this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2024

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How to pair mini PC with streaming services to stream on dumb TV? (midwest.social)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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)?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Cool, cool. Do mini PCs come with an OS preinstalled? And what are some good wireless keyboard brands?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

This one. I've bought several over the years, they're great and often available at your local electronics store, if you prefer that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Logitech makes a nice tv keyboard with integrated trackpad (logi k600), I have one for use with my iPad. There are cheaper options though. Just search for tv keyboard. (I for one love having an integrated trackpad but you could just as easily get a cheap wireless mouse and keyboard.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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 ports

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Your tv is a monitor. Treat it as such.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

With 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...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

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:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B48WJHY9

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

what do you mean pairing? what kind of os do you plan to put on the mini pc? the biggest hurdle is going to be hdcp compliance with any legal streaming service. something like kodi on the other hand, just works like any other pc? a mini pc is just that. a mini pc. there's nearly infinite method to connect streaming services to a pc. I have a Plex server, but it doesn't play nice with all content, so honestly, i usually just use my network storage and pull things straight from the file browser. load them into media player classic with madvr.

I know there's newer systems that do fancier things, but I'm content. I need to upgrade my nas to be better able to transcode x265 video streams. that's s big drawback on Plex for me. my biggest use case is watching things virtually with friends. it's how i watch movies with people. my server can current encode a single x265 video stream pretty well, but the second it has more than one client it chugs. forget it if 4 people want a 4k movie. I would need a crazy beefy rig to run that. it also won't convert hdr without paying. most of my friends aren't trying to watch on an hdr screen.

so, we're back to me streaming via discord screenshare. it's not the best, but at least i don't need to keep a separate 4k hdr copy of movie for myself and a 1080p x264 copy for Plex that way. mad vr will even handle the hdr conversion for me when I stream.

it works well enough, though I'm open to suggestions as well. it needs to be easy for the clients to use. it can be hard for me, that's fine, but jellyfin is too much for most of my friends and family. Plex is already pushing it.