> Or roll my own, but I've tried that and found it pretty difficult.
I agree, there seem to be no good options for this. You can use Kodi or whatever, but I want something that supports playing my ... totally legally acquired content... and Netflix/Disney/iPlayer/etc. In a package that's silent and low power.
Doesn't seem to exist unfortunately. I guess the closest is Nvidia Shield. You can apparently still sideload APKs onto that... for now. I'll buy one when they release an update. I'm patient!
Yeah, this space seems pretty sparse. Some of the Radxa SBCs are getting closer to a hardware solution for your vision, but there isn't real mainstream software. A self-hosted DNLA server is probably the most realistic option but DNLA has seemed to fall by the wayside in favor of paid streaming and plex/jellyfin.
That said, Tailscale did not exist when DNLA was popular, and DNLA over Tailscale seems a really promising non-jellyfin avenue.
Ultimately the problem will be lack of hardware decoders and poor interop with Dolby, DTS, etc.
https://bret.dk/radxa-dragon-q8b-a-laptop-cosplaying-as-an-s...
I think the problem is that legit apps like Netflix are super restrictive about what they'll run on. Even if you just do it through a browser you need to be using Chrome on Windows or whatever or they'll restrict you to 720p.
If you’re already DIYing, set up a Jellyfin server and then any of the streaming boxes will work.
Jellyfin is great, but it is solving a different problem entirely.
Apple TV.
Fine for Netflix etc. but it's not going to let you run bittorrent or whatever without a lot of pain.