I currently use an Apple TV 4K, which is - as far as I’m aware - more or less the best streaming box you can buy. However, it’s the version without ethernet, and Steam Link has become a dog over wifi for some reason. So I figured I’d look around to see if there’s an alternative solution.
Hardware-wise, I have a Dell Optiplex 3020 or a 2014 Mac mini (running Debian), to choose from, but have no real idea where to go from there, beyond the vague notion that KDE have put big screen mode back into beta. I did have a play with that a few months ago in a VM, but was struck that there were (obviously) no applications that made any real use of it.
Does anyone out there run anything they’ve built themselves? If so, what?
I have a couple ShieldTVs (AndroidTV) that have worked for me for years. They have worked with streaming services as I needed, but the main use case for me is Jellyfin for movies/tv and a good YouTube client that filters ads out. The shield has done a good job of passing the correct audio stream to the receiver and it looks good. There have been a few issues here or there with some codecs, but if I fall back on Kodi it usually works.
I haven’t tried an AppleTV despite being a mostly Mac/iOS household. It is difficult to find out how well the Jellyfin clients work on it, and last I checked there was no “official” client, just pay-for apps that may or may not do what I need.