I’ve seen a couple articles about an android tv alternative and it’s got me thinking about a streaming box again. A while back i gave kodi a try and didn’t care for the experience. Granted, it was on a pi so expectations were low but it missed the mark for me. This time around i’ve got a modest nuc with proxmox i was thinking of moving to the living room and standing up a fresh vm of kodi to stream to.
I could just access the files over the network but i’m already running both plex and jellyfin so why not use either for my watch history. All that being said is kodi still my best bet?
Why proxmox? At some point down the road i’d like to get a capture card in the mix to stream games and that feels like the most flexible way to do everything.
the short answer:
i have been down this road. recently. get an nvidia shield, use the kodi app, and use the PM4K Plex app in kodi.
the medium answer:
if you dont mind the complete lack of HDMI-CEC, poor support for remotes, horrible interfaces that either dont fully support a remote or require a keyboard to fullscreen, then a custom machine will be fine. but if you have even a modicum of respect for your own time and comfort, get an Nvidia Shield. use pm4k plex, jellyfin, and sunshine/moonlight for pc gaming.
the long answer:
HDMI-CEC is barely supported on custom machines. there are a few adapters that work on Arch Linux via DisplayPort-to-HDMI tunneling, if you jump through 15 hoops of varying size and shape. If you use LibreELEC, or Kodi, there is one(1) adapter that works by piggy-backing off the HDMI cable and splits out a USB device that can be configured in Kodi (and kodi alone), so its an option if you have a short HDMI cable (the piggy-backing adds additional complications that might not work with 4K or high-bitrate content). neither option fully supports the TV turning the device off. its one-way only.
remotes for PC all suck. they all work via shitty wireless connections that sap battery and the remotes dont last long on a charge. they quickly go to sleep so you have to press buttons to wake them, their air mouse support is dogshit at best and barely useable at worst, and their backlight support is inconsistent. some remotes will have a keyboard, but most miss some important part; the TAB key (for alt-tabbing out of apps), the Fn row (for full-screening things like the Jellyfin WebUI), or the Super key (for accessing the start menu, et al.) using an xbox controller would work, except the d-pad for navigation is on the opposite side from the A/B buttons for accept/back, so you need two hands to use it. you can get a keyboard add-on for them at least, so there is that i guess.
if you use a PC, do not use one with an nvidia graphics card if you want to use linux. people say support is better, but they are wrong. steam big picture doesnt work at 4k on nvidia hardware on linux.
do NOT use the official plex app on an Nvidia Shield. the re-write of the app a few years ago moved it all to React, and this has resulted in many awful re-renders of the UI that completely break user flow. use the PM4K Plex app via kodi. runs better, has spoiler features, doesnt glitch out, has better support for 4K content, actually plays videos every time. you will probably need both Plex and Jellyfin. plex on the shield (via the official app) wont play 4k content sometimes (will infinite-load on a black screen), and jellyfin cant handle some subtitles (will complain it cant display them). having both gives you the fallback for these situations. i have yet to run into a situation where neither can play a video, but i have run into many where one cant.
the sad state of the world is unofficial tv-watching/HTPC devices are not there yet (no kde plasma big picture, etc. no HDMI-CEC support, poor d-pad navigation, nvidia steam big picture 4k no worky, etc), and the Nvidia Shield, while great, is still woefully under-powered for today’s webapp world (see aforementioned Plex React UI woes).
the sunshine/moonlight apps are surprisingly fast over ethernet, and all the perceivable delay i found with it can be traced entirely to the display i was using. i dont think i could notice any additional delay between ethernet and direct hdmi connection to the pc.