My elderly mum has a Roku Express attached to a dumb 1080p TV, but it’s experiencing ever more frequent “insufficient power” failures and she’s thinking of buying a new one.
I’m wondering if there’s a freer alternative device that would be just as, if not more, user-friendly. Any tips? (I’ve been browsing Temu but no idea what to pick.)
Must haves:
- replaces the Roku
- allows her to watch OTT channels like Netflix and Prime (not pirated, she has legit accounts for those two), Youtube, Haystack etc
- all done with a user-friendly remote control & 3-metre interface
Nice to haves:
- replaces also the laptop (connected to the TV but basically unused)
- can get & watch Bittorrent downloads
- can watch IPTV (nothing fancy like debrid, just IPTV-org channels or some such)
- makes Bittorrent downloads & IPTV a more integral, easier part of the experience so that she actually uses & enjoys them
- reduces/eliminates ads on Prime, Youtube etc
CONTEXT
She uses the Roku for watching mainly Netflix, Prime, Youtube, Haystack (news), very occasionally TheArchive.TV, FreeMoviesPlus, Plex, Roku Channel (just one show).
I also installed IOTV, a Roku app with IPTV-org linear channels, but she never remembers it, and it’s not very user-friendly anyway.
I also set up an old laptop for her, with QBittorrent on it, connected to the TV, but she never actually uses it unless I come round and download/play stuff.
PS I have no experience with “-arr” stack, Jellyfin, VPS, debrid etc.
PPS in case it’s relevant, location is Mexico.
XBMC has fallen quite far from where it originally started.
I blame sketchy entities reselling Raspberry Pi/Android TV/etc boxes loaded with Kodi and all the pirating plugins to the moronic general public.
I think a big problem is that the majority of their plugin system is based on Python and when they switched from python 2.7 to python 3 they both fractured and largely in my opinion ruined the ecosystem. And maybe they did do that because people were using it for piracy. I said back then that it would cause fracturing and fallout, but people just said I was stupid.
Yet the community never really did recover from that
It really sucks sinc Kodi and LibreElec is probably the only UI out there for Linux devices for a TV type environment with remote/arrow key navigation. The only real other one out there is Gamescope/Steam but that’s more of a Gaming focused one.
Yeah, it sucks because LibreELEC is the only way I’ve ever got HDMI-CEC to work. There are some nice skins too. In a different life, perhaps.
My minivan has a roof-mounted DVD player with inputs, so I built a mini media center out of a Pi3 and Flirc IR receiver, running OSMC. Got a Toyota boot screen and everything.
Toyota boot screen! Love it.