Cheap and safe streaming sticks

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

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 www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805733558464.html

Aspaldiko,

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.

Landless2029,

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.

Landless2029,

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.

Lemmchen,

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

Codilingus,

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.

BlackSkinnedJew, (edited )

I believe you wouldn’t find anything cheaper than an Orange Pi setup, but maybe I’m worng.

Edit: if you don’t have any problem about having to swap microSDs from time to time I suggest you to go for a Orange Pi Zero 3 with 4GB ram, but if you don’t want to mess around with the microSDs thing, Orange Pi 3 LTS have a 8GB eMMC or you can grab a Orange Pi 3B with the eMMC module in a bundle at AliExpress.

Pray&Luck 🙏🤞

TheUncannyObserver,

I use a Linux PC for my living room media server, but there’s no PC in the living room. Just stick the cheapest Roku you can find in your TV, and load Jellyfin or Plex into it. Then you can stream whatever you want to it by installing the relevant software on the server.

Landless2029,

Yeah my issue is I have fire sticks and I want to transition away from it. Instead of purchasing another mainstream device I was hoping there would a lemmy approved alternative.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Anything that runs Kodi can have the Jellyfin or Plex plugin installed on it.

Landless2029,

I’m aware. I can do it right now with the fire sticks. But they run the crap, loaded with ADs, Kodi crashes and it’s amazon branded. I’ve been looking for replacements. Currently looking at ONN from walmart for a cheap solution or a orange pi 3 for a nicer small solution. After that I’d do a tiny pc.

Proxima_Centauri11,

I just got an ONN, debloated it using ADB, changed launcher, used a button remapper app to remap the brand buttons, and it’s so clean now :D

Landless2029,

Got any links to guides? This sounds like a nice intro device.

A quick search got me this using your keywords.

Proxima_Centauri11,

That’s actually the guide I used! The only difference is when I tried to connect to adb normally, it wouldn’t recognize the device, so I had to use adb over WiFi (Make sure your computer and ONN are on the same local network, then type “adb connect ONNIPADDRESS” (replacing ONNIPADDRESS with the ONN box IP address which you can find in Network Settings on the streaming box).

Auli,

But couldn’t you do this with the fire sticks you already have?

Landless2029,

The fire sticks I currently own are a few generations old. I have to unplug and replug two of them in to even use them. Initially I was hoping for a new $20-$40 device I wouldn’t have to spend several hours tinkering with to get it to play nicely. (Time is money after all)

But after the assistance from the other lemmings I’ve decided to try and work with the fire sticks I currently have just for the experience.

Once that fails I would purchase an ONN to replace my fire sticks and setup linux on a mini pc for my living room. Mini PC is already in place. Just need to learn more Linux. I might distro hop around.

Auli,

But a different launcher on it and don’t see the ads

Landless2029,

But Put a different launcher on it and don’t see the ads

Is this even still possible since they did that stupid force prompt to pick a profile on wake? I’ve started to hate it since then.

turkalino,
@turkalino@lemmy.yachts avatar

I recently switched from fire stick to Roku and overall, it’s been a great move. The remote is my only gripe. Hate squishy rubber buttons.

I understand your desire to not use a mainstream device, but personally, the last thing I want to do after a 10 hr work day of software debugging is sit down to watch TV, see some error messages, and find myself in a terminal troubleshooting network issues or whatever. I just want to watch TV.

Landless2029,

Yeah it’s a balance between privacy/performance/time. When I say I don’t want a mainstream device. It’s I don’t want mainstream bloat on my device. These things never age well and they become unusable with all the bloat. My best path might be getting a regular device and either flashing the OS or debloating.

Sethayy,

Orange pi + waydroid or orange pi os sounds perfect for you

GiuseppeAndTheYeti,

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

Landless2029,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdLnieL90d0

This one?

GiuseppeAndTheYeti,

Yar

bobbytables,

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.

coaxil, (edited )

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

crossover,

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.

whynotzoidberg,

Similar boat. I’m still on the Plex train, but otherwise I share the same story and recommendation.

Reverendender,

There are dozens of us!

crossover, (edited )

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.

wesker,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

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

Landless2029,

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

wesker,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

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

erusuoyera,

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

Landless2029,

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

BearOfaTime,

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!

wesker, (edited )
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

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.

BearOfaTime,

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?

wesker,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

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.

BearOfaTime,

Neat.

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

kokesh,
@kokesh@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Hule,

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

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