive as possible.
the problem you would run into immediately is the lack of proper Widevine certification if you rolled your own Android install, which could be a dealbreaker if want things like HDR, or 4k, or HD
I do not really endorse a smart TV but, hey, Google/Android TVs have Plex and Jellyfin apps on top of the usual suite of streaming services and the Apple TV is there
comedy option: the XboneX is the probably the only commercial product with multiple official native apps and access to whatever garbage they let on the Windows Store while also being a UHD disc player
Apple TV and Google TV both have the Moonlight app, which is basically as flexible as I can imagine for local content streaming. It just streams the content on your Windows desktop whatever it is. The latency is better than Steam Remote Play, too.
I have a little NUC with Windows that can do 2k output. I’m thinking of just using that as the media box for my next setup when I move. Use an old laptop to control it from the couch with Parsec or some other remote client. I’m sure the NUC costs more now but I do notice that people forget about remote control as an option for home use. I would not have thought of it without some work experience I got where I did remote shenanigans constantly. It’s kind of like thinking with portals.
yeah strongly agree, very good setup and you can run plex or jellyfin on very low end hardware if needs be as infuse seems to play everything without relying on transcodes
Shit sucks. Everyone’s gonna have to settle for shitty Celeron laptops with 64 GB EEMC memory or take out a loan for something better.
My monkey paw wish for a dumb TV return will come true when a 50 inch dumb TV will cost a grand because they can’t subsidize it with ads for Dancing With The Stars or something to the side of the screen.
uuuugh… last night, i restarted my (win 11) computer and now it won’t boot. i worked on it (mostly just trying to reboot it a bunch and then trying to until too late, got 4 hours of sleep, got up and was able to get to a ‘reset this pc’ menu. it had stalled at 99% for about 15 minutes before i had to leave for work this morning.
i’m hoping it’s resolved when i get home in 9 hours, but i’m guessing it won’t be
now i’m at work, extremely tired, and just wanting to get back and try to save my pc lol
something like this happened last summer too. i ended up resetting the cmos battery and flashing the bios and maybe some other stuff and eventually something took. hoping i can save things.
oh maybe i had to re-seat my ram too? guess i’ll see if that helps when i get home in case nothing else does.
not sure what is causing this, but it’s recurrence does seem to suggest either a problem with my hardware or a problem with how i use the machine, maybe. i’m realizing i hadn’t properly restarted my computer in weeks if not months, just putting it in sleep sate. not sure if that’s related.
…i can just use this thread to complain about my own computer woes, right?
Damn, do they now? I have like, a 1st gen Chromecast dongle, which definitely does not. Maybe I just need to suck up my pride and pony up some $$$ for one of the newer ones. Ugh. I have actually been looking for low hanging fruit options to slowly de-google and generally de-centralize my life, but maybe this is one of the places to put up with for now.
Do the new google Home devices also let you connect your phone’s keyboard to them, so you don’t have to navigate the virtual keyboard with directional remote buttons?
to clarify, any reference to Google or Android TV is in reference to any smart TV running these OSes and not any bespoke device running it
I have a Sony TV and it has Google TV and a number of apps were whitelisted to be downloaded and run without any sideloading nonsense and I was able to have Jellyfin (good) and Moonlight (uhhh) running natively
Google has pretty much won out in the smart TV space afaik, I didn’t have any Android devices from like 2013 when I switched away from an Android phone until 2023 when I finally got a modern TV that wasn’t a projector and it was my first time seeing the apps tied to that account in 10 years
Android is a mess but it’s a mess that at least achieves usable UX for “yeah install another streaming service for their free trial so I can watch this match, whatever”
For me, the main issue with smart TVs is that they usually cheap out on CPU and RAM so browsing their menus is agonizingly slow. My LG TV with WebOS and my Samsung TV with Tizen also both crash or hang a lot, especially in third-party apps.
Google’s and Apple’s current-gen set-top boxes are way faster and more reliable than most built-ins (including Google TVs, due to their hardware penny-pinching and software forking), but you have to pay what that improved hardware presumably costs (~$100).
Kindle 3 is the first device that made me habit to check if it could be rooted and replaced a new OS before buying hardware. Thank you, Amazon. I’m currently using a 2014 smart TV with a Russian Android desktop system on my smart TV that no longer updates since 8 year 11 years ago (it includes an useful file manager). I forgot the name, but it has no ads and doesn’t lag. But I don’t use services like YouTube, Twitch or Netflix on my TV, so I believe they will tell me my system version is too low. Most of my online content download by PC and stored on NAS.
I guess there are many such Android systems in non-English Internet that help inexpensive devices run smoothly. To find out, you might need to start with some hidden subreddits and find a super old smart TV.
after a good deal of fiddling with both the cmos battery and how the ram was seated, and a clean install of windows, everything seems to be working smoothly, so it was probably the ram?
at one point i made it worse, so it wouldn’t turn on at all, which stopped my heart for a minute lol
man, i’m really glad i kindasorta know how to do this shit
I genuinely don’t think the issue is that they lack class consciousness, I think it’s a much bigger issue that people so quickly become aware of the way they have to couch these issues for their particular audience. most people who build a platform are pretty smart, but audiences have these incredibly weird self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms where if you aren’t forcing everything though certain acceptable [in this case gamer] lenses then it’s not legitimized and people don’t want to talk about it. this is true lots of places unfortunately! it may actually be a big part of why I prefer channels like microblogging which are infamous for context collapse — there’s at least less inherent gatekeeping of subject matter and tone and the political points of view that you’re allowed to affect. in the vast majority of spaces, you will get credibility and approval by repeating yourself and staying on message, which is a hugely negative incentive imo.
What I found relatable is at the same time as explaining to his audience why he’s dipping into political subjects, he sounds like he’s authentically struggling with what changes in the wider world imply for the meaning of his career. If he keeps posting his usual content about new hardware releases, it’s no longer sound advice for anyone shopping for a computer, but effectively aspirational content akin to Lamborghini reviews or real-estate porn.
You get into a profession with a certain ideal of what it means, and then without you changing anything, over the years it turns into another kind of story. And you have to come to terms with the fact that it was always there under the surface at some level, and it’s partly that you used to find it easier to look away from it.