• Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Raspberry pi with Kodi hooked up to a projector and a NAS serving files works well for me.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is the way, although the pi is to slow for me at this point and I replaced it with shields.

      Also why the are people connecting tvs to their networks…fuck that noise.

      • teejay@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m waiting for the Raspberry Pi 5 to set up as a media PC behind my tv. There are really good, reliable, and high quality sites that let you stream any movie or TV show. No need to vpn or torrent. Firefox with ublock origin streaming anything I want in 1080 for free.

        I should add I have a RP4 and it’s not beefy enough to stream 1080p full screen from a browser to my 4k tv.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Just get a micro desktop, better airflow and has all the ports you may need.

          Intel Nuc, Dell Optiplex are really cheap secondhand. And you can run 4K content on them.

        • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          I use an RP4 and it’s fine with streaming 1080p h.265 stuff off my NAS drive, though it did struggle a bit with serving up the Planet Earth videos. It claims to be able to decode 4k, but probably not very well.

          • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yea, the 3b was struggling hard for larger mkv videos in even 1080p. The 4s while much better seem to not be able to handle 265 at all in 4k.

            • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Good to know, I’ll probably hold off upgrading my projector to 4k until the next-gen raspi then, or some other platform.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I love rpis but damn did the 4s get sold out and then spike in price almost instantly. I’m not holding out much hope for the 5 to be much better.

    • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I mean that’s nice but can you run Netflix/Hulu/AppleTV/HBO through that thing? Or can you only play media that you illegally downloaded?

      • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I haven’t tried. Through a Web browser, maybe. There’s a Kodi netflix addon, I know that. It’s just a Debian box, so any solution that’d work on a Linux machine would probably be okay.

        • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          any solution that’d work on a Linux machine would probably be okay.

          I don’t think there is a Linux solution. That’s the problem.

          • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            What do you mean? I gave you a couple of Kodi plugins that cover most of what you mentioned, plus, you could probably just use a Web browser.

            • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              That’s not really a “solution” so much as a “workaround”. It’s unofficial community-maintained software with complicated installation, limited features, and that the service providers can break at any time. And even if that weren’t the case, that’s only 2 providers.

              If I need to use a web browser, why wouldn’t I just skip Kodi altogether and just plug in my laptop?

              There’s a reason Google TV is an entirely different operating system from Chrome OS.

      • Sniffy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I also use my pc as a TV with a big monitor. I can watch Netflix/streams through Firefox and control the pc with my PS5 controller connected through bluetooth.

        • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          You can do all of those things, but it’s not remotely the same. The browser is limited to 720p, the interface isn’t couch-friendly, and now your PC is connected to a TV instead of a proper gaming monitor.

          • Klaymore@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            On windows you can just install the Netflix app or use Edge and it’s not limited to 720p, and you can just use a long hdmi cable and have your pc plugged into a normal monitor as well.