Ive never looked into it but how viable is a raspberry pi zero for this? I mean, is the hardware powerful enough and is there software available for easy TV use? Potentially paired with an android bluetooth remote.
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Tried this with streaming from the cable box, and it did not work really well. Upgraded to a Pi 4, which now runs a full Kodi MediaCenter and is connected via Gigabit Ethernet to the cablebox. I use a Logitech harmony with an IR USB dongle, which was a bit clunky to get to work because it's old, there's probably much easier Bluetooth solutions available, or you can just use your phone as remote. All in all I fiddled around an afternoon to get the whole thing to work, there's tons of how tos on the web.
I don't have personal experience trying to do that specifically but the zero is a really underpowered device that's sluggish even updating itself. I've tried streaming games through a pi 4 which is way more powerful and even it struggled with the video being choppy, though it is more intensive than just streaming video by itself.
You'd probably have good luck with a pi 4 or 5, though, and they aren't very big either.
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I remember when Roku was the big cost saving alternative to TV. I remember when it was the all in one streaming aggregator.
Meh, I don't even watch TV anyway
Oh god, and I was considering getting a Roku stick for my old dumb TV, glad I went for a Xiaomi box instead 🫣
Glad I never set up the smart features on my roku TV.
HTPC+PiHole 👍👍
Also if you're cool 🏴☠️
Roku is terrible anyways. They can't even accurately reproduce the colors.