With Chromecasts being discontinued, increase in ads, telemetry, etc I’m wondering if anyone else is going back to old school HTPCs or if they have some other solution to do this in house.

I think the options here are likely:

  1. Rooted streamer (ie Chromecast, firestick)
  2. Android Box
  3. Mini PC

I’m actually most interested in experimenting with #3, a mini PC running KDE Plasma Bigscreen. Most of my self hosted apps can be run in browser windows, and a full desktop (while harder to navigate) is better than the browsers you can get on Android.

What is everyone esle, especially the privacy / de-googled self hosters doing for their media front end?

    • foggenbooty@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      All my current self-hosting is running off an N100 mini-PC. OPNsense, NginX, Home Assistant, Unifi Controller, Docker host, etc. They are fantastic, it just seems a bit overkill for sitting behind the TV and playing Plex/Jellyfin and the occasional web stream in a browser. There’s really not much competition though as all the products below it offer a lot older processors that don’t have very up to date HW decode.

    • hempster@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      What optimized application do you run for the big screen and easy navigation? What about remote control?

      • hperrin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        01·
        2 months ago

        I’d recommend the Pepper Jobs windows 10 gyro remote. I’ve got two of them because they’re so great.

    • hperrin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Exactly. N100 mini PCs are like the Swiss Army Knife of computers. Almost as compact as a Raspberry Pi, and compatible with a lot more things.