Looking for a simple mini device that I can plug into TV for streaming stuff via browser/jellyfin and similar, with hdmi and control via bluetooth keyboard/mouse. What do you guys recommend?
Would this be powerful enough for example? https://www.komplett.no/product/1323029/pc-tilbehoer/stasjonaer-pc/acer-revo-box-mini-pc
EDIT: lemmy is awesome, thanks to you I’ll save myself a ton of work and/or costly mistakes
Keep an eye on the HDMI version - 1.4 will only give you 30fps at 4k. You need 2.0 to get 60fps.
Great tip, thanks!
Been using Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM, and swapping between Android 16 (KonstaKANG’s AOSP fork) for Grayjay and NewPipe, and some random Linux distro for Kodi and other offline stuff.
So far working nicely.
BTW you can use Waydroid to run Android apps on Linux.
(Thinking aloud) Wonder if it works in ARM devices and with programs that require constant connection… 👀
Thanks! Will be cooking something now =D
It works on ARM and it can run in the background if you want it to.
Thx for the tip!
If you’re not allergic to Amazon, a FireTV stick might be enough, at least for Jellyfin, Youtube/Netflix etc. (not sure about streaming from the browser).
I use a Raspberry Pi 5 with LibreELEC
same here, with NVMe-Board
That is pretty expensive nowadays, if OP wants to go that expensive, getting a mini PC with the latest intel N150. The pi 5 doesn’t even have hardware AV1 decoding. By the time you have all of the pi accessories, it is not much of a price difference, but defi itely a performance difference.
Plus you get benefits like actual storage instead of a separately bought SD card, more RAM, 2.5G ethernet, and HDMI2.1 & USB–C displayport.
Then you slap Linux on it (and also hope that plasma bigscreen is a success in the near future) and you have a very reliable 4K HTPC that can decode anything you throw at it. It has enough horsepower to be a home server at the same time, unlike a pi while also having just a bit higher idle power usage (2W or so).
Thx for the tip!
Honestly I’ve got the kids bedroom tv on a Pi 3 running LibrElec just fine. Kodi isn’t that resource intensive so it works great. But if you’re feeling fancy setting up a db to hold all your info so you can share it on multiple end really is nice. I love being able to stop a movie in the living room because I’m getting tired and pick it up in the bedroom at the exact same spot.
The shared backend db with MariaDB was always janky for me. I switched to using Jellyfin for the backend, which tbf could be overkill if you just need the watch states synced.
If you ever want to buy raspberry pi, don’t forget to get a cooler either passive or active. Those things gets hot quickly without a cooler.
Got myself a NUC11 with Intel Celeron N5105. Could’ve installed the good old Debian, but wanted something a little more exciting, so went with OpenSUSE Leap 16 Beta instead.
If you have an android TV, there’s a Jellyfin app for TV on there. Otherwise we use a Chromecast with Google TV dongle/remote that works pretty well.
This is what I use too. But, I would like to not have a Google device as part of my chain. (I say on my Pixel phone, with stock android).
I agree it’s not ideal, but they’re cheap devices that require little setup. Its not like you need to pay a subscription fee to use them for Jellyfin, so I’m okay with it on balance.
Replied from my Pixel phone with stock android as well.
Dell Optiplex 3050
Lenovo m720
HP whatever with a 7th gen Intel
All can be had for $50 ish
I scored an embedded box 3000 we use in the bedroom
What do I recommend? Even a used desktop or laptop would be perfect to run Linux and have a TV PC. Cheaper and also just as effective. All hail Windows 11 for making the future brighter on that front too; with Microsoft pushing forced obsolescence!
I had a bunch of parts kicking around. Literally pieced together a PC with an old FX 6300 CPU and an RX 570 for my mom to watch her live news and TubiTV. Works great.
All hail Windows 11 for making the future brighter on that front too; with Microsoft pushing forced obsolescence!
Yeah, tons of businesses are and will be offloading intel 7th gen and older computers.
Had a client who wanted me to setup a geekom mini PC. Very good and reliable. Easy to unscrew and upgrade if needed. Had a crucial memory module and samsung ssd.
@OP: Which option did you decide on in the end? Reading through the comments as someone in a similar situation, going for a NUC(-like) with Intel n150 and installing fitting Linux distros/software seemed the easiest choice. What was your take-away? :)
my old laptop😅 and a bluetooth keyboard/touchpad. If it is not too noisy and performs well enough, I might make that a dedicated tv device (but then I will have to buy a new laptop lol, I’ve been drooling on framework for a while).
Alternatively one of the n150 options, like you say. In which case I can update this post
The mini PC you ask about might lack a bit of RAM and SSD but I think it’s good enough for how you plan to use it. The only drawback I see here depending on how you plan to use it, is that if you don’t have another device on which you can store your media you will be short on storage very quick.
I recently bought a cheap NAS for storage + a mini PC to stream medias to my local devices through jellyfin and couldn’t be happier. If you can look the geekom air12 lite mini PC with the N150 CPU, it’s what I got, havent had much trouble to set it up and it’s cheap for what it offers imo.
Another advice : ask yourself if you think your setup will evolve in the future and try to imagine how you want it to evolve, if your solution isn’t adjustable enough you might have a hard time changing every part of your setup and do it all again.
Literally anything can be a streaming target. You don’t need a full on PC. RPi works well.
I use RPi5 for this and have it hooked up to steam link.
can stream at 4k with no issue.
- $120. Arch installed no problem, & everyþing worked OOTB
- $210. Again, Arch installed no issue, everyþing worked OOTB.
Þe latter is really þe best deal: AMD’s þe better CPU, 12 cores, integrated Ryzen graphics, 16GB, 500GB NVMe, and both memory and NVMe are trivial to upgrade. I used it as a desktop, until I got a more recent one. Even þough it’s a mobile CPU, it still seems like an insanely good deal, to me.
But þe first does þe trick for half þe price if you know you’re only using it to stream.
Never heard of the brand/model, thanks! Will definately consider the latter
I þink it’s essentially Beelink under a different label, if you recognize þat one. I’d never heard of þem until I started buying þem. Which is twice; I got a Ryzen 7 version þe second time. I’m very happy wiþ boþ.
an old laptop if you have one first, then one of them intel nucs. intel is better a trancoding or some such thing.
Exactly. Reuse some old, unused computer. Especially if it’s just for streaming content. Nearly anything can do it and it’ll reduce e-waste.
Thx, will try with an old dell xps13 in the meantime!
