Basically title. How does one go about pairing third party services like streaming services to a mini PC so that you can stream it on your dumb / degoogled TV? I don’t really know how TVs work, much less mini PCs, so if anybody could dumb it down for me I’d appreciate it. What does your setup look like, if you have a dumb TV (e.g running kodiTV without network connection)?
Depends on how dumb a TV you’re talking about. You may need to downconvert the video signal to something the TV accepts.
My current project is getting a bunch of old consoles connected here:
TV supports Coaxial, Composite, S-Video, and Component. So most of the consoles can just connect directly.
The Xbox One is HDMI only, so I need to downconvert that:
Assuming you’re using a modern TV, it functions just like a monitor for a computer. A mini PC is the same as a desktop/laptop, just in a little box. So basically you just plug the mini PC in with an HDMI to the TV, install the apps you need on the mini PC and you’re good to go
Oh sweet! So, let’s say I install MAX on the mini PC; will it show up as a clickable app on the TV or will I always have to use the PC to click on things/start shows/etc?
You’ll have to use the PC to interact with things, this is where a lot of people suggest a cheap Bluetooth keyboard with a track pad, or keyboard and mouse.
Take a TV, strap a mini PC like one of those BeeLink ones to the back (it comes with mounting hardware), plug an HDMI cable between them. Connect a wireless keyboard with trackpad, and congrats! You’ve got a big screen computer.
The next bits really depend on your technical know-how. What I did was wiped Windows from the PC and installed Linux, then installed Jellyfin and Firefox.
Jellyfin works as a media server so I can stream my own collection of videos/images anywhere im my home, and Firefox with uBlock Origin means I can log in to any streaming service I want, without the ads. And I can log into my (on-device) Jellyfin server the same way.
I’ve tried all the interfaces like XBMC/Kodi and Plesk etc. and find it’s more of a headache than just having a keyboard handy.
Cool, cool. Do mini PCs come with an OS preinstalled? And what are some good wireless keyboard brands?
This one. I’ve bought several over the years, they’re great and often available at your local electronics store, if you prefer that.
The Beelink ones come with Windows 11 Home; since this is a privacy community, it should be obvious that that’s not all that great for privacy.
For wireless keyboards; I just got a cheap Bluetooth one with a trackpad because I knew it would be abused.
Your tv is a monitor. Treat it as such.
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/5911320
Docker AdguardHome - Adblocker for all your devices Jellyfin - For watching the content you download Qbittorrent - Torrent downloader Jackett - Torrent indexers provider Flaresolverr - For auto solving captcha in some of the indexers Sonarr - *arr service for automatically downloading TV shows Radarr - *arr service for movies Readarr - *arr service for (audio)books lidarr - *arr service for music Bazarr - Automatically downloads subtitles for Sonarr and Radarr Ombi/Overseer - For requesting movies and tv shows through Sonarr and Radarr Heimdall - Dashboard for all the services so you don’t need to remember all the portsWith a HDMI-CEC Adapter it could be, that you can even use your TV remote to control your PC/Kodi
Not sure if your TV supports it - as I’m not much of a TV guy and don’t know, if you need any higher standard for that
But I’m quite happy with an old laptop + Kodi, linked up to my TV. Works quite well.
Only have to go through some audio settings for modern movies, where the sound mixing is usually not nice for dialogues…
