Cheap and safe streaming sticks

Landless2029@lemmy.world to Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com – 42 points –

Apologies if this is the wrong instance for this.

Is there a best option for HTPC streaming solutions besides throwing Linux on an old desktop? Plugging in a desktop for streaming doesn't work too well for wall mounted televisions. My options are mini PCs or a 3rd party streaming stick. Even a RasPi stick running OSMC should do the trick.

These 3rd party sticks online are extremely tempting for power and features but I'm concerned about embedded malware. Best option would be to wipe it and load OSMCor raspbian to ensure its clean. Anyone have experience with this?

Care to share your setup?

$14.41 | DQ06 ATV Mini TV Stick Android12 Allwinner H618 Quad Core Cortex A53 Support 8K Video 4K Wifi6 BT Voice Remote Smart TV Box | Link

Runner up: $12.90 | Orange Pi Zero 2 W 1GB RAM DDR4 Mini PC Allwinner H618 Orange Pi Zero 2W WiFi Bluetooth SBC Single Board Computer Zero2W | Link

Update: My ideal solution would be $20-$50 for a replacement to several fire sticks in my home. For a solution around $100 I'd just go with a old refurbished mini pc from ebay/amazon and throw full Linux on it.

Setting up Kodi via the linux OSMC distro or even Android TV both work. Might stream games with steam link. Eventually going to setup jellyfin in my home

Current Plan: Get a mini pc and mount it behind / near my television. Ideally I would prefer just a stick for a cleaner / cheaper solution.

$100 MiniPC - HP EliteDesk 800 65W G2 Business Mini PC Desktop Computer/Intel Quad-Core i5-6500T up to 3.1GHz/ 8GB DDR4 RAM/ 256GB SSD/WiFi/Bluetooth/USB 3.0/ Windows 10 Professional OS(Renewed) | Amazon

::: spoiler Photo of mini pc mounted behind a TV. pulled from amazon reviewer :::

Update2:

Finally researched about the Orange Pi (rasp alternative) and the darn thing comes with full hdmi! Orange Pi 3B Full HDMI and SD / eMMC / M2 (sata3) slots!

Orange Pi 3B 4GB RAM Rockchip RK3566 Mini PC Quad-Core 64-bit WiFi+BLE Gigabit Run Android Linux OpenHarmony OS SBC Single Board https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805733558464.html

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It might be the unpopular option but I love my AppleTV. I used several sticks, a FireTV and a raspi before.

On the AppleTV with Swiftfin for jellyfin and VLC as a fall back all my local streaming needs are met. The hardware is great and the price is - well, let's say it's okay (but quite far above you limit I think). And most of all: it blew all of the other option out of the water in terms of convenience and user experience.

So if you have the money I recommend giving it a try.

Agreed. AppleTV with Infuse blows away everything else I’ve tried in terms of responsiveness and stability. I spend less time fucking with it and more time just…using it. It’s almost worth it for the screensavers alone.

Get an Nvidia Shield if you need atmos passthrough for Bluray rips, otherwise I recommend the AppleTV in every other way.

I can respect wanting to go with a custom built PC setup if you have the time and interest. But that’s not for me.

Does the Apple tv pass/handle DTS/HD/X/whatever yet?

It decodes everything to 5.1/7.1 LPCM. So apps like Infuse or Plex it will play back lossless TrueHD or DTS, but the height metadata is lost.

It only supports Atmos for Dolby Digital Plus, used for streaming WEB-DLs.

Mi tv stick is brilliant. But doesn't play h265 and is quite slow. I usually start it at least 2 minutes before I fire up Jellyfin.

It connects to WiFi very slowly. After that, it's... almost okay.

I went this route in my teardrop trailer. Installed Linux on it, and now it's a very capable little media rig.

MeLE Mini PC Stick

How's the performance?

It's a bit pricey to this crowd (me included), but if it solves the problem well, then it's a good value I'd say.

Are you running a media player client on it (Jellyfin/Kodi/Plex)?

Does your TV remote control it (via the hdmi connection)?

Thanks!

My use case is fairly particular, since I only have one TV in my travel trailer, and I use it while boondocking -- meaning networking is mobile data only. The path of least resistance is often just to store all media locally. Unless I'm in an area with a solid 5G signal.

Kodi works a charm on it.

However, I also use it for light computing, and even light gaming, so I typically just boot into a tiling windows manager and use MPV to watch videos.

I can't comment on remotes. I paired it with a keyboard trackpad combo, again, given the use case of it being a multi-use travel trailer PC.

EDIT: Before I used this, I used a Pi 4b, and it constantly got bogged down. This is infinitely zippier and more capable.

RV and Boondocking are excellent use-cases to really narrow requirements down. Limited power and space make you rethink what you "need".

Did you follow a guide for installing Linux?

I just used a mid-weight Debian distro I'm pretty familiar with, and it installed like any other time. No issues. Though if I had to redo it, I'd maybe choose a lighter and more barebones distro.

Neat.

Thanks for the info... Though we'll see if the house finance office approves the purchase! 🤣

That product is about 10x the price. At that point I can pickup an old mini PC and mount it behind the tv.

1 in 4 households spend more than $75 a month on streaming services. That device will last you much longer than 2-3 months.

I'm going to guess that almost everyone here is in one of the 3 households that spends less.

If you need 4+ of these devices that already have streaming methods that's quite an investment

LTT did a recent video on android streaming stick options and they were really impressed with Onn. believe it or not.

Keep in mind you won't have proper DRM support if you go the SBC route.

I have an oDroid N2+ with CoreELEC, which is Linux for the sole purpose of booting directly into Kodi and only that. It plays content stored on my home server locally, without any transcoding. Works with my Atmos setup and can do everything except Dolby Vision.

Hi, I had the same problem, because of the Ad bullshit. I switched to a Pi 4 with the Argone One Case. This thing looks nice. Fair enough it costs a bit, but I personal think it has some nice features. For the OS, I tried OSMC but it had no YT with Sponsor/Ad-Block featured. So I installed lineageOS and Android TV with SmartTube. Also Jellyfin. That's enough for me. I couldn't get Netflix or Disney+ to work for now, but it is not my main concern.

I have two pi4s but I'm looking at orange pi for the full hdmi. I'd rather keep the raspi for headless stuff like for my 3d printer.

Yeah LineageOS seems like a fantastic option to run on a SBC. Setup F-Droid on it with an autolauncher and you're good. I'm learning a ton just from these answers and it's fantastic. Appreciate the feedback.