Yes, I’m fully aware that the best way to have a streaming box is to run Linux on a Raspberry Pi, and if anyone has a guide for how to best set that up, connect to various streaming services, and allow casting from a phone then I’m very happy to check it out. However, I’ve heard Android TV boxes/sticks are still relatively customisable so I’d really just like something I can run SmartTubeNext on and cast YouTube to the TV without any ads. I’m not going to be putting much in the way of personal data on it so it’s obviously doesn’t need to be the most secure/hardened thing in the world, but I’d still rather avoid the dodgiest of boxes. Any recommendations for something cheap-ish and private-ish?

    • smeg@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah that was the main reason I posted here, so I can get some recommendations to avoid the full-on spyware!

      • simple@lemmy.mywire.xyzEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        As far as I’m aware, the only way to get a private streaming box would be to use a RaspberryPi. You could use Google Chromecast but then you get Google, Nvidia have Nvidia Shield but that costs a lot and I’m not familiar enough with it to know if it has spyware.

        With RaspberryPi, all you really need is to just install the Raspbian OS (they have detailed instructions on their website) and you basically have a mini PC with an Internet browser and all that. So you could just do that?

        There is also this Chromium DRM compliant browser which supports Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc. Which you can install on the Pi for streaming support. Here’s the link

        • HughJanus@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          With RaspberryPi, all you really need is to just install the Raspbian OS (they have detailed instructions on their website) and you basically have a mini PC with an Internet browser and all that. So you could just do that?

          The first sentence in the post acknowledges that…

        • smeg@feddit.ukOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I already have a Chromecast and being able to cast to it from your phone is very convenient, however the unblockable YouTube ads are not. Is it possible to cast from a phone to anything running on a RPi?

          • simple@lemmy.mywire.xyzEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, there is a software you can install on the Pi called scrcpy (which is a terminal utility), you can get a GUI for it with guiscrcpy

            Here’s the link going over it: here

            And for the GUI part here

            I haven’t use it, so not sure how well it works. There could also be other software to support casting that I’m not aware of.

            • smeg@feddit.ukOPEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              Oh that’s pretty cool, I guess it’s only for screen mirroring and not casting video streaming apps though?