Not sure a good discussion place to post this. I just want some brainstorming.
Looking for ideas on how to set up a faux-TV in the living room using a computer. I want to put an entertainment center across from the couch and have a place to watch media. But I have no interest in paying for cable/satellite/public broadcasts. (Why pay to be advertised to?)
I have a good collection of shows and movies on external hard drives. I figure I could buy a big monitor and plop it up there with a laptop attached. I could do a makeshift mouse using a game pad and Steam.
I just wanted to check if anyone had alternatives in mind. The mouse situation is suboptimal. Having to get another laptop is also suboptimal. But I can’t think of any other way! Any ideas or have I pretty much figured it out?
Interesting! Never heard of Raspberry Pi before. Wow, these things are so cool. Just tiny computers? So you use a television for a display, and you use Raspi for a simple PC that connects to the TV via HDMI? And all you’ve got on the Raspi is something like Plex?
Yup. You get the Jellyfin server installed on a "real"computer, hooked up to whatever storage you need, then you install a client app on the Pi, or even use a web browser to connect to the server.
The benefit of keeping them separate;
you don’t have to look at the server and array of hard drives
you can use any device with a web browser to talk to the server; phones, tablets, even the Amazon fire stick has a Jellyfin client app
oh wow I hadn’t considered that benefit. i have just been hard copying things from my PC to my bedroom laptop. that would really simplify things