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The best for who? This is a ridiculous take, nobody wants to roll their own TV UX except HN users looking for a weekend project. What usability / long-term rel

The best for who? This is a ridiculous take, nobody wants to roll their own TV UX except HN users looking for a weekend project. What usability / long-term reliability perk does your own software running on a RPI have over an Apple TV plugged into a dumb TV / monitor?

m463 6y ago
I know plenty of folks who run kodi. I would say not "hn user" level folks, more like "i have a gaming pc".
smaudet 6y ago
This comment is a part of why TV sucks so hard - ridiculous users. Everyone's idea of 'simple' is rather asinine, unimaginative. The latest Pis come practically preinstalled with everything, just have to load Kodi. But someone who has found 'their' solution i.e. some crap by Apple e.g. assumes this is how everything should be... And we all get stuck with crappy 'smart' TVs (or don't own one - I have survived 10+ years without a TV - absolutely nothing about TVs today makes me want one. So much hot garbage)
- tfehring 6y ago
  In my experience getting Kodi set up is a massive time sink, to the point that the programmer time needed to set it up would easily double the total cost of a typical home theater setup. Admittedly my experience with it is a few years out of date, but a quick search for incredibly basic functionality like running the big streaming services makes it clear that this hasn’t really changed. On top of most of them being limited to 720p, it looks like the canonical solution nowadays is to run them in Chrome from Kodi, which (1) phones home to Google, unlike an Apple TV and (2) necessitates a mouse or other pointing device since you can’t rely on “keyboard” navigation with a remote - this alone would be a dealbreaker for me.
atoav 6y ago
The best for me obviously. I was the one who made the comment and declaring an object "the best" of any category is always a subjective statement. My own solution has the pros: - I control precisely what I need and what not, both in terms of features and in terms of usability - I control when it gets changed/updated - I control which data flows in and out of the system - Your device is not a brick when the manufacturer decides to end the support or shuts down the wrong server The obvious downside is that it means work and requires a certain set of skills. Whether it is worth it or not depends on how important that thing is for you and how much all the TVs suck at doing what you want in the way you want it done.
mikeryan 6y ago
Or just buy a smart TV and just never connect it to the internet.
- gowld 6y ago
  That doesn't stop it from spending a minute trying at every boot, or from using a cellular whispernet.

m463 6y ago

I know plenty of folks who run kodi. I would say not "hn user" level folks, more like "i have a gaming pc".

smaudet 6y ago

This comment is a part of why TV sucks so hard - ridiculous users. Everyone's idea of 'simple' is rather asinine, unimaginative. The latest Pis come practically preinstalled with everything, just have to load Kodi. But someone who has found 'their' solution i.e. some crap by Apple e.g. assumes this is how everything should be... And we all get stuck with crappy 'smart' TVs (or don't own one - I have survived 10+ years without a TV - absolutely nothing about TVs today makes me want one. So much hot garbage)

tfehring 6y ago
In my experience getting Kodi set up is a massive time sink, to the point that the programmer time needed to set it up would easily double the total cost of a typical home theater setup. Admittedly my experience with it is a few years out of date, but a quick search for incredibly basic functionality like running the big streaming services makes it clear that this hasn’t really changed. On top of most of them being limited to 720p, it looks like the canonical solution nowadays is to run them in Chrome from Kodi, which (1) phones home to Google, unlike an Apple TV and (2) necessitates a mouse or other pointing device since you can’t rely on “keyboard” navigation with a remote - this alone would be a dealbreaker for me.

atoav 6y ago

The best for me obviously. I was the one who made the comment and declaring an object "the best" of any category is always a subjective statement. My own solution has the pros: - I control precisely what I need and what not, both in terms of features and in terms of usability - I control when it gets changed/updated - I control which data flows in and out of the system - Your device is not a brick when the manufacturer decides to end the support or shuts down the wrong server The obvious downside is that it means work and requires a certain set of skills. Whether it is worth it or not depends on how important that thing is for you and how much all the TVs suck at doing what you want in the way you want it done.

mikeryan 6y ago

Or just buy a smart TV and just never connect it to the internet.

gowld 6y ago
That doesn't stop it from spending a minute trying at every boot, or from using a cellular whispernet.