My jellyfin collection has finally become large enough that I have been able to cancel all my streaming services. My issue now is that I want to get rid of my Roku’s that are hooked up to each TV.
Is there a good alternative? It MUST be family approved, meaning:
- It is not visible (no desktop/laptop hooked up)
- It is low power
- It has a simple remote control
- It supports Jellyfin
- It is relatively cheap (< $150)
I am sure I could build something out of a raspberry pi, but:
- I don’t need another project I have to fiddle with
- It MUST support new codecs (h.265/AC1/aac/…) as I want direct play from my server
- If it stutters/buffers once, it goes into the trash!
I’ve generally been mostly happy with my Roku, and my pi.hole blocks most of their analytics, but last week, I pressed the home button on my Roku and it started play a video add with audio. Completely unacceptable (That has happened twice in the last week). And in general, the more of this crap I can get out of my life the better!
Get one of those miniPCs with the Intel N95 or Intel N100 chips. Install Kodi on Ubuntu or libreelec Install the jellyfin plugin and you’re good to go.
You can control it via one of those remotes on amazon with a USB dongle and it powers on the TV and the device.
You’ll have to install the artic theme on jellyfin and mess with the view options a bit for something more polished but once done it just works I’ve been using mine for 3 years and it’s been pretty solid.