Films (also rant) Decent and "complete" media centre options?

Let me set the scene. When it comes to listening to music, I have all of my physical media ripped to a share, Spotify and Tidal subscriptions, access to Prime music, a few albums on Google Play and occasionally listen to some live streams. Whist it could be an enormous pain to make use of all of these sources, Sonos realises that not everyone always listens to the same source, so caters for this by aggregating everything into one pot, one place to search, one interface with a consistent look and feel. Super.

In the case of watching things, I again have all of my physical media ripped to a share, Netflix, Prime video, some purchased video on Amazon, some movies and TV shows on Google Play, NFL Gamepass and occasionally find the use for streaming services from Ch4, ITV etc. I can only imagine that I'm the only person on the planet that actually uses more than a few sources for streaming media, because surely someone would have made some magical device or software that does a decent job of aggregating these if not?

I'm looking to address the disjointed approach in the media room if possible (I can live with the limitations of fire sticks elsewhere in the house for now). Currently I use an HTPC for Plex (on account of its ability to play high bitrate video with HD audio tracks), PS4 for Amazon and Netflix, and would do for 4OD or ITV player and the like. For Google Play and Gamepass I'm left with a keyboard and web browser on the HTPC, which is a rubbish experience, and not really child, wife or guest friendly.

I started playing with Kodi thinking that the possibilities are effectively endless on such an open platform, but addons for the likes of Netflix are barely working, let alone slick.

Theoretically, android would be the perfect platform to do all of these things, since I can do all of these on a phone or tablet, but the issue is either the vendor's overlay leave gaps in service coverage, or the device isn't capable of playing high-bitrate video or HD audio.

e.g, the usual suspects: Shield TV - No Amazon, Fire TV - No Google Play, Roku - No HD audio. The list goes on and on. I don't mind doing some device hacking but even then haven't come across an answer to everything. the Shield looks like the most promising base, but it doesn't seem to have many decent options for hacking.

I can't be the only one with this problem - is there something that I'm missing that either fixes everything, or at least does a better job than what I've got at the moment?

 

If Plex / Kodi can't satisfy every need you have then you are out of luck on a unified solution, unfortunately as simple as that.

There are of course ways to do everything you want to do, but the Wife / Kids friendly factor of the equation evaporates almost on the spot as you move past the capabilities of Plex / Kodi.

 

(YMMV with app compatibility btw)

 

I'm not sure that addresses the issue though - all in one place, but then actually using it becomes difficult - the issue becomes controlling it with a remote, where stock Android and apps kind of suck. There are of course different launchers to help out with the former, but nothing doing for the latter - hence Android TV. But then with Android TV, the available content kind of sucks. Whilst you can sideload the likes of Amazon Video, it's designed for touch.

 

vnc?

 

I upgraded from a WDTV to a Minix Neo U1, and am loving it so far. I got it bundled with the air mouse, which is doubly handy, as it has a full qwerty keyboard on the back. If you don't get the air mouse, a Bluetooth mouse is a must for dealing with apps that aren't designed with a remote in mind.

 

What about a Roku for video, and a headless RPi with an I2S DAC running something like Volumio? It's not a one-size fits all solution, but at least you wouldn't need a video input for the Pi, Volumio is headless with a web-based interface. The smartphone interface is pretty good. I don't know about HD audio support though, I guess it depends on the format and the DAC you're using (I have a pHAT DAC).

 

Tad - what do you use on your HTPC for 'ease of use' if not keyboard/mouse? Some sort of remote control with Plex?

 

Hmm, I hadn't considered that. I'll put it on the "maybe" pile. It's not perfect, but I do have a disused nexus 7 to donate to the cause.

Which apps are you using on it? Have you had any issues with content being blocked? (e.g. the Google Play "unable to fetch license" issue)

It's still another remote, which is far from ideal, but it's looking like "ideal" isn't a thing.

I looked at volumio for a little project that I may still do, but the music part of the picture isn't something that needs fixing, as Sonos does a superb job of that and there's already a Connect in the same room.

Roku3 was something under investigation, but no support for the likes of DTS-HD or TrueHD and has the no-touch issue.

Ah yes, that would be helpful, wouldn't it? I'm using a Harmony ultimate (which runs everything else as well) The HTPC auto-starts Plex so it's always front and centre, no task switching to worry about (unless I want something from Google Play or Gamepass, then it's all sorts of painful). I have a wireless keyboard/trackpad tucked down the side of the sofa for just in case purposes, but the idea to is to never have to use it outside of things like windows update.

 

Aww Plex. Eww. Never got on with it at all. If only VLC had better remote support

 

Really? I found the old Plex HT great as a standalone HTPC front end, and the from-anywhere catalogue access and media management great as well. The latest Plex Media Player front end still needs some work, but then it's still officially unfinished, so I'll cut it some slack for now.

 

...

 

It comes with a custom version of XBMC, which I use for media on a SMB share. Other than that, I'm only using YouTube, twitch and occasionally the browser.

It runs Android 5.1 and seems to get regular updates, so I suspect anything that would work (or not) on an android phone will work on the Neo U1.

 

Indeed, which is why I resort to having a secondary ssd in my Asrock Beebox running Windows 10 and control it with a Logitech K400 Plus, but lets face it, life would be easier if I could just delete windows and throw the keyboard in the trash and do everything through the OpenELEC install on the other ssd and control everything with the Kore remote app.

 

...

 

At least I'm not alone thinking that it's crazy that device/platform manufacturers haven't seen the light and let people watch what they want to watch.

On the basis that everything is a bit of a compromise, going to go for a Shield TV, or more likely waiting until a v2 comes out as they're all out of stock, as it seems the least compromised (and also the shiniest). It also talks to harmony, which is nice.

 

No they're doing everything they can to bind you to their ecosystem, why would they sell you something that distracts you from spending money with them?

I'm as annoyed as you are though.

Kodi does a decent job, but on the raspi's, as you said, no prime and no netflix

 

I've pulled the trigger on a Shield TV now - has to be better than the current situation.

Watched a movie last night and when I switched on, had to restart Plex because the display had gone weird to start with, which meant fishing out the keyboard. Started the movie and the audio sync was off. I've used the same delays for months, tweaked to the nth degree to get it perfect, and now suddenly it's slightly off. I'm so over Windows as a media platform.

Further scouring of the internets leads me to believe that you can get Prime to play fairly nicely with a remote on the Shield, so hopefully that works out okay. I've still not renewed my NFL Gamepass sub, so will worry about that when/if I get around to it this season.

If I actually had internet from this century I'd even consider opting for Geforce NOW instead of going for a PS4 Pro in a couple months. I'm pretty sure 3Mb is a bit too far under the recommended pipe though :/

 

Slightly unrelated, but I'm looking to set up a small audio-player for my bedroom (on a pi). I want to use Kodi, but getting it to run headless looks like it will be a huge pain so I'm going to have a look at Mopidy. Going to try and also get my little VFD display and some buttons/rotary encoders working (tbh, I might just use something like an arduino leonardo to act as a HID and just send keyboard commands rather than wiring up to the pi directly).

 

check out the pi-dac+