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 :)
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Be your own streaming service, and keep using the FireTV stick with the Jellyfin app.
Definitely agree with this recommendation! Jellyfin is quite awesome
I personally prefer Plex (I got the lifetime PlexPass before Jellyfin was even a thing) but I agree with this 100%. Set it up on a spare computer (or even a RPi,) and toss it in a closet. Then you can use the *arr suite to automatically download new titles.
FileBot will help you automatically rename downloaded files for easy media detection; Historically, the big complaint with Plex/Jellyfin has been the files need to be named very specifically. But FileBot takes care of that, and even downloads subtitles and posters/box art/etc automatically (though with OpenSubtitles API change, that may not be the case anymore?)
FileBot isn’t really necessary, the *arrs can handle renaming just fine with custom rules and formatting. It’s just turned off by default. The only thing you’d need to add is subtitle downloading, and Bazarr does a better job of that anyway.
Why is nobody talking about stremio? The user interface and experience is very close to netflix (better at times) but it plays torrents instead.
If you pair it with a real-debrid subscription after you first try it solo it takes it to the next level.
It’s just amazing
And you don’t have to buy anything. Stremio can be installed on your firetv stick
EDIT: forgot to mention that you need the torrentio or torrrentio lite add on for stremio.
Stremio + Torrentio + Real Debrid is the smoothest piracy experience I’ve ever had. I even coached my dad on how to set it up through chat, it’s that easy.
Could not recommend this more - so much easier than managing multiple other streaming services (and cheaper than a VPN for torrenting)! Also recommend launcher manager (1.1.9) to make the home button go to Stremio (so you don’t ever have to see the adverts anymore, though it did take some playing with settings) and Trakt (+ Stremio add-on) for a watchlist.
This is the magic recipe.
real-debrid subscription
uh, what’s that? honest query
Real-debrid is like a “cache” for torrents. Instead the torrent been streaming direct to your device, it will be downloaded to the real debrid server, and then streaming it from real-debrid to you. The good thing is that if you start a torrent that is already in the real-debrid it will start streaming instantly. It is payed but I think it is totally worth.
TYVM for the details!
Intel NUC for $50 from eBay and smarthomebeginner was all I needed for this
FireTV stick, yo mama’s so fat, she brought a spoon to the Super Bowl.
keep the fire stick and install Plex on it. my Plex servers are about 20tb and it’s 90% of what I use my fire stick for
Look into Jellyfin and the *arr suite for automating downloads. If this seems too complicated for now, just get a cheap 1 TB external SSD, a VPN (check out mullvad), a torrent client (i suggest qBittorrent or Transmission), bind the torrent client to the VPN to prevent leaks and off you go!
The simpler method has some drawbacks, not all TV’s support all codecs and formats, you have to move the external drive from your computer to your TV for example. Getting Jellyfin setup will give you a more streaming service type of experience and if someone else than you might want to watch something, start with Jellyfin.
If the Jellyfin experience is horrible and you just really wanna watch a movie to relax on a saturday, maybe take a look at Plex.
If you already have the MiniPC just lying around then great, just use that! If you don’t have it, you can also host Jellyfin + the *arr suite on your PC (unsure about Windows compatibility) and start them when needed or have them run in the background when your computer starts.
I’m still looking for a justification of the arr suite. It’s not hard to find files and I like being able to choose.
I also still need to figure out how to use docker to sandbox my qbit+ VPN.
Don’t get rid of it, install Kodi and/or Plex on it
Is there a way I can interact with it using a remote?
I was surprised at the number of remotes that sell on AliExpress that have an actual keyboard on the back of it, covered with a plastic seal, that sell for dirt cheap like $5, and are meant to be used (and recognized as by the OS) as an actual keyboard.
So, yes, regarding this option, is an actual minipc a solution and can I interact with it properly, yes, you sure can ☺️.
Oh, and some even had a little touchpad on the front 😂. So cute 😂.
I suggest Air mouses. Just like a wii controller.
Edit: This for example. Rudimentary IR TV remote + air mouse on the front, keyboard on the back. Also nice for servers or other Raspberry applications.
Yep, exactly like that on AliExpress 👍 (guess they stole the design and idea 😂… great, at least we can get them for next to nothing 😂). I just called them keyboards cuz they recognize as a keyboard in the OS 😂.
Lots of great info here, commenting so I remember this thread!
