this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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Privacy
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I recently stopped using my firestick. Even though I only used it for Jellyfin, the ads on the home screen were too much for me. So I swapped it out for a Raspberry Pi with LibreElec as the OS, and there have been literally no downsides.
I would love to give this a try. Did you follow any guides? Which Pi?
Pi 4B with 4 gigs of RAM. You might be able to get away with 2gigs because of how well it runs for me, but idk. I didn't follow any guides for setting up the Pi or LibreElec. It's honestly super intuitive. Like I said, everything is set up through the GUI. The only slightly technical part is flashing the LibreElec image to the SD card, and even that is super easy. I did follow the Jellyfin documentation for setting up my Jellyfin server, but that's a whole other thing.
Pardon what might be an obvious question, but can you watch paid services using this set up? (Netflix/HBO/prime etc)
Not easily. There are a few 3rd-party add-ons by random people which technically allow you to watch these services if you enter your account details, but the UI is generally just a list of movie and show titles with no or small thumbnails and no other info. It's worth doing this if you already have your own media server but not really otherwise.
Jellyfin is for watching locally stored media so no. Why would you want to even use those
Because family or friends are always going to have them and share with you. In terms of effort, it's still a lot easier to use free-to-you streaming services (even with ads) than set up your own Jellyfin, Radarr, Sonarr, and Jellyseerr stack. I can definitely see the appeal of a streaming stick that let's you do that, is fast, and isn't riddled with ads on the home screen. Hell, I might've paid for one if I knew it existed and had less free time.
I was thinking about moving pihole off onto a docker container, and converting my pi to a streaming box. Thanks for posting this.
Does Jellyfin save your watched history using that set-up? That's my main hangup to using Kodi.
Yes, Jellyfin's Kodi add-on sends watch info back to Jellyfin which keeps track of the watch history. Just remember to install the Kodi Sync Queue add-on in Jellyfin too.
What kind of Pi? Can you watch UHD without issues on it?
Pi 4B with 4 gigs of RAM. And yes! I was surprised, but it had absolutely no trouble with playing 4k, especially after using a wired connection.
Yeah I think an RPi is the best streaming box setup going forward unless you want to go ham and run an actual Mac Mini or PC.
The Apple TV is decent and runs well and doesn't hit you with ads, but they're a bit pricey, they're in the Apple ecosystem (could be a pro or con) and doesn't support as many apps.
The Nvidia shield is starting to cram in ads so that's a non starter as far as I'm concerned, especially for the price. The Amazon stuff is Amazon and is getting more aggressive with ads. Roku is getting worse every year and all their devices I've used sucked. Etc, etc.
Every one of these made-for-purpose streaming sticks/boxes/etc are all gonna go down in enshittification flames. Mark my words.
Edit: come to think of it, I'd say it's a safe bet that corporate America/etc is coming for any digital device or platform or service that feels nonabrasive and like a good value for the money/investment of your time. They're gonna make it more annoying, more ad filled, more data harvesting, and more privacy invading until they can't anymore.
How much it cost?
It was a Raspberry Pi 4 model B. I got it for $60 and a 25ft Ethernet cable for $10 on Amazon just because I had a gift card. You can probably find it somewhere else for cheaper. You also need a small micro SD card for the Pi. Maybe only 8 or 16 gigs because it doesn't store the media locally.