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.
Not quite, and believe me, I've been looking.
Your best bet is probably LineageOS Android TV on a Raspi 5. From there you can install Kodi too. My issue here is that CEC does not work. Meaning you need a second remote.
I probably don't recommend LibreELEC on a Raspi, because despite install being seamless, Kodi these days is essentially a real-debrid frontend (which might be what you're looking for if you want integral torrent downloads!). The normal streaming apps for Kodi are not maintained even PlexJellyfin don't work out of the box.
Something else I'm keeping an eye on is Plasma Bigscreen but that's probably 2 years out minimum of being user friendly enough for someone not experienced.
Lastly if you have a Samsung TV, Tizentube will get you YouTube without ads (and other perks).
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.
Thanks for the info, I'll look into Raspbi with Lineage Android TV.
Who or what is KonstaKang? Exploring the site & a quick web search have proven fruitless.
From what I can gather KonstaKang is the guy who makes these Raspberry Pi-specific versions.
I ask because it would eventually involve things like handing over Prime login details to the Prime app on that OS. Have there been any security issues with these KonstaKang OSes? (Or am I being paranoid?)
Not the guy to ask about that, sorry. I've seen it recommended elsewhere which is good enough for me. If you make a post about it I would definitely be interested. I'm not using it myself but I do keep an eye on the updates.
Ok, understood. And thanks for that link.
Paranoia is good.
That said, I've run his build for a year or so without any issues.
Thanks for the info.
I've got an older laptop running Debian with Kodi. I affixed it to the wall behind my main TV. It was definitely a chore to setup Kodi how I like it, but now I love it.
I do really hope Plasma Bigscreen works out, but it is already over 6 years old.
There's been some new progress and you love to see it, but we've been waiting on this one for a bit.
Me too. The original devs abandoned it and it was picked back up by new devs in 2025
The way I see it, if someone eventually makes a Bazzite-styled distro that "just works" with a Plasma-Bigscreen UI on a Raspi it will become the clear and obvious choice for anyone. But we're far from that still.