Are mini stick PCs practical to set up as a media player, eg with jellyfin? Some advantages are the small form factor that plugs straight into the HDMI port, and flexibility/privacy vs using a dongle from a shitty company like amazon/google/roku.
Are there any things to watch out for to ensure it has enough compute power and hardware decoding? I just want it to play HD video with a jellyfin app/browser page.
I’m assuming it’s no big deal to install Linux on (x86 hardware?), do you need to watch out for specific device support? Thanks
I found this one on amazon
https://a.co/d/05wDgslY
it advertises linux compatibility. So, I’d agree with you, installing shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve heard about a project called Plasma Bigscreen, might be exactly what you’re looking for. I’ve also heard flir remotes work pretty will with linux tv boxes. Those plug pcs have usb slots, you might want to figure out if you need an extension cable so the ir can reach the dongle.
Ok, I’ve been checking out some older ones for half the price (possibly used as well), the main requirement I’ve been checking is just hardware decoding, with a light weight Linux setup I think it should be sufficient.
The remote is worth considering, I might look into Bluetooth or RF based approaches as they are a bit more flexible than IR with positioning. Or even phone app based methods are possible
Yea, with a full pc setup and OS I don’t think you’ll have a problem with watching media. Even if hardware isn’t available for your cpu (unlikely) software will be. In the jellyfin client you can change your player to vlc if you have any issues playing video.
To also answer the transcoding issue, Jellyfin should be able to handle it. I have had issues where the client thinks it can play a media stream so the server serves it, but the client fails to play it. I usually either download a different file or manually transcode it to a different filetype that I know the client can play. I wouldn’t think a celeron processor would have issues playing media. Those issues were on like firetv or roku embedded system boxes, not full pcs.