After spending the last few days, tinkering and trying to put together an HTPC for my family, I wasn’t able to get a smooth enough experience to match even our old, ad-filled, laggy, Roku. In particular, every streaming service I tried needed to be controlled almost exclusively by mouse, as everything has been reduced to electron apps/websites with little-to-no keyboard or controller navigation support. As such, I’m looking for other options, although considering how quickly these platforms change and how outdated a lot of the information available on them is its hard to single out the best options.
In particular, I’m looking to be able to:
- Use Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+. Ideally other services too, since we tend to juggle subscriptions.
- Control it with a remote, controller, or similarly simple device
- Be able to cast to it from a phone
Does anyone have much experience with options for this - esspecially if you’ve tried multiple and can compare?
LG or Sony TV, never connected to the internet, with an Nvidia shield. There is nothing better at the moment.
Yeah, it’s a toss-up between the Nvidia Shield and the Apple TV 4K. Go with Nvidia if you want to be able to load your own custom launcher. Go with Apple TV 4K if you want ease of setup. Either one will be a workhorse of a device, both have robust app stores to run whatever streaming services you prefer, and both will run whatever custom media you want to throw at it via Plex, Kodi, or VLC’s network play.
You were on the right track with the HTPC. It just needs an appropriate input device. I recommend:
The best “TV remote” in the world.
I agree, this isn’t elegant, but works great. There are also even smaller options, but this one the battery lasts forever.
A computer hooked up to a projector/other display. Smart TVs are an absolutely terrible investment into a locked down proprietary ecosystem you have no control over.
Also, going with a computer+projector is significantly more affordable.
Man you can get a 60" TV for like $300
You pay for it in the data they collect from you and the ads they show to you.
Don’t connect it to the Internet.
I mean, If I wanted to be controlling everything with a mouse, I’d just sit at my desk. Unfortunately every other input method has near-zero support on PC at this point, even for a lot of the more open seas options. Kodi with a paid, illegal service was basically the only option I found, and I’d really rather not go down that route, esspecially when handing off this device to less tech-savvy family.
I use a flirc ir receiver in a RPI. Use any remote and bind the buttons to keys to set it up then go. I set mine up about ten years ago and still use the same setup even though I upgraded the pi.
How do you get streaming services to work? As best as I can tell, none of them support much in the way of non-mouse inputs, and I wasn’t able to find any scripts/addons being maintained.
That’s a fair criticism, especially if you want to limit what media your kids are consuming. We’ve got a setup like I described above in our house but we’re both tech literate so being able to use a proxy server to access South Korean Netflix is an advantage to us.
There do exist media focused keyboards (even partial keyboards without a functioning keyset) to control play/pause, volume etc - but a lot of the streaming services don’t have good UIs on PC unless you’re willing to use a mouse.
Get the android app “Unified Remote”. Works perfectly, and you’ll have several options, from cursor control to buttons programmed with hotkeys.
I still haven’t found something better than Chromecast that can stream obscure video sites (yar-har). Everything else seems to only accept large companies with dedicated apps (Netflix, YouTube, Crunchyroll, etc.). Unfortunately, with Google phasing out their Chromecasts, I might have to go back to a super long HDMI cord connected to my PC.
LG recently released an interesting series of “monitors”. Basically smart TVs without the smart, but sized like big TVs.
That is great news if they stick to it. Ttheir WebOS TVs are becoming slimier and slimier.
Love me some slime 😋
The simplest solution is Chromecast + device of your choosing. Followed by Apple TV, but I can’t remember if those can cast.
If youll spend a bit more, you can also get an Xbox one. You’ll get access to a multimedia device that has the Microsoft app store for subscriptions, it’s available as a Chromecast device, unfortunately Microsoft is nose diving hard right now, but I rarely play games on mine anymore.
An Apple TV actually fits this use case pretty well. Being Apple most providers will have native apps available for the device (they definitely have Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+), it comes with a remote but supports using other infrared remotes (you can train it to recognise specific buttons so doesn’t matter what remote you use), and you can also control it from your phone (it works natively for iOS but there are Android apps that can do it too).
For casting, if you use Apple devices it’s easy with AirPlay. If you use Android devices there are apps you can get that support Chromecast, however haven’t ever used them personally so can’t comment on their effectiveness.
And to date Apple haven’t put ads into the tvOS interface. It’s basically a grid of apps and you just open the one you want to watch. It’s been our primary TV device for years now, and is simple enough to use that even my 60 something tech adverse mum likes using it.
I use a HTPC. Using a traditional mouse is the worst. For a long time I used a Mac Mini because the Apple Bluetooth trackpad is the only external trackpad I’ve ever used that’s any good.
Then I got a Bluetooth trackball mouse. It’s by far my favorite. It’s rugged, easy to toss around, and it just lives on a couch arm.
The only steaming device I have is a Chromecast that’s exclusively used to turn on and off the TV.
Do you have a link to a track ball mouse as an example of what you mean? What do you think are the pros and cons of using one?
Here’s the one I have:
I have another Logitech one that cost about $25.
I really, really like it. They’re really durable, easy for a kid to use, and pretty inexpensive.
Only con is if you drop it and the ball pops out, it can roll under the couch.
I am using a Chromecast ultra 4k and I replaced the launcher with one which doesn’t shown anything but the apps I want it to show in a grid: FLauncher
And then I can use it with the remote as usual for Netflix and all the other apps. It’s quite nice doesn’t stutter or anything.
I also replaced the YouTube app with the SmartTube one to get rid of sponsors and advertisements in videos.
I use Flauncher on my Sony Bravia.
Sony Bravia, not connected to any network, running in Pro Mode so it’s “just a TV”
Then a PC running plex and the arrs to substitute the streaming services.
What’s arrs?
Sonarr, lidarr and radarr are used to grab content
Ive used a ps4 successfully. Works on any tv.
