I have a couple of TVs that I use HTPC appliances with. One’s a shield TV and the other’s a roku. I’m not super happy with either of them. The shield lags like crazy and apps crash constantly. The Roku is stable, but can’t decode h265 or av1. Both at riddled with ads. Does anyone have a solution they’re happy with? I mostly watch content from major streaming services and stream media from my NAS. I have a raspberry pi 4 that’s not in use right now, I tried to get it working as a set top box, but couldn’t get DRM content to work so I went back to the shield.
I’m using a Shield TV Pro with the default launcher disabled, replaced with FLauncher, and the netflix and voice search buttons disabled via button mapper.
I’m 1000% happy with it and absolutely would not go back to an actual HTPC.
Oh, I also uninstalled youtube and replaced it with SmartTube Beta
Yes, you can cast from the official YouTube app (or Revanced). You need to generate a code for connection in the SmartTube settings, then connect your phone through the cast menu. The option in the cast menu on the phone is called something like “Connect with code” IIRC.
I use an appletv. I have the version with a Ethernet port. It plays everything I’ve thrown at it so far and don’t have to endure commercials. The downside is you have to create an Apple account to install apps on it and not all apps are available. It’s also expensive.
The biggest question is, are you looking for Dolby Vision support?
There is no open source implementation for Dolby Vision or HDR10+ so if you want to use those formats you are limited to Android/Apple/Amazon streaming boxes.
If you want to avoid the ads from those devices apart from side loading apks to replace home screens or something the only way to get Dolby Vision with Kodi/standard Linux is to buy a CoreELEC supported streaming device and flashing it with CoreELEC.
CoreELEC is Kodi based so it limits your player choice, but there are plugins for Plex/Jellyfin if you want to pull from those as back ends.
Personally it is a lot easier to just grab the latest gen Onn 4k Pro from Walmart for $50 and deal with the Google TV ads (never leave my streaming app anyways). Only downside with the Onn is lack of Dolby TrueHD/DTS Master audio output, but it handles AV1, and more Dolby Vision profiles than the Shield does at a much cheaper price. It also handles HDR10+ which the Shield doesn’t but that for at isn’t nearly as common and many of the big TV brands don’t support it anyways.
I’m not a home theater power user, but this is good info to make sure my setup is future proof for when I finally get a new TV. All these different standards get really confusing.
Intel NUC running Linux. Not the cheapest solution but can play anything and I have full control over it. At first I tried to find some kind of programmable remote but now we have a wireless keyboard with built-in touchpad.
Biggest downside is that the hardware quality is kind of questionable and the first two broke after 3 years + a few months, so we’re on our third now.
I was tempted by these n100 mini PCs, but worried about the no-name components. I saw many people on reddit/lemmy recommending Dell, Lenovo, HP micro form factor PCs. You can pick them up used from eBay as companies clear out “old” computers. The advantage of the known brands is ongoing firmware support.
Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 (can’t remember which) controlled through the TV with the remote. It’s running LibreElec (Kodi) with the Jellyfin plugin. Discoverability isn’t great through Kodi, but I can always use a computer or phone to find the media and cast if I need to.
Not the answer you are waiting but there is something wrong with your shield, I have a 2015 and 2019 Shield and both are just very good even if the first one has nearly 10 years
I don’t do drm’d content, its all coming from JF so ive got random assortments in various parts of my home. An apple TV, a roku, a regular chromecast, a Chromecast with google TV dongle, and a lenovo m90q with a launcher running arch/KDE.
i just use repurposed PCs. cost (or lack of, rather) is the prime factor.
the main playback ‘device’ is currently a 6th gen laptop that runs lid down (doesn’t support turbo boost, so heat isn’t an issue at all), and an old wireless kb/trackpad for a ‘remote’.
storage is a hodgepodge of usb hdd, 2.5in hdd, and desktop systems. usually only one of which is being used (powered on) at a time.
i just use a text dump out of ‘everything’ for my ‘catalog’ and have numerous vlc playlists saved. i looked into things like jellyfin but the work involved in normalizing directory structures and filenames would be nightmarish.
Jellyfin hosted on my primary PC with access to my GPU (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060) for transcoding. The Jellyfin libraries instance SMB shares on my NAS. Stream everything with Jellyfin for Chromecast right from the TV.
Works amazingly well. Great transcoding times. No lag despite only having 10/100/1000 NIC on NAS and streaming WiFi with Chromecast.
I manage the media library with TMM (tinymediamanager).
Super happy with it, particularly considering the only thing it cost me was the NAS (because I game on my PC anyways) which I was also going to get, anyways.
I use a Beelink with an N100. Runs PopOs. I use Plex HTPC on it. Hardware decoding isnt working at the moment but it plays everything fine except HDR content so I’m avoiding that at the moment. Pass through audio work perfectly. I also stream sports on it, play mini games and roms with my kids using Lutris, and Moonlight for the more demanding games.
I used to use Kodi/LibreElec on it but that was such a miserable experience. Constant crashing and (3 or 4 times per day) inconsistent glitchy audio passthrough. The plex integration does mostly work but would also occasionally crash resulting in my stuff not syncing back to the server for days. Playback worked perfectly though.
I honestly don’t know if it’s working… I’ll have to see. It’s worked flawlessly for me, HDR and 4k haven’t needed transcoding and I store the raw format. I went all out on that machine, 5000 series AMD cpu and a 6900XTX for hardware. It drives my TV, I wanted the experience to be better than a desktop. (To family, frame drops on a computer are normal, but consoles give “perfect” 60fps even though we all know it’s just tricks, so I had to drop big for it)
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Beelink Mini PCs or ones like that, plus a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo.
If you go this route I recommend installing Kodi + Jellyfin Plugin + Kore Android App. You can control everything from your phone or laptop.
I’m using a Shield TV Pro with the default launcher disabled, replaced with FLauncher, and the netflix and voice search buttons disabled via button mapper.
I’m 1000% happy with it and absolutely would not go back to an actual HTPC.
Oh, I also uninstalled youtube and replaced it with SmartTube Beta
Is there any way to fling YouTube videos to SmartTube from a smartphone?
That’s the one thing locking me into Kodi.
Yes, you can cast from the official YouTube app (or Revanced). You need to generate a code for connection in the SmartTube settings, then connect your phone through the cast menu. The option in the cast menu on the phone is called something like “Connect with code” IIRC.
I ran into issues with this function on my shield pro, it would randomly reopen the smart tube app continuously until I disconnected my phone.
Not that I’ve been able to find. I rarely notice but when I do it’s quite frustrating.
I use an appletv. I have the version with a Ethernet port. It plays everything I’ve thrown at it so far and don’t have to endure commercials. The downside is you have to create an Apple account to install apps on it and not all apps are available. It’s also expensive.
The biggest question is, are you looking for Dolby Vision support?
There is no open source implementation for Dolby Vision or HDR10+ so if you want to use those formats you are limited to Android/Apple/Amazon streaming boxes.
If you want to avoid the ads from those devices apart from side loading apks to replace home screens or something the only way to get Dolby Vision with Kodi/standard Linux is to buy a CoreELEC supported streaming device and flashing it with CoreELEC.
List of supported devices here
CoreELEC is Kodi based so it limits your player choice, but there are plugins for Plex/Jellyfin if you want to pull from those as back ends.
Personally it is a lot easier to just grab the latest gen Onn 4k Pro from Walmart for $50 and deal with the Google TV ads (never leave my streaming app anyways). Only downside with the Onn is lack of Dolby TrueHD/DTS Master audio output, but it handles AV1, and more Dolby Vision profiles than the Shield does at a much cheaper price. It also handles HDR10+ which the Shield doesn’t but that for at isn’t nearly as common and many of the big TV brands don’t support it anyways.
I’m not a home theater power user, but this is good info to make sure my setup is future proof for when I finally get a new TV. All these different standards get really confusing.
Intel NUC running Linux. Not the cheapest solution but can play anything and I have full control over it. At first I tried to find some kind of programmable remote but now we have a wireless keyboard with built-in touchpad.
Biggest downside is that the hardware quality is kind of questionable and the first two broke after 3 years + a few months, so we’re on our third now.
I was tempted by these n100 mini PCs, but worried about the no-name components. I saw many people on reddit/lemmy recommending Dell, Lenovo, HP micro form factor PCs. You can pick them up used from eBay as companies clear out “old” computers. The advantage of the known brands is ongoing firmware support.
Apple TV is rad, because you can pair it with a controller, and use the Steam link app to play on your computer from another room.
No need to have the computer near the tv for couch gaming. No need to listen to the pc fans screaming.
Android devices can do that too. I use steam link on my shield.
Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 (can’t remember which) controlled through the TV with the remote. It’s running LibreElec (Kodi) with the Jellyfin plugin. Discoverability isn’t great through Kodi, but I can always use a computer or phone to find the media and cast if I need to.
I just use a Chromecast and use my phone to cast from Jellyfin on my home server right to the Chromecast. No fiddly bits.
Not the answer you are waiting but there is something wrong with your shield, I have a 2015 and 2019 Shield and both are just very good even if the first one has nearly 10 years
Yeah I’m not super surprised… It used to work well when I bought it back in '17 but it’s become worse and worse with updates.
Have you tried a Factory reset?
I feel like I did at one point, but I should probably try again
And if that’s doesn’t work, message me and we will try to solve this out
I don’t do drm’d content, its all coming from JF so ive got random assortments in various parts of my home. An apple TV, a roku, a regular chromecast, a Chromecast with google TV dongle, and a lenovo m90q with a launcher running arch/KDE.
Some 2nd gen Intel Acer Aspire (?) SFF with an older gen NVIDIA card. Last Windows machine in the household due to WAF.
What is WAF?
I guess Wife Acceptance Factor, the number one parameter in home self host.
wife acceptance factor :)
i just use repurposed PCs. cost (or lack of, rather) is the prime factor.
the main playback ‘device’ is currently a 6th gen laptop that runs lid down (doesn’t support turbo boost, so heat isn’t an issue at all), and an old wireless kb/trackpad for a ‘remote’.
storage is a hodgepodge of usb hdd, 2.5in hdd, and desktop systems. usually only one of which is being used (powered on) at a time.
i just use a text dump out of ‘everything’ for my ‘catalog’ and have numerous vlc playlists saved. i looked into things like jellyfin but the work involved in normalizing directory structures and filenames would be nightmarish.
2x previous gen of these.
Man, I love them!
Looks very nice. Also looks very pricey.
At that price I’ll buy an AppleTV and run plex / Emby / jellyfin.
NGL, that’s true. But they are quite small, support HDMI-CEC, and run cold.
Edit: new ones hardware decode AV1, too
Jellyfin hosted on my primary PC with access to my GPU (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060) for transcoding. The Jellyfin libraries instance SMB shares on my NAS. Stream everything with Jellyfin for Chromecast right from the TV.
Works amazingly well. Great transcoding times. No lag despite only having 10/100/1000 NIC on NAS and streaming WiFi with Chromecast.
I manage the media library with TMM (tinymediamanager).
Super happy with it, particularly considering the only thing it cost me was the NAS (because I game on my PC anyways) which I was also going to get, anyways.
I use a Beelink with an N100. Runs PopOs. I use Plex HTPC on it. Hardware decoding isnt working at the moment but it plays everything fine except HDR content so I’m avoiding that at the moment. Pass through audio work perfectly. I also stream sports on it, play mini games and roms with my kids using Lutris, and Moonlight for the more demanding games.
I used to use Kodi/LibreElec on it but that was such a miserable experience. Constant crashing and (3 or 4 times per day) inconsistent glitchy audio passthrough. The plex integration does mostly work but would also occasionally crash resulting in my stuff not syncing back to the server for days. Playback worked perfectly though.
I use PopOS too. Switched to Bazzite though for htpc. HDR works out of the box, and added Plex htpc as a “game” that I launch from steam.
What’s your hardware for your HTPC? Does hardware decoding work in Plex HTPC flatpak for you?
I honestly don’t know if it’s working… I’ll have to see. It’s worked flawlessly for me, HDR and 4k haven’t needed transcoding and I store the raw format. I went all out on that machine, 5000 series AMD cpu and a 6900XTX for hardware. It drives my TV, I wanted the experience to be better than a desktop. (To family, frame drops on a computer are normal, but consoles give “perfect” 60fps even though we all know it’s just tricks, so I had to drop big for it)