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I think honestly the best solution really is to just use a stock PC and forget all of this crap. It's a shame there aren't any good open source setups using sto

by jchw 2y ago

I think honestly the best solution really is to just use a stock PC and forget all of this crap. It's a shame there aren't any good open source setups using stock computers like Raspberry Pi that can act as a good Chromecast replacement (or if there are, I missed on it; I tried Kodi but while it is pretty cool it isn't really great for streaming services like YouTube in my opinion.) but on the other hand, it's not the end of the world. Many modern TVs, if you can find one that isn't complete dogshit (good fucking luck), can do Miricast without connecting to the Internet or requiring an account. That's nice since it fills one role of Chromecast: the ability to easily cast your desktop. But I'd like a full open source ecosystem implementing casting. Right now using Chromecast protocols from Firefox is a crapshoot and I just haven't bothered, but I don't think there's any reason why we can't just make our own. YouTube may be somewhat hostile, but at a certain point it's hard to stop a cast tool that just execs an official Google Chrome binary, you know? So there's always something that could be done. That said, I keep a list of instructions for un-shittifying the Google Chromecast TV devices for myself, since I do have a few of them. Note that you already need to log in for this to really work, but I already do that, since I want to be logged into YouTube, for the time being (for Premium and age-restricted videos and subscriptions and etc.) I'll just copy and paste them here: ## Replacing the Terrible Launcher Google took a dump all over the TV launcher with ads. Here is a workaround: 1. Enable *Developer Mode* by tapping the TV OS Build Number in Settings -> About 7 times. 2. Enable USB debugging. 3. Prepare a device with `adb`. On NixOS, `nix shell nixpkgs#android-tools`. 4. Find the IP in About -> Status and use it to do `adb connect [IP]`. 5. Install an alternative launcher like ATV Launcher Pro. 6. Disable the default launcher entirely. `adb shell "pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx && pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith"` ### Button Mapper Google also made their version of Android extra hostile to the launcher being replaced, so when you disable the launcher the Home and YouTube buttons will stop working. This can be fixed using a third party app called _Button Mapper_ available on Play Store. 1. Install _Button Mapper_ from Play Store. 2. Enable the Button Mapper Accessibility Service in Settings. 3. Add the Buttons 4. Map YouTube to open the YouTube app 5. Map Netflix to open the Jellyfin app The app will warn about not working if the device sleeps, but this doesn't apply as these devices don't seem to "sleep" the way that Android phones and tablets do. If your auth becomes stale you need to re-enable those app IDs and log back in. This will manifest as things simply not working, e.g. videos not playing. However, it only happened to me a couple of times. I think it requires session tokens to completely expire, which takes a while of inactivity.

Kon-Peki 2y ago
> I think honestly the best solution really is to just use a stock PC and forget all of this crap. I used to do that, with a Linux HTPC and Plex. I eventually switched to the physical AppleTV device, with all the content on a surplus Mac mini connected to the home network. It's just less work to maintain. On the old setup, it always worked perfectly whenever I was around and had plenty of time to tinker with things. It only ever had problems when I was at the office, very busy, and the kids wanted to watch some show I had digitized from our DVD collection. Granted, the problems were always small and easily fixed, but they were disruptive because of the circumstance. I've never had that happen to me with the Apple setup. Yeah, you've got to at least partially buy into their ecosystem. But they don't force you to go all in if you don't want to.
- jchw 2y ago
  I'm currently using Jellyfin to manage my media. With very few exceptions, it's been as turnkey as it gets. Anything with a web browser is good enough to use it, making nearly any kind of setup sufficient. Almost any OS can just browse the web very well. I run it with Docker on Synology DSM. Early on in Jellyfin's life, some Jellyfin server updates required manual intervention, but for a long time now, I just update periodically (every few months) and haven't run into a problem. With that in mind, if I wanted a Linux HTPC setup for minimal tinkering, for the purposes of accessing YouTube and Jellyfin, I'd probably go with an immutable system; I like the look of Bazzite for this. Then, I'd probably disable automatic updates, and manually update things periodically when I have time. If it breaks, you can always roll it back, but manual updates will take the minimal potential disruptions to probably just zero. You could run this on a cheap mini/NUC PC. For TVs that are not mounted to the wall, you could probably even mount it to the back using a VESA mount adapter. That said, I don't currently have plans to replace all of my Chromecast setups, so I haven't actually done this. That's because they've been working very well for years and there's really no reason to mess with something that works. They were cheap, they run Android apps, and I've cut out all of the unwanted advertising.

by jchw 2y ago

Kon-Peki 2y ago

> I think honestly the best solution really is to just use a stock PC and forget all of this crap. I used to do that, with a Linux HTPC and Plex. I eventually switched to the physical AppleTV device, with all the content on a surplus Mac mini connected to the home network. It's just less work to maintain. On the old setup, it always worked perfectly whenever I was around and had plenty of time to tinker with things. It only ever had problems when I was at the office, very busy, and the kids wanted to watch some show I had digitized from our DVD collection. Granted, the problems were always small and easily fixed, but they were disruptive because of the circumstance. I've never had that happen to me with the Apple setup. Yeah, you've got to at least partially buy into their ecosystem. But they don't force you to go all in if you don't want to.

jchw 2y ago
I'm currently using Jellyfin to manage my media. With very few exceptions, it's been as turnkey as it gets. Anything with a web browser is good enough to use it, making nearly any kind of setup sufficient. Almost any OS can just browse the web very well. I run it with Docker on Synology DSM. Early on in Jellyfin's life, some Jellyfin server updates required manual intervention, but for a long time now, I just update periodically (every few months) and haven't run into a problem. With that in mind, if I wanted a Linux HTPC setup for minimal tinkering, for the purposes of accessing YouTube and Jellyfin, I'd probably go with an immutable system; I like the look of Bazzite for this. Then, I'd probably disable automatic updates, and manually update things periodically when I have time. If it breaks, you can always roll it back, but manual updates will take the minimal potential disruptions to probably just zero. You could run this on a cheap mini/NUC PC. For TVs that are not mounted to the wall, you could probably even mount it to the back using a VESA mount adapter. That said, I don't currently have plans to replace all of my Chromecast setups, so I haven't actually done this. That's because they've been working very well for years and there's really no reason to mess with something that works. They were cheap, they run Android apps, and I've cut out all of the unwanted advertising.