Hello sailors,

as a long time FireTV stick un-enjoyer, I finally decided that the time has come to get rid of this piece of crap I was baited into buying because of the low price. The number of streaming services keeps increasing (splitting content among different servives) and each and every one of them is demanding for an increasing amount of money for a monthly subscription; “buy this movie only” services dont actually give you shi except for the right to stream it for as long as it stays in their library, even though af course you pay 13,99 as if it was a physical copy of a movie. In addition to that, the FireTV is now completely filled with ads. I am tired of this shitty customer treatment, im sailing.

I am not experienced into local media-sharing and management, so I am looking for advice… What’s my best move to replace it?

I thought a good idea would be to buy an unexpensive MiniPC that i can put behind the TV? Is that overkill? But what OS would i put into it? A linux distro I am guessing or Android TV? Is there a way I can interact with it using a remote? Are there instead “better” FireTV sticks (no ads and let users install and watch what they want)?

Gimme advice or share your secret setups please :)

  • Funkymatt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    1 year ago

    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)

    • Nobilmantis@feddit.itOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      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?

      • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        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.