I've been meaning to cut down my power usage without disrupting my lifestyle too much, the first thought is for me to "decommission" my HTPC which I keep running all day, asleep at best, just so it's ready for me when I want to sleep and need it to watch #YouTube (so I can get to sleep lol).
The "easiest" replacement is get an #ARM based computer to take over its job. My first thought it should run on #Linux just bcos I'm most familiar with it and it's an open ecosystem so I should be able to do a ton of things w it - but I only have a Pi 4 and that thing honestly sucks at streaming so nope. Tried #LineageOS on it to get it running #Android TV and while at first it seemed great, it ended up being quite a hassle and a mess so I ditched that.
Then my dad asked me to get an Android TV box/stick for his TV, and I got him the #Xiaomi Mi Box S (2nd gen). After I set it up and used it for a bit, I honestly kinda liked it. Tried #Plex, #Netflix, #PrimeVideo, etc. and they all ran great. The only downside I thought to this option is that I won't be able to watch YouTube with adblockers like I could with something like #Firefox on a desktop.
THEN I quickly discovered the existence of #SmartTube and GOD what a lifesaver it's been. It works just like the official YouTube client with all the pages and algos you're familiar with when you've authenticated, it blocks YouTube ads, but also it supports #SponsorBlock right out of the box without needing to self-host or wtv so it could even block sponsor segments in video if you want. Even has some nice accessibility options too like changing the subtitle colours, size, and positioning which is great for me who watches vids in bed w no audio.
This rant ended up being very long unnecessarily lol but all in all, that removed the only dealbreaker for me on getting and using said TV box for myself - so I did and have been using for abt a week now. The box turns itself and my TV off automatically after 30 mins of inactivity and I can easily turn the box and the TV back on using just my remote which is nice. Idek what'd I need the HTPC for anymore honestly since I already have a #SteamDeck to take over its job gaming wise much, much earlier.
I think the news about #Disney essentially "reinventing" cable channels again into their streaming service, #DisneyPlus is pretty hilarious, though I'm not exactly surprised by that since I too honestly have been wanting such a feature on #Plex or #Jellyfin for really long time.
The idea is, you could still watch things on demand, unlike cable channels of old, but you could also just tune in to a channel and be "served" different things to watch by episode, or by movie, based on what is available. That'd be perfect when you just want to leave the TV on and have it play random stuffs all day.
Has anyone else noticed a problem with #plex subtitles on ad supported content? I was watching a foreign language film with subtitles and every time it went to an ad break Plex would disable the subtitles and the only way to get them back was to go to playback settings and turn the subtitles off and on each time. This is extremely annoying to have to do this, considering how many ad breaks they insert into the average film on this platform.
@plex I also have to add that the ad breaks would be a lot more tolerable if they didnt repeat the same ad multiple times in a single break, surely #plex has enough unique adverts they can fill each slot with without repeating the same one multiple times. On top of the subtitle issue this just makes the experience of watching ad supported content even more frustrating to the point where i think i may have been better off pirating the content rather than trying to watch it through legit means.
I knew #Plex sends a lot of analytics from me to their servers, but I was not expecting analytics.plex.tv to be number one in the list of blocked requests.
Another surprise was 287 (for now) requests blocked to logs.netfix.com. Why it's a surprise? We are not using #Netflix. I have it pre-installed on my TV but not even logged in there. That's some crazy shit.
The highly anticipated #Pendatang movie is out since ~yesterday and I've already added it to my #Plex server (just in case). I haven't watched it yet, but so pleasantly surprised that it's in 4K, and is not just subbed in English, but also Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. Can't wait to watch it this weekend!
I started using PlexAmp recently, but it can be coaxed into printing output like Spotify Wrapped. I don't use Spotify or similar streaming services as I prefer to pay artists directly as much as possible, but it is fun to see the top artists for the year.
Open PlexAmp, Tap the Search icon, then under Aural Fixation tap the category (Artists, Albums, Tracks, etc). At the top of the next screen tap the header and set it to Yearly and pick 2023.
opened the plex app on appleTV and it asked did i want to share all of my viewing habits with my friends?? not every app needs to be a social network JFC!! i set everything to private, but it’s annoying that i had to
ok found the blog post detailing the #plex changes. it has a bunch of links to support articles at the bottom. i hate that there's no single switch to shut off ALL "discovery" features at once rather than being forced to use the granular settings
What's this bullshit showing up on Plex now telling me what other people are watching and, I assume, showing others what I'm watching. Why does absolutely everything assume that no one wants any privacy anymore and just defaults to share everything it knows.
Recently installed #tubesync after seeing #YouTube's anti #adblock popups.. I didn't want to lose my favourite channels, and wasn't about to buy premium, and so here we are :D
It's pretty great, very simple and does exactly what I need it to do. I'm using #plex as the media server to watch all the content it downloads. No ads and no banners. It also supports deleting old content after it's been dowloaded for X days, so I don't have to fill my drive with 1080/1440p of LinusTechTips from a year ago.
Do you run a Plex server at home? What do you think of this plan?
I am planning on collecting and digitizing DVDs to put on my own Plex server. I will put the files on a large capacity drive. Since a drive can fail I will also create a backup and plan on using Arq with a services like Wasabi or AWS Glacier. It will come down to what it costs. (Note: I'd only have to restore data if there is a catastrophic loss locally.)
It appears AWS beats out Wasabi by about $2/mo for 1TB of storage at $4 to Wasabi at $6.
I've got three recently-added folders, 30 Rock being one of them, that I just can't get to match correctly in Plex. Past experience says it's a file/folder naming issue, but I can't spot it.
The folder was originally just named 30 Rock. I later added (2006) and {tvdb-79488}. No success.
Yesterday the Plex team lays off all their DVR/server-type folks. Lovely. I've used #plex for years and love it. Time to look for an alternative maybe.
People praise @getchannels, so I signed up for a month and installed the server on my Synology. I'm going on 24 hours and it hasn't even gotten through importing half of my media library yet. And its metadata matching is bad. Not a good experience.
Jellyfin doesn't have an AppleTV app, and the 3rd party ones don't get good reviews.
I haven't really ventured out on to the internet in search of technical help lately (and yes, I'm running my browser without AdBlock, since that's how most people browse) and my god, has it really gotten that bad? With the SEO and the constant ads? 😭