Ask HN: What's your media centre setup?
I was recently surprised with a nice gift of a Samsung Smart TV. I never owned a Smart TV before and it seems indeed pretty nice with all its capabilities. I hooked up a portable hard drive to it and the media playing capabilities seem rather limited so I'm interested in expanding it with something silent and with low power consumption. I'm interesting in torrenting unlicensed indie films and copying all the dvds I ripped and bought over the years via a network. What options do I have?
As far as I researched, a NAT seems likely the best option, albeit I'm not really sure how nicely it would play around with a smart tv. How do the streaming protocols work on such a thing and I don't know which ones are decent.
Other options seem to be a raspberry pi or a router with a torrenting client.
I opened this thread because I'm curious what setups other HNers have and if one seems nice enough I might emulate it myself.
2 comments
[ 1.1 ms ] story [ 17.3 ms ] threadI'd recommend reading the recommendations on the Kodi forums regarding hardware choices, depending your needs/wants: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916
At any rate, I think these days the which media centre question is mostly settled, it's Kodi. The question is: running as an app on Android? On your laptop? On a proper dedicated box and OS? If so, from scratch? Using one of the purpose built distros? (OSMC, Libre ELEC).
I expect your TV to understand UPnP, possibly SMB and maybe AFP. That info should be in the TV's manual/manufacturer's website.
The Kodi answer still stands as I'm guessing you will find the TV's media centre limited, as they usually are ;)