HBO Max Shrinkflation: Removing features from my plan, with no reduction in price

Candybar121@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1058 points –
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I solved it by cancelling and getting a raspberry pi, installing Plex media server, and just pirating the movies and shows I wanna watch

I did the same thing but went with LibreELEC+Kodi. And it even works with the TV remote.

Why’d you choose that over the pi+plex?

I'm using pi+libreelec+kodi.

Why kodi over plex? No special reasons, kodi does everything I need and with the addons support it gives me a lot of options(torrents+streaming).

Have been using kodi since it was called xbmc in the OG xbox modding scene. Never used Plex, so I just went with what I knew.

Ohhhh I had xbmc like a decade ago, before I gave up on the aye matey lifestyle, so I’ll probably choose that over plex as well. Thanks for the info. I’m looking up libreelec now, but I was just assuming it was some other hardware solution in my last comment.

I had xbmc like a decade ago, before I gave up on the aye matey lifestyle

Same thing here.

I was just assuming it was some other hardware solution

Yeah I though so. LibreELEC is a Linux distro with just enough OS to run kodi.

Thanks, one last question… What rpi do you recommend?

I'm using a rpi4 model B 4GB.

Works pretty well for my needs. At least until now I don't feel like it's underpowered.

It plays 4K video from my main PC with no problems or stuttering. But I mainly use it for 1080p.

Just curious is a raspberry pi powerful enough for streaming on multiple devices in 4k? Thinking of doing a setup and sharing with my family and friends. I anyway have a pi available

It'll only work if you can direct play everything and depending on your ISP upload speed, you may need to transcode any remote streams in which case a Pi will probably burst into flames. A comparable option would be a micro form factor office PC like an Optiplex with a recent gen Intel processor. The iGPU in these works great for transcoding.

If you want something more serious you can do a custom built PC with a Fractal Design case (Define 5, 6, 7 or Node series) which are made to hold a ton of 3.5" drives. Again here all you really need is a newer Intel CPU and SATA ports (and/or an LSI SAS card).

Yeah sounds like it might be a fun project to try it out with a pi but it's not realistic for sharing outside of my household

I host anywhere from 1-6 streams at a time on a custom built server.. I'd doubt you're going to get what you're asking without a much bigger build. It doesn't take a crazy build for plex but if you ever need transcoding the pi can't do it. My most recent iteration was ~$1300 but the price was mostly storage.

Yes, but only via direct play, it’s not going to be doing any transcoding at all watchable level.

From my understanding pi doesn't have the greatest hardware for streaming so I wouldn't trust it for multiple devices at 4k.