What is everyone using as a HTPC?
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Yes, you can cast from the official YouTube app (or Revanced). You need to generate a code for connection in the SmartTube settings, then connect your phone through the cast menu. The option in the cast menu on the phone is called something like "Connect with code" IIRC.
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At that price I’ll buy an AppleTV and run plex / Emby / jellyfin.
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Actually some browsers also have issues with 4k and certain codecs.
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Two Shield TVs because there's not really anything else.
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My old desktop, a Ryzen 3600/GTX-1080 mini-ITX build. After using a Pi 4 with Kodi for awhile it's nice to have a media machine that can run Crysis.
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Ryzen 1200/GTX 960 small build running Linux Mint. There's a UHD blu-ray drive in it as well with the custom firmware to rip disks. Media is stored on my NAS that handles Plex and transcoding. The parts were mostly old extras I had lying around, just needed the case, blu-ray drive and boot SSD. Oh and the like $20 wireless Logitech keyboard/track pad combo for control.
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Shield, mine is very stable, never crashes, doesn't lag
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If you go this route I recommend installing Kodi + Jellyfin Plugin + Kore App. You can control everything from your phone or laptop.
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None at all? If so how? My friends with Apple TV get an obnoxious amount of ads in their YouTube app for example.
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I ran into issues with this function on my shield pro, it would randomly reopen the smart tube app continuously until I disconnected my phone.
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I'm not a home theater power user, but this is good info to make sure my setup is future proof for when I finally get a new TV. All these different standards get really confusing.
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The Shield can supposedly be updated with LineageOS instead of stock, but I haven’t tried it. I also have a couple Onn 4K streamers that I debloated and swapped in FLauncher, and it’s on my TODO list to do the same with the Shield. My concern with stock OSes is of course any telemetry I’m not aware of or can’t disable. I usually setup Netguard, although I still get ads on my Shield.
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I’ve also been meaning to do some debloating on my Shield as shown here, but probably worth disabling some of these first and testing a while instead of uninstalling just to make sure nothing important breaks.
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I haven't used Netflix on my Pi for a few years, but at least in the past it worked fine by pulling the DRM lib from Android. I used Netflix and Disney Plus on Kodi (with a plugin) for a couple years until we stopped watching on that TV (in the bedroom).
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What I don’t like about ATV and the Apple ecosystem in general is the lack of ease with sideloading. Ha, I’ve created throwaway accounts with fake emails in the past and then lost access to the email account followed by the Apple device basically being bricked a result. If it’s so “private” then why not let me install free apps from the App Store without an account?
