(Repost ish, from Technology), So I just bought a new telly and to my surprise, not, the OS is rather bad and has very limited amount of apps. Therefore I’ll invest further in either Apple TV or the Firestick. Anyone got any recommendations, tips or hot takes on this in terms of pirated content? Which is more accessible and I reckon both support Jellyfin?
If you want to invest in new hardware, I would suggest getting a mini PC. You can get these refurbished for under 100€. Add a wireless keyboard with touchpad (Logitech K400 or Microsoft Media Keyboard) and install Linux+Kodi.
You can select Kodi in your login manager to start straight into Kodi, so you dont have to mess with a desktop environment if you just want to watch a movie.
KDE is also developing a desktop environment for TVs called Plasma Bigscreen, although I haven’t tried this one.
And unlike devices with a locked down, proprietary OS you can run any desktop application or game on it (if the hardware supports it).
Nice alternative! Ill for sure look into Plasma Bigscreen 👍
I was about to get mini pc for my TV, but, sadly linux doesn’t support HDR yet.
And Windows isn’t an option.
What OS do you recommend installing beside Kodi? I’d be curious to learn about how the bypass the login screen and boot straight into the software.
I use Debian. If you install the kodi package, you also get the Kodi desktop environment installed.
On your login screen, you will find a menu to choose between different desktop environments. On lightdm you can open it by clicking the wrench icon in the top menubar.
There you can select Kodi and log into your system.
I use Libreelec. It is an OS that is made to run Kodi.
I love the Apple TV. It has a super fast ui. I use infuse on it to play content from a network share, and Plex.
Like most things when comparing Apples to Androids, the Apple product is typically cleaner and more performant throughout its longer lifespan.
My Apple TV 3 is still doing OK. My Firestick / Android / GoogleTV devices from the same time period (and some even later) are too slow to use.
Im on a First Generation Apple TV 4K. 6 years old and still works flawlessly.
Only reason I might get a newer one is to have another matter border router. Also the new remote looks nicer.
AppleTV + Infuse = zero transcoding. Add that Apple will be allowing VPN on device with the release of tvOS 17 and it’s pretty much the perfect kit if you’re willing to spend the extra dollars.
My friends who have them are also super satisfied, but obviously anything Android based has the advantage of sideloading apps to consider. Depends on what you want in the end, Apple has Plex and Jellyfin apps which I think is enough for the average pirate.
Also vlc and infuse.
An Nvidia Shield Pro is hands down the best but it is much more expensive. Slap a third party launcher over the top and use it for streaming Jellyfin or Stremio or Kodi or whatever floats your boat. Super responsive and is android-based so you can sideload whatever you want. It also has the most compatibility with most codecs so you’ll be able to direct play more through Jellyfin rather than transcode.
Yeah the Shield Pro is amazing, even though the last update was 2019. And even with an earlier version of their AI upscaling, 1080p content looks great on 4k. Hopefully with the Switch’s successor leaks swirling around it means that they’ll do a 2024 update. Probably wishful thinking.
And if you want to go even further: it has active official LineageOS support, I flashed mine two months ago
I still need to de-Google my Shield. How’s the performance of LineageOS on the Shield? HDR and DV content still playing well?
Sorry but that is sth that I cannot answer properly; I have a fullHD TV from 2012 connected, so HDR is not sth I can even test… I have not experienced any lags or hickuos so far though, just some general problem with fullscreen on newpipe but that has an open issue on Github for six months already. (And downgrading to an old version solved it for now)
Android TV, I have the Shield Pro and nothing can’t beat:
- SmartTube, no ads with SponsorBlock
- TiVimate, IPTV
- Kodi, best video player.
- Jellyfin and Plex
- Stremio with Real Debrid.
SmartTube is great. Can even link it to the mobile app and push videos with no ads for free.
firetvstick is android based so you can sidelode a lot of apps that aren’t in the store
If you care about video quality and interface performance, Apple TV is the only option.
Nvidia Shield is nice
Jellyfin & Plex both have native apps as well.
This comment should say shield with Apple in a distant second
I’ve got firestick and Chromecast with Google tv, both really easy to use streaming apps of the high seas.
I’ve got both a fire TV stick 4k and acorresponding Mi tv stick, both mainly for jellyfin, and would recommend the latter. Basically same price, both work fine for the purpose but fire has their ads on the home screen whereas Mi is more clean and has the Google play store, making some things easier to install. The Mi apps you can just disable.
I have a Firestick with VLC on it that can browse my PC where I’ve got all my downloads. Not the most straightforward, but sometimes I want to watch on my PC and this keeps everything central.
I use Jellyfin with https://firecore.com/infuse for Apple TV. It is the smoothest experience I can think of.
I just got in to Jellyfish - I’ll give firecore a chance too!
Firestick 4K is a cheap yet beasty device, and being Android you can install third party apps easily.
Plex/JellyFin, Kodi, Stremio. No need to spend so much on an AppleTV when the firestick is more than enough.
Also apps like SmartTubeNext and SoundTV.
Chromecast with web video caster app and fmovies. It doesn’t get any easier, just pay for the pro version of the app and no ads.
What about Chromecast Google TV 4k? I just got one and loving it. Installed Stremio and SmartTube and works great. Got a custom launcher as the default one focuses a lot on streaming services. Also tried Kodi but seems worse than my dedicated Vero 4k with OSMC / Kodi.
This is the right answer.
It has all the flexibility, wider compatibility and app support, and simply plays everything.
Ya if you want cheaper this is it. Replaced an old 2015 shield and it does the job fine. Primary tv still 2019 shield pro though as it is simply the best.
Absolutely loving ours like this. But we also still use a bunch of streaming services occationally
Fire stick has too many ads and hostile decisions, you can’t even turn it off
A decade ago I had a jailbroken apple TV 2 and it was great with what now is called infuse, it took videos directly via SMB and showed them with a really slick interface.
So between the two… I’d buy an Androidtv (real, not a fake Chinese one, like that "Chromecast with Google TV)
If it wasn’t so expensive I’d buy an apple TV again just for infuse. A decade ago was more reasonably priced compared to the competition, right now…
if you’re otherwise not in the apple ecosystem I’ve heard you need an iphone to input your password or some other such shit.
if it was a choice between the 2 I’d just install a UPnP media server or hookup a raspberry pi instead.
