this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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Selfhosted

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Chromecast / Firestick Self Host Replacement (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by foggenbooty@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
78 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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?

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[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 2 months ago

Huffman Shitshow

LoL

[–] n4sdaq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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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[–] Sethayy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago

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

[–] Album@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago (9 children)

N100 mini PC imo. $150 does everything.

[–] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Album@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] hempster@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] Album@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

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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[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (6 children)

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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[–] wireless_purposely832@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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!

[–] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] wireless_purposely832@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] johntash@eviltoast.org 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] johntash@eviltoast.org 2 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] Nothingwise@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] kalpol@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Nothingwise@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago (9 children)

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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[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

#3 is the route I'm going.

Bigscreen is still pretty rough though, I'm trying to see if I can resolve some open issues to submit back to resolve, but in the meantime I'm going to start playing with flex launcher - https://complexlogic.github.io/flex-launcher/

Its likely to be the way I go as of now.

Lutris to be a gaming interface (retro games and Roms), jellyfin for movies/shows/music, gcompris for some kids educational stuff, etc.

I want to figure out a remote that I like and get some CEC testing done, may look towards using my homeassistant to act as a control system if its a pain (and most CEC is implemented poorly IMO).

But I'm done with stuff like Chromecast, rokus, etc.

[–] n4sdaq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

I tried Flex Launcher on RebornOS but couldn't really get it to even launch stuff, besides the Plex app. Maybe I need to read the documentation better. I think it's promising but has a steep learning curve. I don't need it to hold my hand the entire setup but would like a little more help with configuration than it currently offers post install. My issues could also be due to Linux. I haven't tried the Windows version.

[–] MattMckenzy@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

If you're up for using Jellyfin, you can check out something I'm working on to achieve this: https://github.com/MattMckenzy/Homehook

The main branch used to be compatible with chromecast devices, but I've stopped maintaining it in favor of the v2 branch, where HomeHook communicates directly with satellite devices through HomeCast. Working with Chromecasts were a huge pain.

Let me know if you have any questions about it, always glad to help!

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There are some really wicked PC "sticks" (for lack of better word) available these days. I used one from MeLE flashed with Debian as a mobile entertainment center in my travel trailer.

[–] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, those were on my radar as well. I haven't yet had a chance to look into what the Linux compatibility is like, but that sounds promising that you were able to do it.

The big downside I see is that while the power consumption is low, they're running a really old SoC, usually based on Intel N4000 (launched late 2017). Looking around it seems to have h.265 decode which is the most important one to look out for. It doesn't support AV1, but that's mostly streaming services and not that common (I think?). There may be other disadvantages I'm not thinking of at the moment.

What was the performance like for you?

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I can confirm that the one I used 3 years ago could stream Netflix and HBO from browser, no problem. It also handled local files in VLC like a champ.

I even installed Steam and played a handful of non-resource-intensive games on it.

I'd buy another in a heartbeat for use as media rig. This time I'd install barebones Debian on it, instead of med-weight MX like I did prior. It'd probably perform even better.

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[–] Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
NAS Network-Attached Storage
Plex Brand of media server package
RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC
SBC Single-Board Computer
SSD Solid State Drive mass storage
Unifi Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand

6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 9 acronyms.

[Thread #940 for this sub, first seen 30th Aug 2024, 00:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I went back to VLC media player, vlc remote control, and an HDMI cable.

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[–] Celestus@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

I use an Apple TV 4K. For self hosted streaming, I am running Plex on a Raspberry Pi, connected to a Synology NAS, which has my media library

[–] Tinkerer@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

I'm currently using osmc on raspberry pi 3s with the jellyfin kodi add-on installed. Works like a charm and can also install other video addons as well. Its been rock solid and you can airplay and stream from your phone. Been running this replacement for a year.

[–] fightforlife@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I have Kodi running in a docker container with gui (even HDR support) on my otherwise "headless" server. Kodi just has the most flexibility because of it's plugins.

[–] Kethal@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I attach a computer to a TV and open streaming Web sites in a browser. There aren't much benefits of the streaming devices compared to that unless you're using surround sound. The Netflix desktop program has surround sound, but that's the only service I know of.

[–] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I do have surround sound, but I wasn't aware of that being an issue with a PC solution. Have you encountered issues getting that to work?

[–] Kethal@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I haven't used this in a bit so I thought I'd check it. They somewhat recently updated the desktop program and nothing works at all now. It appears to be just Edge pretending to be another program. It's literally just a browser, so surround sound doesn't work now.

It's a weird thing for them to do. Why would anyone download a copy of edge that can only watch Netflix? You'd just use a browser.

[–] Mountain_Mike_420@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

This is what you want to get surround sound to work in windows again.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/aaf-optimus-dch-audio-modded-driver-for-windows-10-11-for-all-hdaudio-enumerator-chips.292621/

This driver will work with both hdmi and toslink (optical) and possibly other connections.

Evidently Microsoft used to include a Dolby digital driver back in the day but has removed it due to licensing.

Oh and this will also enable surround sound in games too.

[–] harsh3466@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

I’ve got a raspberry pi 4 (8GB) running Kodi (via osmc) hooked up to our tv. The tv itself is a Roku tv that isn’t allowed to connect to the internet.

I’ve also got a pc that used to be my streaming/video editing rig back when I used to make videos, but I repurposed it as my server, and it runs Jellyfin, along with a host of other apps/services for me and my family.

The pc is older, but as a server it works great. Biggest drawback is power consumption, it’s not nearly as efficient as a mini pc with a n100 or something similar, but for my purposes it works great.

[–] pyrosis@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I have been considering just installing Debian on a small PC then the jellyfin media player application set to auto start. I can think of a few different ways to get this done maybe with a couple user accounts.

I like the idea of being able to change the application that automatically starts. Maybe I want to try Kodi again. I would just change the startup app.

[–] 31337@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

OSMC's Vero V looks interesting. Pi 4 with OSMC or Librelec could work. I'm probably going to do something like this pretty soon. I just set up an *arr stack last week, and just using my smart TV with the jellyfin app installed ATM.

My PC running the Jellyfin server can't transcode some videos though; probably going to put an Arc a310 in it.

[–] Findmysec@infosec.pub 2 points 2 months ago

Just run KODI from anywhere

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Jellyfin plus radarr sonarr. No need to set up a million sticks or whatever anymore. You just set up Jellyfin once.

[–] Eol@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I just used a mini PC with kde and this remote keyboard.

https://www.amazon.com/Rii-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Smartphones-Mac-Black/dp/B07T13GLY3/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?crid=2WE5IDKRXKGV4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xrnVtYYFTyO73ZuMPlMTiXuUtrXgu563ShL0RpC2E6Xc7hns3f8uHG9GfZK7BoKuBAEB5ZCWdZXwPPRdNcLbOs5WitdHNrWgJlJZMZAo4OIELITXPEAqZJzbeYRZxnwpfgkBsiU947VEBWvtTAkj8UTRRFynHFwOKXdF5VgSU8UlPR5RePsuUUndFEpOtHOCSCDJYTyLj56yx3VQfNQDfA.D7Rgpcdgj4ltPso9vVwL3X5B9bY1c8IRphOPAebVH1Y&dib_tag=se&keywords=mini+keyboard+with+touchpad&qid=1725323885&sprefix=mini+keyboard+%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-14

With kde you can set things up pretty good. There's a lot of possibilities. I never had casting set up though.

A mix between Kodi, and stremio.

It worked good for steam link too.

I tried with a raspberry pi but it was slow. I wouldn't recommend it. Idk how others are able to use them. Omsc or whatever might be okay.

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