This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
i tried doing that to my chromecast and ended up bricking it.
How? The article just says that you have to sideload it. How can sideloading an app brick your device?
Can't we just have small Linux boxes with Plasma Bigscreen or something with cec support setup so the tv remote still works already :sob:
MSI cubi fanless with KDE Neon autologin to Plasma Bigscreen with Vacuumtube, steam big screen mode, jellyfin... Remote controller is a Rii F8 mini which has a few programmable IR buttons for the old dumb TV.
The future is now...
Raspberry Pis have CEC support. I've used it with OSMC (formerly either LibreElec or RaspBMC, one of those? It's Debian Kodi). It was much better without. So, if you turned the TV off with the TV's power button, the Pi would turn the TV back on.
The Pi has a 3.5mm audio jack. I have a set of desktop PC speakers that are hell and gone better than anything built into a television in the last 20 years. Not only is it not straightforward to get it to control the Pi's audio output level with the TV's remote via CEC, OSMC absolutely did not want to do this. Not only would that setting get revered to HDMI audio out, it would disable the analog out option, and you'd have to SSH in and change a config file to re-enable that option in the first place. That would happen either during updates or even just power cycles. I swear the phraseology of the line you'd have to put in that config file would change; the same line I'd put in there would still be in there and not working.
The thing with open source software is, it's always going to have the UX of a sinus infection, especially since the manufacturers of hardware gimp their devices to not work well outside of the walled garden.
I recently tried this with LibreElec on a NUC I already had running pihole. It would randomly freeze, I think due to some integrated Intel video shenanigans.
Next I tried KDE Neon with Plasma BigScreen. For some reason, PlexHTPC ran like absolute garbage on my 4k TV but fine on my 1440p monitor.
I got PlexHTPC running fine on MXLinux but then I couldn't get pihole working with DoH for some reason.
Finally just put Mint on it, got them both running and figured I'd tinker more later. I just needed something that would let me stop using the TCL Roku interface.
CEC does not work, but I got a cheap remote air mouse/keyboard thing that worked out of the box.
I've been using Pi 4s with a lineage OS build that has the Jellyfin Android TV client on it and thats been a pretty sweet setup.
Links?
I decided that a game controller and antimicrox were acceptable as a supplement for the remote, and installed a full desktop OS (Gentoo/TDE, like my main system, on a Dell Optiplex box I bought off ebay last year). Works fine for my unconventional needs, although I admit I do updates, etc. over ssh because it's faster than entering one character at a time on the on-screen keyboard.
I just bought a Dell Optiplex 990 for 50 bucks on eBay. I lucked out in that the listing came with 8 GB of RAM. Just threw in a previous SSD, loaded Fedora Kinoite, and am currently playing with Podman/Docker Compose for an Arr stack. By next week, I should be able to move it from the corner where the router is, and then finally deliver on the promise that I made my girlfriend back in February, when I bought the HDMI projector and a speaker set.*
That said, I'm all for your idea, especially if it comes with an IR receiver, too.
If I get another Optiplex (that one for homelabbing), I'll look into COSA and Butane/Ignition files more seriously. That's a very solvable issue, after all.
* We had to move since then and I cannot find the front right speaker, for some reason. The company, whose name looks like the antagonist of FF8, doesn't seem to sell replacement speakers, either.
well, the bigscreen matrix chat does see activity, so, one can hope
Where are the dividends in that? Buy our new stick.
Projectivity is another great option, especially if you want a few more options without anything you don't want.
I also use Projectivity on my NVIDIA shield. No ads, no recommendations, just the apps I want. Everyday I'm glad I installed it.
So you launch shield then launch projectivity? Or did you reinstall the shield os
I use Projectivy on my Sony Bravia Google TV. You can set it to auto start as the default launcher so you never see the cluttered mess that is the Google TV launcher.
I've been using Flauncher as the replacement dash for years on all my android TVs and Chromecasts
https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher
It makes a massive difference and I strongly recommend it
And a key mapper to go back to the launcher instead of the home screen from a remote
Same. It's fantastic.
I used the adb commands they recommend to disable the stock interface. So pressing home on the remote brings me back to Flauncher always.
Haven't seen the stock dash in years. Been great.
The only bastard thing is that when I set it up on a fire stick, the fire stick would disable wifi if the stock dash wasn't used. That thing is trash anyway, so no loss. Don't buy firesticks.
Would I be able to watch Plex with this? (Haven't made the switch to jellyfin yet)
just a warning about jelly is that you have to setup your own home host site. plex already comes with one it youre hoping to listen to your music on the go.
Don't see why not. It's just a front end launcher. If you can install the app...this will launch it.
PS: I like Jellyfin but I'm a fan of Nova-Player too. Simpler is sometimes better.
Yes - it replaces the launcher (your home page, I guess you could say), but you can still download apps from the Google App Store and use them (such as Plex).
I have used FLauncher and now use Projectivity, and it is a great way to get rid of all the ads and bloat while keeping the TV fully functional.
What do you see that makes a difference? Lack of ads or is performance also better?
Blocking ads usually helps performance, most ad networks are trash
No ads, better performance, customizable
I also tried Projectivy in the past but I don't remember why I switched away from it. I think there was a performance bug that was causing it to crash. Both may be good options now
I recently swapped back to FLauncher after using Projectivy for a while. Projectivy uses a lot more resources (cache + RAM) and my TV only has like 4GB of storage.
All of that. Lack of ads, more performant etc. Plus (and depending on the device), you can set it up in such a way that you don't need to sign into your google account, yet still have ability to watch YouTube (Smartube), install apps (side load plus use the Fdroid TV store ... name escapes me at the moment... Flicky I think?).
Even if you need to be signed in for some reason, it's a smoother experience.
Its just...better. You'll lose some of the prettiness (for some reason, mine no longer displays backgrounds from upsplash, only solid colours) but its more than worth it.
EDIT: Yes, it IS Flicky
https://f-droid.org/packages/app.flicky/
I can also recommend Wolf Launcher. Been using it for years.
I'd love a stick that has Hoopla support, but of course that's going to be hard to come by because Big Entertainment doesn't make billions of dollars off of it.
Google Chromecast with TV (GCCWTV) - aka the one that looks like a hockey puck - has / had Hoopla.
Roku, Android TV (ONN), Apple TV, etc. all have Hoopla support. The app doesn't even have a way to browse titles, but if you know what you want to watch their app works.
Great, now do iOS, Roku, and whatever Amazon is pushing these days. Oh, and raspberry pi and NVIDIA shield.
Dude just switched the launcher, should be doable on most Android TV devices.
Raspberry Pi can run Android TV, so you probably could run this launcher. Nvidia Shield is already compatible.
The others are closed systems I assume, I have no experience with Apple or Amazon devices.
Well thanks for nothing.
If any apps, preferably open source, could do a search of services to see if one has "American Beauty" (or whatever) streaming for free AND launches the app directly I'd have no need for my stock launcher.
Stremio (with uh...some optional extras enabled) should do that for you just fine.
It's available on the play store IIRC...because by itself, its just an aggregator. You just need to enable some community plug ins.
Works even better if you pay for just one thing (all of $9 for 3 months iirc - what's the current Real-Debrid cost, someone?).
https://www.reddit.com/r/Stremio/comments/17cd861/stremio_all_you_need_to_know/
One really fun thing about it is a "currently hot on ____" (Netflix, disney+, whatever) plugin. Makes the yar har har even easier.
I haven't tried enabling voice search in Flauncher (Android TV and GCCWTV are pain in the ass - won't accept other keyboards let alone voice search apps) so its click into stremio first then go looking.
Somebody once tried to sell a box that would cancel all your streaming services and only fire the account back up for a month at a time when you wanted to stream something. It was a phenomenal idea with a genuine problem worth solving, completely torpedoed by the fact of the box costing $400 up front and I think requiring its own subscription.
Streaming sticks shouldn't have apps. The Chromecast Ultra is the last good streaming stick. Just cast, and it plays. End of story.
I loved the "idea" of the Chromecast and used them exclusively for over 5 years. However the implementation was always the issue. Phones would always disconnect leading to the inability to control it, and after recent updates, kill the stream mod session.
A hybrid approach is the best IMO. A remote for ease of access and quick things, plus casting for when you alreay have your phone out and want to use the better interface.
I've not experienced the stream ending, but there disconnect is definitely an issue. Might be app specific?
When I tested Chromecast with google TV (5 years ago to be fair, it might be fixed now), if I casted from my phone, I then had to use the remote to choose my Netflix account and choose the show again from scratch. So it was two steps on two devices, for no good reason. It also didn't connect to WiFi properly and didnt have Ethernet, so that killed its functionality as well.
Its nice to be able to use it with a remote instead of fumbling around with your phone.
Also performance, decoding support, not burning your phone's battery, etc
Chromecast doesnt use your phone for decoding. It just tells the stick to play the video, and it plays it directly. It shouldn't drain your phone at all.
The remote is a personal preference, but I was happy for the phone to be the remote. Having a second remote didnt gain me anything.
To be fair, I haven't used Chromecast in a long time. Maybe even 10 years ago now.
I remember having connectivity issues, where I'd go to pause the content and realize it disconnected again. So maybe the battery drain was because of poor connections, or poorly designed apps
There were definitely some shitty Chromecast apps. ABC in Aus had a terrible one. There are also some pretty shitty TV apps as well :/
Ultra was good for connectivity, as it has an Ethernet port. Relying on wifi on a streaming stick behind a TV was tough. My TV behaves as a signal blocking wall, anything WiFi behind it is a dead zone.
I also haven't tried the new Chromecast with google TV in a few years, but it was so terrible I returned it immediately and started scouring eBay for another Ultra. I am very sad Google killed the plain Chromecast line.
