Hello sailors,

as a long time FireTV stick un-enjoyer, I finally decided that the time has come to get rid of this piece of crap I was baited into buying because of the low price. The number of streaming services keeps increasing (splitting content among different servives) and each and every one of them is demanding for an increasing amount of money for a monthly subscription; “buy this movie only” services dont actually give you shi except for the right to stream it for as long as it stays in their library, even though af course you pay 13,99 as if it was a physical copy of a movie. In addition to that, the FireTV is now completely filled with ads. I am tired of this shitty customer treatment, im sailing.

I am not experienced into local media-sharing and management, so I am looking for advice… What’s my best move to replace it?

I thought a good idea would be to buy an unexpensive MiniPC that i can put behind the TV? Is that overkill? But what OS would i put into it? A linux distro I am guessing or Android TV? Is there a way I can interact with it using a remote? Are there instead “better” FireTV sticks (no ads and let users install and watch what they want)?

Gimme advice or share your secret setups please :)

  • @0x4E4FEnglish
    3•7 months ago

    Is there a way I can interact with it using a remote?

    I was surprised at the number of remotes that sell on AliExpress that have an actual keyboard on the back of it, covered with a plastic seal, that sell for dirt cheap like $5, and are meant to be used (and recognized as by the OS) as an actual keyboard.

    So, yes, regarding this option, is an actual minipc a solution and can I interact with it properly, yes, you sure can ☺️.

    Oh, and some even had a little touchpad on the front 😂. So cute 😂.

    • @PixeIOrange@feddit.deEnglish
      4•7 months ago

      I suggest Air mouses. Just like a wii controller.

      Edit: This for example. Rudimentary IR TV remote + air mouse on the front, keyboard on the back. Also nice for servers or other Raspberry applications.

      • @0x4E4FEnglish
        3•7 months ago

        Yep, exactly like that on AliExpress 👍 (guess they stole the design and idea 😂… great, at least we can get them for next to nothing 😂). I just called them keyboards cuz they recognize as a keyboard in the OS 😂.