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this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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After all the issues with software updates, ads, and just overall terrible experience of TV operating systems and those little media boxes, I just finally accepted that my life is better using my TV as a dumb screen that's connected to a PC and then using Steam Big Picture for games and Jellyfin for media.
After various trial and error, not to mention irritation, I have determined that this is the way. It's what I did in the dark ages back in the day (with a Pentium 3 that had enough hardware acceleration to play DVD's!) and it's what I do once more. By hook or by crook, one way or another you're guaranteed to be able to retain complete control over a PC even if that ultimately means you have to install some flavor of Linux on the fucking thing.
You can get a perfectly capable media center PC for very little money if you don't need it to be able to run AAA games, which in my case I don't. Even the various nanocomputer boards like one of the beefier Raspberry Pi's or any of its myriad competitors can do the job these days, fit in a tiny enclosure, make no noise, and consume very little power.
Fuck all the Chromecasts, Fire sticks, Roku boxes, Apple TV's, and other sundry and bullshit devices of the world.
Nvidia SHIELD is still ok, because it's Android TV, and you can install custom launchers on Android. Therefore no ads on your home screen.
Granted, Nvidia is letting the SHIELD line twist in the wind, and the most recent model is from 2019, but it's not outmoded just yet. I'll still be using mine for a number of years.
The shield is great for the reasons you mention here. I use primal launcher and have a custom home screen experience without annoying ads.
The shield also outputs music over HDMI without resampling, which makes it awesome for my digital music listening, except the app support is lame.
Yeah unfortunately Android TV is neglected versus Roku and Firestick and so on, but most major apps are there, and you can sideload shit.
Inb4 Toyota ads start popping up in your Steam library.
It’s already in some games unfortunately…
That sounds like it's determined by the game developer and has nothing to do with steam.
It is, but steam does have its own form of advertising. Their front page is all ads for games and sales, go to your library there is ads for updates for your games.
It just seems to be acceptable since it’s their ecosystem content, but it’s still ads for all intent and purposes.
Yeah, for games. Ads for games on steam makes sense, you're literally browsing a shop. You won't see a random ad for a car or wtv on steam
Ads are ads, just because it from the same ecosystem is moot. I don’t need the steamdeck paraded in my face on every page I view. It’s ads
Ok buddy, next youre going to tell me the stuff you see on the shelves in the store are ads lmao
That’s an apt comparison actually, since yeah stores do have ads as well as products….
Edit picture doesn’t seem to be working, here
so should Steam not have any game discovery features? Is it bad for Steam to display "trending games" because it's technically advertising them by showcasing them?
If people bitch about ads, than they shouldn’t find those acceptable either. You can have a store and showcase products without the additional ads.
I have no problem with patch notes
It's an ad if the update is a DLC.
Except it’s for any “game news”….., so if they are peddling another game of theirs, it shows up there as well. Or we are selling a plushie, it’s there in the same place. It’s not just patch notes dude… and never has been either.
Yeah I was getting fed up with apps and boxes said fuck it and am running a mac mini hooked up to a shitload of storage now and it's been great. Plays media, works as a competent file server for said media, and emulates a bunch of console games. We don't use anything else now.
Isn't Apple TV the most ad free box now? I'm still on Roku but I've read that Apple TV is equivalent to a Roku but without the ads.
Unless you change the launcher on your Android TV box, Apple TV is the most ad free now. Unless you want to just hook a PC up to the TV anyway. Which can introduce codec and DRM issues if you want to use Netflix and Prime video from the PC.
Yeah it probably is in terms of an off the shelf, purpose built option with no tinkering. They're pretty snappy as well. Decent hardware in there it seems.
We have an ATV but our wireless network is kinda shit and we kept having connectivity issues between the ATV and the Plex server we were running on the Mini so we just went all in on running the Mini as the media player and Plex server in one to avoid it. Bonus was that we now have a very capable console game emulator hooked up to the TV too. Also we just ditched our last streaming subscription so all we were using the ATV for was the Plex app.
It's a bit overkill but I will say as a server and emulator the new apple silicon minis are great. Zero fan noise ever and they sip electricity and run really cool.
I've been doing this for a decade.
Highly recommend it. The only thing some people don't like is using a keyboard and mouse on the couch, but there are endless solutions for that.
I have a little mini keyboard/trackpad controller. Primarily just use the directional pad and media controls to navigate Plex, but if I need to pop into a web browser or whatever, it works great.
Actually...that's the sticking point at my house. I'm ok with mouse keyboard, but my wife and kids are not.
Still trying to find a remote that will suit that use case.
Logitech k400!
I've heard good things about the PS5 Media Remote, which pairs via bluetooth. If my generic bluetooth remote dies that is my replacement plan.
I have like four or five Logitech K400 keyboards, they’ve got a touchpad and they’re super inexpensive!
I want to love jellyfin, but the Roku app is a buggy mess.
The Roku app has had a major update recently. Might be worth checking again.
Why would you run Roku on Jellyfin? Wouldn't that open you to the ads you are trying to avoid?
I'm guessing it's the opposite way around, they use the jellyfin app on their Roku to steam from their jellyfin server
that makes much more sense.
I'm one of the Jellyfin Roku devs. What bugs are you experiencing?
Not the OP, but I have been getting a bug where I select a show/movie to watch in the roku app, and instead of playing it will exit out to the list of shows/movies menu. These same shows work just fine in the app on a google android TV, or on a computer
Yeah, something is failing in playback and it's simply falling back to the previous screen. I'd suggest posting this to the troubleshooting forum. I'm sure the support team will be happy to help out!
https://forum.jellyfin.org/f-troubleshooting
I've used it daily and never had a problem. What did you experience?