Your TV set has become a digital billboard. And it’s only getting worse.
Your TV set has become a digital billboard. And it’s only getting worse.
TV software is getting loaded with ads, changing what it means to own a TV set.
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Server to host media. Super easy to set up and can run on a Windows client. Don't even need an independent server to run it on. https://jellyfin.org/
https://kodi.tv/ (or https://libreelec.tv/ for an OS that boots to just Kodi)
Application to watch through Kodi https://github.com/jellyfin/jellycon
Client to run Kodi on: MeLE PCG02 Mini PC Stick https://a.co/d/1EGnekO
If you didn't want to install LibreELEC to the PC and just want to keep Windows, you could run Kodi in Kiosk mode and it would boot directly to it just like LibreELEC.
I have not watched normal TV in years, let alone an ad on my TV. I spoke to my neighbors one day and figured out they were paying ~$60 a month for all their streaming services, and they're STILL getting ads...
Stuff like this is unacceptable, and I refuse to partake in the lunacy and delusion that is modern television.
Also Plex as an alternative to Jellyfin with a way better UI and better app support
And also a good degree of bugs and enshittification
Wait plex or jellyfin? Both?
Edit: thanks y'all
Plex. Its been getting shittier for years.
Meanwhile JF has been improving in leaps and bounds.
Since he mentions enshittification, I assume he means Plex.
However I am pretty sure both will have some bugs. I use jellyfin, so I can only speak about that. But one annoyance is that the androidTV app sometimes doesn't have the best subtitle support. However it allows you to open movies in external players, which is a workaround.
I bought a lifetime plex pass once and have no issues since. HW encoding works out of the box, the scanners do their job and I can use their apps on every platform. I had to disable the Plex offered free movies once, the horror. Don't act like Plex is some Google level shit of annoyance or 'enshittification'.
Jellyfin on the other hand has atrocious UI that basically screams the absence of any sort of UI designer into your face, the HW encoding is a mess to set up and the apps are a jungle of different 3rd party apps...
I never said Plex is google-level enshittification, don't project words in my mouth. What is a fact though is that it is undergoing enshittification and that it's a buggy mess and video transcoding might work for you, but it's a well known source of pain for others. It could be better on Jellyfin too, but nowhere near as difficult to set up, even on weird/unsupported systems.
UI screams no designer
Idk what you're on about, not even LTT Linus pointed out any issues with the UI and he is no Linux CLI wizard.
If anything it's far simpler to use than Plex because it doesn't have the dark pattern bullshit into it.
You load the app, you hit movies or TV shows, hit your favourite movie or TV show and play. It's not complicated at all, no need to click past the various upsells and no need to buy battle passes just to watch a film.
The only thing this supposed absence of a "UI designer" seems to have brought is the absence of upsells and enshittification/dark patterns.